….says emulate youth in other regions

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA- A nongovernmental organization, Nation First Foundation, NFF, Friday, cautioned youth from the Niger Delta region to stop insulting their elders and leaders from the region.

Founder, Nation First Foundation, NFF, Comrade Oniawan Elidad

The Founder, NFF, Comrade Oniawan Elidad, stated this while appraising development and struggle in the Niger Delta region over the years by their leaders.

Elidad decried the manner of some young people from the region who do not show any kind of respect for elders who are also leaders from the region saying their behavior was uncalled and unacceptable.

He said this young people who have been making disparaging and insulting comments about leaders from the region on the conventional and social media are making ridicule of themselves and their future.

He said: “The Niger Delta region’s development is not yet where we desire it to be because there is international politics and internal challenges slowing it down, but by and large, there is significant improvement compared to the dark days of military rule.

“There is always light at the end of the tunnel, and we in Nation First Foundation, NFF, are very optimistic that soon the region will experience developmental and industrial revolution.

“We appreciate the effort of elders and leaders both alive and dead from the region who have been in the fore-front agitating and engaging the government and oil and gas operators in the region on developing the region. Everybody can see some of their achievements and legacies across the region as there is a change in infrastructural development.

“We still encourage them to continue and be supported by the people in the region. It is very disheartening to hear, read and see youth in the region insulting and assaulting and threatening these elders who have laid down their lives to bring the region to the limelight and its voice to be heard political and economically.

“Youth who are disrespecting and insulting elders like Chief Edwin Clark, Brig. Gen. Paul Boro, Ankio Briggs, Joseph Evah, Former Governor Victor Attah, and other leaders to gain little favour from their pay masters and they don’t use their brain but think they are bold by insulting them on pages of newspapers, social media and television stations, I see it as a shame to them and should be condemned by other patriotic Niger Delta persons.

“What these elders have achieved is more than their mates in other parts of the country, which has made the government to recognize the region than some others in the country. Youth who are abusing these elders should never again insult them.”

According to him most youth from the region believe in violence to make their request instead of intellectually engaging their leaders and government, therefore said they should emulate the attitude of the youth from other regions.

“The youth from other regions including the Arewa youths, Oduduwa youths, and Ndigbo youths, are not fond of insulting their elders and leaders. They are always solidly behind their leaders and elders. But the youths from Niger Delta are always on the business of insulting and making denigrating comments about their leaders and will never appreciate what they are doing for the region.

“I want them to learn from these youths from other regions of the country, and give respect to the leaders for other regions. We should not insult our elders and leaders, rather do what is right in order for our children not to insult us also”, he added.