Ijaw nation renews hope with economic summit 

SIR: On February 23, 2005, Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, played host to what may well qualify as the largest assembly of Ijaw sons and daughters up to that time. They came from within and outside Nigeria to mark the first ever Ijaw National Day and World Summit, celebrated under the auspices of the Ijaw National Congress (INC). 

The week-long event witnessed seminars and symposia, during which eminent scholars of Ijaw stock presented papers on a wide range of topics. As may be expected, colourful cultural displays of various kinds added spice to the experience.
 
One of the high points of the summit, no doubt, was the keynote presentation by Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the then governor of Bayelsa State at the time in question. Entitled ‘The Ijaw Nation: Road To Glory,’ the address underscored the essence of the celebration in the following words: “…we have gone beyond the stage of lamentation. It is time to celebrate what we have. It is time to seize the initiative and take a bold leap of faith.” The note of optimism in that statement resounded in everything else that transpired in the following days.
 
Almost 20 years after that first Ijaw World Summit, one of the principal contributors to the success of that event, Prof. Steve Azaiki, who served as Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government (SSG) at that time, has thought it fit to revisit the subject and re-conceive it in greater magnitude. 

With the full endorsement of the INC, the Azaiki Foundation is set to host the world to the first Pan-Ijaw Economic Summit in the last quarter of 2024, virtually to underscore the place of the Ijaw Nation in a country that is confronted with truly daunting economic challenges at the moment.

Azaiki’s involvement with the fortunes of the Ijaw Nation has been long-standing and his efforts at seeking reparation for the Niger Delta, far-reaching. His campaign for environmental justice has been resonant over the years with the formation of the World Environmental Movement For Africa (WEMFA). 

This is nothing but heart-warming, coming as it does, in a country where minority ethnic nationalities, such as the Ijaw, have suffered acute deprivation and neglect, in spite of their wholesome contribution to the national coffers across six eventful decades; in an economy that relies completely on the proceeds of oil and gas derived from the swampland inhabited by the Ijaw people and their immediate neighbours.
  
The master-mind behind this event is worth knowing better. Prof. Azaiki has been at home with governance for many years, having held sensitive offices in military and civilian times alike. His word of advice has always come in useful. 

He served as the pioneer commissioner for Agriculture in his home state under the administration of Col. Edor Obi and Captain Caleb Olubolade, and nurtured a few ideas into fruition in the life of that government. All these qualities in the man would manifest in the course of the first Pan-Ijaw Economic Summit, his brain child.
• Nenghi Ilagha, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Yenagoa.