The President of the apex sociocultural organisation in Nigeria, the Ijaw National Congress, INC, Professor Benjamin Okaba, has announced the launch of the Ijaw Nation Mobile app, which he said "is ready for public presentation."

Prof. Okaba made the disclosure while declaring open the May 2024 INC America's Global Ijaw Convention which held at the Hilton Garden Inn Sugar-Land in Greater Houston City of the State of Texas, United States of America, from the 10th to 12th of May 2024.

The INC President who was the chair of the three-day programme themed 'Ijaw Nation, Nurturing Partnership Through Symbiotic Relationships Towards Homeland, Social, And Economic Development', commended the unity displayed by the INC America's Exco and their sensitization efforts at uniting the ljaws, just as he promised "to improve the synergy that exists between the parent body and all Diaspora chapters" as the INC kick-start its "internationalization scheme."

Among other issues raised by the apex body president include the balkanization of the Ijaws, the neglect of its territories from the needed human and physical development by successive administrations of government despite its abundant crude oil resources that have continued to sustain the Nigerian nation, actions he said have contributed to fueling the ethnic group's grievances against such injustice and the clamour for self-determination.

"What the Ijaw Nation demands is simply Resource and Environmental Justice, a fair and justifiable economic and political regime that guarantees us (individually and collectively), a free and prosperous society where we own, control and manage our natural resources following well-established derivation principles and the practice of true federalism.

"Suffice to reiterate that, if the prescient conditions we have set for ourselves as a people of Good Conscience are continuously undermined, we shall have no option than to embark on a peaceful exit from the Nigerian State," Okaba added.

Prof. Okaba who called "for a well-coordinated partnership between the Ijaws in diaspora and those at home" in order to leverage on the efforts of the government and the few well-to-do wealthy Ijaws so as to cope with the "enormity of the multi-faceted challenges faced by the Ijaw Nation", also made a three-point prepositions of diaspora linkage, a more broad approach of collaboration, and policies that would help create an enabling environment for Diaspora participation, investments, and development of their ancestral home.

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