Remarks By High
Chief O.B.
Lulu-Briggs OON, DCF On The Occasion Of The Service & Devotion
Awards
Presented To Him By The Ijaw Alliance
Of The Americas
(INAA) On May 30, 2009 In Newark,
New Jersey, USA
It is with gratitude and
humility that I accept the “Service
& Devotion” Award 2009 presented to me by the INAA.
Firstly, let me most heartily
congratulate my brothers
and sisters, sons and daughters who despite being in this distant land
have
maintained their sense of identity, community and commitment to the
Ijaw
Nation. I applaud your vision of setting up the INAA as a rallying
point for
Ijaw people in the diaspora and more importantly maintaining an active
and
stable organization since September 1998. As we are all too painfully
aware,
voluntary, not for profit organizations such as the INAA are
notoriously hard
to sustain and the fact that you are still thriving is a testimony to
your
commitment and creativity.
Distinguished ladies and
gentlemen, today is a day of
remembrance, reflection and celebration of the events and people whose
vision,
service and sacrifice have helped to define us as a people. It is in
this
spirit that we the Ijaws have set aside a day each year when we
celebrate the
life of our great leader, the Late Isaac Adaka Boro, an icon whose
life’s
journey largely symbolizes all our hopes, fears and aspirations as a
people,
even today. In celebrating Isaac Adaka Boro, we are reminded that much
work
remains to be done if we must ensure that his sacrifices and those who
stood
with him will never be in vain.
As I reflected on the
significance of this award, I
was constantly reminded of the motto of the INAA itself: Service,
Devotion and
Accountability. Individually, these are weighty words. Taken together,
they
represent timeless concepts and values of selfless service, dedication
and truthfulness,
all qualities I have come to associate with what it means to be Ijaw.
It seems
to me that in instituting this award, the INAA seeks to reaffirm that
there is
nothing nobler than being involved in a cause greater than oneself.
A sage once noted that
“service is the rent we pay for
being alive”. Indeed service takes on new and larger dimensions
of meaning and
responsibility within the context of our homeland and the ever present
difficulties of our people. One can choose to be overwhelmed, bitter
and
lethargic or remain stubbornly optimistic and determined to create
something
out of practically nothing. It is to the latter endeavour that I choose
to
commit myself, hopefully helping to widen the oasis of sanity and
possibility
for subsequent generations of the Ijaw Nation. That has been the path
of those
who came before us and that is what we must bequeath to the succeeding
generation.
At various fora where I have had
the opportunity to
share my views, I have maintained that there is incontrovertible
evidence that
our people have the talents and enthusiasm to compete with the very
best and
excel at whatever they turn their hands to once the right conditions
are put in
place. What we as a people must devote ourselves – our time,
hearts, money and
every resource to is the envisioning and creation of that society which
we
desire.
My generation and those before
us have done our part
and as the great Nelson Mandela noted, “the future lies in your
hands more than
mine”. You may not believe it or even want to hear this but yours
is a
privileged generation in many ways. You are a generation that is better
educated, more exposed and connected to the world beyond ours in ways
we could
only imagine. You have a great opportunity to know, learn and be
influenced by
new ideas and excellent global practices and are not burdened as we
were by
some of the old prejudices, animosities and dichotomies. Therefore the
expectations of you are very high; for we seek new solutions to old
problems
that require out of the box thinking.
Do not for one moment think that
I have a simplistic
rose tinted view of our present circumstances. How could I? I am a
child of the
Ijaw Nation; I have travelled its forgotten creeks, seen the beauty of
its
flora and fauna, lived amongst my people for all my life and
experienced our
fundamental deprivations as a people. I see the growing loss of faith,
lack of
opportunities, non-exposure to best global possibilities and
diminishing of
vision. I see the steady rise of a future generation of our children
who are
already exposed to deep social and psychological dislocations. And I
fear that
these disconnects in our society will give rise to a totally
dysfunctional
generation, whose sole understanding of service is self-serving and
based on
self preservation. The repercussions of this are unimaginable; and it
is to
laying the foundation for the success of this generation that we must
now
devote ourselves.
Ijaws in Diaspora have provided
us a path way towards
this enterprise by their continued contributions to the cause of
ensuring our
people a better future. My message to them is that they must continue,
in
conjunction with those of us in the homeland to strengthen and deepen
their
capacity to act as change agents. In this regard, permit me to share
with you
some of my thoughts about the kind of leadership Diaspora Ijaws must
provide at
this time:
·
Unity: Our situation today
commends itself to unprecedented levels of
unity amongst Ijaws. We do not need to agree on everything, but there
must be
common purpose in pursuit of the general good. Ijaws all over should
urgently
pull together and be our brothers keepers. In forming organizations, we
should create
necessary synergies amongst various organizations and if need be,
consolidate
some of these organizations to create even stronger organizations. At
home, we
already have the Ijaw National Congress and the Ijaw Youth Council as
our
umbrella bodies. Let us commit ourselves to working closely with these
organizations
by becoming active financial members. And as Ijaws, we should be
“one for all
and all for one”; there must be no divisions or dichotomies.
·
Finance: Ijaws in Diaspora
should commit themselves to raising money
aggressively, especially amongst themselves. As your recent experience
in the US
elections
demonstrates, small drops of water truly make the ocean. For us to
properly
affect public policy in the homeland, we must raise sufficient
resources to
intervene in the public domain. Again on the national level, our
struggle for
equity and justice would be seriously impaired if we do not muster the
resources to effectively engage the process in the battle for hearts
and minds.
Most importantly, we need to raise money to make meaningful
interventions in
our communities in areas of basic health, education and infrastructure.
We
cannot replace government but as you well know, there are indeed limits
to
governmental action in bringing development to our communities. My
appeal to
Ijaws in Diaspora is they should lead the way in raising funds and
organizations such as the INAA are uniquely placed to so do.
·
Wealth Creation: If there is one
thing we can all agree upon, it is
that there is a pressing need to create a self sustaining system that
supports
wealth creation in Ijaw land in a self sustaining manner. This remains
for me,
the most efficient way to aggregate and use the collective talents of
our
people, allowing each one to contribute to the limits of their ability.
Ijaws
in Diaspora should look to form business partnerships amongst
themselves and
possibly, with Ijaws at home. These linkages are critical and must be
nurtured.
As I am wont to say, empowerment is a deliberate process! We need
several local
champions in business and the professions and most of you have already
achieved
great personal success; what is required is for us to leverage on your
achievements and scale them up accordingly.
For us at home, we have started
addressing
this problem and one of the vehicles that we are deploying is the
Rivers-Bayelsa Business Forum which I founded. It is conceived as a
platform
through which likeminded people have chosen to engage with the issue of
wealth
creation in the Niger Delta. It is structured to act both as a business
incubator for entrepreneurs and as a public policy advocacy group. The
Forum
proceeds from the premise that we must urgently identify, nurture and
foster an
entrepreneurial class in our society. We truly need our own local
champions who
will demonstrate to others that business success is possible for our
people and
who can partake in the bounty of our land in a positive and sustainable
manner.
The Forum has been hard at work
over the
past six months to do the groundwork to identify and promote
initiatives that
will empower the young entrepreneurial class to acquire relevant skills
and
commence business initiatives. We are deliberately making haste slowly
because
we want to put all the critical building blocks for success in place
and forge
useful alliances that will help bring our dreams and those we want to
assist to
fruition.
We have also continued to tweak
the
available micro finance models in order to find models that will work
in our
communities in a sustainable manner. The O. B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation
which is
run by my darling wife Seinye has achieved incredible penetration in
several
local communities by granting micro credits to women and providing
health care
services amongst others.
It would be remiss if I do not
mention the current
wave of unrest in Ijaw land. Like all of you, I am deeply pained by the
daily
news of deaths, destruction and dislocation in Gbaramatu Kingdom
and other communities in Ijaw land. The poet John Donne said
“Every man’s death
diminishes me because I am involved in mankind so ask not for whom the
bell
tolls; it tolls for thee”. Indeed, the bell tolls for all of us
in Ijaw land.
Yesterday it was Odi; today it is Gbaramatu; where will it be tomorrow?
What is
certain is that we cannot afford to display any kind of lethargy, show
apathy
or continue to merely pour vitriol on the fire fuelling the debate
about the
misfortunes of the Ijaw and the peoples of the Niger Delta. What is
required at
this time is for all stakeholders, working in unison to seek practical
and
pragmatic ways to restore normalcy to our land immediately.
This has been a truly enjoyable
and heart warming
occasion. Many kind and generous things have been said about me today.
It is
unusual to be so honoured in one’s lifetime and I am grateful to
the INAA for
organizing this event and deeming me worthy to be the recipient of this
year’s
Service & Devotion of Award.
I thank you all for this award
and assure you that as
long as God Almighty gives me strength and breadth, I shall continue to
serve
humanity in the ways in which He has guided me; with all my heart and
ability.
I especially thank you for
listening to me and pray
that as you listened, you have been challenged and inspired to be part
of the
ever widening oasis of true service, devotion and accountability that
we need
to build our land and restore hope, pride and opportunity amongst our
people. You
are domiciled here in the United States of America
and are considered to be
privileged by many. Thus as leading lights, I encourage you to continue
to
illuminate the lives of others; a candle loses nothing by lighting
another
candle.
To my beloved family, friends
and associates who
accompanied me to this event all the way from Nigeria,
I express my unending
gratitude for the love you continue to show me and your invaluable
support.
I wish everyone an enjoyable
evening and may God
continue to keep us all.
Very truly
yours,
High Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs OON, DCF
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