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A group, Arogbo Ijaw Patriots (AJP), has condemned the imposition of the Oodua anthem on the Ijaw minority in Ondo State.
The group also criticised the state government for the use of the ethnic anthem in Yoruba for the conduct of a promotion examination for senior civil servants.
AJP, in a statement by the Coordinator and Secretary, Fidelis Soriwei and Bibisa Kekemeke respectively, yesterday, said Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s attempt to foist an ethnic anthem on the Ijaws of Ondo amounted to a flagrant violation of the rights of the Ijaw ethnic minority in the state.
They recalled that Akeredolu via a memo entitled: ‘Adoption of Oduduwa anthem in the public secondary schools across Ondo State’, signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Teaching Service Commission, Tolu Adeyemi, on May 6, made it compulsory for the said anthem to be sung in all secondary schools.
The group said it was absurd and rather disturbing that the governor would make it compulsory for Oodua or ‘Ondo anthem’ (in Yoruba) to be sung in all secondary schools in the state where there are indigenous Ijaws.
The coordinator and secretary said the Ijaws of Ondo State speak their own language in consonance with their distinct ethnicity as an Ijaw minority and would like to keep that identity.
They called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on Akeredolu to respect the rights of the marginalized Arogbo Ijaws to a respectful and dignified existence in Ondo State as provided for by the constitution.
The group noted that Ondo State comprises of two ethnicities: The dominant Yoruba who occupy 17 local government areas and the minority Ijaws who occupy a local government area.
They lamented that the leadership of the Ondo State Civil Service took further steps in the abuse of the law to ask people, including Arogbo Ijaws to sing the anthem in a promotion interview.
They noted that Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, should display the expected consciousness on the need for fairness to note the fact that Ondo State is not like the homogenous South West states where every citizen is Yoruba.
