It is a widely known and held notion that Ijaw nation has always
been in the fire of liberty. Let our history of misery, subjugation and the
principles we have used to fight our battles inspire anyone and anywhere in the
world who loves freedom. Let our love for the INC allow the will of Ijaw nation
prevail. Let us act to provoke and promote remedies for our nation. Ijaw
National Congress has the great responsibility to disdain and discredit the
arrows of subjugation against Ijaws to increase Ijaw freedom and ebb the surge
of retrogression. Let us speak with one voice in support of INC for what is
good and in one accord against what is bad. With one voice let us demand for
peace, with one voice let us receive our freedom, and with one voice let us
condemn what is evil that murders Ijaw growth.
The INC is mandated to guide, lead and oversee the affairs of
Ijaw nation, to defend and preserve the traditions, values and virtues that
define Ijaw nation and to build upon the great successes of the past presidents
who strode through this path before now. The new leadership of Ijaw National
Congress should realise that it stands between the pain of Izon people and the
hardheartedness of her subjugators who systemically refuse to feel our pains.
The leadership is instituted on the prompting of the Izon spirit of this
generation because my its breadth along with Ijaw breath must roar across this
land of our ancestors to help in constructing a new and ideal world for the
Ijaw nation in a multicultural Nigerian nation state.
The Ijaw nation is considered the fourth largest ethnic group in
Nigeria and one of the major tribes found in the coastal regions. We are
settled in Ondo states in western Nigeria, Edo and Delta States as well as
Bayelsa in central Niger Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States in South-South of
the country. The Ijaws are said to have been original occupants of the Niger
Delta since 7,000 years ago with distinct culture and tradition currently
divided into three zones acknowledged in the presentation of Nigeria’s history.
These zones are Western Niger Delta comprising of Delta, some parts of Edo and
Ondo State, the Central Niger Delta, made up of Bayelsa State and the Eastern
Niger Delta accommodating, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.
In The Ijaw and the Niger Delta in Nigeria History the point is
made by Alagoa that the Ijaws are virtually synonymous with the Niger Delta but
are not the only ethnic nations living within the region. These tribes include:
Itsekiri, though small and influential in the Western Niger Delta, the Urhobos,
the Epie-Atissa and Engenni of the Central Niger Delta (12). Ijaws have been
subalterns from the colonial times under European systems of political command
in Africa to this era of post-colonial governmentality under the control of fellow
countrymen. Interestingly, the same factors that led to the destruction of Ijaw
kingdoms in the Niger Delta by the Royal Niger Company (RNC) in collaboration
with the British government during the pre-colonial and colonial epochs have
surfaced deathlessly even in post-colonial Nigeria.
Remember that Ijaw struggle yesterday, today and tomorrow has
produced four period set of liberation fighters. From 1895 when King Koko took
up arms against the oppressive Royal Niger Company of the British to this era
of the struggle; the Ijaws of the Niger Delta have put in 126 years of
liberation struggle. The first period of struggle lasted for 45years
(1895-1940), the period from Dappa Biriye 1940 to Isaac Boro revolution of 1966
took 26 years. From the Boro revolutionary epoch of 1966 to the era of the Ijaw
youth’s declaration of freedom at Kaiama up to this time (2021), the struggle
has recorded another 55 years.
The first people who fought for the liberation of the Ijaw
nation were the traditional rulers and prominent chiefs of the colonial era. At
that time the Ijaws lived in clans and kingdoms. They appropriated armaments
for self defense and liberation when the alien rule became intolerable. The
Opobos under king Jaja, the Nembes under King Frederick Williams Ofrimalekeleke
Koko, the Oborotu of Iduwini under the military command of Taiyan, Ayakoromo
under the Ondukus and Agias and Chief Ambakederemo of Kiagbodo were among the
first set of freedom fighters the Ijaw nation produced in the liberation
history of the race. The setting of this period in history is the 19th and 20th
centuries. These struggles brought nothing but devastation to Ijaw clans and
communities.
After the traditional rulers, educated Ijaw sons, patriots and
nationalists emerged as freedom fighters. Prominent among them was Chief Harold
Dappa Biriye. Their approach to the struggle was characterized by political
representation and intellectual persuasion. The colonialists were educated by
Ijaw freedom fighters and political pressure was exerted on them to see and
treat Ijaw area as a special area for special developmental attention. The
tangible result of this second stage of the struggle is the awareness that the
Ijaws in Nigeria are an oppressed nationality in Nigeria. It also witnessed the
establishment of the Niger Delta Development Board. Observably, this era
witnessed the Balkanization of Ijaws into the then Eastern and Western Regions
in 1939.There was therefore, the compelling desire for Ijaws to come together
to secure for themselves self-determination. The Ijaw leaders especially
originated and advanced the theory and practice of Stateism as a veritable
solution to the Ijaw problem. But unfortunately and ironically, Stateism, the
political philosophy of Harold Dappa Biriye, an emphasis on state creation in
Nigeria, was dramatically appropriated to ruin the hopes and aspirations of the
Ijaw ethnic nationality. This political formula propounded to give Ijaw and
other minority ethnic groups some form of self-determination was dramatically
appropriated to disintegrate the Ijaw. We now find ourselves in many states of
Nigeria under majority and minority ethnic nations as the fourth largest ethnic
nationality in Nigeria.
Subordinated people do not lack leaders and freedom fighters
generations after generations. Isaac Boro’s burning desire to de-balkanise and
bring the Ijaws under one geo-political umbrella propelled him to mastermind
and perfect the philosophy of separatism nationalism also known as
extreme-self-determination. This ambitious and huge political dream resulted in
the third wave of freedom struggle in Ijaw land. This era went a step further
by majorly applying the force of arms like King Koko of Nembe, to declare the
independence of the Ijaw nation, known in Nigerian history today as Republic of
the Niger Delta. Boro’s revolution was anchored on the premise that it will
result in the creation of a separate nation state to accommodate the Ijaw in
Nigeria. Hence his clamour for a Niger Delta Republic.
Interestingly, Isaac Boro’s Twelve-Day Revolution gave
prominence to minority political struggles in Nigeria. By this time the Niger
Delta oil found mostly in Ijawland and which started from Oloibiri, Ogbia land
and later at the Forcados terminal in Burutu local government area of Delta
state, had become the main stay of Nigeria’s economy. And the politics to
control this economic asset by the dominant other dominated the centre scene of
the nation. Isaac Boro’s declaration has a separatist spirit and temper. This
is because it is not a struggle for recognition within Nigeria but a struggle
to own and operate a separate independent nation.
The Federal Government demolished the structure of Regionalism
and adopted Stateism which was used as a political sledge hammer to FURTHER
balkanize the Ijaw nation away from inadequate geopolitical unity and
self-determination in Nigeria. This period saw the creation of Rivers state in
1967, 7years after independence and Bayelsa state in 1996, 36years after
independence. This is 61 years after independence BUT majority of Ijaws are
still economically and politically colonized by other ethnic nationalities in
Nigeria.
I situate the Ijaw struggle for development in Nigeria today
from the Post Abacha Military Era. Still prompted by the spirit, philosophy and
ideology of Boroism and supported by Alamism (D.S.P ALAMIEYESEIGHA), the Ijaws
set the struggle on. They appropriated militancy but never emphasized the
political independence of the Ijaw nation like Isaac Boro. Chief D.S.P.
Alamieyeseigha, former governor of Bayelsa state and governor-general of Ijaw
nation, was visibly at the centre and background of the struggle. Through
public lectures in Nigeria and overseas, he condemned the perpetual
colonization of the region. As an Ijaw nationalist, he fought our political
battles to crack and crumble structures and agencies that cage our freedom, he
fought to preserve our culture, to document our authentic history, to negotiate
a sane environment, to struggle against violence, against feared enslavement
and endured painful memories of exploitation. He sang the Niger Delta
liberation song with passion nationally and internationally for attention. His
continued support for the Ijaw freedom foundation, the INC, is not
questionable.
This present face of freedom struggle is a further embodiment
and metaphor of the “12-Day Revolution” of Boro. Boro’s 12 days revolution
after all is twelve days in time length but it has countless generational
penetration. The revolution that started in 1966 is still on today. The initial
freedom fighters of this era saw the inevitable limit to the endurance of
tyranny. They filled their minds with every waking thought of liberation to
destroy the black garment the Ijaw destiny is dressed in Nigeria. This phase
which started in 1998 during the Kaiama declaration showcased both vocal
educated elites of Ijaw extraction drawn from various professional disciplines.
It was an era of eclectic liberation approach: Political persuasion,
revolutionary conscientization of the masses through the mass and subsequently,
social media. This is taken along with brave militancy to press for the proper
positioning of the Ijaw nation in Nigeria. The argument of this era is
predicated on resource control, true federalism, environmental justice and
self-determination within the Nigerian nation. This is the unifying demand of
the Pan Ijaw freedom foundations: The Ijaw National Congress (INC) and the Ijaw
Youths Council (IYC) and among others the Chief Bello Oboko-led Federated Niger
Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) which saw the likes of Chief Government
Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo and others clamouring for equal political space in
Nigeria. The star result of Ijaw struggle in this epoch is the establishment of
the NDDC, with its headquarters in Port-Harcourt, the Ministry of Niger Delta
and the delivery of the office of the Vice President and later the president of
the country to President Goodluck Jonathan of Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta.
The liberation struggle of today in Izon summons the restless and provocative
spirit of Boroism which evokes energies of revolution that point to an
unfinished radical project of Izon self-determination in the Nigerian nation.
The setting up of the National Executive council of the INC
after many unsuccessful attempts takes us to a moment of sober reflection and
calculation concerning the Ijaw nation. Using the subaltern post-colonial
theory, particularly the position upheld by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, can we
say that Ijaw Liberation struggle has attained voice in Nigeria? For Spivak when
the subaltern gains voice, it ceases to be subaltern. Gaining voice simply
means to attain speakability status in society. And to speak so that one is
heard and taken seriously is what constitute voice in subaltern study circle.
To speak through guns and grenades and public demonstrations without being
heard by the supply centre in the democratic arena does not give voice to the
subaltern. Ijaw nation got temporary voice in Nigeria when Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan emerged and ruled as the Golden Jubilee President of Nigeria. But do
we, the Ijaws still have voice now that we are not in power? Our subaltern
status in Nigeria is an iron gown we are clothed with that is difficult to
destroy.
The reality confronting us is that we are living in a country
where we are politically marginalized and cruelly balkanized into various
geo-political neighbourhood under the political, cultural, economic and cruel
psychological hegemony of either major or minor tribes in Nigeria. In those
states we are called and treated as subordinates, the voiceless other or
diasporic Ijaws. This is considered a grave danger to the survival of the
identities of the Ijaw ethnic nationality. Bayelsa state now enjoys
self-determination. This is because its people now draw up a development schema
for themselves. Bayelsa state made up largely of Ijaws can enjoy the dividends
of resource control if the dream materializes. But the Ijaws who are
deliberately scattered into Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Delta and Ondo States do
not have such a blessing. We cannot control our God-given wealth in those
states.
Going by population and geographical spread, Ijaw is larger than
most African nations. What it has today that we call development is not even
one percent of the oil wealth drawn from its soil for the past (62) sixty two
years. Most of the modern cities in Nigeria particularly Abuja, Nigeria’s
Federal Capital territory is built with our oil wealth. Nigeria existed since
1914 and oil wealth from the Ijaw land has been the main stay of the Nation’s
economy since 1958, yet we cannot boast of cities, roads connecting the area.
Our sea ports and important towns from where Nigeria began are forced to die.
The tyranny of geography in Ijaw land is used to fuel the tyranny of social
neglect. The human heart and mind is the first place where obstacles are
destroyed or created. If the heart does not host the idea of freedom, freedom
cannot even be thought of. Ijaw land is declared a difficult terrain when we
cry for development but it is not a difficult terrain when the oil is being
extracted.
As a symbol of the new era of Ijaw leadership in Nigeria, the
leadership of the INC should be burdened by the likely future of Ijaw in
Nigeria if the oil lies fallow. What is the future of oil in a world that is
tilting toward expansion of energy supply? In the future, will energy
producers, suppliers and consumers not abandon oil for equally marketable,
affordable and less expensive energy types? Solar energy, biofuels, synthetic
energies and hydrogen will in the future displace the oil market. It is
anticipated by fuel researchers that in the near future, about one billion cars
on the word’s roads will be using these new energies. From all indications, the
quest for hydrogen-driven economy and energy in the western world is conceived
to replace dependence on crude oil. Currently, from the technological
standpoint, commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to power cars,
trucks, homes and businesses with no pollution or greenhouse gases is now
trendy, thus in the future, petroleum in the Niger Delta will become abandoned
as the economic power of the nation. And there is no saving of oil wealth for
the rainy day in Ijawland. I fear for sustained neglect if oil economy
collapses. Even now that the oil is being extracted from the region we are
neglected and destroyed. Our oil wealth has built and expanded cities in
Nigeria and it is enough to build cities in Ijawland; to revive dying historic
towns and establish industries, yet nothing has happened. The neglect of
Oloibiri and the crumbling towns of Forcados and Burutu and all Ijaw towns of
significance in the Niger Delta, foreshadow the grim future of the Ijaw nation
and the Niger Delta. With the inauguration of the Eight Executive Council of
INC, there is a compelling need to ask a fundamental question and the answer
will direct the Ijaw struggle. Is Ijaw nation oppressed in Nigeria? The answer
is yes. Do we need emancipation? The answer is still in the affirmative? What
kind of emancipation do we have in mind? Separatist emancipation or
emancipation from economic exploitation, environmental degradation, political
oppression and cultural suppression? To set the records straight, the 1966
Isaac Boro declaration of the Niger Delta Republic which is separatist was no
doubt, a rights struggle aimed at dismantling and disintegrating the old
exclusionary, discriminatory and non- democratic structures that denied his
people their rights to properly belong to the Nigerian nation. Thus Boro’s
declaration of Niger Delta republic falls in line with subaltern social group’s
idea of the subversion of the authority of those who had hegemonic power by
oppressed minority and resistance against economic exclusion. But the 1999
Kaiama Declaration is not a repetition of the Boro position. It clamours for self-determination
within Nigeria.
(Alamieyeseigha, 2005:8) states that, under the existing legal
order, all minerals, oil and gas in Nigeria belong to the Federal Government.
That is what the Petroleum Act and the Land Use Act stipulates. In present
time, both Acts have been given legal backing by the 1999 constitution of
Nigeria. The implication is that oil companies acquire oil exploration and
exploitation licenses from the government and with that authority, appropriate
farm lands, forests and stretches of the coast from peasants. Beside the
Petroleum and Land Use Acts, there are the Oil in Navigable Waters Act of 1968,
the Oil Pipelines Act of 1956, the Associated Gas (Re-Injection) Act of 1979,
and the Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulations of 1969, among others.
It is evident that since the discovery of Petroleum Oil in 1956 in Oloibiri
area in present day Bayelsa East Senatorial District of the Central Niger
Delta, oil related acts have been put in place. In addition to these Acts, Ijaw
progress is clearly and strongly held down by a chain of subjugating theories
such as geological theory, conquest theory, annexation, divide and rule,
politicisation, population and balkanization theories.
In Ijaw land, slipways are abandoned and managed currently by
reptiles. Approved dry docks, ship building and repairing centres refuse to be
built OR FIND THEIR PROPER LOCATION. This attitude of the federal government
puts the future of Ijaw nation IN economic bleakness. Let us begin to do some
strategic thinking for the post oil era. There must be a deliberate agenda to
massively educate Ijaw people. This educational revolution must be total. Ijaw
must attain the status of a knowledge society to be in charge of survival of
her destiny. Ijaw territory is well suited for maritime industry and tourism.
The ship building and repairing centres and ports must be developed to
strengthen the economy of the Ijaw nation. What I am saying here is that Post
oil era in Izon will be built on education, industry, business and effective
leadership.
Great Ijaw brothers and sisters. A rough river cannot stop the
fish from swimming. Today we celebrate triumph, renewal and regeneration of the
Ijaw collective vision from the debris of inactivity, from the bowel of
deactivation and from the dead plugs and sockets of history. The mortal brains
and hands we have must be directed at implementing the grave vow of defending
the cardinal issues our forebears fought because we are inevitable inheritors
of their struggle. Let the world know that Ijaw nation shall, if need be, give
support to any people, friends and well-wishers who seek our good and oppose
opponents to secure Ijaw liberty.
The new leadership should continue to support the good laws and
policies and values that bind us together but should not be quiet about
policies and laws that have put Ijaws generally and generationally broken. It
should not do dirty business with our poverty and misery, we will not enter
into bonds with fear and we will not wear the garment of cowardice to gainfully
negotiate our survival. The new leadership should invoke the merit of unity and
love to speak for us and reject the terrorism that unity spreads to us. It
should lead us to conquer our creeks and forests with prosperity and make our
culture and arts flourish.
Fundamental philosophies habitually germinate out of material
cerebral engagements. In our struggle to be properly positioned roundly and
resoundingly in the land of our noble birth, we must deploy superior and
impregnable logic to conquer our manifold problems. Ijaw must use this vibrant
and challenging dawn of rebirth of consciousness to inspire critical
sensibilities by reflecting vigorously on the past to give direction to the
future. It must genuinely endeavour to measure up and hold the length of
significance of consciousness, its wideness of impact and its depth of
character. It should develop a chauvinistically propelling, uniting political
Risorgimento and perpendicular intellectual and moral purification of itself so
as to enthrone a radical political ideology for the liberty of the Ijaw nation.
I wish to state concretely that emancipation vision crawl out of radical
commitment, communal social movements and invention of new awareness.
Religion, I must say is a veritable factor for social
integration. It secures social order and declares it sacred. Ijaw progress
rests on the combined force of man, ancestors god and religion. Therefore, Izon
must embark on a deliberate spiritual agenda and excursion in which the
petitions and supplications of the people must be placed before universal God
for actualization. Good religious practice can save the world of conflicts and
wars pushed by moral relativism. The power of religion can change the heart of
the maximum tyrant who refuses to enforce development. Wars fought with the
most deadly weapons and with the fattest portion of a society’s wealth can
peacefully be won with the faithful exercise of religion.
The Ijaw National Congress should offer cultural and
intellectual support to Bayelsa and all other state governments of the Ijaw
people to advance the Ijaw project. It has a great task to defend the
anthropocentric, biocentric and territorial rights and privileges of Ijaw
people in Nigeria. It should work together with Ijaws in Nigeria, Ijaws in the
diaspora and Ijaw friends all over the world to create a prosperous Ijaw
future. It should celebrate Ijaw day and Ijaw heroes with all colour and
fanfare and clearly and vigorously continue the struggle for the actualisation
of true federalism in Nigeria. Ijaw nation should stand with other ethnic
nationalities against laws and policies detrimental to the growth of humanity.
The task of liberating Ijaw nation is a collective one. Our
final success and failures rest on how we remain committed to the Ijaw struggle
as a people. Our common enemies are tyranny, poverty, disease, subalternity,
subjugation, weak, dead and hypocritical leadership. Energy, faith and
dedication are needed for Ijaw nation to work and walk graciously across the
subaltern line to light up our dear land. The leadership of Ijaw nation should
respect the power of good laws not laws enacted to favour the powerful. Our
commanding and abiding faith is justice and fair play. The Ijaw nation should
have faith in the fact that human beings are the wagons of history. History
moves or gets paralyzed by human choices and as George Bush would say, history
has a visible direction set by liberty. And I will add every liberty has a
visible history.
What INC stands for this period of history for Ijaw prosperity
to fly is state creation, industrialization of Ijawland, abrogation of
obnoxious laws, rejection of unprogressive bills, road construction in the
Niger Delta to link Ijaw coastal communities, good leadership, educational
development in Ijaw land, effective and fruitful political power and political
participation, economic self-determination, cultural advancement, protection of
the biodiversity, energy sovereignty and a radical reordering of the political
destiny of Ijaw.
With one voice let us understand that true federalism without
dismantling the electric fence of balkanization will make no meaning to Ijaw
growth. Resource control without state creation for the Ijaw people is useless.
The day we keep silent over Ijaw matters is the day we will defeat our purpose.
Our only hope for maturing as Ijaw sons and daughters is the fulfillment of our
deepest dreams of Ijaw growth. The power of our dream is fundamentally our love
for Ijaw nation.
Ben BInebai writes in from the Wilberfocre Island.