We, the fifteen million aboriginal Ijaw people of the oil-rich Niger Delta, are extremely peace loving and longsuffering. We have a culture of love by which we show unsurpassable hospitality and kindness to our neighbours and visitors without prejudice to race, nationality, religion or any other status. Ironically, these endearing spiritual attributes have rendered us vulnerable to oppression and exploitation by our fellow Nigerians and the trans-national oil corporations operating in Ijawland.
The prevailing pervasive Ijaw Youth Restiveness and Insurgency are therefore compelled and propelled by the imperative for survival and self-defense, in the Spirit of Isaac Adaka Boro, against the political subjugation and relentless ruthless oppression of the Ijaw people; unbridled plundering of their oil and gas resources; the wanton destruction of their habitat and means of subsistence; their utter neglect and deprivation; the atrocious violation of their basic human rights and dignity; the continual heinous genocides perpetrated by an occupying military force of the Nigerian State that kills Ijaws with impunity; and the resultant abominable squalor, hopelessness, despair, and anarchy.
THE IJAWS WANT PEACE
Oppression is enforced by violence and terror that rob its hapless victims of their peace. The Nigerian State has visited tremendous violence and terror upon us to subdue us to steal our resources. Nigeria’s military forces of occupation in Ijawland continually murder and maim us, and rape our women. The terror and violence have totally robbed us of our peace and security. This terror and violence must stop for us to regain our peace and security. We, the Ijaws, are therefore engaged in a noble and heroic Struggle for Peace by protesting against this horrendous violence and terror that have robbed us of our peace. The Ijaw freedom fighters are engaged in a noble and heroic pursuit of peace for the Niger Delta people by repelling the invading and occupying military forces of the oppressive Nigerian State that visits violence upon our people! The Ijaw freedom fighters do not perpetrate violence; instead, they are fighting against violence; they are harbingers of peace.
We, the Ijaws, are engaged in a noble and legitimate agitation for self-determination, socioeconomic justice, environmental protection and survival. We only claim, demand and defend that which is rightly and justly ours. Our motivation is love, our passion is survival and justice, and our goal is peace. The Ijaws want peace in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and in the entire world. We welcome all genuine efforts geared towards achieving peace in the Niger Delta.
However, the Amnesty Programme of the Yar’Adua administration is not a genuine effort to achieve peace in the Niger Delta because it deliberately fails to address the fundamental causes and issues of the Niger Delta Conflict. The Amnesty Programme is unacceptable, and is doomed to fail, because it woefully fails to address the God-given and inalienable rights of the Ijaw people to self-determination, socioeconomic justice, environmental protection and survival. The amnesty programme is fundamentally immoral, unjust and unconscionable because it presents the unacceptable scenario whereby the Nigerian State that perpetrates heinous violence and genocide against the Ijaws would keep and enhance its arms and ammunition while the Ijaw Freedom Fighters who are acting in self-defense will unilaterally surrender their arms so that the Nigerian State would, in an aggravated and accelerated manner, kill our defenseless Ijaw people, destroy their habitat and means of sustenance, and rob them of their God-given wealth of crude oil and natural gas! It is crystal clear therefore that the amnesty is a Greek gift; it is a phony promise of peace!!
GLARING INSINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY
While it speaks about peace, the Nigerian government is aggressively sourcing weapons and military training from several countries to further its war and genocide it is waging against the Ijaws to forcibly rob the Ijaws of their God-given Oil Wealth. Instead of engaging the Ijaws in dialogue to peacefully resolve the conflict, the Nigerian State has entered into alliance with foreign countries and foreign interests against the hapless Ijaw people. Instead of protecting the Ijaws as its own citizens, Nigeria is treating the Ijaws as foreigners, colonial subjects and enemies. Nigeria is determined to exterminate us.
In an article published by Niger Delta Rising on September 12, 2009, Daniel Volman, the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC, reports that “there is mounting evidence that the government of Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is set to launch a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta when a ceasefire declared by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) ends on 15 Sep 2009. And this time, Nigerian military forces will be using special warships, helicopter gunships and troop transports, and unmanned drone intelligence planes and ships sold to Nigeria by Israeli, Malaysian, Singaporean, Dutch, and Russian companies. Israeli and Russian instructors have been providing specialized training to Nigerian Navy and Air Forces sailors and pilots in how to operate the ships and helicopters over the past few months, and some of these instructors may help operate them during the offensive.”
He also reveals that “the Nigerian government has recently been buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sophisticated weaponry and military hardware in preparation for a new offensive in the Niger Delta. These include deals worth $25 million for two 24.8-meter Shaldag MK-20 patrol boats (generally armed with artillery guns and machine guns) from the Israeli firm, Israel Shipyards—one has already been delivered and the other is on its way—and another deal involves air and sea drones from Aeronautica Ventures, another Israeli company. 80 Nigerian sailors are presently being trained in counter-insurgency operations at the northern Israeli port of Haifa. Nigeria recently bought a surveillance system for the Delta that uses Aerostar unmanned drones and Seastar vessels produced by Israel’s Aeronautics Defense Systems/Aeronautics Ventures. Nigeria acquired 20 troop-carrying catamarans from the Dutch firm, TP Marine, to transport soldiers up the creeks and small rivers of the Delta region. And the Nigerian Navy recently took delivery of two 38-meter Manta-class patrol boats built by the Nautica Nova Shipbuilding yard in Malaysia. These ships were officially commissioned on 12 April 2009. Another four 17-meter Manta-class patrol boats have also been delivered to Nigeria from Singapore Technologies Marine. The Nigerian Navy also recently procured 35 new machine-gun equipped fast patrol boats in a deal that was paid for by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, reportedly on the instructions of President Yar’Adua.” http://www.nigerdeltarising.org/article/2009/09/12/nigerian-government-preparing-imminent-military-offensive-delta
We hereby recall with extreme sadness that, in May 2009, the Gbaramatu Kingdom of the Ijaw Nation was visited with heinous genocide by the Nigerian military forces of occupation in the Niger Delta, the Joint Task Force (JTF), whereby thousands of our people were brutally murdered or maimed, and the towns and villages were viciously decimated and ferociously razed, by aerial bombardments, grenade attacks, and artillery attacks from warships and naval gunboats. It is ironical and unacceptable that the fighter jets, warships, naval gunboats, grenades, artillery and bombs that have been unleashed on our hapless Ijaw people are bought with the Ijaw oil money! It is unacceptable that our God-given wealth is being used to exterminate us!!
Ijaw Foundation, a platform for collective action by all Ijaws and all Ijaw organizations in the Diaspora and the Ijaw homeland, hereby avers that armistice and justice are absolute prerequisites for peace in the Niger Delta. Peace in the Niger Delta will be a mirage until the ruthless oppression of the Ijaws is fully and effectively remediated. Peace in the Niger Delta will remain an illusion as long as the occupational and genocidal military forces of the Nigerian State, the Joint Task Force (JTF) remains in Ijawland.
It is highly hypocritical and offensive for the Nigerian State to talk of peace when it is aggressively procuring weapons to annihilate the Ijaws and consolidating the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta by relocating it from Warri to Yenagoa in the heart of the Niger Delta. It goes without saying that the total withdrawal and disbandment of the Joint Task Force (JTF) is an important prerequisite for disarmament and peace in the Niger Delta!
The Niger Delta Conflict is a political conflict, and it demands a political solution rather than a military one. It cannot be over-emphasized that the only just and effective solution to the Niger Delta Crisis is the granting of political autonomy to the Niger Delta people to enable them have control and responsibility for the exploitation of their natural resources, including oil and gas, as well as the protection of the Niger Delta habitat on which they depend for their survival. To this end, we call for the immediate convocation of a Sovereign National Conference to restructure Nigeria to give political autonomy to every ethnic nationality with a view to enthroning True Federalism; whereby the geopolitical units of the country control and manage their respective natural resources. The Sovereign National Conference must provide for Referendum on Political Autonomy for each ethnic nationality to make its own sovereign decision.
We hereby call on President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the Nigerian State to work for, and create, genuine peace in the Niger Delta by implementing Armistice and Justice for the Niger Delta.
Signed:
Dr. Ebipamone N. Nanakumo
President, Ijaw Foundation Board of Directors
Mr. Lincoln Snithers
Secretary, Ijaw Foundation Board of Directors
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