By Bartholomew Madukwe

Urhobo Youth Council, UYC, has petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan over alleged marginalisation of the Urhobo in the scheme of things, especially with regards to political appointments and empowerment.

In an open letter to the President, by the UYC National President, Henry Baro, and two others, the group particularly drew the President’s attention to the large scale exclusion of the Urhobo from the post-amnesty programme of the Federal Government.

The group lamented the fact that virtually all positions in the president’s government were reserved for Ijaw people, to the exclusion of other ethnic groups in Delta State.

The letter read: “We are constrained to write you this open letter to bring to your notice and necessary attention the gross margina-lisation of Urhobo people and the appropriation of all appointments, projects and empowerment by the Ijaw nationality to the detriment of their neighbours and other ethnic nationalities in South-South geo-political zone.

“As your kith and kin fron the South geo-political zone, we are not unmindful of the serious security challenges buffeting your administration, including the Boko Haram insurgency and the spate of kidnapping and crime that are defying the road map of your Transformation Agenda.

“While we empathise with you as you struggle to steady the ship of state, it is pertinent that we draw your attention to the criminally gross marginalisation of the Urhobo who occupy Delta Central senatorial district and also form majority population in Warri South and Patani Local Government Areas in Delta State.

“For good measure, the Urhobo in Delta Central have registered votes of well over 920,000. Out of this figure, over 860,000 votes were delivered to you during the presidential election. It is thus amazing that your home state of Bayelsa with such votes in addition to your high office as President and Commander-in-Chief, also produced some of the following: Minister of Petroleum; chairman of NDDC; National Security Adviser, NSA, etc.

“To give vent to the rumoured Ijaw agenda at the expense of other nationalities, your administration went further to patronise the Ijaw of Delta State who are less than 12 per cent of the state’s population.

“Your administration brazenly took the ministerial slot zoned to the Urhobo by Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua and handed it to the minority Ijaw kinsman, Elder Godson Orubebe.”

The group noted that the Federal University of Petroleum approved and sited in Urhoboland had remained largely unfunded, stressing that the East-West road was also in a perpetual state of disrepair.

To right the wrongs, UYC urged the President to ensure appointment of a qualified minister from Urhobo, being the slot that was zoned to the Urhobo; inclusion of Urhobo, who subscribed to the amnesty programme, in the training of ex-militants, and funding of federal institutions and projects sited in Urhobo land and other nationalities.