Ijaw leaders have decried hard times and worsening conditions despite various interventions and existence of key associations claiming to champion their agitations.
The leaders, who met in Port Harcourt under the auspices of Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), said they were worse of, because major pressure groups they relied on failed them.
One of the Conveners of MOSIEND, Kennedy Tonjo-West, regretted that Ijawland was still battling age-long foundational problems of insecurity, severe poverty, environmental degradation and high level unemployment.
Tonjo-West said other Ijaw associations such as the Niger Delta Youth Coalition for Peace and Progress (NDYCPP), Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and many Niger Delta freedom fighters had withdrawn their membership of Ijaw foundational groups.
He said MOSIEND was quickly rising to assume responsibility for Ijaw struggles for resource control and self-determinism and to become a major driving force for development in Ijaw nation.
He said: “Today the Ijaw communities are experiencing a very hard and unpleasant situation. The Ijaw communities are plagued with insecurity, severe poverty, environmental degradation, malnutrition, unemployment unimaginable diseases due to exploitation and exploration of our land.”
Also speaking, MOSIEND’s incoming Eastern Zonal Chairman, Boma Dagogo, said MOSIEND would change the current narrative adding that Ijaw nation was no longer moving in the right direction.
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