A prominent Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, on Wednesday, declared that the Federal Government had not been fair to the Ijaw ethnic nationality of the Niger Delta.
Clark, a former Federal Commissioner for Information, lamented that the time had come for the Federal Government to address the issue of the long years of neglect to which the Ijaw had been subjected by the country.
A statement by Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, the Special Adviser, Media Relations, to the Governor of Bayelsa State, said Clark made the declaration while playing host to Governor Seriake Dickson.
Dickson had led a high-powered delegation of Bayelsa Government officials and Ijaw leaders to the country home of Clark in Kiagbodo, Delta State, on Wednesday.
Clark prayed for the Federal Government to have the right attitude to address the Ijaw factor in the Nigerian federation in 2018.
“This New Year, God will touch the heart of the Federal Government that the Ijaw people have been neglected for too long. Something has to be done for them; we want actual appreciation, something has to be done for us,” he said.
The Ijaw leader commended Dickson for excellent leadership and efficient delivery of the dividends of democracy in Bayelsa State.
Clark hailed Dickson for the construction of the 40-year-old Sagbama-Ekeremor Road, which he described as marvellous.
He stressed that he had every belief in the promise made by the governor to take the critical road, which had been constructed to Aleibiri in December, to be constructed to Ekeremor in December 2018.
Clark said, “I listened to the governor in 2012 when he was declaring an emergency in education and I was waiting to see what that meant. Recently, he invited me to Bayelsa to see what he has done; he invited General Gowon and his wife. And what I saw in the field of education, if I don’t say it publicly, I will be doing harm to myself.”
END
Be the first to comment