From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri is undecided on the choice of candidate to back among the six Youth leaders lobbying the 110 delegates designated to vote for the President of the umbrella body of ijaw youths worldwide, the Ijaw Youths Council in the scheduled July 18th and 19th, 2023 elective Convention.
Though direction of support of Diri is not certain, some of his aides and loyalists, including the Director of Transport, Lucky Youbougha, the former Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Domestics, Waripamowei Dudafa and the former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt.Hon. Tonye Isenah are subtly pre-empting the governor by pushing support for two aspirants from the Kolokuma/Opokuna axis where the Governor hails from.
While Dudafa is allegedly supporting Mr Bouloukpo Subai, Lucky Youbougha and Tonye Isenah are throwing their weight behind Benjamin Appah in what Ijaw youths regard as their early and open display of support as a KOLGA agenda.
The open display of support from Diri’s aides and loyalists notwithstanding the immediate past national spokesman of IYC, Mr Ebilade Ekerefe seems to gain wide acceptance among Ijaw Youths and Elders with his new era campaign.
Others in the race are the former Speaker of the IYC Parliament, Mr Digimie Pogonyo(Brass), Wilson Ikuli (Ogbia) and former Central Zone Chairman, Mr Jonathan Lokpobiri (Ekeremor).
Youth activists in the state however urged the Diri to continue to play the fatherly role in the poll and allow the Ijaw youths to decide and produce an acceptable successor to the former President, Mr Timothy Igbifa.
Investigations however revealed that Jonathan, Ikuli and Subai are likely to face disqualification based on the 45 years old age required to contest for any office in the IYC. It is believed that the trio are above the required age limit for youth activism.
Some IYC youth leaders have argued that in the spirit of equity and fair play, since the Bayelsa Central axis comprising of Southern Ijaw/Kolokuma/Opokuma and Yenagoa have produced President of the IYC twice with Onyife JonJon and Udengs Eradiri, it should be allowed to rotate to Bayelsa East and Bayelsa West to give every part a proper sense of belonging to the IYC.”
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