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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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