Group Condemns Appointment Of Non-Yoruba As NPA Boss

The appointment of non-Yoruba to the position of the Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA) is an insult to the Yoruba nation, the O’odua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC) has said. ONAC said the position of the NPA Chairman and the Managing Director should be the preserve of the Yoruba people.
In a statement on Monday, the Pan Yoruba group stated that the Lagos port is the second largest source of revenue for the Federal Government adding that the Lagos port is to the Yoruba people what oil is to the Niger-Delta. If consistently Niger-Delta people have been at the helms of affairs at the NDDC, there is no reason why the NPC should not be consistently led by a Yoruba person.



ONAC stated that recent appointment of Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero  as the NPA Managing Director is absolutely wrong. It negates the principles of fairness. How on earth can you appoint some one who has no stream in his home state as the Managing Director of NPA? The Lagos port is on Yorubaland. In a true federal system, the chairman of the Ports Authority must necessarily be an indigene of Lagos or at least a Yoruba person, ONAC stated.
“For several years, the Lagos Port has been a source of financial muzzle for Nigeria. This port is located in Yorubaland and was used for trans-Atlantic trade route for over 1000 years by the Yoruba Nation before the artificial creation of Nigeria. It is disheartening that the Nigerian government has continued to undermine the natural right of Yoruba people to be made the NPA chairman. Successive governments have continued to commit this deliberate error. President Goodluck Jonathan has just committed the same assault on our people by his recent appointment”, the statement signed by ONAC official, Mr Olumide Ajayi stated.



ONAC stated that the appointment of a non-Yoruba as the NPA chairman violates the UN convention on indigenous rights. ONAC stated that the UN convention stresses  absolute need for consultation of state governments in the management of resources that belong to indigenous people the way the ports in Lagos belong to the people of Lagos. Quoting the UN Convention 169 on the right of indigenous people, ONAC stated that   the spirit of consultation and participation constitutes the cornerstone of Convention No. 169 on which all its provisions are based. The Convention requires that indigenous and tribal peoples are consulted on issues that affect them. It also requires that these peoples are able to engage in free, prior and informed participation in policy and development processes that affect them.ONAC said the Yoruba people have for long been taken for granted adding that it was high time the ethnic nationality began to bare her fangs.
The principles of consultation and participation in Convention No. 169 relate not only to specific development projects, but also to broader questions of governance, and the participation of indigenous and tribal peoples in public life.
The group said eventhough President Goodluck Jonathan is of the ethnic minority stock, his understanding of indigenous rights is narrow.

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