Ibaa Youth Seek Role In MoU With Total

Some youth of Ibaa in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State have called for their inclusion in the ongoing discussion between the community and Total E & P Limited.
The Coordinator, Ibaa Youth Alliance for Development (IYAD), Mr Ndidi Ofuru-Oke made the call in an interview with newsmen yesterday in Port Harcourt.
Ofuru-Eke accused the elders of the community of excluding the youth from the current discussion between the community and Total on the company’s social responsibilities to the people.
He said that it was improper for the elders to do so.
It was gathered that the community and Total were about establishing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that would spell out the company’s social responsibilities to the community.
According to the leader of the group, the youth will stop at nothing in challenging their non-inclusion in the community’s team of negotiators in the law court.
“This does not happen anywhere; we are out to ensure that nothing happens until the youth of the community are recognised in the process.
“They have shrouded the entire process in secrecy, all in a bid to talk for themselves. How can we grow when our leaders do not have our agenda in their minds?”, Ofuru-Eke queried.
Ofuru-Eke called on the oil company to stop further discussions with the community until the youth were involved in the negotiations.
The IYAD coordinator also called on the members to remain peaceful, adding, “every legal step will be taken to redress the imbalance.”
“We must have people speaking for us; we should have our inputs in the decision sough to be taken, and we cannot be schemed out,” he added.
Contacted, one of the elders, Chief Kingsley Nyenke, said that the protracted crisis in the community had polarised the people’s traditional leadership institutions, including that of the youth.
Nyenke, however, said that if the youth could peacefully organise themselves as one body, they would be allowed to join the negotiating team.
It would be recalled that Ibaa community had been in a protracted traditional leadership tussle which polarised the people and hampered development in the area.
The community has yet to have a recognised traditional ruler since the demise of the last one, Chief James Ohaka, in 2007.