By Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
A pressure group, the Urhobo Summit Group, has tasked elected representatives of Urhobo ethnic extraction at both state and federal levels to be more accountable to the people by frequently giving them feedback on their activities that have attracted development to Urhobo-land.
Rising from the second in the series of its “OJA KONA” Summit in Asaba, which included a public lecture titled, “Unity and Accountability of elected Urhobo representatives”, the group also canvassed the improved upliftment of Urhobo nation.
It argued that the Urhobo Nation had found herself at the backseat of socio-economic and political development in the country despite its significant contribution to national development in the past five to six decades of the nation’s existence.
The organisation equally bemoaned the apparent lack of accountability by respective Urhobo lawmakers, in terms of giving necessary feedback to the people, charging them to constantly tell their constituents what they were doing and also acting as a bridge between government and their constituents.
In his welcome remarks to the gathering that included traditional rulers, government functionaries elected political leaders, members of the academia and other stakeholders of Urhobo extraction, the group’s president, Professor Victor Jike, rued the dearth of federal infrastructure in Urhobo-land.
Jike also called for urgent steps to redress the injustice being experienced by Sapele residents, who, in spite of being host to the Ogorode Power Station that services the National Grid, had no electricity supply to show for it.
Other speakers at the event included former state finance and economic planning commissioner in the Uduaghan administration, Olorogun Kenneth Okpara, Dr. Godwin Ogbegor of Delta State University Abraka and Omiragwa Henry Diejamaoh.
Speakers were unanimous in their views that the teeming youths of Urhobo-land should be empowered so as not to be lured or influenced by the antics of desperate politicians who use them during electioneering campaign to perpetrate electoral violence and thereafter dump them after achieving their political aims.
They also advocated for skills acquisition and capacity building for youths, urging elected Urhobo representatives at both state and federal levels to chart the way forward and do the needful by proposing viable development models.
