FROM ONYEKACHUKWU MELUWA, WARRI
Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Worldwide has opposed a bill in the Senate seeking to permanently make the Sultan of Sokoto and Ooni of Ife Co-chairmen of the National Traditional Rulers Council.
In a press statement dated August 2, and signed by the spokesman of IYC, Dr Binebai Princewill, the council described the bill as provocative, divisive and unconstitutional.
The council said it is baffling that despite the many challenges facing the country such as insecurity, economic hardship, high cost of living and governance problems, the Senate was instead considering a bill that could further divide the nation.
According to the group, Ijaw ethnic nationality is one of the oldest tribes in Nigeria with highly revered kings ruling over its kingdoms in Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Edo and Ondo States, and therefore not inferior to any other monarch in Nigeria.
“This bill is not only careless and senseless, but provocative, misplaced, divisive and highly unconstitutional. As Ijaws, we will resist it. Where is the one Nigeria that we are talking about?” IYC declared.
The council maintained that Nigeria must not be run in a way that undermines any ethnic group, insisting that it does not belong only to a few people or two ethnic groups.
“In totality, we reject this bill as it is an element of neocolonisation within Nigeria,” IYC said.
It demanded that if such a bill would go forward, it must include all ethnic groups in the country, such as the Ijaws, Hausas, Igbos, Urhobos and others, since no ethnic group is superior to the other.
