Jonathan Stops Pan-Ijaw Conference

Posted by admin Headlines, Niger Delta Friday, September 28th, 2012

Worried by the possible implications of an all-Ijaw gathering, President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered that the All-Ijaw Stakeholders’ Summit scheduled for Saturday in Yenegoa, the Bayelsa State capital be put off indefinitely.

Authoritative sources close to the organisers of the Summit told Saturday Tribune on condition of anonymity that although the president himself was billed to be at the conference, he was said to have invited the Bayelsa State governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, who had facilitated the summit, to Abuja and briefed him on the need to cancel the programme ‘to avoid unnecessary insinuations’.

Governor Dickson said a new date would be announced for the summit.

This is the second time the summit will be postponed as it had earlier been shifted from the 6th of this month to the 29th.

Prior to his trip to the United Nations Summit, Jonathan had reportedly summoned Dickson, who had just arrived from a medical trip abroad and told him that apart from the fact he (president) was unlikely to attend, it was not auspicious for such an engagement to hold following the precarious state of the nation’s security.

President Jonathan was said to have been briefed by his close security aides that such a gathering, coming on the heels of the controversy generated by the introduction of the Ijaw emblem and anthem as well as the Ogoni Declaration of Self Independence, all in the South-South, was a possible ‘blackmail path’ against him.

Said the source: “Actually, the president would have loved to be there to witness the gathering of his kinsmen; here again, you can see the burden of leadership he has to carry.

“Don’t be surprised that even before the programme ends, there are people who are waiting to use it to blackmail the person of the president as a divisionist and possibly to score some cheap political points, because honestly speaking, it is not possible for him to say no to the invitation of his kinsmen. But is that the way he will continue to honour invitations from other ethnic nationalities? The answer is simple no!”

-Tribunewp_posts