From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) has tasked stakeholders from the Niger Delta to adopt new strategies to engage the Federal Government to accelerate infrastructure development and other challenges facing the region.
IYC National spokesman, Ebilade Ekerefe, said the region must do away with obsolete strategy and adopt a new era of strategic alliances with other ethnic nationalities, intellectual and aggressive engagement with the Federal Government for a more accelerated development of the region.
Ekerefe spoke, at the weekend, in Yenagoa during his 36 birthday colloquium and unveiling of a book entitled: “Chronicle of Ebilade Ekerefe: The Journey So far.”
He argued that the Ijaw nation and other stakeholders from the region cannot rely on old methods to achieve desired results
While commending Governor Douye Diri and other stakeholders for their support, he however, said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration did not treat Ijaw people well despite the huge economic contribution of the region.
“We are currently in a jet age and we must prepare an army of young, vibrant and intellectually mobile Ijaw youths in a new era to drive home our demands. IYC has come of age to look inwards and come up with a renewed strategy to confront the myriad of challenges that affects us as a people if we must get it right,” he said.