INTER-ORGANIZATION
UNITY AND ALLIANCE OF IJAWS IN THE DIASPORA
BY
Dr. Ebipamone
N. Nanakumo, President of the Ijaw Foundation Board of Directors
A PRESENTATION AT
THE ALL-IJAW
CONFERENCE HELD DURING THE 1JAW NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THE AMERICAS
(INAA) 2008 BORO DAY COMMEMORATION AT THE SHERATON HOTEL, NEWARK, NEW
JERSEY ON SATURDAY MAY 31, 2008.
Mr. Chairman, Col
(Rtd) Godfrey Okoro, Moderator of the Ijawnation Forum
His Royal Majesty, King Alfred Papapriye Diete-Spiff, Amanyanabo of
Twon Brass,
His Royal Majesty, Pere Charles Ayemi-Botu, Pere of Seimbiri Kingdom
Our Ijaw National Hero, Freedom fighter and Elder Statesman, Chief
Samuel Owonaru
Dr. Chris Ekiyor, President of the Ijaw Youth Council,
President and other members of Executive Committee of the Ijaw National
Alliance of the Americas (INAA)
Executive Committees and members of all Ijaw organizations at home and
in the Diaspora,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
Aaan Izon! Aaan Izon!! Aaan Izon!!! Izon Kimi Emiii!!
Emiyooo!!!
I thank
the organizers of
our annual Boro Day Commemorations, the Ijaw National Alliance of the
Americas (INAA) for giving me the opportunity and privilege to address
this year’s august All-Ijaw Conference. They have requested
me to
speak on the topic: Inter-organization Unity and Alliance of Ijaws in
the Diaspora.
By definition,
unity means: a
state of oneness; being of one mind. Alliance means: state of being
allied or united; persons or entities so allied. In essence, we concern
ourselves with Ijaws and Ijaw organizations being of one mind, united
in purpose and working in an alliance to achieve or actualize those
(our) common purposes for the benefit of our suffering Ijaw people. It
is interesting and important to note that the very organizer of our
annual Boro Day event in the United States is an
“alliance”
of Ijaw sons and daughters in the Diaspora, christened the Ijaw
National Alliance of the Americas (INAA)!
Today, the Ijaw
Nation faces
very serious and formidable political, social, economic, cultural and
environmental challenges. Our survival as a people is seriously
threatened by the relentless ruthless oppression we have suffered for
fifty years, and continue to suffer, at the hands of the ungrateful and
dysfunctional Nigerian State that paradoxically depends on our oil and
gas wealth for its own survival. The threat of extermination ever looms
in our horizon, as we suffer continual heinous genocides being
perpetrated by an occupying military force of the Nigerian State that
kills our Ijaw people with impunity. We have been denied
self-determination and we are politically disempowered, even with the
creation of Bayelsa State.
As one of the four
majority
ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, we deserve about five States of our
own, just as the Yorubas have six States, the Ibos have five States and
the Hausa-Fulani have about a dozen States. Instead, we have been
fragmented into the geopolitical domains of minority ethnic groups,
which have subjugated and oppressed us. In most of the States into
which we have been partitioned, particularly Delta and Edo States, we
are treated as foreigners. We simply do not belong. It is very sad that
we have also been denied appropriation of the measure of political
autonomy or self-determination that has been availed us by the creation
of Bayelsa State, because the State is being run as a colony by the
“Lords and Masters of Nigeria” from Abuja and thus
we have
not had the free reign to govern ourselves: choose those that should
govern us, or make decisions for ourselves.
We suffer
political subjugation
and disempowerment, unbridled plundering of our oil and gas resources,
wanton destruction of our habitat and means of subsistence, utter
neglect and deprivation and atrocious violation of our basic human
rights and dignity, with resultant abominable squalor, hopelessness,
despair and self-destructive anarchy.
The unbridled
continuous
exploitation of crude oil and natural gas beneath the farms, fisheries
and houses of the Ijaws over the past fifty years has caused
indescribable and irredeemable environmental destruction and ecological
devastation of Ijawland. There have been no countervailing
environmental protection measures instituted by the Nigerian Government
and the trans-national oil companies that principally benefit from the
mining of these resources. Prior to the mining of crude oil and natural
gas in Ijawland, there was a rich biodiversity. Fresh and proteinous
fish was not only a regular diet in every household but the Ijaws
exported large quantities of it. The rich biodiversity, including
wildlife, hitherto added color and value to the life of the Ijaw
people. Today, the flora and fauna is gone and with it the abundance.
It is very sad,
painful and
unacceptable that the Ijaws now import fish to eat; because pollution
by highly toxic hydrocarbons from continual oil spillages has caused
the virtual extinction of fish in our rivers. These pollutants have
also rendered our farmlands barren as well as made our waters
poisonous, carcinogenic and undrinkable. The continuous flaring of gas
in the Niger Delta, besides being a reckless and an unconscionable
waste of this valuable natural resource, has severely poisoned the air
we breathe and produces acid rain that is extremely hazardous to our
health and ecosystem. The continuous destruction of our habitat and
traditional means of subsistence by oil prospecting activities results
in the progressive deterioration of the socio-economic conditions of
our already utterly impoverished Ijaw people. Consequently, the
survival of the Ijaw people is under serious threat especially in the
face of episodic genocide committed against our people by the Nigerian
State. Since we depend on the Niger Delta ecosystem for our survival,
its wanton destruction has made us to become highly endangered species
of Homo sapiens.
Nigeria is
sustained by the
Ijaw wealth of Oil and gas, which accounts for about ninety (90%) of
Nigeria’s revenue. Paradoxically, the Nigerian government
refuses
to provide roads, electricity, drinkable water, healthcare or quality
education for the Ijaws while it provides such necessities for other
Nigerians with proceeds from the Ijaw Oil Wealth. Furthermore, the
Ijaws have been effectively robbed of their petroleum resources as the
Nigerian State has given the ownership and control of the Ijaw
resources to other Nigerians, on a platter of gold to the total
exclusion of the Ijaws by its brazenly unfair privatization of the Oil
Industry. While other Nigerians have become millionaires and
billionaires by looting the proceeds from our Oil Wealth, we live in
abject poverty.
Under the
circumstances, it is
extremely appalling and unacceptable that oil companies operating in
Ijawland have discriminated against Niger Deltans in general and the
Ijaws in particular regarding employment in the Nigerian Oil Industry.
Giving the large army of deprived, impoverished and unemployed youths
in the Niger Delta, the high level of youth restiveness in the region
is therefore not surprising! Gainful employment for our teeming youths
will undoubtedly reduce youth restiveness in the Niger Delta. In this
regard, Ijaw Foundation is embarking on a program of action to secure
employment for Ijaws with the oil companies operating in Ijawland; as
part of its objectives to ameliorate and reverse the intractable
parasitic and destructive stranglehold of the oil companies on the
Ijaws.
Education in
Ijawland is very
poor where it is available. This portends grave problems for our
development because we need educated and skilled manpower for our
economic and social development. Lack of quality education for our
teeming youths exacerbates our already extremely serious unemployment
crisis because a good education is needed to acquire the requisite
skills to get employment.
The Ijaw Society
is being
destroyed. Our spiritual and moral fabric and values have been
seriously eroded. The chastity of our girls and women are continuously
desecrated by economically advantaged oil workers. Worse still, our
women and girls are being raped and molested by members of the Nigerian
military forces of occupations in Ijawland. Furthermore, some of our
own Ijaw elites and politicians are also desecrating our girls and
women so shamelessly, instead of protecting them from such terrible
abuse. In the circumstances, the integrity of the Ijaw Society is being
destroyed as its foundation, the Ijaw Family, is so destroyed!
The richness of
our culture has
ensured its survival despite the formidable onslaught against it by the
forces of oppression. However, our language is progressively becoming
extinct because of the invasion of foreign influences occasioned by the
oil and gas exploitation industry in Ijawland. Fortunately, efforts,
such as the Ijaw Language Project and the Ijaw History Project, are
being made to reverse the negative trend.
From the
background giving
above, Ijaws and Ijaw organizations have very compelling and urgent
reasons to rally together to save and uplift the Ijaw Nation. In this
regard, we need concerted and result-oriented action to address the
extremely serious problems we face. Some of the Programs of Action
include:
- Ijaw Agenda for Self Government, which is
the ultimate solution to the problem of oppression the Ijaws suffer in
Nigeria.
- Program of action to ensure United Nations
mediation of the Niger Delta Crisis.
- Agenda for the Creation of more homogenous Ijaw
States,
which will give a significant measure of Self-determination and/or
Political Autonomy to our Ijaw people within the framework of Nigeria.
In this regard, a Bill for the enactment of four more (new, additional)
Ijaw States by the Nigerian National Assembly, and for assenting by the
President of the Federal republic of Nigeria has been drafted by the
Special Affairs Committee of Ijaw Foundation.
- Bill enacting True Federalism and Resource Control
based on ethnically based federating geopolitical units.
- Bill enacting Compensation Rates Oil Companies must
pay for
damages done by oil prospecting activities and oil spills to our
farmlands, fisheries, streams, canals, swamps, rivers and real estate.
For instance, the Compensation Rate for damages done to farmlands could
be $250.00 per square foot.
- Bill enacting Annual Compensation Rates payable by
the oil
companies and the Federal government of Nigeria to the Ijaws and other
Niger Deltans for the health hazards of gas flaring; to provide
healthcare for the Ijaws and other Niger Deltans until gas flaring is
completely stopped.
- Bill enacting an Environmental Protection Agency,
stipulating environmental protection measures and establishing
effective machinery for cleaning up oil spills.
- Legal Action to obtain redress for the episodes of
continual heinous genocide and environmental destruction that have been
perpetrated against the Ijaws by the Nigerian State.
- Program of action to combat the scourge of
corruption,
moral decadence, lawlessness, endemic kidnappings and anarchy in
Ijawland. To this end, Ijaw Foundation has established an
Anti-corruption Committee.
- Support for the Ijaw History and Ijaw Language
Projects.
To ensure that the
welfare of
the Ijaws is rather advanced by the oil companies operating in
Ijawland, Ijaw Foundation has written a letter (which will be forwarded
soon) to all oil companies operating in Ijawland, calling on them to
redress the aforementioned grave injustices, with utmost urgency, by
implementing the following program of action:
- Implementation of fifty percent (50%) Niger
Delta/Ijaw
Indigenization of the oil industry, ensuring indigenous participation
in the oil industry. In this regard, we demand fifty percent (50%)
equity participation in the oil prospecting business of each oil
company to be reserved for and allocated to Ijaw business interests and
governmental agencies such as the Bayelsa State Government and Ijaw
Local Government Councils.
- Allocation and implementation of fifty percent (50%)
quota
of every cadre of management staff for Ijaws in each oil company, in
addition to sixty percent (60%) employment quota for Ijaws in respect
of non-management staff positions in each oil company.
- Oil Companies Scholarships for all Ijaws undertaking
undergraduate and postgraduate professional degree courses and
training; particularly in geology, petroleum engineering, chemical
engineering, medicine and surgery, nursing, public health
administration, environmental and occupational health care,
environmental protection and ecological remediation, law, accountancy,
business administration, and public administration.
- Immediate stoppage of the unacceptable
environmentally
disastrous gas flaring in the Niger Delta. The Ijaw Nation will impose
severe penalties on non-compliant oil companies.
- Construction of major Gaso-Electric Power Generating
Stations or Plants to utilize our now wastefully flared natural gas to
generate electricity for Ijawland, the Niger Delta and beyond.
- Implementation of an adequate compensation rate for
farmlands, fish farms and rivers destroyed and/or polluted by oil
spills or oil exploration activities.
- Establishment of an Oil Spill Disaster Emergency
Response
Agency equipped with the proper structure, skilled manpower, technical
equipment and funds to detect oil spills as soon as they occur and
respond immediately to clean up such environmentally disastrous oil
spills.
- Establishment of three (3) Specialist Hospitals and
six (6) Health Centers in Ijawland; spread equitably to benefit all
Ijaws.
- Support the Ijaw Foundation Niger Delta Habitat
Protection
and Restoration Project: Each oil company is obligated to make
contributions in millions of dollars to a multi-million dollar Niger
Delta Survival Fund that will provide funding for projects for the
protection, environmental cleanup and restoration of the Niger Delta
ecosystem.
Having highlighted the compelling reasons or issues that demand Ijaws
and Ijaw organizations to unite in an alliance to save and uplift our
oppressed and suffering Ijaw people, I shall now address the
impediments to unity and consensus amongst us. The principal
impediments to
“Ijaw unity and alliance” are as
follows:
- Ignorance
and lack of understanding
of the depth and gravity of the oppression and sufferings of our Ijaw
people, particularly by persons supposedly in the vanguard of the
struggle to emancipate our Ijaw people. Even in the face of the
prevailing and pervasive Ijaw Youth Restiveness and Insurgency, most
Ijaws still have a terrible and unacceptable lukewarm attitude towards
efforts and programs of action being embarked upon to redress the
terrible plight of our people. If Isaac Boro and associates could be so
motivated to declare the Niger Delta Republic in 1966, over forty years
ago, to liberate the Ijaws from internal colonialism in Nigeria, it is
unpardonable for any of us to be unconcerned or lukewarm! The times
call for urgent action! Save for the protection of God, the Ijaw Nation
would have been crushed or decimated. We ought to declare a State of
Emergency in Ijawland! We should swing into emergency and urgent action
to rescue our dear Ijaw Nation from destruction!!
- Lack of Sincerity of Purpose and
Commitment:
There is lack of sincerity of purpose and commitment among the ranks of
those championing the Ijaw Struggle. Certainly, there are sincere and
committed Ijaws in the struggle but the Judases are seriously negating
their noble and altruistic efforts. Sadly, most Ijaws only engage in
discussing the problems we face but fail or refuse to join efforts
geared towards solving our pressing problems. The result is that, in
many Ijaw organizations, so much of the load is left for very few
persons to carry. Thus Ijaw organizations are not as effective as they
should.
- Lack of Financial Support:
We have Ijaw Organizations with vision, sincerity of purpose and
credibility but the overwhelming majority of our Ijaw people lack the
commitment to offer the much-needed financial support to such Ijaw
organizations to implement laudable programs of action and achieve
objectives. When Ijaw Organizations are financially very weak, they
would also lack the strength to mobilize Ijaws and other Ijaw
organizations into an alliance to solve the serious problems we face.
- Distrust and Divisiveness:
Personal egos, distrust and divisiveness have greatly impaired the
unity and solidarity of Ijaws and Ijaw organizations in the Diaspora.
However, by the grace of God, we are overcoming these lethal poisons to
our unity and solidarity.
- Discord and Acrimony:
Our discussions, as obtains in the Ijawnation forum, often degenerate
unnecessarily into acrimonious altercations! This is very inimical to
our unity and solidarity, because it is extremely difficult for us to
work together if we exchange harsh words and insults at the slightest
misunderstanding.
- Lack of Transparency:
Lack of transparency engenders distrust, which discourages rather than
motivates Ijaw people to support Ijaw organizations.
- Cliqueism:
Excludes otherwise willing Ijaws from participating in the affairs of
Ijaw organizations and is therefore inimical to the building of bridges
and forming of alliances among Ijaws and Ijaw organizations to work for
the benefit and interest of all Ijaws.
- Disloyalty and Betrayal:
Some Ijaws are outright disloyal to the Ijaw Cause. They betray the
Ijaw Struggle and make merchandise of it. They pretend to be fighting
the Ijaw Cause but use it to feather their nests. They betray the Ijaw
interest at the altar of self-aggrandizement.
SUGGESTIONS:
- Continuous and
intensive
information campaign to educate all Ijaws about the seriousness of our
predicament and the urgency with which we must act. The Ijawnation
forum is a veritable tool in this regard.
- Let each us of be
sincere and
then support every sincere effort aimed at advancing the Ijaw Cause. Do
not criticize from outside but participate in meetings and put forward
your ideas and proposals for all to consider and decide upon.
- Let every Ijaw
person commit
him or herself to financially supporting Ijaw organizations to the
limits of his or her financial capability.
- Let us eschew
egocentricity, divisiveness, distrust, discord and acrimony.
- Eschew cliqueism
and enthrone
honesty, integrity, transparency, accountability, inclusiveness and
democracy in the affairs of the Ijaw Nation and Ijaw organizations. Let
Ijaws and Ijaw organizations be led by vision and not by personalities.
However, we must encourage, nurture and support visionary leadership.
- Establish a
mechanism to enforce sanctions against acts of disloyalty, betrayal and
treason against the Ijaw Nation.
- Encourage and
support
Conventions and Events such as the Boro Day, organized by Ijaw
organizations. Such events provide the golden opportunity for
face-to-face meetings and networking among Ijaws and Ijaw
organizations, breakdown barriers, and promote interpersonal
relationships and thereby engender unity and alliance amongst us. The
formation of Ijaw Foundation, as a platform for collective action by,
and for, all Ijaw Organizations in the Diaspora, at the All-Ijaw
Conference held during the 2003 Boro Day Commemoration organized by the
INAA, is an epochal and momentous victory for Ijaw Unity, Alliance and
Solidarity!
In conclusion, we
must pursue
and consolidate our unity and solidarity. The challenges the Ijaws face
are extremely formidable, and our predicament is extremely precarious.
Let all hands be on deck! Let us be united in the alliance to save and
uplift the Ijaw Nation!! For united we stand, but divided we fall!!!
Thank you.
God bless you
God bless the Ijaw National Alliance of the Americas (INAA)
God bless the Ijaw Nation
Dr. Ebipamone N. Nanakumo
President, Ijaw Foundation Board of Directors
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