Foremost national leader of the Ijaw nation, Elder Edwin Kiagbodo Clarke, has taken a swipe on the education policy of the federal government, insisting that the federal government had systematically skewed education against the people of Ijaw compare with the economic contribution of the people to the federation account.
Clarke, who is the founder of Edwin Clarke University, Delta State, said the Ijaw nation is educationally dark, noting that the unfavourable disposition of the federal government to the Ijaw people contravened section 18 (1) of the Nigerian constitution, which states that government should direct policies towards ensuring that there are equal education opportunities at all levels.
The elder statesman, who was speaking at the opening of Godspower Oporomo Education Centre, an institution established by Godspower Oporomo, an indigene of Bomadi, Delta State, commended him for venturing into an area where his people were lagging behind.
He stressed that education was the key to the development of any economy, maintaining that for any nation to move out of its present state, it must give priority attention to the education needs of its people.
Represented by his son and Chairman of Burutu Local Government Council, Chief Ebikeme Clark, Clarke called on President Muhammadu Buhari to allow the Nigerian Maritime University in Okerenkoko, Delta State, to function, as all requirements for the university were meant by the authorities concerned.
According to him, the university in the state is one of the evidence of federal government presence in the state, stressing that scrapping it would not do the nation and the government any good.
He also appealed to the federal government to ensure that the amnesty programme was consciously made to train and sponsor Ijaw youths into universities instead of dwelling on menial artisan skills acquisition.
He also urged all Ijaw youths to desist from pipeline vandalism, kidnapping and other anti-social vices in the Niger Delta region.
