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Besides the Ijaw Agenda for
Self Government Committee, the following are the Ijaw Foundation Committees
with their terms of reference.
1. FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE:
(a) To mobilize and persuade
Ijaws in the Diaspora and at home to voluntarily make regular monthly
contributions to the Foundation.
(b) To solicit funds from the general public in the United States, Canada,
United Kingdom, Nigeria and elsewhere.
(c) To solicit funding for
specific projects from philanthropists, Foundations, governmental agencies and
international agencies.
(d) To write fund-raising
proposals for the solicitation of funds for specific projects.
(e) To organize the Formal
Launching of the Ijaw Foundation and fund-raising events in collaboration with
other Committees such as the Cultural Committee.
(f) To design and publish
fund-raising brochures for the Foundation.
(g) To build a platform of
cooperation and joint-financing involving all Ijaw Local Government Councils in
Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo and Rivers States, the respective
Governments of these States, the Oil Companies and the NDDC; to fund Ijaw
nationwide electricity, water, telecommunication and other development
projects. A framework for joint-financing may be established as follows:
(i) A Trust Fund or Escrow
Account for each particular project is established in a reputable Bank in
Ijawland and two readily available individuals of transparent integrity,
acceptable to all joint-financiers, are appointed as trustees to oversee
deposit of funds into the Account. Each participating joint-financier shall be
issued a certificate of financial sponsorship indicating the amount and date of
its contribution.
(ii) The Ijaw Local
Government Councils shall collectively fund twenty percent of the cost of the
project. Each Local Government Council shall contribute a proportion of its
monthly, quarterly or annual revenue.
(iii) The Bayelsa State
Government shall contribute twenty percent of the funds for the project.
(iv) The Akwa Ibom, Delta,
Ondo and Rivers State Governments shall collectively fund twenty percent of the
cost of the project; each State contributing a fair proportion of its revenues
derived from its Ijaw communities on the basis of the derivation principle.
(v) The Oil Companies shall
collectively contribute twenty percent of the cost of the project, each company
contributing a proportion based on its quota of oil production and/or revenues.
(vi) The NDDC shall also
fund twenty percent of the cost of the project.
2. WATER AND ELECTRICITY
COMMITTEE
(a) To assemble Ijaw and
non-Ijaw technocrats from all relevant professional fields to plan, design and
execute short-term water supply projects to provide hygienic/drinkable water to
the Ijaws in their communities. Water Purification Plants will be constructed
to produce drinkable water in packages for distribution throughout Ijawland at
the most affordable price. This project would generate revenue for the
Foundation while providing an essential necessity for our people.
(b) To work with the
technocrats to design and construct Water Purification Plants and Reservoirs
that will provide hygienic and safe pipe-borne water to individual homes
throughout Ijawland.
(c) To assemble Ijaw and
non-Ijaw technocrats from all relevant professional fields to design and
construct financially self-sustaining environmentally friendly Electricity
Generating Plants, using locally available resources such as natural gas, to
provide electricity to all Ijaw communities at an affordable cost.
3. TOWN PLANNING AND HOUSING
COMMITTEE
(a) To design standard model
family houses, condominiums, housing complexes (apartment buildings) of varying
sizes for our people; with due regard to our climate, environmental conditions,
safety, hygiene, ecological preservation and the availability of land in
Ijawland. The model housing units must have standard toilets and proper
drainage systems as well as accommodation for proper electrification and
plumbing.
(b) To design Recreational
and Sporting Facilities such as parks, sports arenas or stadiums for Ijaw
Communities.
(c) To recommend a standard
distance of separation between housing units, the standard distance of housing
units from Streets and Roads and the standard widths for roads, streets,
pavements and drainages in our cities, towns and villages.
(d) To recommend a standard
elevation for housing units to protect houses from flooding when water overruns
the banks of the rivers or seas during the rainy season or when a large volume
of water is suddenly released from dams upstream.
(e) To design a standard
drainage system for Ijaw Communities, cognizant of our peculiar terrain.
4. ROADS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
COMMITTEE
(a) To assemble Ijaw and
non-Ijaw engineers and other allied professionals to design a network of roads
and bridges that will ultimately link all Ijaw communities. The network of
roads should be carefully designed not to damage the ecology (swamps, rivulets,
streams and other fisheries) of Ijawland.
(b) To assemble Ijaw and
non-Ijaw architects, engineers and allied professionals to design schools,
markets, supermarkets, hospitals, research centers, industries and other
development infrastructure in Ijawland.
(c) To establish a system or
mechanism whereby Ijaw engineers, builders and artisans readily maintain and repair
roads and infrastructure in Ijawland in a cost-effective and profitable way.
5. EDUCATION AND YOUTH
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
(a) To promote education in
Ijawland by well structured campaigns to encourage and facilitate every child
to acquire basic education to be functionally literate.
(b) To prepare for the Ijaws
an EDUCATIONAL POLICY that emphasizes vocational training and acquisition of
technical skills that would promote entrepreneurship, self-reliance,
productivity and economic empowerment.
(c) To help teach our
schoolchildren and youths honesty, hard work, ambition, discipline, respect for
elders and authority, character, self-esteem and community service.
(d) To help attract
qualified teachers to schools in Ijawland to provide qualitative education to
our children.
(e) To establish
prerequisites for establishing primary and secondary schools to ensure that the
schools provide qualitative education.
(f) To establish a framework
to continuously monitor the performance of the various schools in Ijawland,
identify problems and make recommendations to improve standards.
(g) To promote and help to
organize inter-school sports in Ijawland as a vehicle to promote brotherhood
among Ijaws and to promote talents.
(h) To develop and
facilitate an IJAW NATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME funded by the oil companies
and other agencies to offer scholarships to Ijaw students at secondary,
undergraduate and postgraduate levels of education.
6. MANPOWER AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
(a) To identify, promote,
modernize and propagate the various indigenous vocational skills in Ijawland.
(b) To promote and modernize
Ijaw indigenous technology.
(c) To develop plans for the
establishment of Skills Acquisition Centers for carpentry, lumbering, masonry,
fishing, weaving, pottery, textiles, ceramics manufacturing, etc.
(d) To develop and execute plans to modernize our traditional Palm Wine
and Gin Distillation industry with a view to producing methylated spirit
(isopropyl alcohol) used for antiseptic cleaning.
(e) To develop, design and
execute plans to use our abundant Silica Resources to manufacture glass and
glass products.
(f) To develop, design and
execute plans to extract and purify salt from the sea water that surrounds
Ijawland, for domestic use and export.
(g) To develop, design and
execute plans to develop and modernize our traditional soap and detergent
manufacturing (saponification) system.
(h) To develop, design and
execute plans to make various products from the raphia palm, oil palm and mangrove
trees.
7. HEALTH AND HUMANITARIAN
COMMITTEE
(a) To develop contingency
plans and strategies for providing timely, adequate and effective technical and
material relief in event of humanitarian disasters in Ijawland and elsewhere.
(b) To assemble Ijaw
healthcare and allied professionals to develop short-term and long-term plans
to provide basic healthcare to all Ijaws in their communities.
(c) To continually monitor
and assess the basic healthcare needs of the Ijaws and develop plans and
strategies to overcome deficiencies to meet these needs.
(d) To develop plans for the
establishment of financially self-sustaining secondary and tertiary hospitals
to be located equitably throughout Ijawland to provide specialist medical care
in obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, medicine, general surgery, orthopedics
and neurosurgery.
(e) To develop a plan for
training and recruiting health professionals to provide healthcare to our
people in our communities.
(f) To facilitate the
formation of professional associations and healthcare regulatory bodies for
healthcare professionals in Ijawland to ensure adherence to professional
standards and ethics.
(g) To develop, design and
publish brochures that educate our people on preventive and first-aid
healthcare.
(h) To publish or cause to
publish Health Advisories to our people in their local communities especially
in outbreaks of epidemics and environmental disasters.
(i) To assist our local
government councils to develop and implement Vital Statistics programme in every
Ijaw community to ensure the registration and certification of births and
deaths.
8. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
COMMITTEE
(a) To identify all causes
of environmental pollution arising from our traditional ways of life and to
recommend behavioral changes that would stop us from polluting and degrading
our environment.
(b) To develop and implement
a plan to construct modern toilet, bathing and laundry facilities in every Ijaw
community to abolish the age-old primitive, shameful, unhygienic and unwholesome
practice of discharging human effluents and laundry wastes into our rivers from
which we obtain water for drinking and cooking.
(c) To work with
environmental rights groups and agencies to develop plans and strategies to
prevent oil spillages and to stop gas flaring in the Niger Delta and elsewhere
in the world.
(d) To develop contingency
plans and strategies to clean up affected rivers, streams, lakes and lands in
event of oil spills.
(e) To assemble scientists
and health professionals to conduct detailed studies on the hazardous effects
of environmental pollution occasioned by crude oil prospecting and gas flaring.
(f) To develop and execute
ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION AND PRESERVATION PLANS AND PROJECTS for the IJAW HABITAT
that has been severely damaged from decades of oil exploration.
9. AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES
COMMITTEE
(a) To develop and implement
plans that will boost agricultural output for cassava, yam, cocoyam, potatoes,
plantain, banana, groundnut and rice in Ijawland by natural means.
(b) To develop and execute
plans for the establishment of needed food processing plants especially for
production of garri, flour and other staple foods.
(c) To develop and implement
plans to encourage our people to collaborate to establish Co-operative Farms
which may employ environmentally friendly mechanized large-scale farming
methods.
(d) To develop and implement
plans for the establishment of produce markets at strategic locations
throughout Ijawland.
(f) To recommend
environmentally friendly pest control methods.
(g) To develop, design and
help establish fisheries in Ijawland to produce adequate fish for the needs of
our people.
(h) To help establish
fisheries for replenishing the stocks of the various species of fish which face
the danger of extinction.
10. LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
COMMITTEE
(a) To develop and implement
plans and projects that promote the speaking of Ijaw language in our
communities and by Ijaw families in the Diaspora.
(b) To develop strategies to
promote Ijaw literature, history and culture.
(c) To develop and implement
strategies to collate, record and preserve Ijaw folklore, music, dances and
festivals in written and audiovisual documentaries.
(d) To develop and implement
plans to revive and restore the basic tenets of Ijaw culture; such as purity,
chastity, decency, honesty, love, kindness, diligence, respect for elders and
constituted authority, self-respect and responsibility.
(e) To develop and implement
plans to strengthen our traditional institutions to protect the sanctity of
Ijaw culture and the integrity of the Ijaw Society by enforcing effective
sanctions against all abominable and evil practices; cognizant of the fact that
the demise of any society always results from the abandonment of vital
spiritual and moral values.
(f) To develop and implement
plans to promote and defend, in Ijawland, the sanctity of marriage which being
the bedrock of society, creates the family which is the basic unit of society.
To defend social equality of men and women, and to ensure economic security and
proper parental care for children, a plan should be developed to persuade our
people to choose Monogamous Marriage: the union of one man and one woman.
(g) To develop and implement
plans to revive traditional Ijaw ceremonies such as “AYORO PAMO OGE” that honor
and promote chastity of our girls so as to build strong marriages and families
besides protecting against sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS,
gonorrhea, herpes and syphilis.
(h) To develop and implement
plans, by the instrumentality of our traditional rulers and traditional
institutions, to stigmatize and discourage the evil practice of seducing and
snatching another man’s wife which has unfortunately become so rampant.
(i) To plan and organize
Ijaw cultural shows at home and in the Diaspora to showcase our rich cultural
heritage as well as promote Ijaw brotherhood, solidarity and nationalism.
11. RESEARCH AND
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
(a) Create a database of
Ijaw professionals, entrepreneurs, technocrats and technicians in various
fields: architects, artisans, artists, engineers, geologists, doctors,
pharmacists, nurses, lawyers, academics, writers, poets, teachers, journalists,
musicians, industrialists, etc.
(b) To design and publish
Ijaw Yearbook and Diary that provide nation-building information on Ijaw
language, culture, music, dance, festivals, sports, commerce, landmarks and
historical events.
(c) To research and publish
relevant information on Ijaw history and culture; ensuring truthfulness and
accuracy of historical records.
(d) To write and produce
audiovisual documentaries on Ijaw history, culture, music, dance, festivals,
environmental protection and struggle for self-determination.
(e) To chronicle the annals
of the Ijaw Struggle for Self-determination and environmental protection.
(f) To conduct research on
notable Ijaw nationalists to facilitate the publishing of biographies of such
persons.
(g) To develop and implement
a plan to establish a world-class Publishing and Printing Press in Ijawland to
facilitate the publication of newspapers, magazines, journals and books by
Ijaws and others at much more affordable costs.
(h) To assemble a reservoir
of editors to be readily available to help edit literary works embarked upon by
Ijaw sons and daughters.
(i) To encourage research
and innovation among Ijaws in medicine, science, technology, engineering and
any other field of human endeavour.
12. SPECIAL AFFAIRS
COMMITTEE
(a) To assist the
Foundation’s Legal Counsel to provide legal advice to the Foundation whenever
the need arises.
(b) To develop and implement well-structured and effective mechanisms,
by the instrumentality of the INC, IYC, ICHR, FNDIC, other non-governmental
organizations, Ijaw Traditional Rulers, and other Ijaw Traditional Institutions,
to mediate to peacefully resolve, as well as prevent, intra-communal, intra-ethnic
and inter-ethnic disputes involving the Ijaws.
(c) To help assemble
appropriate Legal Teams to obtain redress for the Ijaw nation or individual
Ijaw Communities when our socioeconomic, political, environmental and
fundamental human rights are violated.
(d) To consult with Quantity
Surveyors, Estate Valuers and other relevant professionals to formulate
Compensation Rates Oil Companies must pay for damages done by oil prospecting activities
and oil spills to our farmlands, fisheries, streams, canals, swamps, rivers and
real estate. For instance, the Compensation Rate for damages done to farmlands
could be $250.00 per square foot.
(e) To formulate an Annual
Compensation Rate to the Ijaws and other Niger Deltans for the health hazards
of gas flaring; to provide healthcare for the Ijaws and other Niger Deltans
until gas flaring is completely stopped.
(f) To draft and facilitate legislation that defends and promotes justice,
equity, human rights, self determination, true federalism, resource control
and environmental protection in Nigeria. Specifically, the Special Affairs
Committee shall be responsible for the drafting of legislations (bills)
and presentation of same to the Nigerian National Assembly demanding/seeking
the creation of another two or more homogenous Ijaw States, enthronement
of true federalism and Resource Control as well as environmental protection
measures and adequate compensation for environmental and ecological damages
caused by oil prospecting activities, oil spills and gas flaring.
13. PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
(a) Polish and present a positive image of the Ijaw Foundation to the public.
(b) Act as a conduit between the Ijaws on one hand and governments, individuals,
private enterprises, and the rest of the world on the other hand; to present
success stories as well as positive images of the Ijaw community to the
world.
(c) Present the Ijaw side of the story and perform necessary "damage
control" in emergency situations.
(d) Document and publicize when necessary, Ijaw Foundation activities and
accomplishments to the public.
(e) Publicize all Ijaw Foundation and other Ijaw Organization activities
for public information.
(f) Organize membership drives and retention; and encourage All Ijaw citizenships
to participate in Ijaw Foundation activities.
(g) Communicate Ijaw Foundation positions to other Ijaw Organizations and the
public.
(h) Interact with Ijaw Foundation members and educate members on various
aspects of the Foundations activities and policies.
(i) Highlight both positive and negative developments regarding government projects,
private projects/developments) in Ijawland, etc.
P.S: Each committee is also
required to conduct appropriate research to prepare cost analysis or estimates
for the various projects under its purview.
Notwithstanding the grand
vision enunciated herein, Ijaw Foundation shall advisedly begin with a modest
and tangible project that it could readily finance and execute.
No project shall be embarked
upon until adequate funds have been secured.
Dr. Ebipamone N. Nanakumo
President, Ijaw Foundation
Board of Directors
549 LEFFERTS AVENUE, BROOKLYN, NY 11225, USA* Phone & Fax: (718) 778-0536*
Ijaw
Foundation is a charitable nonprofit organization with Section 501 (c) (3) Tax
Exempt Status granted by the United States Internal Revenue Service.
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