By Samuel Oyadongha  & Emem Idio

YENAGOA—SHOPS, markets and other commercial activities were yesterday shut in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, as the Ijaw nation converged on Yenagoa and Kaiama to celebrate this year’s Isaac Boro Day.

Though banks and other financial institutions were opened for business, they recorded low patronage.

The Ijaw Heroes Park, a stone’s thrown from the iconic   Ijaw House, where the remains of late Major Isaac Adaka Boro, the symbol of Niger Delta struggle for self determination in the 1960s was buried, was given a facelift with the overgrown weeds mowed.

Governor Seriake Dickson led the celebration with the laying of wreath at the park in honour of the late Boro at the Ijaw Heroes Memorial Park Cenotaph, in Yenagoa.

Speaking at the event, Governor Dickson said the sacrifices and contributions of Isaac Boro who, though dead and gone, remained alive and ever present in the  lives and minds of Ijaw people, and declared that henceforth the annual Isaac Boro Day would be celebrated in secondary schools across the states to inspire young ones on the ideals and struggles of Issac Boro.

Dickson said: “I want to thank the youths of Ijaw nation for always keeping the Boro dream alive. I thank all of you for honouring and recognizing Isaac Boro and the sacrifices and the contributions of all those who fought by his side. By this event, we are not just honouring Boro alone but as the symbol of our struggle when our oppressed people said no because no was the right answer at that time.

But he didn’t do it alone. A number of young men believed in him and the cause. We remember captain Owonaro who is still alive, we thank him for still being alive as a symbol. We remember the contributions of Nottingham Dicks, Captain Owonaro and others who fought and died.

“You know how it is difficult now to be in the university, take your mind to the late 50s and early 60s in Nigeria, all of them were university undergraduates and then graduates, one of them had a master’s degree at that time. They abandoned the cozy comfort that they were entitled ahead of them.”