Twenty five years after the Kaiama declaration of the Ijaw Youth Council in Bayelsa State, members of the socio-cultural group embarked on a road walk to commemorate the Anniversary that changed the course of the Ijaw people in their struggle for self-determination and resource control.
The Ijaw Youth Council on 11 December 1998 attributed the political crisis in Nigeria to the struggle for the control of oil mineral resources, while asserting that the degradation of the environment of Ijawland by transnational oil companies and the Nigerian State arose mainly because Ijaw people have been robbed of their rights to ownership and control of their land and resources.
That led to the formation of the council in the town of Kaiama after 5,000 Ijaw persons representing over 40 Ijaw clans, chose to articulate their aspirations for the Ijaw people and to demand an end to 40 years of environmental damage and underdevelopment in the region.
On this day, replicating the move by the founding fathers of the IYC 25 years ago, the Ijaw youths embarked on the 37-kilometer road walk to the ancient kingdom of Kaiama along the East-West road to commemorate the occasion.
25yrs might be a long time but the issues of resource control and environmental degradation are still a recovering decimal
While attention has now been shifted to a rather more intellectual approach to the struggle, prominent Ijaw sons are now backing the struggle as new strategic projects are set to kick off in Yenagoa.
