Group Condemns Akeredolu’s Imposition Of Oodua Anthem On Ondo Ijaws

 

........decries anthem’s  use for Civil Service promotion  interview

The Arogbo Ijaw Patriots have condemned in strong terms the imposition of the Oodua anthem on the Ijaw minority in Ondo State.

The group also criticized the State Government for the use of the ethnic anthem in Yoruba for the conduct of a promotion examination for senior civil servants.

The group said in a statement on Tuesday that the State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu’s (SAN) attempt to foist an ethnic anthem on the Ijaws of Ondo State amounted to a flagrant violation of the rights of the Ijaw ethnic minority in Ondo State.

The statement was signed by the Coordinator and Secretary, Mr Fidelis Soriwei and Bibisa Kekemeke (Esq) respectively.

They recalled  that Akeredolu via a memo titled ‘Adoption of Oduduwa Anthem in the Public Secondary Schools across Ondo State’, signed  by the Permanent Secretary, Ondo State Teaching Service Commission, Mr Tolu Adeyemi, on May 6, 2021, made it compulsory for the said anthem to be sung in all secondary schools in Ondo State.

The group said that it was absurd and rather disturbing that the Governor would make it compulsory for Oodua or ‘Ondo anthem’ (in Yoruba) to be sung in all secondary schools in the Ondo State where there are indigenous Ijaws.

The Coordinator and Secretary said that the Ijaws of Ondo State speak their own language in consonance with their distinct ethnicity as an Ijaw minority and would like to keep that identity.

They called on well meaning Nigerians to prevail on Akeredolu to respect the rights of the marginalized Arogbo Ijaws to a respectful and dignified existence in Ondo State as provided for by the constitution.

The group noted that Ondo State comprises of two ethnicities: The dominant Yoruba who occupy 17 local government areas and the minority Ijaws who occupy a local Government area of their own.

They lamented that the leadership of the Ondo State Civil Service took further steps in the abuse of the law to ask people including Arogbo Ijaws to sing the anthem in a promotion interview at the Governor’s Office Civil Service Matters.

They noted that Akeredolu, a senior lawyer of the ranking of SAN should display the expected consciousness on the need for fairness to note the fact that Ondo State is not like the homogenous South West State where every citizen is Yoruba.

They added that while the Ijaws are not opposed agitations of whatever form, they are alarmed by the brazen unfair, irresponsible expansionist attempt to make them assimilated Yoruba people.

According to them, their territory which became part of Ondo State in 1976 is not a vassal territory and shouldn’t be treated as such.

They called on the leadership of the Ijaw National Congress to intervene through its organs in the South West to avert further humiliation and oppression of the Arogbo Ijaws.

They also called on the Attorney General of the Federation and indeed all Nigerians of good conscience to prevail on Akeredolu to stop his disdainful treatment of the Ijaw minority in the state.

Alliance Says NNPC Has Been Transparent And Accountable On Its Operational Surplus

The Integrity Youth Alliance has condemned the statement credited to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola claiming that “NNPC, NPA, others failed to remit N2trn operational surplus.”

In a press release on Monday, May 10, 2021 in Abuja, signed the National Coordinator of the Alliance, Kelvin Adegbenga, he said for the purpose of clarification, the Alliance wish to remind the Senate that it was under the management of Mal Mele Kolo Kyari that NNPC published audited financial accounts after 44 years of establishing the Corporation.

“It is on record that on June 12, 2020, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) made history with the publication of its first audited financial statements after 44 years of its operation, the statement said. 

The statement read, “The annual reports and financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018, were for 20 of the state-owned national oil company’s subsidiary companies operating within and outside the country

“The companies covered in the reports published in corporation’s website last Friday included the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Warri Refining & Petrochemical Company Limited (WRPC), Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC), Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company (KRPC), and Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), Nigerian Products and Marketing Company Limited (NPMC), Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC).

“The others include the National Engineering & Technical Company Limited (NETCO), Nigerian Gas and Marketing Company Limited (NGMC), Duke Oil Services (UK) Limited, Duke Global Energy Investment Limited, Duke Oil Incorporated, NNPC Retail Limited, National Petroleum Investments Management Services (NAPIMS), The Wheel Insurance, NIDAS Shipping Services, NIDAS UK Agency, and NIDAS marine.

“We wish to call on the National Assembly to visit the website of the NNPC to verify the audited account and as part of its oversight function can visit the NNPC for proper briefing on the accounts of the Corporation.

“It may interest the National Assembly to know that the NNPC under the Management of Mal Mele Kolo Kyari has received commendation from credible organizations like Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI); Global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI); Department of State of the US Government etc, the statement said.

It will be recalled that the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, when the Minister of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed appeared before the panel at the weekend, said that the NNPC, NPA, NIMASA, are big spenders among the government agencies who didnt remit operational surplus.

On assumption of office two year, Mal Kyari pledged to open the NNPC financial books to the public as part of his management’s commitment to openness, transparency, and accountability in line with the global EITI principles.

“For the past two year, the NNPC has always published the monthly financial and operational reports, including its upstream, downstream and oil and gas export activities, the statement concluded.