Boro Day celebration: Cultismvandalisation not part of the characteristics of Boro – Gov Diri

Ijaw leaders including the Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri and Ijaw National Congress (INC), Professor Benjamin Okaba have described the creation of Rivers and Bayelsa States as a direct product of the martyrdom of Late Isaac Jasper Boro.

Speaking at separate wreath laying ceremonies in Kaiama and Yenagoa as part of activities for this year’s Boro Day celebrations, Governor Diri paid glowing tributes to the departed freedom fighter for laying his life down for the good of the Niger Delta region.

Represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo in both events, the Governor insisted that the Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta region would have been far more backward than it is today without the heroic struggles of late Isaac Boro.

Governor Diri used the opportunity to commend his predecessor, Senator Seriake Dickson, for bringing the remains of late Boro from Lagos to his native Bayelsa for proper interment in line with the traditional beliefs of the Ijaw people.

While thanking the youths for always coming out en masse to venerate the Ijaw freedom fighter, the Governor, however, warned them not to criminalize the Boro Day celebrations and the Ijaw struggle.

His words, ” While there are a lot of people who aspire and assume the sentiments of Boro, a lot of people do not reflect the characteristics of Boro in their aspirations and determinations and the things they do.

‘As a youth, who is Boro to you? Was Boro involved in oil bunkering, cultism, kidnapping, or involved in disrespecting elders? The answer is no. Was Boro involved in vandalising Federal government and State government infrastructure in his community? The answer is no.

‘ So, if you are talking about Boro and you are doing these things, to what extent is Boro in you? Clearly, such people walking naked, thinking they are wearing the clothes of Boro.

“For the sake of the Boro we celebrate today, our youths who have worn white, green, blue and red which symbolises peace, fertility, strength and the blood of our people that has been spilled respectively; please do not take more blood in the name of looking for money.

“Cultism and vandalisation were not part of the characteristics of Boro. Our youths should redirect their energy to the productive aspect of Boro. No doubt Boro was against oppression.

“We want to salute the courage, the tenacity and the heroism of Senator Henry Seriake Dickson the immediate past Governor of Bayelsa State for bring the relics of our father(Boro) to lay here and we can now see him here. We also salute him for creating this memorial park.”

Meanwhile,Business activities in Yenagoa,the Bayelsa State capital were y shut down during 54th in Remembrance Day of ijaw hero, Jasper Isaac Adaka Boro.

Hundreds of Ijaw youths, under the aegis of the Ijaw Youths Council and Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), in the hours of the morning also ensured that the closure of businesses were shut down in honour of the Ijaw heroe.

While the IYC, through the it’s National spokesman, Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, notes that the remembrance celebration of our hero,​ Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, fondly called “Boro”.
Years of celebration have impressed on the minds of Youths from the Niger Delta region that, Major Isaac Adaka Boro, is not just another folk hero, but a university student’s leader, a teacher, policeman and Nigerian army officer.

The MOSIEND, through its National Secetary, Amb. Winston Cotterel Amain, describes the celebration as another avenue to observed, commend, instruct and where necessary criticised especially in an event of outright contravention of the fundamentals and vision of the actualization of the Reorientation, Repositioning and Recovery of our lost grounds in the Emancipation of the Ijaw Nation.

The IYC National Spokesman, Ebilade Ekerefe, uses the celebration to remind the Federal Government that despite their colored and window dressing of the issues in response to years of agitation, and the ego creation of interventionist agencies, which they acceded to and now controlled political and financially, the Nigerian Government should not forget that despite any self-made delays, the Ijaw agitations have never been lost.

He states that aside from the Ijaw Nation demand for proper restructuring, equitable development in the region, “the IYC wants to call on the people of the region to be vigilante and adhere to the security architecture being put in place in each states by the South-South Governors.

Tife Owolabi
Journalist
Niger Delta
@tifeowolabi