INC must act now
It is now very clear that the reasons for which Rivers State was created have become unrealisable for Ijaws in Rivers State.
It is now crystal clear that the desires of the founding fathers to have a Rivers State in which Ijaw and other ethnic minorities could have ample opportunities for self-determination; freedom from domination and oppression are no longer feasible.
Fifty-eight years after the creation of Rivers State, Rivers-Ijaw land has remained undeveloped, and its pre-1967 human and infrastructural attainments have been truncated and forcefully reversed by successive Rivers State governments since 1999.
Fifty-eight long years after, Rivers Ijaw communities (no matter their proximity to the state capital, Port Harcourt) have been deliberately kept rural, swampy and inaccessible; completely cut off from civilization.
Now that Governor Siminalayi Fubara is opening up the creeks by building roads and bridges across the swamps and mangroves, some ethnic hegemonic forces have ganged up to stop the development of Rivers Ijaw land.
This is the root cause of the current Rivers State political crisis. Some ethnic hegemonic forces regret handing over the governorship to a Rivers Ijaw person in 2023. They do not want other parts of the state to be opened up for development.
As it stands, the Rivers-Ijaw people are endangered. Their well-being can no longer be guaranteed in present-day Rivers State, which is bestrode by an oligarch that is supported by federal might, including the federal judiciary.
The time has come, therefore, for the leadership of the Ijaw National Congress, INC, to urgently address the plight of the Rivers-Ijaw people.
If the Nigerian State cannot guarantee that Ijaws live in freedom and dignity, then it is within the inalienable rights of INC to explore other options to protect Ijaw land.
This must include the creation of more homogenous Ijaw States and if all fails, the Ijaw Republic now.
NYESOM WIKE’S LATEST INSULT
Nyesom Wike’s latest outburst on national television against Ijaws is yet another disrespect from someone who, but for the historical incident of colonialism and state creation, would not dare.
If by Nyesom Wike’s continuous insult of the Ijaw tribe and its leadership, he hopes to add to his make-believe character of toughness, then he fails.
He only succeeds in insulting the rights and sensibilities of minority peoples, not only of the Niger Delta and Nigeria but of the entire globe.
Nyesom Wike derides the Ijaws; he says that Ijaws are not a majority tribe in the Niger Delta. He describes the Rivers-Ijaw people as a “minority of minorities” who only produced a governor out of his personal benevolence.
It is amusing that this is coming from Nyesom Wike, an Ikwerre man and not from any person from Bini, Efik, Urhobo, Ika, Isoko, Ukwuani, Itsekiri, Auchi, Esako, Afenmai, IIlaje, Anang or other significant parts of the Niger Delta.
Since 2013, Nyesom Wike has plunged Rivers State into one political crisis after another. The state has known no peace because of a single person who has been on the watch list of the EFCC since 2010, shielded only by a “Perpetual Injunction” issued by the same Nigerian judiciary.
It remains a surprise to many how Nyesom Wike got security clearance to be a Minister in President Tinubu’s cabinet, whereas Nasir el-Rufai did not.
It remains a national disgrace that this man is still in President Tinubu’s cabinet, and to think that he represents Rivers State is sickening.
Now, there is nothing wrong with being a minority in any part of the world.
But the fact is that Ijaws are not a minority in Rivers State. They are the largest ethnic group with eleven out of the twenty-three local government areas. No other ethnic group in the state has more than four LGAs.
It is, therefore, the tragedy of state creation in Nigeria for Nyesom Wike to call any part of Ijaw land a “minority of minorities”. It is the price Ijaws pay in an unjust Nigerian federation.
Ijaws land stretches from Eastern Obolo in Akwa Ibom State to Arugbo in Ondo State and is large enough to be created into three or more viable, homogenous and contiguous states.
However, the Nigerian State balkanized Ijaw land and shared its people into six states to exploit its natural resources. Ijaws are deliberately weakened through lopsided state creation.
If not, how can Nyesom Wike, a man from one small area found only in Rivers State, talk carelessly about the Ijaw tribe?
Nyesom Wike exhibits extreme ingratitude toward the Ijaw people. He derides an Ijaw man, Siminalayi Fubara. He says that Fubara only became governor out of his (Wike’s) benevolence.
Nyesom Wike pretends to forget that he was practically made governor in 2015 by former President Jonathan and his wife Dame Patience Jonathan on account of Wike’s perceived support for Jonathan’s re-election.
In the end, Jonathan lost, and Wike succeeded, yet no Ijaw person has gone on national television to say that Nyesom Wike was a mistake, despite it being so obvious.
No Ijaw person has said demeaningly, that Nyesom Wike became governor out of the benevolence of a Nigerian President of Ijaw extraction.
Today, the Rivers Ijaw people have become a subject of ridicule to Nyesom Wike and his cohorts. No Ijaw personality, no matter how highly revered by his people, is too big to be insulted by this Ikwerre-born Minister of the FCT.
Sotonye Ijuye-Dagogo
Director of Publicity
Rivers Ijaw Foundation
