Dear Compatriot,

An Appeal for Reactivation and Rejuvenation of the INC

As a follow up to our earlier letter few weeks ago, we write you with deep burden considering the challenges facing Ijaw nation as professionals under the auspices of Ijaw Diaspora Council (IDC) with headquarters in New Jersey, USA. We are still surprised with the outcome of the last Ijaw National Congress (INC) general election characterized with violence and declared inconclusive, August 2019 that would have produced a new leadership to coordinate Ijaw national affairs.

The Ijaw National Congress was formed in 1991 and since then there had been major differences and crises in the leadership. Barrister Obuoforibo was elected as INC president on January 15, 2015 and was impeached on November 10, 2015. Evidently, the unpleasant episodes and the crises have undermined Ijaw unity and development since 2015.

We are gravely concerned about the current comatose state of our apex social cultural organization, the Ijaw National Congress (INC), one of the very first such groups to emerge in Nigeria many years ago. There is recognizable leadership identity in all the apex socio-cultural organizations in Nigeria, such as the Urhobo Progress Union, Worldwide, with Olorogun Moses Taiga as the President-General and Ohanaeze Ndigbo whose President is Chief Nnia Nwodo. Presently, the Ijaw National Congress is without a President and the attendant impact is painful and embarrassing.

Therefore, we need a properly reconstituted leadership of the INC to work with the federal and state governments, and Ijaw leaders to combat the growing terror attacks and insecurity in the region. We need the INC to address critical areas of synergistic consolidation on adequate security of lives and properties with emphasis on networking, surveillance, information, and intelligence gathering.

Specifically, the IDC has identified you as one of the foremost custodians of our culture, traditional values, and practices. To that effect, we want you to do all in your power and in conjunction with other patriots, to urgently enable the reactivation and rejuvenation of the INC.

The importance of a viable, credible, strong and independent INC that will serve as a rallying point for the Ijaw Nationality to aggregate her resources cannot be overemphasized. It is important that democracy be supervised, and it is self-evident that our people will continue to lose out in Nigeria without an effective coordinating organization like the INC. As one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria, it is our responsibility to organize ourselves in such a way as to command the respect of not only local institutions and authorities but international ones as well.

This is a historic period in Nigeria and the Ijaw people cannot afford to be compliant onlookers. We are a great and noble people and must take our rightful place in the comity of nationalities. Please do your sacred duty as a valued and respected patriot of Ijaw land.

Sincerely,

President & CEO, Prof. Mondy Selle Gold

Vice President, Hon. (Mrs). Gesiere Brisibe-Dorgu

Secretary General, Lady Ebiere Gold-Richard

Chief Financial Officer, Dr. Lawrence Jituboh, CPA

Director of Conflict Resolution, Dr. Brisibe Nabena

Director of Community Outreach, Moses Yomi, CPA

Director of Public Relations, Bishop Samson Amajene

Director of Social Media & Publicity, Tony Biegbudu

Director of Youth Development, Akpoebi Okorowanta

Director of Special Projects, Barr. Matthias Boboye E. J. Omusuku

Director of Research & Documentation, Dr. Godspower Prezi

Regional Vice President, Europe/Asia, Nelson Tukoroa

CC:

Chief Edwin Clark, Chairman, INC Board of Trustees

HRM Alfred Diete Spiff, The Chairman, Conference of Ijaw Traditional Rulers & Elders

All Royal Majesties of Ijaw Nation

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria