AZAIKI AND THE IJAW ECONOMIC SUMMIT

Road To Glory – WHERE IT ALL BEGAN by Pope Pen

ON FEBRUARY 23, 2005, the Bayelsa State capital, Yenagoa, played host to what may well qualify as the largest assembly of Ijaw sons and daughters up to that time. They came from within and outside Nigeria to mark the first ever Ijaw National Day and World Summit celebration under the auspices of the Ijaw National congress, INC. The week-long event witnessed seminars and symposia, during which eminent scholars of Ijaw stock presented seminal papers on a wide range of topics. As may be expected, colourful cultural displays of various kinds added spice to the experience. One of the high points of the Summit, no doubt, was the keynote presentation by Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Executive Governor of Bayelsa State at the time in question. Entitled “The Ijaw Nation: Road To Glory,” the address underscored the essence of the celebration in the following words: “…we have gone beyond the stage of lamentation. It is time to celebrate what we have. It is time to seize the initiative and take a bold leap of faith.” The note of optimism in that statement resounded in everything else that transpired in the following days. The Ijaw World Summit could not have come at a more auspicious time. It marked the culmination of many weeks of consultations, consensus-building and networking among various interest groups in Ijaw land. Indeed, only a few weeks before, precisely on February 5, 2005, the second national convention of the South-South Peoples Assembly had taken place in Yenagoa. The sum of these meetings was open to one and all, namely that the time was ripe for the Ijaw Nation, the Niger Delta, the South-South, the Oil Producing States – by whatever name they were called – to present a common front in the demand for a restructured Nigeria where the principles of equity and justice hold sway under a banner of true federalism. Clearly, all this was an exciting build-up to the National Political Reform Conference which the Obasanjo presidency had decided to stage in Abuja as a token concession to the long-standing demand for a Sovereign National Conference by various interest groups since Nigeria’s political independence from Britain. Here at last was a golden chance for all aggrieved peoples to express their discontent, negotiate with other ethnic neighbours, and evolve a just and egalitarian Nigeria where no one is oppressed or disinherited, where every citizen would feel a genuine sense of belonging.

Throughout his stay in office, Alamieyeseigha steadily canvassed this sentiment, in the course of which he came to be recognized as Governor-General of the Izon Nation, a champion advocate for resource control and ownership, a crusader for self-determination among the oil producing communities, and a rallying point for all patriots in the South-South geo-political zone who saw the practice of true federalism as a non-negotiable eventuality. In all this, Alamieyeseigha never disguised his respect for constructive dialogue, his passion for consultation, and his belief that Nigeria would be a stronger nation if all ethnic nationalities – large and small – concede to one another in the best interest of future generations, in spite of deep-seated socio-political differences. Nothing demonstrated this huge and overwhelming goodwill in the man more than the readiness with which he brought his most virulent opponents under the large wings of his government when he secured a second tenure. Almost twenty years after that first Ijaw World Summit, one of the principal contributors to the success of that event, Professor Steve Azaiki, who served as Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government at that time, thought it fit to revisit the subject and re-conceive it in greater magnitude. With the full endorsement of the Ijaw National Congress, INC, the Azaiki Foundation set out to host the world to the first pan-Ijaw Economic Summit in the last quarter of 2024, virtually to underscore the place of the Ijaw nation in a country that is confronted with truly daunting economic challenges at the moment. Azaiki’s involvement with the fortunes of the Ijaw nation has been long-standing, and his efforts at seeking reparation for the Niger Delta, far-reaching. His campaign for environmental justice has been resonant over the years with the formation of the World Environmental Movement For Africa, WEMFA. His contributions to the composite well-being of the Nigerian nation have been no less salutary with his deployment of the National Think Tank, an independent agency designed to incubate policy ideas and programmes by harnessing the grand intellectual input of some of the best minds in strategic thinking that Nigeria can boast of, all in a bid to support and guide the growth and progress of the nation. A great mobilizer of men and materials, Azaiki resolved to bring together a broad range of participants to deliberate on the salient issues concerning the rich history and heritage of the Ijaw people today in a nation where true federalism has been in suspension. This was nothing but heart-warming, coming as it did in a country where minority ethnic nationalities such as the Ijaw have suffered acute deprivation and neglect, in spite of their wholesome contribution to the national coffers across six eventful decades, in an economy that relies completely on the proceeds of oil and gas derived from the swampland inhabited by the Ijaw people and their immediate neighbours.

The global scale on which this pan-Ijaw economic summit was planned was only too evident, given the ready indication of interest by sons and daughters of Ijaw in diaspora. The event promised to curry the partnership of the Ijaw Peoples Congress, Canada, the Ijaw Association of Australia Incorporated, the Ijaw Diaspora Council, USA, and the Ijaw Peoples Association of Great Britain and Ireland, amongst others. To reach out to as many stakeholders as possible, pre-summit consultations took place in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt before the grand event at a future date. The master-mind behind this event is worth knowing better. Professor Steve Sinikiem Azaiki has been at home with governance for many years, having held sensitive offices in military and civilian times alike. His word of advice has always come in useful. He served as the pioneer Commissioner for Agriculture in his home state under the administration of Colonel Edor Obi, and nurtured a few ideas into fruition in the life of that government. In like manner, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, first civilian Governor of Bayelsa State, was glad to name Azaiki as Secretary to the State Government. In that capacity, Azaiki demonstrated his competence in coordinating all ministries as they revolved around him, and initiated some cardinal policies that served to enrich the legacy of the Alamieyeseigha government. Azaiki has proven to be sensitive to the plight of the Niger Delta, and has since chosen to follow the example of those who underscore an intellectual approach to resolving the challenges in the region. His most visible contribution to the growth of education in Bayelsa, without any doubt, is the Azaiki Public Library & Museum, adjudged to be one of its kind in the Niger Delta, if not in all of the country, by the Nigeria Library Society. Professor Azaiki has served at various times as Special Adviser to four ministerial offices, namely Minister of Special Duties, Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Minister of Police Affairs, and Minister of Youth Development. He was also a member of the Governing Council, Federal University of Technology, Akure, and Chairman of Council, Niger Delta University. He takes his inspiration from the example of prominent sons of the Niger Delta, among them Ernest Sisei Ikoli, Harold Dappa-Biriye, Isaac Adaka Boro, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Alamieyeseigha, men whose valiant drive for a better Niger Delta have become nodal points of reference.

Azaiki's resume abroad is even more impressive. He is the active propeller of organizations such as the Comparative & International Education Societies of America, and the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies. He holds a place of certainty as Professor of Agronomy and Plant Protection at the Institute of Potato Research, Nemecheva, University of Life and Environmental Sciences, Ukraine. He was a Visiting Professor at the Ukrainian Academy of Personnel Management and International Relations, as well as a Visiting Scholar and Fellow at the Institute of Petroleum Studies, University of Port Harcourt. As may be expected, he is widely travelled. By the last count, he has been to eighty-six countries, and he has always come away wiser. He is known to have awarded personal scholarships to students, and given free health and housing support to the needy within and outside his community. Azaiki is the author of several books, including Inequities in Nigeria Politics, Oil Politics & Blood, The Evil Of Oil, and Thoughts On Nigeria. His new book projects is entitled My Journey In Politics; and Four Years of Talking an account of his time at the National Assembly. He has also co-authored many other books, especially in the areas of environment, agriculture, plant protection, and plant disease, amongst others. Until recently, Professor Steve Azaiki was an honourable member of the House of Representatives on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, representing Yenagoa-Kolokuma-Opokuma federal constituency. In 2011, he was conferred with one of Nigeria’s highest national honours, Member of the Order of the Niger, OON. He remains a noble son of Bayelsa, a patriotic and detribalized Nigerian, a global scholar of reckoning, an exemplary administrator, and a selfless servant-leader of repute. All these qualities in the man manifested in the course of the first pan-Ijaw Economic Summit, his brain child. Professor Steve Azaiki remains a blessing to the land and people of Bayelsa. For many discerning minds, the state would fare better if Azaiki were to emerge as Governor, and have a prime opportunity to bring his wealth of experience, his managerial acumen, his vast international exposure, and his infectious passion for service to bear on the governance of the oil-producing state.