The Ijaw Youth Council, (IYC) Worldwide has declared that it would only support presidential candidates that prioritise the issues in the Niger Delta region just like the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua had proposed with his seven points agenda.
In a statement in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, IYC, through its spokesperson, Ebilade Ekerefe said Ijaw youths would queue behind any candidate with concrete plans for the Niger Delta, irrespective of the zone of the candidate.
Ekerefe maintained that Niger Deltans were more concerned about the candidate that would address the issues of the region.
“Nigeria is a pluralistic country and you cannot take away ethnicity out of our body politics because of the various ethnic nationalities making up the country and so if the North has gotten its fair share, the South should also have its fair share but beyond the principle of zoning, our concern as a people is a leader that will be able to unite the country and restore hope, provide employment, eradicate corruption and fight insecurity headlong.
“For us, that is the kind of president we are looking at, a president that will put the Niger Delta as a major priority like late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua did with his Seven Points Agenda. The Niger Delta was a top cardinal point of his agenda and we saw what happened,” he said.
The IYC spokesperson noted that the IYC has been front liners in the agitation for a restructured Nigeria that will reflect the true principles of fiscal federalism.
He added that Ijaw Youths were rarely concerned about the zone the right candidate is from, rather, they are on the lookout for a presidential candidature that has a strategic roadmap on how the Niger Delta region will be cleaned up.
