Gov. Diri commends IYC for strengthening the Ijaw agitation through the development of ICT capacity

Over the weekend, Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State and other leaders of Ijaw Nation praised the improvements within the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), stating that the organization has become a more powerful advocate for the betterment of the Ijaw people through capacity building. 

He also acknowledged the positive shift in the messaging around the agitations and struggle for Ijaw rights.

Gov. Douye Diri, while speaking at the weekend during the commencement of the second batch of the free ICT skill acquisition training programme initiated by the National Spokesman of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe tagged “Project 301 ICT serving Ijaw youths”, noted that unlike in the past, the IYC has shown signs of building future generations of Ijaw Youths through ICT in order to change the narratives in the peaceful and constructive engagement of the Nigerian nation.

Gov. Diri, who was represented at the event by the Former Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Rt.Hon. Tonye Isenah, noted that at some point, activities in the IYC became worrisome,“ But at the moment, the way the IYC is going now is nice. In the past when some of us started seeing some certain things, we were not comfortable. IYC was meant, specifically, for struggle but at some point it was hijacked.”

He commended the initiative of the National Spokesman of the IYC on the training of youths on ICT, describing the initiative as a replica of the present administration efforts at ensuring a peaceful and crime free society in the state with the building of bridges, youths empowerment and training,” we are one people, it doesn’t matter the political party you belong, he sees bayelsa first and so why are we fighting and killing ourselves,  we should be partners in progress and that’s what you are seeing and because you are seeing his administration, prosperity administration, peace is an essential index of prosperity.”

“And if we are able to get peace in our system, it creates an opportunity for young people to go about doing their businesses,  government cannot employ everybody, you don’t blame anybody we are going to blame ourselves,  this is something created like a young man like you and see what you can do , the government is here to partner with people like this  and look into the youth sector and see what can we do,  at the sport level he is doing everything to make sure that everything is okay in that sector any of the sports that brings money,  our energy should be channeled towards fruitful and good venture instead of going to cultist and running on the street”.

Also speaking, the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (Rtd) commended the Ijaw Youth group for embarking on the non-violent effort to change the narrative of the Niger Delta struggle through empowerment and improved skills of ijaw youths.

Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (Rtd), represented by Alaowei Opukeme Jonah, said the ICT training programme is a systematic way of creating the manpower because success is when opportunity meets preparations, “so if eventually the NLG kicks off and from our findings we need over 30 staff . What about if we told you are not computer literate and cannot be employed.  Opportunities will be there and you will now say if I had known I would have use my computer. So the governor is ready to partner with young ones of ideas because ideas now rule the world, this is an opportunity you can do Web design anything with your laptop and make a living for yourself”.

He also declared that the Presidential Amnesty office is ready to support empowerment and ICT training programs for the youths of the region,” we have always said that it is very important to teach a man how to fish rather than giving him fish. On behalf of the PAP, we want to we will still come to a round table to discuss. So, why don’t we use the table in the first place rather than fighting? We have fought the struggle and has reach a level where we can come in with ideas to better our sons , but before now the Niger Delta is known as one of the volatile troublesome of the country but  as I speak with you our ijaw nation is among the peaceful in the entire Nigeria.

“So, we in the PAP office are ready to partner with such programs. We are happy with the spokesman of the IYC and we are ready to support not only him moving forward ,let there be this relationship, we are tired of this constant demonstration, tomorrow Mbiama Road has been blocked,  the other day government House has been blocked. We are saying that we have gotten to the level where you come with ideas and you know that ideas they say rule the world.”

Earlier in his speech, the initiator of the ICT training programme and the National Spokesman of the IYC, Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe commended the Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri and the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (Rtd) for the desired partnership provided for him to training over 80 Ijaw Youths and provide them with computer laptops.

Ekerefe assured that the IYC will also embark on scouting for opportunities in private sector and multinational companies to integrate those trained into the employment scheme, “This is a clear paradgm shift from what the ijaw council used to be and to other institutions of government, multinational companies I think there is no better time than now for them to do projects like this, they are the ones carrying exploration activities in this region.”

He called on Government agencies and multinationals to support the initiative of his office as National Spokesman in order to use the ICT training and empowerment scheme to sustain the needed peace in the region, “it will be good if they can support so we can train more youths clearly you have seen that the IYC is gradually moving out of violation as it were into productive engagement which has to do with human capital of our youth”.

“You cannot talk about agitation this days because the world is a global village while we are doing the normal agitation,  while our boys are on the front line , we should also have an army of young vibrant city compliant youth that can also propagate the message that is what is important even the press have not been fair in publishing, when I say the press don’t get it twisted , am talking about the Western press nobody can tell our story other than our people , what we are doing is that we are giving them real update to the press and to the public on what is going on.