INC America Secretary Amafini Urges Shift from ‘Ijaw Struggle’ to ‘Ijaw Dev’t Agenda’ Lauds INC, Nigeria, for peaceful zonal polls

By Bulou Kosin, Warri

The Secretary of the Ijaw National Congress of the Americas (INC-A), Mr. Ebikeme Amafini, has called on the Ijaw nation to discontinue the term “Ijaw struggle” for a more progressive and empowering “Ijaw development agenda.”

Amafini made the appeal in a statement congratulating the parent Ijaw National Congress, INC, in Nigeria, for the successful conduct of its Western, Central and Eastern Zone elections recently ahead of the incoming polls to the national leadership. He appealed to the new Ijaw leadership in INC and all Ijaw bodies to reshape the language and mindset that guides the Ijaw people’s agitations. According to him, the phrase “Ijaw struggle” carries a heavy, self-defeating connotation that traps the people in a cycle of resistance rather than progress.

“The term ‘Ijaw struggle’ has become a psychologically infectious label,” Amafini explained. “It conjures the image of Sisyphus from Greek mythology that is condemned to eternally roll a boulder uphill, only for it to tumble down again. That’s not the kind of narrative we want associated with our collective agitations.”

Amafini hopes, “that a paradigm shift to ‘Ijaw development agenda’ would subconsciously redirect our mindset towards development, securing tangible outcomes, rather than using the gains of the agitations for personal advancement as happens in a mindset of struggle. The shift in terminology could promote integrity, transparency and accountability among our leaders who rise to meet the challenge of Ijaw development”.

Amafini pledged that under the chairmanship of Dr. Ebizimo Nagberi, the new INC-A executive council, sworn in the penultimate month in Houston, Texas, USA, “will relentlessly work and create initiatives that promote unity, economic empowerment and overall developmental growth fot Ijaws across Nigeria and the diaspora”.