The Head of Contractor HSE Management, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, Mr. Emmanuel Ajosangbomuro Etsano says despite the billions of naira allocated to Itsekiri Nation from derivation fund as well as income from Chevron's GMoU since 2005,there is nothing to show in terms of development order than “emergency millionaires who fritter our common wealth in choice capital cities of the western world and on exotic cars and women”.
According to the SPDC Chief, estimates from 2009-2014 indicates that Itsekiri Nation got about N30 billion as its 29% share of 13% derivation and quipped that if one billion naira of the fund was applied annually for road construction, Itsekiri Nation would have had 60km of asphalt road at the rate of 100 million naira per km of road constructed.
Mr. Etsano who made the revelation in a keynote address delivered on his behalf by President of National Association of Itsekiri Graduates, NAIG, Comrade Collins Oritsetimeyin Edema during a Town Hall meeting organized by NAIG Saturday October 1 in Warri,opined that Itsekiri Nation has “become fractured and divided, bedeviled by underdevelopment,faced with political extinction, hunger and unemployment”.
He challenged Itsekiri graduates to take the mantle of leadership and steer the ship of the Itsekiri Nation in the right direction.
Earlier in his opening remarks, President of NAIG, Comrade Collins Oritsetimeyin Edema, acknowledged the challenges being faced by Itsekiri Nation, adding that it was the challenges that necessitated the town hall meeting so as to galvanize intellectual inputs in the quest at moving Itsekiri Nation to greater heights.
Comrade Collins Edema making a remark
The Executive Director, Planning, Research and Statistics in the Board of DESOPADEC, Engr. Victor Wood, who was one of the facilitators of the one-day talk-shop, harped on the need for Itsekiri leaders to go back to their communities with a view to developing them and tasked Itsekiris to look inward in the renewed determination to ensure genuine development.
A member of the respected Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, ILOT and educationist, Mr. A.S. Mene,enjoined Itsekiris of today to emulate the leadership style of late Chief Nana Olomu, late Chief Dore Numa and others who contributed immensely in the past towards Itsekiri development, saying there is need for proper education of younger Itsekiris.
Our Senior Correspondent, however reports that there was an ugly scene when some unidentified youths stormed the venue of the programme with a bus, carrying cutlasses, but the situation was brought under control with no casualty recorded, even as the mission of the invaders could not be ascertained as at the time of this report.
Cross Section of participants during the Round Table Discussion & Interactive Session at NAIG Town Hall Meeting
×
![]()