By BARBARA KALU, Port Harcourt –
The President of Ijaw National Congress (INC), Professor Benjamin Okaba, has been called upon to always consider the Ijaw people first and stand with the Project Niger Delta (PND) for justice, peace, equity, fairness, collective development, progress and the desired unity of purpose.
This is contained in a statement issued by the Executive Director of PND, Comrade Princewill Timipre Ebebi, in response to Prof Okaba’s reply to an earlier publication by the PND over the weekend.
In the statement, made available to NATIONAL ACCORD on Monday, the PND also advised Prof Okaba to stop the nepotism being orchestrated by few privileged persons who call the suffering Ijaw people their slaves “and are sharing and allocating our collective blessing as if it’s their family enterprise.”
According to the statement, the PND read with dismay the response of Okaba to its earlier publication on the INC President’s endorsement of Dr. Dennis Otuaro as Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Administrator.
It noted that the inability of Okaba to satisfactorily defend his actions “shows him to be unworthy of the position he holds as President of the INC.”
While recalling that same Okaba had defended the re-appointment of Major-General Barry Ndiomu (retd) as Interim Administrator of the PAP, the PND said it believed that the INC president “should not be a President of anywhere the wind blows because this can lead to total disregard for the INC.”
The rest of the statement reads:
“We have in our records and details of payments made to this same Okaba for consultancy by General Ndiomu, but we are going to leave this aside for another day and go back to the subject matter.
“Transferring blame to the Publicity Secretary as the mastermind behind the questions being raised on his visit to the PAP office is further proof of Okaba’s as a leader. It is well known by even those who are not members of the NEC that the Publicity Secretary is the president’s right-hand man. How come he is now the one instigating a revolt by other Exco members against the president?
“This was the same way Vice President I, Chief Atamuno Atamuno, a highly respected Ijaw leader, was blackmailed and pushed aside from the Exco.
“A President of the ljaw nation should be firm rather than shifting blame and blackmailing his co-Executive Council members for his weaknesses and failed leadership style.
“If not for the cabal style of leadership, why would he be calling the publicity secretary from Abuja? It is the same divide-and-rule system he has adopted on other issues. Is it the responsibility of the President of INC to go to Abuja to organize a courtesy visit to an organisation such as the PAP? What is the function of the Organising Secretary? This is a big shame.
“We are aware of the selfish interest of Okaba, and in a short while, we will deal with that and the whole Ijaw nation will know the true Okaba.
“If Okaba claimed that his visit to the self-acclaimed PAP boss, Otuaro, was unscheduled, then why did he accept and use the INC platform to describe him as having ensured a paradigm shift in the Niger Delta, as seen in national dailies with only four persons, and without 14 other executive members including the legal advisor, 3 vice presidents and others if he had no ulterior motives?
“It is too clear that the Okaba-led INC has been hijacked by a cabal led by him and that is why he is busy advocating for Otuaro and his sponsors to remedy the inducement he has received from his paymasters to betray the trust placed in him by the suffering Ijaw people. That was why he traveled to Abuja for an official assignment without his full executive, but rather used one journey to do a double venture.
“PND takes a very strong exception to the INC president’s carefully articulated claim that the PND has stood in the way of his leadership of the apex Ijaw cultural body over the years. What we stand against is his self-centered approach to leadership, which he has been carrying on with his four-man cabal.
“PND has no personal relationship with any exco member of INC and our clear outcry was not sponsored by anyone nor was it biased, but for a just cause. We are not like him who would allow peanuts from our collective prosperity which he received as gratification to overshadow his conscience as number one citizen in Ijaw ethnic nationality, contrary to his statutory obligation of prioritizing the collective interest of the Ijaw people.
“PND’s argument is that if Dr. Dennis Otuaro is not a self-acclaimed PAP boss as Okaba rightly defended, then why is he helpless and seeking the backing of the entire Ijaw people, when he is supposed to be busy performing his duties?
“It is obvious that OKABA has abandoned the 17-member excos set up to coordinate the affairs of the INC, a sacred trust reposed in him, to form a four-man cabal to pay official courtesy visit to his acclaimed PAP boss without the consent of the full exco. It is clear to the public that OKABA and his cabal have demonstrated to the Ijaw people that they see the INC as their own personal business venture, otherwise, why the unscheduled visit to the self-acclaimed PAP boss Otuaro?”
