The Itsekiri are Nigerians because they are Itsekiri. Like many other ethnic groups, they were Itsekiri before they became Nigerians in 1914. The comparative recency of Nigerianness compared with the older ethnic identities poses a problem for social and political stability in the country. Crises arising from misrule and hidden agenda, as well as internal colonialism and marginalisation have the potential to de-Nigerianise indigenous owners and occupants of their own territories. Unfortunately, our fathers were terrorised to thumbprint away their sovereignty by uninvited agents of British colonialism. This involves a questionable legitimacy of the voluntary loss of independence.
            Since then, a number of problems have continued to plague the Itsekiri nation. Itsekiri, daughter of Delta, 'The Big Heart,' is but a child born into a wealthy land  rich in human and material resources. The child knows no suffering as it was born with a silver spoon, oil specially; raised and coached in the midst of plenty; tutored firmly only on a consumption and flamboyant life pattern but an ounce on how to labour and being a servant-leader, while genetic diseases such as self witch-hunting, wickedness, greed, unemployment, abject and unimaginable poverty, including lack of good primary, secondary and tertiary institutions to attend in  its fatherland mercilessly attack its children - simple but complex as they appear amidst inefficiency and covetousness of the common wealth by the self-acclaimed elders, leaders, and representatives at the three tiers of government. Fighting a battle for life retention - avarice and self-betrayal among its children, as well as inter-tribal crises stand on its way with crass deception, looting and massacring its better companions. Its sense of value becomes misdirected, as its children are relegated to the offices of cleaners and guards in the oil companies as well as being starved of state and federal appointments, including development projects, while foreigners are being made managing directors, administration managers, accountants, public relations officers, and the rest in the oil companies in its land. Yet, its elders and leaders are shamelessly wandering in the ocean of monumental pandemonium - confronting the menace headlong with razzmatazz, amid rapacity of the collective wealth, at the very expense of the generality of Itsekiri nation. May God rescue it from the hands, leadership and ravings of hysterical and visionless elders and leaders!
Individualism and sectionalism was, and still is, the sole bane of Itsekiri development. Many of the Itsekiri achievers apparently want to be perceived as 'lone giants' and tend to pull down possible competitors or fail to support anyone likely to excel in leadership qualities and aspirations. This may seem natural to some people, Itsekiri and non-Itsekiri alike; yet, the situation must be properly viewed as one of under-utilisation of the tool of potentials required for developing the whole ethnic group. I refer here to the need to prioritise the development of the Itsekiri nation after a certain level of individual achievements. We must pool, develop, and utilise our top human resources under a win-win option, rather than engage our energies in undercutting and pulling one another down.
Today, an Itsekiri in the person of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan is the Governor of the State, but his brothers and sisters are being taken for a ride of key political and other civil appointments in his own administration. Employment into the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) has come and gone without any Itsekiri, owners of about 60 per cent of the oil wells in the State deemed fit for any chance. During former Governor James Ibori's administration, 22 commissionership slots were given to his tribal people (Urhobo and Isoko), owners of 10 local government areas, out of the 31 slots; living the Itsekiri, Ijaw and Ibo, owners of 15 local government areas, to wrestle with the remaining nine slots! The Itsekiri being peace-loving people accommodated the daylight political robbery of Itsekiri nation by their all-powerful neighbours, taking solace in the word of God that “the Egyptians ye see today, ye shall see them again no more tomorrow.” But events in recent times, that only two commissionership slots out of the present 24 are given to the Itsekiri, amid other reticent political mugging of the Itsekiri  in an Itsekiri administration, leaves much to be desired. Though the Itsekiri-born Governor Uduaghan has never been a man of the right and his position on the left is now in the centre of politics, he must not forget so soon that only a dead fish swim with the stream, moreso as nothing is more heartbreaking than to be plagued into the world of the past (Felix Ibru and Ibori's administrations), when that past is irretrievably gone by and a new thing far away is struggling to come to life in one.  
            Another problem facing Itsekiri nation is intra-group rivalry and microscopic development in that very unhealthy rivalries have been known to exist between or within towns, even of the same polity, in Itsekiri land. Such conflicts arise not only from the contested claims over farmland and house land, but also and now more seriously, from the development projects intended for communities, which occupy areas where crude oil wells are located. In this later case, villages or towns are known to be reluctant to share the local benefits of the oil industry with their nearest kin. In some cases, they actually prevent nearby towns or villages from benefiting from development projects such as youth employment and empowerment opportunities offered by the oil companies at no cost to the towns or villages concerned.
            It should be noted that drilling and operations on the site of an oil well are capable of and actually draw crude oil from a radius of more them 10 kilometres. Thus, it makes more sense if the benefits of oil well operations are spread to other towns in Itsekiri land. Local youths and even some parochial lawyers should note this point in the interest of neighbouring towns and/or all Itsekiri people.
            It is also imperative to note that the practice of individuals or specific families sharing the income from royalty payments should be discouraged. Such fractionalised income is like dissipated energy. They go nowhere to sustain the individuals or families over a long time. They may even worsentheir standard of living when exhausted in the long run. As a replacement for such individualisation or familisation of paid royalties or such money should be utilised to undertake projects such as building and/or constructions or equipping educational institutions, providing scholarships for students, the training of youths and their development, adult literacy programmes or setting up some industries to benefit the whole town or group of towns in Itsekiri land.
            It is an open secret that the Itsekiri have expertise and professionals in all fields of human endeavour. We only need to utilise our human resources for development purposes. We should not under-estimate the potentials of the best-trained and educated Itsekiris simply because they are our children or brothers and sisters. The educated and trained Itsekiri men and women have been known everywhere to hold on to the best standards and highest expectations. The executive of Itsekiri Leaders Forum (ILF) and top Itsekiri entrepreneurs and industrialists should recognise this incontestable fact. They need to support and patronise individual Itsekiri claims to positions of political and economic power in the Nigerian setting. We should trust ourselves and avoid internal social mistrust.
            We need to also recognise and develop our social networks as a means of connecting centres of national power and decision making with special reference to employment at the state and federal levels, and to high strategic positioning of qualified and eligible Itsekiri people, or indeed, with reference to the production and sharing of our national cake partly made from our own territorial resources. This has the powerful chance of ameliorating some of the destructive problems of pollution left behind in our backyard.
            There is also the absence of vivacious pressure groups and lobbyists. These have now become critical in determining who gets what, where, when and how in Nigeria. Again, we have the expertise and diplomats to handle this area of disability among the Itsekiri people. In this connection, as a people, we should minimise our engagement in politics of opposition.
            There is a metaphor for the rutted relationship between the youths and the elders, an intergenerational relationship in the continuity and change in our society. The elders more or less represent the past and its presence or continuity, whereas the youths represent what may sometimes be described as the impetuous chippings of the present. Any person who fails to know the past and look behind may not succeed in planning or determining the future. The social problems of the youths and elders are national in Nigeria where they constitute about 70 per cent of the population. Born into a military culture begun by the middle and upper limits of youthful military personnel and socialised in anomic conditions in which abnormal means are celebrated in achieving the approved societal goals, the Itsekiri and other Nigerian youths, elders and leaders appear to feel in many cases to have nothing to do with their past. Some people may feel that if the Itsekiri youths fail to do things like other Nigerian youths, they may be disadvantaged in present-day situation. This, of course, is a moot point; and the consequences of excesses in this regard can only be imagined.