PH Mundial – Port Harcourt Online Newspaper News Across The Region
Related Articles
By Gogo Ada Rufus Mbere
The Eagle is known to most parts of the Niger Delta and is commonly acknowledged by virtually all our cultures as epitomizing greatness, excellence and leadership among birds. It exudes strength, disciplined freedom, dignity and the innate ability, capacity as well as willingness to renew itself through a process of retreat and reinvention. The image of this great bird of phenomenal strength carrying the map of Ijaw race speaks to our subscription to these unique qualities of the Eagle.
Peter Timothy Igbifa’s readiness to emulate the eagle crystallized into full bloom when he emerged on the 19th of July, 2020 as the President of the Ijaw Youth Council worldwide in an election held in Oporoza, Delta State.
In a keenly contested election, Peter Timothy Igbifa emerged head and shoulders above other renowned contestants to clinch the coveted leadership position. By this peculiar feat, the amiable Peter Timothy Igbifa has joined the roll call of great Ijaw Youth leaders like Felix Tuodolor, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, Jon Jon, Kuromiema, Ekiyor etc.
It bears recalling that this outstanding Ijaw youth activist had contributed immensely to the emancipation of Ijaw Youths globally from the shackles of oppression by the Nigerian bourgeoisie.
Notably, during his tenure as the chairman of the Ijaw Youth Council, Eastern zone, the proactive IYC chieftain initiated various programmes towards the upliftment of youths in the Niger Delta such as empowerment, job creation, skills acquisition, capacity strengthening and similar enterprising ventures all geared towards arming the teeming Ijaw youths with the requisite skills-set to survive and thrive in the twenty first century.
The prepossessing and sterling antecedents of Peter Timothy Igbifa cannot be trifled with, by any stretch of the imagination.
During his tenure as the chairman, Eastern Zone of the IYC, Peter Timothy Igbifa, the newly elected IYC President convoked a unique Eastern Zonal Economic Summit. The summit was the first of its kind in the history of the IYC.
Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Right states that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control”.
Peter Timothy Igbifa believes with a passion that it is the inalienable right of every Ijaw man and woman to live well especially in view of the unquantifiable hydrocarbon resources that successive Nigerian regimes have continued to milk the Niger Delta region dry without any commensurate compensation to the Ijaw ethnic nationality.
A stickler for excellence and a riveting passion to ameliorate the fortunes of the Ijaw man and woman in the street, his emergence will create the requisite enabling environment for sustainable peace in the region and the concomitant corporate social responsibility of government on the one hand and the multinational stakeholders in Ijaw land that are compelled by the law of nature to contribute immensely to the holistic growth of Ijaw youths globally.
One cannot wish away the long retinue of challenges confronting the new helmsman of the Ijaw youth council; issues of the Nigerian government colluding and conspiring with international oil majors to deprive the Ijaw youths to have a good standard of living that competitively resonates with best practices in the world.
One must not also ignore the rising crescendo of recidivist Ijaw youths who have grown a worrisome proclivity to slide into criminality as a means of exacting their pound of flesh on the Nigerian State. This is highly condemnable.
One must also appreciate the growing flux of apathy, hopelessness, angst and restiveness on the part of our youths in this day and age, but it must be stated categorically that the emergence of Peter Timothy Igbifa as the IYC president has ushered in a fresh new dawn.
He brings to the table the panacea for sustainable peace not just in Ijaw territory but also the length and breadth of the Niger Delta. Peter Timothy Igbifa brings on board an unbridled passion to deliver on the set goal to radically improve the fortunes of the Ijaw man and woman.
The new Ijaw Youth Council helmsman comes with a wide array of out of the box developmental templates and strategies that will take the IYC to greater heights.
For one to aver that Peter Timothy Igbifa is possessed of all the requisite faculties and variegated mosaic of experience to steer the ship of the Ijaw Youth Council is for one to belabour the obvious. Bravo, Mr. President.
Gogo Ada Rufus Mbere is a Port Harcourt based media consultant
