1. The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has passed a vote of confidence on Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, State Minister for Petroleum Resources (Oil), described him as a great asset in the Tinubu led Federal Government of Nigeria.

2. After series of meetings among the 9th leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, we reject in its entirety the publication, calling for the redeployment of our revered, purposeful, visionary, seasoned, productive and highly competent leader, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister for Petroleum Resources (Oil), who is making Niger Delta and Ijaw nation proud in the Federal Executive Council.

3. This emergency press statement is not just a refutal but a position of the entire Ijaw Youth Council, covering all organs and structures of council in Delta, Edo, Ondo, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Imo, Abuja, Lagos, UK, other chapters in the diaspora and all affiliate bodies of the IYC that such publication calling our respected leader in the Niger Delta region incompetent and heaping the blame on him on the fuel hike and other woes in Nigeria did not emanate from Council as it did not receive the blessings of the Ijaw people.

4. Consequently, the Ijaw Youth Council is using this medium to call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all well-meaning Nigerians to completely ignore calls for Heineken Lokpobiri’s redeployment. Lokpobiri is competent and doing his job very well. It will be wrong for anyone to have called for his redeployment on the basis of incompetence as there is no minister in Nigeria now that is more competent, resourceful and productive than our articulate and visionary Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri.

5. The IYC as a struggle platform established in 1998 was to protect the interest of the Ijaw people at all point in time and not to antagonise and attack the interest of the Ijaws and her respected leaders.

6. It is important to establish that Council has a well carved out channel of communication for which it is essentially the duty of the President and Spokesman of Council that are charged with the responsibility to convey the message of the Ijaw Youth Council to the public after due consultations as the case may be with relevant key stakeholders in Ijaw land.

7. The founding principles of the Ijaw Youth Council forbid the IYC to fight against the interest of Ijaw nation hence we must always stand to defend Ijaw nation and her leaders, even if there are issues, this must be done through discreet means without coming to the public.

8. It does not really tell well to see that out of 45 ministers in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led Federal Government of Nigeria, the Ijaws only have one minister, which is Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri hence it is totally wrong and condemnable to see an Ijaw son or daughter calling for his redeployment on the basis of incompetence and also blaming the hardship faced by Nigerians on our son who is working hard to make things right for Nigeria, Niger Delta and Ijaw nation.

9. We need to be mindful as no ethnic based youth group in Nigeria has ever come up to ridicule their own ministers or prominent sons in government and otherwise before the public. This caution has become very necessary to prevent future blunders among Ijaw Youths. Our leaders need to be protected, and if erring, they will be corrected indoors as other ethnic groups are doing. Others can not be seen as saints while we paint our own as devils. This has to stop.

10. The IYC will continue to speak and defend Ijaw nation and her people no matter what, hence Council is charging Ijaw Youths to concentrate more in building bridges of unity than creating uncessary distractions that will derail the essence of the struggle for resource control and self determination by any means necessary. Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri as State Minister for Petroleum Resources (Oil) is a step closer to our resource control agitation, and calling for his redeployment on the basis of incompetence is not in the interest of Ijaw nation.

11. Finally, as Ijaw people, we are not comfortable that we only have one Minister in the Federal Executive Council and we have been fighting and agitating for more political and economic inclusion in the Nigerian State, we cannot fight as Ijaw people to reduce our already disjointed political space in the Nigerian State.

Signed.
Amb. Binebai Yerin Princewill
Spokesman, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide.