By Peter Jonah, Yenagoa
A non-governmental organization, the Safe and Better Nigeria (SBN), has admonished Ijaw sons and daughters not to forget the reasons behind the Boro Day celebration, but to reflect on the ideals of the late Ijaw icon and foremost Niger Delta freedom fighter – even as they give him a memorable memorial today.
The group said Boro and his men fought for self-determination, resource control/ownership and justice and equality; so that the Ijaws can have an identity and a voice.
SBN, in a statement issued to newsmen on Thursday morning by its National Coordinator, Comrade Solomon Charles Ikpaka, said the legacies of the late Ijaw freedom fighter, Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, still live on even in death, and urged everyone from the Ijaw ethnic nationality to emulate the exemplary lifestyle of Boro.
He said as they mark the 56th Boro Day celebration, the Ijaws should not be carried away by the fun of it, but must realize that the issues that made Boro to take up arms against the Nigerian State are yet to be addressed – even worsening by the day – many years after his death.
According to him, it’s about time the youths came together to chart the way forward – to study the issues still facing the Niger Delta people, especially the Ijaws, and to exhume the immediate and remote causes in order to tackle them once and for all.
Solomon said, many years after the death of Boro, all the Ijaws have is only Bayelsa State with only 8 local government areas, while the rest of them are scattered abroad in Delta, Rivers, Ondo and Akwa-Ibom as minorities – suffering oppression, marginalization and neglect – the same issues that made Boro to declare the Niger Delta Republic.
He said the Ijaws, especially the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and its children – the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and the Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND) – must synergize to speak with one voice and chart the way forward in order to secure the future of this generation and the ones yet unborn.
He urged everyone to celebrate the Boro Day peacefully and not engage in any activity that will give the late Ijaw hero and the struggle platforms a bad name.
