Former presidential adviser, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, says she will not rest until the displaced people of Bakassi local government area in Cross River State are properly resettled.
Ita-Giwa, who marked her 75th birthday on Friday, said this was the main reason she was still active on the political scene at her age.
“I am still fighting for my people. We are Nigerians who were suddenly displaced out of no fault of ours. We didn’t ask to be ceded. Our ancestral home was just ceded without any consultation and for many years now we have been crying. This is a fight so I would never give up on until proper resettlement is achieved,” she told The Nation on Friday.
Popularly known as Mama Bakassi, Ita-Giwa has been unrelenting in her effort to ensure justice and proper resettlement for the people of Bakassi, who were displaced following the ceding of their land to Cameroon.
She was born in 1946 in Cross River State. Her mother, Beatrice Bassey-Ita was a journalist, who worked for The Guardian Nigeria Newspaper and The West African Pilot.
She was married to the late Dele Giwa, a foremost journalist and the founding editor of Newswatch magazine, who was unfortunately killed in 1986 with a parcel bomb.
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She has, among other efforts, organized prestigious media awards aimed at improving the journalism profession.
As part of her many philanthropic efforts, she runs the Bakassi Children Foundation which caters to the needs, including the education, of Bakassi children.
Ita-Giwa has worked against human trafficking and sex slavery.
She has among others, been awarded Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) and The Sun Lifetime Achievement Award. (The Nation)
