United Ijaw States

THE KAIAMA DECLARATION by

IJAW YOUTHS OF THE NIGER DELTA

BEING COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE ALL IJAW YOUTHS CONFERENCE

WHICH HELD IN THE TOWN OF KAIAMA THIS 11TH DAY OF DECEMBER 1998.

INTRODUCTION

We, Ijaw youths drawn from over five hundred communities from over 40 clans that make up the Ijaw nation and representing 25 representative organisations met, today, in Kaiama to deliberate on the best way to ensure the continuos survival of the indigenous peoples of the Ijaw ethnic nationality of the Niger Delta within the Nigerian state.

After exhaustive deliberations, the Conference observed:

a. That it was through British colonisation that the IJAW NATION was forcibly put under the Nigerian State

b. That but for the economic interests of the imperialists, the Ijaw ethnic nationality would have evolved as a distinct and separate sovereign nation, enjoying undiluted political, economic, social, and cultural AUTONOMY.

c. That the division of the Southern Protectorate into East and West in 1939 by the British marked the beginning of the balkanisation of a hitherto territorially contiguous and culturally homogeneous Ijaw people into political and administrative units, much to our disadvantage. This trend is continuing in the balkanisation of the Ijaws into six states-Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, mostly as minorities who suffer socio-political, economic, cultural and psychological deprivations.

d. That the quality of life of Ijaw people is deteriorating as a result of utter neglect, suppression and marginalisation visited on Ijaws by the alliance of the Nigerian state and transnational oil companies.

e. That the political crisis in Nigeria is mainly about the struggle for the control of oil mineral resources which account for over 80% of GDP, 95 %of national budget and 90% of foreign exchange earnings. From which, 65%, 75% and 70% respectively are derived from within the Ijaw nation. Despite these huge contributions, our reward from the Nigerian State remains avoidable deaths resulting from ecological devastation and military repression.

f. That the unabating damage done to our fragile natural environment and to the health of our people is due in the main to uncontrolled exploration and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas which has led to numerous oil spillages, uncontrolled gas flaring, the opening up of our forests to loggers, indiscriminate canalisation, flooding, land subsidence, coastal erosion, earth tremors etc. Oil and gas are exhaustible resources and the complete lack of concern for ecological rehabilitation, in the light of the Oloibiri experience, is a signal of impending doom for the peoples of Ijawland.

g. That the degradation of the environment of Ijawland by transnational oil companies and the Nigerian State arise mainly because Ijaw people have been robbed of their natural rights to ownership and control of their land and resources through the instrumentality of undemocratic Nigerian State legislations such as the Land Use Decree of 1978, the Petroleum Decrees of 1969 and 1991, the Lands (Title Vesting etc.) Decree No. 52 of 1993 (Osborne Land Decree), the National Inland Waterways Authority Decree No. 13 of 1997 etc.

h. That the principle of Derivation in Revenue Allocation has been consciously and systematically obliterated by successive regimes of the Nigerian state. We note the drastic reduction of the Derivation Principle from 100% (1953), 50% (1960), 45% (1970), 20% (1975) 2% (1982), 1.5% (1984) to 3% (1992 to date), and a rumored 13% in Abacha’s 1995 undemocratic and unimplemented Constitution.

i. That the violence in Ijawland and other parts of the Niger Delta area, sometimes manifesting in intra and inter ethnic conflicts are sponsored by the State and transnational oil companies to keep the communities of the Niger Delta area divided, weak and distracted from the causes of their problems.

j. That the recent revelations of the looting of national treasury by the Abacha junta is only a reflection of an existing and continuing trend of stealing by public office holders in the Nigerian state. We remember the over 12 billion dollars Gulf war windfall, which was looted by Babangida and his cohorts We note that over 70% of the billions of dollars being looted by military rulers and their civilian collaborators is derived from our ecologically devastated Ijawland.

Based on the foregoing, we, the youths of Ijawland, hereby make the following resolutions to be known as the Kaiama Declaration:

1. All land and natural resources (including mineral resources) within the Ijaw territory belong to Ijaw communities and are the basis of our survival.

2. We cease to recognise all undemocratic decrees that rob our peoples/communities of the right to ownership and control of our lives and resources, which were enacted without our participation and consent. These include the Land Use Decree and The Petroleum Decree etc.

3. We demand the immediate withdrawal from Ijawland of all military forces of occupation and repression by the Nigerian State. Any oil company that employs the services of the armed forces of the Nigerian State to "protect" its operations will be viewed as an enemy of the Ijaw people. Family members of military personnel stationed in Ijawland should appeal to their people to leave the Ijaw area alone.

4..Ijaw youths in all the communities in all Ijaw clans in the Niger Delta will take steps to implement these resolutions beginning from the 30th of December, 1998, as a step towards reclaiming the control of our lives. We, therefore, demand that all oil companies stop all exploration and exploitation activities in the Ijaw area. We are tired of gas flaring; oil spillages, blowouts and being labelled saboteurs and terrorists. It is a case of preparing the noose for our hanging. We reject this labelling. Hence, we advice all oil companies staff and contractors to withdraw from Ijaw territories by the 30th December, 1998 pending the resolution of the issue of resource ownership and control in the Ijaw area of the Niger Delta

5.. Ijaw youths and Peoples will promote the principle of peaceful coexistence between all Ijaw communities and with our immediate neighbours, despite the provocative and divisive actions of the Nigerian State, transnational oil companies and their contractors. We offer a hand of friendship and comradeship to our neighbors: the Itsekiri, Ilaje, Urhobo, Isoko, Edo, Ibibio, Ogoni, Ekpeye, Ikwerre etc. We affirm our commitment to joint struggle with the other ethnic nationalities in the Niger delta area for self-determination.

6. We express our solidarity with all peoples organisations and ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and elsewhere who are struggling for self-determination and justice. In particular we note the struggle of the Oodua peoples Congress (OPC), the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (Mosop), Egi Women’s Movement etc.

7. We extend our hand of solidarity to the Nigerian oil workers (NUPENG and PENGASSAN) and expect that they will see this struggle for freedom as a struggle for humanity

8. We reject the present transition to civil rule programme of the Abubakar regime, as it is not preceded by restructuring of the Nigerian federation. The way forward is a Sovereign National Conference of equally represented ethnic nationalities to discuss the nature of a democratic federation of Nigerian ethic nationalities. Conference noted the violence and killings that characterized the last local government elections in most parts of the Niger Delta. Conference pointed out that these electoral conflicts are a manifestation of the undemocratic and unjust nature of the military transition programme. Conference affirmed therefore, that the military are incapable of enthroning true democracy in Nigeria.

9 We call on all Ijaws to remain true to their Ijawness and to work for the total liberation of our people. You have no other true home but that which is in Ijawland.

10 We agreed to remain within Nigeria but to demand and work for Self Government and resource control for the Ijaw people. Conference approved that the best way for Nigeria is a federation of ethnic nationalities. The federation should be run on the basis equality and social justice.

Finally, Ijaw youths resolve to set up the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) to coordinate the struggle of Ijaw peoples for self-determination and justice.

Signed for the entire participants by:

Felix Tuodolo

Ogoriba, Timi Kaiser-Wilhelm.

RETURNING TO THE KAIAMA DECLARATION

Welcome Address by the Chairman, Convention Planning Committee, Mr. Patterson OGON at the 2nd National Convention of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Yenagoa,

July 10, 2004

Salutations

On behalf of the 2nd National Convention Planning Committee, I am pleased to welcome you to this historic convention of the IYC taking place in Yenagoa, capital of the Izon nation. Some of you may wonder and even express worry why we are only just holding our second national convention since December 11, 1998 when the IYC was founded by the All-Ijaw Youths Conference which held in the ancient community of Kaiama. Your anxiety and surprise is justified. Since this is not a forum designed to deceive ourselves, I am not ashamed of admitting that the recent active history of the IYC is at once disturbing as it is challenging. Disturbing because the forces of reaction working from outside and within the organisation attempted to hijack, manipulate and de-nature the organisation by surrendering it to self-serving political interests. And challenging because the events of our recent past has afforded us another opportunity to re-invent the IYC. Re-inventing the IYC means a return to the principles of the Kaiama Declaration which every Ijaw person must defend with their time, their treasure, their talents and if need be, their blood. It is hardly a matter of choice. That is why I have described this convention as historic.

It is not by accident that we have chosen as the theme of this convention: "Towards a Greater Niger Delta: Ijaws and Their Neighbours". This is a time of great trial for Nigeria and the Niger Delta. Nations are at war with themselves. Minorities and peoples of the country and the region are at war against themselves. There is mutual distrust. The state has failed. It is as if we are back to the Hobbesian state of nature where life is "short, brutish and nasty". All people of goodwill are agreed that we have a collective responsibility to build peace, unity and justice within and amongst ourselves. That was why in the Kaiama Declaration, we stated in Article 5 that:

Ijaw youths and people will promote the principle of peaceful co-existence between Ijaw communities and our immediate neighbours, despite the provocative and divisive actions of the Nigerian state, transnational oil companies and their contractors. We offer a hand of friendship and comradeship to our neighbours: Itsekiris, Ilajes, Urhobos, Isokos, Edos, Ibibios, Ogonis, Ekpeyes, Ikwerres, etc. We affirm our commitment to joint struggle with other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta for self determination.

This Convention is therefore a contribution to our continuing attempt at building bridges in the Ijaw nation, the Niger Delta, Nigeria and beyond.

As you may be aware, we have assembled an array of distinguished lecturers, like Professor EJ Alagoa, Professor GG Darah, Dr Silas Eneyo and our own Oronto Douglas, to speak on and around the theme. We can think of no better set of lecturers and we are certain that we will benefit from their knowledge and experience.

Almost six years after we presented the Kaiama Declaration to the world, the IYC has come a long way. I will not elaborate on this as our founding President Felix Tuodolo will be presenting a short history of the Council shortly. Suffice it to say that the IYC has succeeded in putting the question of resource control on the front burner of national discourse. Above all, we have through the instrumentality of the Kiama Declaration reclaimed the dignity of the Ijaw person. Until then, we were defined by others. We did not define ourselves. That is now history.

Your Excellencies, fellow members of the Ijaw nation, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the immediate background to this Convention lies in an IYC youth leaders conference held in Port Harcourt on Sunday, February 1, 2004. That conference was the product of a series of consultations at all levels of the organization with Comrades Felix Tuodolo, Oronto Douglas and others at the forefront. The February Conference was presided over by Comrade Tuodolo and it discussed a number of issues affecting the Ijaw nation, including: the state of the IYC; communal conflicts in the land; mercenaries and sea pirates; state of the nation and the increasing militarization of the Ijaw nation. At the end of the day, a Convention Planning Committee with my humble self as Chairman, Mr. Miabiye Kuromiema as Secretary and five others as members was established.

For the past five months, we have worked tirelessly, consulted widely and prepared seriously for this Convention. Let me acknowledge the tremendous support which we received in the course of our work from our comrades, friends and well wishers. At this juncture, it is important I put on record the moral and financial support which we received from the Government of Bayelsa State and in particular His Excellency Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha. It is not for nothing that Governor Alamieyeseigha is called the Governor-General of the Ijaw nation. His Excellency, we salute you for your great love for the Ijaw nation, your patriotism and sense of commitment to our common concerns.

I would also like to thank our guests from far and near, especially the representatives of the nationality groups, who have come to solidarise with us. In you, we see a new Nigeria in the making.

The Kaiama Declaration is not just another dream. It is our manifesto for reversing the decades of environmental pollution, cultural neglect, political dislocation and economic disempowerment in the Ijaw nation by the alliance of the Nigerian state and the oil transnational corporations. The goals in that document are far from being achieved. We continue to witness tremendous assaults on our lands and peoples. But we must remain focussed on our goals.

Finally, let me seize this opportunity to call on the Government and People of Nigeria to compensate the families of the victims of the Kaiama Declaration. That is the only path of justice.

I thank you for your attention.

PATTERSON OGON

Exactly eight years ago this month scores of Ijaw youths met at Kaiama, the hometown of the late Isaac Idaka Boro, the Ijaw warrior, who in 1966 declared the Niger Delta Republic, to re-invent his spirit, thirty years after his death. The youths deliberated on the "continuous survival of the indigenous people of the Ijaw ethnic nationality of the Niger Delta within the Nigerian State", for an entire day and afterward adopted a document known as the "Kaiama Declaration", a 1,355-word text, which, inter alia narrates the history and distinct cultural identity of the Ijaw people, recounts the resilience of the ancestors in the face of British imperial epoch, recapitulates the terrible conspiratorial pattern of oppression and exploitation foisted on them by the Nigerian State and oil transnational corporations (TNCs), documents the environmental and socio-economical challenges facing them, and expresses their commitment to a peacefully campaign to reclaim their destiny within the Nigerian Federation.

The document further condemns the obnoxious laws governing oil production in the country, and warns all TNCs exploiting oil and gas in the Ijaw territories to repudiate their joint venture agreements with the Federal Government, and urges the oil companies to initiate a new and equitable relationship, based on informed mutual consent with the oil-producing communities.

To fully implement the declaration the youths resolved to establish the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and mandated the council to widely consult with all stakeholders interested in the resolution of the Niger Delta question, as well as coordinate an all-Ijaw united front to demand for the restitution of fundamental human rights of the Ijaw people as members of the human race. Thus, the IYC announced a programme on December 28, 1998, codenamed Operation Climate Change, and mobilized all the Ijaw communities to express dissention over the reckless plunder of their environment by the activities of the oil companies. Almost spontaneously, a groundswell of solidarity ignited, sweeping across all Ijawland, traversing artificial geographical boundaries and connecting all Ijaw men, women and children in unison. An age-long rage, percolating through a new consciousness, a new regime of people’s movement was underway, and Shell Petroleum Development Company, the largest oil monger in the region, from the hindsight of the Ogoni uprising, couple of years, rose also to mobilize other oil companies to pull the strings.

Ijaw youth leaders continued to press for some minimum benchmark for a decent livelihood for their people, and of course their complaint gained momentum because their demands were mostly justifiable. The Ijaw protest was felt in Nigeria and beyond, with some large international media houses relocating their reporters into the Niger Delta region to report the events. The utmost consideration in the minds of the protesters was to provoke the Federal Government to open a transparency and a comprehensive problem-resolving dialogue with a people who have tremendously sacrificed for the Nigerian State.

The response from the Federal Government shocked the civilized world. The incoming regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar, encumbered with a seemingly declining camaraderie in the military constituency, coupled with a earsplitting civil opposition, locally and globally, and at the same time struggling to convince a skeptical international community that the regime was committed to hand over power to civil rule, missed the golden opportunity to parley with the Ijaw people. Instead, his government labeled the civil protests of the people as seditious and treasonable, and violently suppressed it. The "Ijaw areas of the Niger Delta" came under a sustained military attack-land and sea-well into the new year, 1999. The highhandedness of the Federal Government led to a twist in the Ijaw youth leadership structure. Slowly, the pioneering leadership which was more committed to a peaceful path was replaced by other elements in the struggle who believed that militancy could now be accepted as a legitimate tool for the struggle, since government has abused their earlier peaceful overture.

This is a repeat of history: in 1887 when the British kidnapped King Jaja in spite of his a non-violent struggle to maintain the sovereignty of Opobo, for no just cause, it verified the feeling that Western values were inherently deprived, self-serving and therefore could not be promoted and accepted as universal behavior. To protect their states and markets from Western corruption the local peoples therefore adopted violence as a legitimate tool for resistance. That exactly happened in 1895 when the Nembe people, faced the same challenge. After severalappeals to L ondon failed to address their predicament the people under King Frederick Koko attacked the Royal Niger Company at Akassa, and completely destroyed it. The war slogan of the Nembe people has continued to define the character of contemporary struggle in the Niger Delta. The Nembe people in 1895 said: ˜it is better for us to die than to eat mud".

Eight years after the grim picture the Kaiama Declaration painted about Ijawland the plight of the area has further deepened. In teams of development, the Ijawland is the least developed, perhaps, in the world, a fact other marginal groups also consider as unacceptable. Mr. Ledun Mitee, President of the Movement of the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) said this of the Ijaw communities, early this year: “The first thing that struck me was the level of deprivation I saw in the place, it was difficult to believe that area is part of Niger Delta. Ogoni is like heaven compared with the squalor I saw. I doubt if any government official has ever been to that place" ("The deal with hostage takers" by Olusegun Adeniyi, ThisDay, February 2, 2006, backpage) of extreme concern to me here is the health of environment. The Ijaw environment is dying. Until commercial oil production began in Ijawland fifty years ago, the Ijaw environment had a pristine surrounding where the peoples considered themselves and their local environment as one biodiversity, a vital ecosystem which provided the bedrock of Ijaw civilization. Ijaw people depended on the environment for virtually everything: food, medicine, recreation and spiritual experience. The surest way the oil companies have done to alienate the Ijaw people is to destroy their environment through gas flaring.

If there is any agreement amongst all stakeholders in the oil industry (government, oil TNCs, host producing communities and the civil society) on the negative impact of oil and gas exploitation on the environment is gas flaring, a fact the fede al Government identified since 1969 with the introduction of the Petroleum (drilling and production) Regulation of 196 which gave oil companies an ultimatum to use the associated gas from their operations within five years aafter the commencement of their operation. The law which would have settled the problem by 1974 was largely ignored by the oil companies. In 1979, the Associated Gas Re-Jection Act was enacted as a means of forcing the oil companies to comply. This particular Act set a time limit of April 1980, and defined sanctions for disobedience. Again the oil companies ignored both the government and its laws. In the end, government, as a last thought, introduced a fine of two kobo per 1,000 standard cubic feet of gas flared to be paid by the operators. By January 1980, the fine had been raised to ten naira for every 1,000 standard cubic feet of gas. The oil companies refused to comply with the increased fine and in 1981 threatened to shut down their fields, accusing the Federal Government of washing its hands off from the joint venture partnership agreement.

• Banigo wrote from Port Harcourt

 

Release Asari now…

 He’s fundamental to peace in the Niger Delta 

 OBJ, compensate Ijaws with Toru-Ebe and Oil Rivers States

— Hon. Kuku hots up

Against the backdrop of the forthcoming parley to be hosted by Mr. President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo with selected leaders from the Niger Delta Coastal area, that is suppose to sought, palliative measures that will proffer lasting solution to the Niger Delta crisis, we in the Ijaws News cornered Hon. Kingsley Kuku who in recent times have been vocal on the goings-on in the region, at an Hotel in FECTAC area of Lagos, to conduct this "No holds bared" interview led by the Publisher Presidor Ghomorai himself   along with Tunde O’Bell Editor Ijaw (Izon) News as issues of recent development in the Niger Delta and the state of the nation with special  reference to what the Ijaws really want were critically viewed. Excerpt…  

Hon. You’ve been one of those who lately had prominently participated on the issue of negotiations that led to the release of hostages in the Niger Delta. What is your take on that? 

Well let me first thank God for what He has done for the Ijaw Land, the Niger Delta vis a vis the Nigerian nation. Why do I thank God if you may ask? I thank God because after the illegal arrest and detention of Chief DSP Alamieyesiegha and the subsequent detention illegal itself too of Alhaji Dokubo-Asari over frivolous charges of treason and whatever they call them. The entire world I mean the entire criminal world and the Nigerian federal authorities felt that the Ijaw nation has been cowed. All of a sudden a much more militant seemingly violent but not actually violent activities emanated from nowhere. This time leaderless, leaderless in the sense that when Asari was in the forefront, you can fault him that Asari’s men are doing this or that. You can reach him to either solve the problem or deal with him.

This time you can’t find the leader, the team of Alhaji Asari and those who were into certain form of conflicts at a time, as all have realized on the arrest of Alhaji Asari, that there was no need being a friend of Government against your people and they came together to now fight the peoples course.  

At any rate the approach can be condemned by some people, the approach can be seen as unconstitutional by people like me, because today I am in government and I am learning more that, an intellectual aspect of the fight is inevitable and that is the one we are involved in. Abenitio some of us have never been involved in this militant aspect of it. We have always been at the forefront of the intellectual side espousing the demands and the aspirations of our people. But even then this militant aspect of it was not even part of our own struggle.  

But we were able to suppress it at a time because we were in charge of the leadership of the youths struggle at that time. We were able to talk to them and explain to them that a militant struggle was not needed; we were rather interested in the intellectual side of the struggle. We were into it. Then we have leaders like Oronto Netie Douglas, Felix Toudolo, and Patterson Ogon, my humble self, Isaac Osuoka, Maibiye Kuromiema, Dokubo-Asari, T.K Ogoriba, Von Kemedi and a host lot of others. 

These names I mentioned were people who actually started this dimension of the Ijaw struggle. So we suppressed the militant idea amidst us at that time. Politicians simply penetrated that struggle, government also penetrated through the Ijaw politicians at that time and our struggle was almost messed up, we were able to hold our heads high because we were actually intellectual in nature. So we packaged the Kaiama Declaration. That document became some sort of bible we had that is guiding whatever form of the struggle, there is no kind of struggle, be it violent or non- violent that will not reference that document today, that is "Kaiama Declaration."  

Be that as it may, it is a lesson for everybody to learn today, this group that calls itself "MEND" the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta is a group encompassing a major trans-Ijaw youths and non Ijaw youths, you can find amongst them Itsekiri youths there who believe in them, you can find Urhobo youths, Isoko youths, even Yoruba youths, some people who are with OPC background are part of them. So MEND is not simply an Ijaw group but dominated and spearheaded by some Ijaw youths.  

They have seen that Alhaji Asari has been arrested and detained without any sense of thinking normally that he could be released tomorrow. They felt, they don’t have hope anywhere any more. This young man put them together when he lay down his arms and he was providing jobs for them in the construction companies, providing them jobs in the multi-national companies, providing jobs through even government parastatals like NEPA now PHCN and several other means in Rivers State for youths, particularly those he had earlier led to the creeks to fight.  

On dropping arms, he started mobilizing them, empowering them.   He was doing that, and the companies were yielding. This his arrangement was yielding positive civil results. Upon his arrest most of the youths felt that they were hopeless, they went back to the creek and they were misbehaving as there was no body to talk to them. They don’t have any leader and that is why, we are today calling ultimately for the release of Alhaji Dokubo-Asari, some of us can stake our names, I can even stake my office to tell the F.G that if they release Asari for us, Asari would not do any thing against the wish of Ijaw people and the Nigeria nation today. 

We will hold him down and talk to him to be civil in his attitude and Asari have learnt, of course before his arrest that violent actually does not solve any problem, civil disobedience, civil agitations can solve. That was why he came out to join PRONACO, so, we can put him into that realm properly. Government should release Alhaji Dokubo-Asari so that we can have more peace.  

I cannot control the situation, I was only mediating, I was not even negotiating, what I was doing was to mediate. I don’t even know who is "MEND" and who is not "MEND", the only time I met some of them who were representatives of "MEND" was in one of the communities around Bayelsa State instead of taking us to where people felt they were and that was in the high sea. They said that was their camp and we met people who where Yoruba, OPC people, we met so many ethnic nationalities there and they call themselves "MEND".   People who agreed that the Niger Delta have been suppressed for too long, what we have been facing as a people, they put themselves together as they don’t have a single leader. 

You can imagine people now again even Ijaw people who don’t know what they are doing some Ijaw people who are bastards; they go to the extent of saying that the centre of what is happening through MEND is Okerenkoko.  

Let me here tell you that, Okerenkoko has nothing to do with this struggle that is on going. Okerenkoko is a simple quiet small Zion community which has no power to do anything like this. The community cannot even host what "MEND" is doing. 

Okerenkoko is merely maybe close to where the activities are taking place. Okerenkoko is in the Excravos estuary. The camps they are talking about from what we have observed are in the high sea, that is why they can move from their camps to anywhere and kidnap expatriates as hostages and used them as shields for their activities when they had the fear that the F.G was going to bombard them and true to kind the F.G went to bombard them after they released the first four hostages in February 2006. So they have done well, for me I want to thank "MEND" though they are a faceless group, I am thanking them for not mal-treating the expatriates. They according to them, they use to call the expatriates their guests, that they were their VIPs. Well I want to thank them very kindly for their taking good care of their "VIPs". According to them those "VIPs" eat more than what they who kept them were eating.  

So, I thank them for that because they would have rubbished this intellectual struggle we have commenced in 1992, through the Ijaw National Congress (INC) in 1991, 1992 through Rev. now Prof. C.B.Dime and others like High Chief F.J.Williams, Chief Chris Ghomorai, Elder P.Z. Aginniah Late Tony Engurube, Late Dr. Denni Feberisema and Chief J.B.Fumudoh a dynamic leadership of the INC from this period of 1991 to this time when the youths struggle came in 1997, 1998 when we put heads together and made the Declaration to now, through the dynamic and very active Presidency of Dokubo-Asari. Yes to this present moment. This struggle has been there. Even in South Africa the struggle doesn’t take shape in one day or two years. It will take a longer period for us to arrive there. This is merely a sad fact of the Niger Delta struggle. 

For all this we thank "MEND" for not mal-treating the hostages for us. We also thank them for releasing them safe, hale and hearty for us, for the Nigeria nation to know that they merely registered their grievances. I want to equally thank the Federal Government so far but we cannot trust it, for not going back on their words that they were not going to attack, the youths or search for them for an arrest or going down to the communities and bombard people. The federal government so far has not done that so I want to thank Mr. President so far again for not doing that, though we cannot trust him, we cannot trust the F.G, we cannot trust the military authorities on that, they may be buying time. They may still end up going back there to bombard them or arrest youths, arrest even people that are not involved and even arrest even those of us that are even mediating in this matters, as people they will suspect to have a hand in all this things. That is why sometimes, good men even run away when things like this happen. They don’t want to mediate. But why some of us came on board to mediate, was not because of those youths who call themselves MEND and say they are militant nor because some of us believed in the cause they are fighting but some of us believe in the demand they are making. In the major part of the demand they are making, some of them are fundamental to our existence as peace in the country. , about $260million. That is so much of billions naira to be expended on the procurement of boats, armoured boats from Israel 

People are taking about the release of Asari, some of us could not but a say that kudos, because we know that if you release Asari there will be peace in the region, there is no basis holding him in down there, the man is not there terrible things are happening. The man Alhaji Asari has been kept incommunicado, things are happening in his territory, which means keeping him there does not stop what is happening. In fact when Asari was in Port Harcourt after laying down arms there was tremendous peace, the process of participation was going on, he was employing them by that I mean he was rehabilitating the people he took to the creek. Now they have scattered them by his arrest. So releasing Alhaji Asari is a fundamental demand. He is a recipe for peace in the Niger Delta region. So I equally join MEND to say release Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari today, beyond that the people are demanding that Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha should be released, for those of us who are lawmakers, for those of us who have legal background we will not join them in that stand, we can now go ahead to say that a very free, fair and due trial should be given to Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha, charges of criminal nature has been preferred, charges of corruption has been preferred but it is becoming suspiciously political to keep him there without moving on with the charges, without preferring them according to the law. It is unfortunate it is becoming much more political, if it is a political thing, may be all they wanted was to remove him as Governor. The man has been removed, they should go back again and prepare a process of releasing him, let him come back and join his aged father and mother, and he will not come back as Governor. Let him go back to his home town Amassoma and join his family and fend for his aged father and mother.  

It is unfair, what they did for Tafa Balogun if it is that type of political resolution they want, let them do it to Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha, let him come back home and join his aged parents. It is a serious matter of concern. It will be unfortunate if DSP stays in prison without trial. He stays there under detention without trial and one day we all hear that his aged father is gone, it will be so unfortunate, and we don’t want it. They should solve it as political as possible, expeditiously and make the man come back and join his aged parents in Amassoma and live a peace civil life. They must not be scared of him. He is a peaceful man. One fundamental thing they would have known that Alamieyeseigha is important to the Niger Delta.  

The F.G misfired in arresting Alamieyeseigha.   Alamieyeseigha has a way of putting youths together in the Niger Delta. He had a way of controlling the youths in Delta state; he had a way of controlling them in Ondo and Edo state.   He had a way of controlling them all over the creeks to Akwa-Ibom state; he had a way of putting them together. If he was still a governor and white men (expatriates) were captured as hostages, he would have gone to the creeks and meet the youths personally and get them to release the hostages, we all know he has done it before. That is a man who is on ground.  

That was a governor that knew that look, you cannot harm me, I am part of you and he will go there. But because he was performing, because he was close to the youths, because he was close to the entirety of the area he was ruling and beyond that he was relating with the neighbouring communities that had historical affinity with Bayelsa state, because he was in control, in some areas they see him much more as their governor than the governors of their states, as he relates even with the Ijaws of Ondo, Edo and even Delta states.  

In Delta state, he had a very symbiolic relationship with the Governor of Delta state Chief James Onanefe Ibori. So even if DSP does not come, Chief Ibori can go to any Ijaw community and solve any problem and because they were very close, whatever Chief Ibori have not done that the Ijaw people are complaining about, if Alamieyeseigha hears he tells his friend and Chief James Ibori could have seen it as an oversight, he will move ahead and get it done for the people. That kind of relationship was on and these two governors had kept peace in that area. Now you took, the main man out of the place. It will now be difficult to get that kind of peace the man was maintaining, he had his own special way of doing it. It was not like spending N100million, N200million, N1million or N3million for the people. It was not by sending so much money to the youths. It was by telling them that "look I am fighting your cause much more constitutionally" so there will be no need for you to be violent" that was Alamieyeseigha style.  

He will gather them; "look prepare your document" they will prepare their documents and give to him the paper and attached with the document of Kaiama Declaration. He refashioned it and created a document for the Ijaw people in agitation through a very constitutional means and he was going from states to state, zone to zone, preaching federalism in its true sense and at that time, those of us who were intellectual in the struggle keep watching because the governor took over the cause. But Alamieyeseigha was doing the F.G a favour; he took over that cause constitutionally because he did not want a repeat of what happened in Odi. He decided to keep the youths very busy. So he went down there constitutionally, legally advocating, it was in the nonviolent and very positive sense. When you took the man away and you want definite peace in that place.   That place even when Alamieyeseigha was there, was a time bomb, but the way he managed it nobody can actually manage it like that except a few young men who are not yet governors of those states.  

So we know those who can handle that place. We have seen Alamieyeseigha example. He did quite well; we know quite well that God will bring him back to join his aged parents one day. We thank MEND for what has happened. So far the aftermath of the release of the hostages, well we have listened to Mr. President with his promises on the development of the coastal part of the Niger Delta in the socio-economic realm. Listening to the address of Mr. President, it was simply a statement of third term.  

Mr. President only told the Niger Delta people, that he is coming for the third "if you support me for third term, this and this are the things I am going to do for the Niger Delta. I will commence some of them now, I won’t be able to finish them all" and definitely he can’t finish them all in the terminal period of 2007. He cannot, but telling them "if I am President beyond 2007 this and this I would love to do."Mr. President cannot tell us that he never knew, these things are things that can be done for the Niger Delta people seven years ago, he cannot tell us he did not know.  

He knew what to do since 1999; let us   give him the benefit of doubt, hoping he stabilizes for four years, since 2003 to now Mr. President knew that the East-West road which he plies regularly, that is the only road linking the Niger Delta to civilization needed proper reconstruction. He knew. It was not done by his government until militants took up arms and it is part of the fundamental promises to be made, that is not the Niger Delta, the people of the zone are talking about. East-West road is not it. The money he wants to expend on the East-West road is abnormal, that is not the kind of thing we are talking about. We are taking about socio-economic infrastructural development for the Niger Delta people. We are talking about empowerment for the Niger Delta people and their communities.  

Look at the kind of money we are hearing they want to spend on the procurement of war equipment from Israel. We heard former Head of state Gen. Ibrahim Babangida brokered the deal. The press published the report. It is very funny. It remains very funny and abnormal.   That is the abnormal nature we run this country. 

If $260million which is several billions of naira can be used to buy armoured boats, which definitely cannot stand the kind of things that are happening in that creek, if those boys sees those kind of boats, they don’t care some day, the way we are handling the Niger Delta crisis, there will be lots of terrorist, there will be lots of people who will decide to do suicide bombing.  

So, to avoid all these things, what we are saying is that, the money they want to use to buy armoured boats that will not be effective in the high sea against the communities there, that money should be divested into meaningful development in that place. That money can construct definitely 500 or more housing units’ in a sand filled new satellite town for Ijaw community in Delta state. It can be done for the Niger Delta people. You can build 200 housing units for the Itsekiris, build 300 to 400 for Ijaw communities there, you have to in a large extent handle the housing problems of the coastal communities. In that sense you can relocate communities like Okerenkoko community totally. You can relocate Aroton in Itsekiri totally; you move them to this new satellite town built by government, knowing fully well the kind of structures in their communities and the population of the area.  

Let us relocate our people to the new satellite communities that will be built by the government. If the government does that, the people will be happy. The government should be joined in the crusade by development partners like the NDDC as agencies; they should also be joined by the multi-national corporations who must take up their social responsibilities very important. They should join hands together to sustain an enabling environment.  

New satellite communities should be built for the people of the Niger Delta.   Relocate them from oil exploration affected areas, and then you will have free days of extracting your oil there. You will be paying them certain amount of money as host communities. As major stakeholders you will co-opt them. The community and host community participation should be encouraged.  

But we must relocate them, this money the government wants to use in buying Armoured boats, buying Aircraft and all these things can be spent to actually develop the Niger Delta, because if they buy 200,000 of them it will not solve the problem, because you cannot kill all the Niger Delta people one day. The more you kill the more they emerge. You can destroy the whole of "MEND", I don’t know where they are and I don’t know who they are, you can kill all of them. Another team much more violent than MEND may come out in another one or two years, that is the psychic of every Niger Delta man. For us Ijaw people, those who are graduates, those who are undergraduates, those who are not graduates , those who are illiterates, those who are abroad, those who are at home, we are all not happy, all of us are angry. Those who are in government, those who are not in government, we are all not happy and we all contribute funds to whatever genuine cause of our people. We do. We support them in prayers, we spend our money for them and we contribute to ensure that our people don’t die. We develop our community on our own.   We don’t allow anybody to die that is what we do.  

Hostage taking we are against it. We have spoken to them, not to take anybody hostage anymore. They should agitate in the most civilized constitutional ways that are available. In our own time we were doing that, we will go to the street with placards, chanting songs of solidarity among our people, calling on the attention of government for whatever we are doing under even the military.  

But remember that even then the military when we didn’t carry even a single stick will still come out with bullets against us in the streets of Yenagoa, Bomadi, Kaiama, Mbiama everywhere, they were doing that against us. Those are the kind of lesson that this boys have learnt, that they are saying if you come out peacefully, they will still kill us, so why don’t we carry arms and face them. But we still call on them that, that psychic can be reversed. That under any form of international standard, carrying arms, illegal arms, facing constitutional authority is not admissible.  

So we keep telling them that provided we remain as Nigerians and I think all Ijaw people will prefer today to be Nigerian much more that a Niger Delta Republic some people are clamouring about that cannot be visible, we are not even talking it because we may have more problems at that republic than remaining in a truly federal Nigeria that is my own aspiration in Nigeria. That is what I want. I want us to remain here but it must be fair, it is from that realm that I am thanking MEND who ever they are, thanking the federal government for the truce we are experiencing today. We came in to mediate because of the innocent people in our community. We don’t want the Nigeria military to go all out and begin to attack our communities, maim and rape our women as they did in Odi. Yes again in the guise of looking for people they call MEND that they cannot find as they are in the high sea. This was the reason why we came into the matter and we are happy that it had come to halt.  

So far you have talked about the hostages, the probable reason for the action and against, the perceived consequences and the rest. Hon. Kuku truly what do Ijaws want?  

Well I am an Ijaw youth leader, I have followed elders and our fathers on this struggle since 1991, early in 1992 the Ijaw National Congress (INC) national conference in Arogbo, Ondo state was to hold, as a young undergraduate, I remembered I assisted Dr. M.P. Okonny one of the participants with his bag from Ore to Arogbo the venue of the conference where the Late HRH Harold Dappa Biriye addressed. It was on that forum that certain positions of the Ijaws demands became very clear to the generality of the Ijaw people. One of the demands that came out of that well articulated conference had been the agitation for the creation of three states for the Ijaw people.  

Among the states demanded are Abayelsa at a time which is today Bayelsa, Toru Ebe and Oil Rivers states. Abayelsa was to take into cognizance the configuration and interest of the present day Bayelsa people with headquarters in Yenegoa; Toru Ebe state was to put together, the very veritable Arogbo Ijaws, the Apoi Ijaws and the Furupagha-Ijaws all of Ondo state; the Ijaws of Edo state being Ekosa, Egbema, Olodiama, the Enekrogha area, the Nkoro   people all in Edo state and all the Ijaws of Delta state with Burutu proposed as the headquarters of Toru Ebe state at that time; while the third which is Oil Rivers state was to put the present Ijaws of Rivers state and those of Akwa Ibom,   that is Andoni-Ijaws, the Ijaws of Eastern Obolo and Ebeno LGA where reputable we have Ijaw people like Architect Etteh, then the Rivers Ijaws of Opobo, Bonny, Degema, Buguma, Bakana, Abonnema,   Bille, Ke, all Ijaws of Rivers state and Okrika who are the owners of Port Harcourt of course they are riverine communities.  

This had been the dream of the Ijaw people, that is a three state agenda the Ijaws set in 1991-1992.The first meeting was held in Patani from there it was shifted to Arogbo. What we are saying is that along the years, we were able to achieve the dream of Bayelsa state under the dynamic leadership of Chief JB Fumudoh as President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) of course strengthened by Chief Chris Ghomorai, High Chief F.J. Williams, Prof.  C.B. Dime, the Congress maiden President and several other intellectual Ijaw men and women from the east, west and central zones of the Ijaw land. We still had the dream of Toru Ebe State hitting up the system.  The dream of Toru-Ebe is inevitable. The dream of Toru–Ebe putting the Ijaws of Ondo, Edo and Delta state together is fundamental. It is a recipe for peace.   The call for total resource control can be tactically addressed from that view point.

Let me tell you if the Ijaws are advocating that one, they don’t want to secede from Nigeria, but hat they want a Nigeria where they would have much more political space to participate, because Ijaw resources are shared from the realm of Local government, in a state and states in a zone.   We cannot produce so much quantum of oil accruing to so much trillion of naira, feeding the nation and we have just one state with merely eight LGAs. So when Bayelsa state sits with Kano in the federal allocation table, what they get is what comes to a state, derivation and the number of Local government areas and what goes to each local government area. So Bayelsa state will get eight portions and Kano will get 44 portions. It is madness. It is a political madness nobody can take it. If only Kano state in the entire North has half-quarter of what Bayelsa state has as in the contribution to oil production in Nigeria . As I am saying, just Kano state not even the entire North, honestly Nigeria will no longer exist and you do what you are doing to Bayelsa and Ijaw people to just Kano state in Nigeria, this country will no longer be the same, we would have torn apart, the entirety of this country, by now they would have gone to the extent of calling us like Bosnia and Herzegovina. We won’t be anywhere.

There would have been total war thirty years ago. But now because it is just Ijaw people, very helpless people, people who don’t have their people in office because the architect of this unfortunate country has put as policy a basic idea of disempowering the Ijaws, of not educating them, deliberately not educating our people, not civilizing our people. No tertiary institution in any of our areas to educate our people to know what is happening to them as a people. No civilization, no electricity, you cannot learn from what is happening in the US because you won’t be shown the outside world.

You will be deprived of all basics of life. It was a conscious effort by the architects of the Nigerian federation with the connivance of the British government to put the Ijaws incommunicado. To put us in perpetual slavery internally, in a country we feed. So today, the only thing which, can bring about peace for Ijaw people, to remain within a united Nigeria that can bring about peace is the creation of Toru-Ebe state.

If they want to do it constitutionally they have to do it. We thank God that there was a coup at a time and General Sanni Abacha created a state for the Ijaws. Today that state is Bayelsa state, we are seeing. General Abacha would have created very many local government areas for us but for some people under him at that time who played abnormal politics and we now have eight local government areas. We want nothing less than 50 local government areas in Bayelsa state for what we contribute, Kano cannot have as much as we have because they are taking money from the federation account with those LG, what goes to Kano from federation account with 44 LGA is more than what Bayelsa gets from derivation. It is unfortunate and this Kano we are talking about today has produced 2 other states. They now have Katisna and you have another state from there.

So it is an unfortunate situation that the imbalance in the country is so much, so we need Toru-Ebe state. Toru-Ebe state is a wealthy state, is a viable state, the Ijaws of Ondo are there, they have oil in their territory, the Ijaws of Edo state are there, the Egbema-Ijaws are there, they have mineral deposits in their territories, Ogboinbiri is there, Ogudugudu is there, these are all oil bearing communities, we have Opuama there, we have Isekelewu that is Polobubo is also there. You then now have the Delta Ijaws of Egbema again, when Egbema Kingdom has been split into two states one in Edo and the other in Delta to ensure that the Ijaw people don’t move forward. It is deliberate act by the power that be to disenfranchise the Ijaw people’s moral, that is what the federal government has done at that time.   The Ijaws of Patani, Bomadi, Burutu and the Warri Ijaws of Warri South-west, Warri-South and Warri-North are all there, put us together give us our state Toru-Ebe. We have a right to own it. In the North half of us that is to say, the areas I have mentioned have gotten two states, so we want these states for our people.

It is important, if they want to us argue within a united Nigeria, then the Eastern Ijaws of the present Rivers state and the Akwa-Ibom Ijaws people of Andoni, Ijaws of Eastern Obolo and Ebeno LGA put them together, it is a viable place, they are the people that are even giving whatever is being taking by Rivers state today. Give them a state that is one major factor that will solve the issue of restiveness in the Niger Delta area. That will greatly solve the issue of restiveness in the Ijaw land and if you look at Ijaw land totally, it is the ebb of restiveness in the Niger Delta, the injustice is too much, the restiveness is not even measurable to the kind of injustices the Ijaws get, because the intellectuals are no longer in the present in the recent struggle.

We are intellectualizing it, we are participating in the politics and advocating for our people for people to be heard, we go to the media and advocate, our people in government are equally trying their best. Our brothers in NDDC like Mr. Ndutimi Alaibe they are actively contributing to the development in the Niger Delta, and Ijaw land. For those people who are saying Timi Alaibe and some people are not developing Ijaw land, they don’t know the statistics, they are no studying, I am the Chairman of Independent Assessors, what we are doing is to assess what the state governments are doing in our land, Ijaw and what intervention agencies are doing in our land.

Let me say here that the NDDC projects we have at the moment, more of them are in Ijaw land, more of the major jobs are in Ijaw land and that is courtesy of Timi Alaibe, that young man is doing beautifully well, trying to make sure that restiveness is quelled and he is one man that can actually bring about peace in the Niger Delta because he cuts across Ijaw land, he has   so many youth friends who fend through him, who gets scholarship through him, who had been helped severally before even he came into NDDC, and that is the man that I think at the moment the federal government should focus on.  

They should hold him Timi Alaibe, tight, they should empower him in such a manner that it could spill over to other youths. So that he can rehabilitate most of these youths who are even in the creeks. They can listen to him. I can assure the world on that, I can assure the international community on that. Embassies must hear this; Timi Alaibe should now be given the total responsibility. Federal government should hold him responsible for whatever that will happen if they are really able to empower him and give more funding to NDDC. They should give him a mandate to rehabilitate youths from the creeks to main land and get very responsible. Timi Alaibe can do it because, almost all the youths and youth groups in the Niger Delta irrespective of tribe respect him, and they all respect him. That we have said and found out that, so we are going to forward this to all embassies, we will equally forward this to the federal government and that there is the need to have a group of people the youths have believe in that must be given the responsibility of rehabilitating them, and bring about peace and we have assessed properly and we are saying that Timi Alaibe can get that done.

Having said so much on what the Ijaws want, what is your take on the proposed Consolidated Committee being put in place to solve the problems of the coastal area of the Niger Delta by Mr. President .

No, the new Consolidated Development committee for the coastal area of the Niger Delta cannot solve the problems of the area. The Niger Delta people, the Ijaw people in particular of whom I have a right to speak for in terms of the youths axis, Our people are not demanding for Police recruit, we are not asking for enlistment into the Navy nor the Army. What that portends again is further danger. If Mr. President comes on board to say that look all oil multi-national companies, the federal government will relate with them, 5000 Ijaw youths, 5000 Itsekiri youths, 5000 Ogoni youths, 2000 this youths, 2000 that youths whatever the percentage, oil multinationals must employ them in junior and senior cadre, so and so percentage for management cadre, so and so percent for junior cadre for trainees so and so percentage, you will see that the Niger Delta people will be happy.

Today, you are talking about Police recruiting 2000 Ijaw people into the Police so that you post them back to the creek to go and kill their own people. That is the meaning our people are already giving to the proposed exercise. That they want to enlist us into the Police, Navy and the Army and post us back to the creek and kill our people. That is what our people are giving to it. It may necessary not be the intention of Mr. President, it may not be, but the meaning that our people are giving to it, is accurate, it is accurate because of the kind of manner people are treating us.

Ordinarily speaking if we have more people in the Navy, you do not need to bring people from the North, Igbo land and Yoruba land to man facilities in the Niger Delta if there is justice in the territory. If there is justice our people (Ijaw people) being posted to the creek, our people in the creek will know that these are our brothers, the navy will not kill the boys, and the boys too will not attack the Navy. If we have that type of situation there will be peace further in the region but that only can even happen in a situation of justice. In a situation of justice and to avoid it the boys are saying they will not join the Police, our people are saying they will join they will not join the Navy nor the Army.

The federal government too should even know again in another sense, that this does not solve the problem. You want to recruit our boys into the Navy, Army, Air force and the Police, lets imagine you will send them to those creek to man the your facilities, if there is any up rising and you send them to go and kill the boys and they turn around and fight the government, what kind of scenario are you drawing. It is another possible situation.

So government should not think one way about solution, definitely that can never be a solution at all. It is an irresponsible solution to the problem we have on ground. The people are talking about practical empowerment for the people. Our communities want to be re-located. There is no water for them to drink, their water has been destroyed. Their ecosystem is gone.   Their habitat has been destroyed. Their environment is close to madness. Poverty is facing them as madness in the major street of our cities. The people cannot feed three times a day. In those days, despite the poverty, they could go to the river and throw their nets and come back with fishes. These days they can’t go, they can’t get anything due to oil spillage and gas flaring, everything is reducing our humanity. The question now is after oil what will Nigeria do to us. If now that we Shave oil they don’t care about us. When oil finishes, they will not care about us totally. That is what we are talking about.

So that is not the solution. The solution once again is practical empowerment for our people, employment opportunities in oil multinationals, in those days they say we don’t read, we are not educated even those of us who gets first class as Ijaw people in Geology, in Mechanical Engineering and related fields, they don’t employ them, rather they employ non Ijaw indigenes in this multinationals to come and work in Ijaw areas, that cannot bring peace. They are even endangering the lives the people you bring at this moment of consciousness you are endangering the Hausa man, the Yoruba man, endangering the Igbo man. Whose oil is not what they are exploring? To come and work there and get fat payments at the expense of the Ijaw man who cannot even get menial payment.

The oil multinationals are seemingly in heaven with electricity, pipe borne water to drink on House boats, on top of the waters and communities hither to live in penury in stalk poverty. You can see darkness, it is between heaven and hell, that is what the people are talking about, again that is what MEND is even saying, that is why some of us are out rightly not afraid, we come out to say that we identify with some of their demands of MEND.

That is not the solution, they should look for the solution. If they don’t know it, they should give us this empowerment, we will be able to solve this problem, we will tell them, not that type of stakeholders forum where every Tom Dick and Harry will be talking and praising Mr. President, praising their governors, praising whoever they want to praise there, to curry favour and get future appointment, that is why the Ijaw people have demanded, under the able leadership of Prof. Kimse Okoko and the Ijaw National Congress INC which he leads, that Mr. President must have direct talks and dialogue with the Ijaw ethnic nationality and listen to our demands. Fundamental among them that is at the front burner today is the creation of Toru-Ebe and Oil River states.

Now Hon. Kuku, as you have explained the Ijaw People’s grievances with the proposed Consolidated Committee and this necessitated a meeting of Ijaw Elders and Leaders of Thought, to take a position on the issue concerning the latter in Yenegoa. Reports have it that the forum came out with two different communiqué, does it now suggests a sign of divided front on the Ijaw position?  

Let me correct that impression as a matter of fact there is actually no division between our Elders and Leaders of thought. There is neither non, there is neither any between Chief E.K.Clark and Prof. Kimse Okoko or among our elders generally. The fundamental issues is that I was part of that said meeting and I am not saying the publication made or signed by Chief E.K.Clark is false. Chief Clark is not a false leader; Chief Clark is Ijaw national leader. He is a leader with repute. He is someone that we all respect duly. He is a man who speaks and we all listen. But you see issues of fundamental principles over the existence of an ethnic nationality, is something you don’t joke with. Prof Kimse Okoko signed communiqué, that was published in the Guardian Newspaper represents the true decisions and resolutions of that meeting. The one signed by Chief E.K.Clark that I saw on the papers, actually looked like an influenced communiqué by the Government of Bayelsa state. In the said meeting I had some personal problems with the Secretary to Bayelsa State Government (SSG) Dr. Boladei Igali, because I said it clearly that it looks like he actually had carried the Governor of Bayelsa state Dr. Jonathan Goodluck to influence Chief E.K.Clark to doing what happened. Some of these things we resolved internally, they now went out of their ways to publish what we never agreed on.

Prof. Okoko as you know him is somebody that will not participate in that kind of arrangement, so Okoko came up with the true reflection of what transpired at that meeting. I was part of that meeting, so what you see Okoko signed as the communiqué contains the resolution of that meeting and that is correct and authentic. There is actually no problem. Those are issues that could be resolved. We don’t actually have any thing to be resolved. We move on as one. We have all agreed we have all seen it, a little disagreement, Ijaw nation is one and it is more important than anybody’s opinion. We remain as one.

Now, on the issue of $1.5bn that is about N210bn which the Court has ruled in favour of the Ijaw Aborigines led by Chief Pere Ajuwa, can you tell us the much you know about that development?

Yes, as you must know High Chief Pere Ajuwa heads the Ijaw aborigines of Bayelsa state, looking at the poverty, the degradation, the exploitation of Ijaw land by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) he then led the people and took SPDC to court, either to, people have always abused and accused the Ijaw people of being uncivilized and being always violent in nature. This time around High Chief Pere Ajuwa introduced civility to it. He took SPDC to court instead of allowing the youths to begin to close down their facilities or violently attack them with the military attacking them in return and a counter attack that will result to people dying, innocent people and communities being destroyed and killed. Chief Ajuwa choose the constitutional part, hence the people are in court.

The High court had ruled in favour of Chief Pere Ajuwa and the other plaintiffs. It is very very vital for Ijaw nation. It is a great victory for our people. It is a victory for the Niger Delta people and I think by the time this judgment is implemented it would have availed to some discipline that every multinationals would respect the host communities and the environments. But you see Shell is not listening, they are appealing the judgment, the court order to pay the $1.5bn as reparation, as compensation for the destruction of our ecological system, and damages caused to our environment by Shell activities, they (Shell) are rather appealing.

High Chief Pere Ajuwa and his team, of course with our prayers again and our support had gone ahead, they went and the Federal High Court Yenegoa, sitting in PH delivered again recently that, look before you commence the case in court properly at the Court of Appeal of your appeal processes, deposit this one $1.5bn with the CBN by noon presiding the date of the hearing. That is the judgment, a wonderful judgment that means we still have faith in the judiciary. It is actually the last place for the common. But Shell again we have heard, is even appealing that judgment, that look there was error in justice. I can’t understand what the lawyers meant by that. Error of justice, so they (Shell) have the right to delay the payment as directed. For us Judgment has been made and we expect Shell to compile as directed by the law court. Rather Shell has gone to court to appeal the judgment. Well, I think it’s not the depositing judgment they are appealing. It is the initial judgment of $1.5bn that they have a right to appeal and that is what I suppose they are appealing.

Let me tell you, whatever it is that $1.5b or not, if Shell wants to operate peaceful in the Niger Delta; they should deposit that $1.5bn to the CBN. They should just peacefully deposit it. If they refuse to deposit that money, ultimately if the judiciary in supporting this fair judgment delivered by the federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, it means the Niger Delta territory will be worse to handle. Shell must pay that money, whether they bring in politics and sentiments to say the FG will pay 55% of that money and that 45% of it will be paid by Shell and other joint venture company partners is nobodies business. If to pay just about N221bn to Ijaw Aborigines is a problem to them. It is unfortunate. Let them calculate how they have taken from our resources, how much they have made from the token they made from our land, and am sure that Shell can boost of nothing less than $200bn from 1956 to date from our territory. To merely pay $1.5bn of it to Ijaw People as a token for compensation they are going to every court in the world. If they like Shell should go to world court or go to Heaven court.

Shell will pay this money or they will leave our territory. Shell may no longer operate in our territory. That is not enough. If we look at it well, they don’t even employ our own people, now they tell our people with the crisis caused by MEND, they say every Niger Delta indigene especially Ijaw people that is qualified bring your CV. They have nothing less than thousand   of our CV in their offices and they are not even listening to the people. So they are wasting time. You don’t come to my territory and work but you don’t employ my own qualified people. You move out of Ijaw land and employ Hausa people, Yoruba people to come and work there and you think you will have peace there. In those days they use to tell us that we don’t have qualified people. Now we have Geologist, we have every cadre of professional.   We have them in abundance. We have them in there thousands but they don’t employ our people. So they must employ our people and it is on that basis that we are now making a call that unless Shell pays this money and change the policy of company and host community relation. They must quit the Niger Delta for an American company like Chevron to take leadership of the joint venture companies, because it looks like the JVC partnership they have Shell is the leading partner, but Shell is a misbehaving company to the Ijaw land. We don’t want them, they should quit, at a point we will demand for their movement out of our territory as a matter of fact if they refuse to deposit this $1.5bn to the CBN and ultimately if this money is not paid, Shell will leave the Niger Delta. They are not operating in Ogoni land. We will stop them from operating in every where the Ijaws are. As we will want an American company may be Chevron Texaco or a new one to come on board.

Chevron Texaco is operating in Warri, Shell is not working there, let me tell you nobody is disturbing Chevron Texaco facilities in the area that is to say they have a good relationship with their host communities. Shell should learn from them, if they (Shell) are not willing to learn then its hard times for them.

 Hon. What is your take on the recent developments on the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC)

I can’t find any development in the IYC funny. I am a co-founder of that body IYC. I beloved the IYC and wherever I am today I throw my weight behind the IYC through my participation in the organization. I participated actively as an executive member of the body. That body’s principle and ambitions guided my political participation outside the body, and because I beloved and also because I had always been part of the vision of the body, even my participation outside the body, my partisan body politics is been influenced by the principle of that body. As much as I love the IYC, so I treasure it to the extent that I will not comply in any form with any person or group of persons that believed that out of their own personal understanding or misunderstanding of the day to the tenets of the organization.

The organization must move forward, we would not agree with such persons. One, Nengi James who recently declared himself as the Acting President of IYC, looking at Tekena Beregha who connived with other people and decided to move out to mess up the elected President Oweinfie Jonjon and Oweinfie Jonjon himself, if look at them, when we were leaders of this body these three principal actors of today in the seemingly leadership tussle all participated patriotically. Yes they are patriots of this body the IYC. So as I am, I don’t join issues with people who have sacrificed their time, their money and safety to existence of the body. There are bound to be crises. Seemingly mistakes committed by even all of us who are no longer in the body. Even when we were there, we made some errors. But for them being principal actors today, error are bound to come but these three principal actors are so important that it will be so wrong for anybody who sees himself as a patriot in Ijaw land to condemn or criticize any one of them wrongly. What people like us should be doing is to put them together, create a formidable unity between even the three of them and their supporters and those who are even neutral in the seemingly crisis and put the IYC on a proper perspective.

We must go back to our glorious era and that is what we are moving towards. The important thing, that occurred of instant is that the National Executive of the IYC did meet in Yenegoa and they took a far reaching decision among which was to set up a convention planning committee. There are even suggesting that I am part of that committee. They are even suggesting I should chair the convention planning committee.

As a member of Ondo House of Assembly, a lot of people expect that I should not go back to the IYC and take up such responsibilities. But I think that since the IYC produced me that is a body that must do everything necessary as a human being to ensure its consolidation, I must ensure that, the body is intact, because it is our basic protection.

It is the only ethnic group’s organization that is surviving very strongly whether it is MEND or not, all these bodies cannot say they do not have there own people coming out from the influence exerted on the Ijaw land by the IYC. I will on my own do whatever I can to put the proper convention along side other patriots and ensure that we put up a very strong and virile national executive, zonal executive and of course clan leadership of the IYC. We must put them in proper perspective this year for it to be properly defined or re-focused Ijaw agenda for self determination and resource control and freedom our people within the Niger Delta.  

So in one word you really beckoning on the various fractions to harmonize there differences so that they could forge ahead.

Actually there is no need beckoning on any group, anymore, we have all heard and we have told them, we like the elders of this organization, we have told them that they must put their supporters under check and ensure that a united IYC emerges and they all know that the IYC as a body is bigger than Kingsley Kuku, bigger than Felix Tuodolo and bigger than all of them and because they all love the IYC, they are not getting personal about it to the body but to themselves. But because they all love the existence of the organization as we came in sacrificing time, money whatever we have to come to the fore to say that look this body is more important than any of us, we must bring it back to its glorious days, they all conceded to it and I think we are to have a wonderful convention.  

On the aborted issue of constitution amendment Hon., what do you think will be consequences of the death of tenure elongation agenda, the rest issues such as derivation and state creation?

You see from the time they commence the issue of Constitutional amendment, you actually will understand the fact that I have been one of the anti-third term legislators all over the country. I have been everywhere, gone even to the print and electronic media to canvass the support against third term. Let me tell you, the reason why this remains sacrosanct is all the one hundred and fifteen other items listed from within the Constitution in addition to tenure elongation which was their reason for their amendment they were deceiving us. They were deceiving Nigerians. It is as simple as that. Look at what Senator Ibrahim Mantu did, that is why some of us liked the Governor of Cross Rivers state. When they were to move the conference on Constitutional amendment jamboree to his state, the man said he had no such money to fund that kind of project and that the money he had, he want to spend it to pay his civil servants.

Governor Donald Duke, a handsome governor, a governor who knew what he has doing for his people. Said "I have no time to waste money for a jamboree like that" while the Governor of Rivers state Dr. Peter Odili jumped at it that look he was going to host it, and I am sure he spent close to N500 million of the Rivers state peoples money, Ijaw peoples money, monies that were not coming from his own territory, spent all that kind of sum to host a jamboree of sort.

Senator Mantu knowing fully well he was acting a script at the end of the day, look at what have happened. We said earlier and we cried out under our agitation we cried out publicly that look the whole issue of tenure elongation is the idea behind the amendment and all other items are irrelevant to them. They used them to cajole us. At the end of the day because third term issue could not succeed, everybody doused all the stability about other items. Other items are not important to them. The most disappointing set of legislators I have ever seen in this world are the South-south legislators by that I mean the Niger Delta legislators in the National Assembly. The Senators and House of Representatives members from the Niger Delta are terrible people.

If you look at the Niger Delta only three of them or so including the only basic woman among them Hon. Temi Harriman, she did well. She stood her grounds. She actually went home consulted her people in Warri and came back with the mandate of the people, that look go and canvass against third term and she did just that in the floor of the hose of Representative. All what she did was not personal rather she did it in the interest of her people and the belief of her people.

I must confess most of our legislators at the federal level don’t know what they are doing and I don’t blame them. It is because they didn’t win their elections. I have said it before. Anybody who wins his election could not have done what they did on the floor of the Senate and House of Representative. As we strongly believe they were hand picked or appointed in some other sort. They got to the National Assembly and were listening to peoples views as their God fathers because most of them where looking for personal gains, because of alleged money they were to collect or because of the alleged promises they had that they were going to have automatic ticket to come back. They forgot that even if some body gives you a promise in Abuja the people must be consulted. They have forgotten that the only man who can stand the test of time in politics for you to remain reasonable beyond today, not because of certain upsets that some other people in power privileged will probably cost you but because after all the forces you must remain relevant with your people, they have forgotten that the best thing was start struggling with what your people belief in. It is important. It is fundamental but they didn’t understand it. Now for us in the Niger Delta people, particularly for those of us who are Ijaw people, whether it is tenure elongation or not. Third term or fourth term or fifth is irrelevant to us.

What we have been saying is that look if there were to be fifth term or third term, you don’t start the game and suddenly shift the goal post. Like the period of the amendment was wrong. The period they came in to amend the constitution was wrong. According to the federal Attorney General, and I believe what he said passionately. He said it and I believe what he said; he said how can a session of Senate and House of Representative in the National Assembly amend one hundred and sixteen items. It is not possible. Amendment is not a day job.

It became laughable when I saw them listed for P.H when Senator Ibrahim Mantu went for the jamboree. What we wanted was the National Assembly simply taking maybe about ten of the listed items; it would have been easier for them to amend. But because all those amendments came, they wanted to use State creation to get the Igbo people’s support as they wanted to use 25%derivation to get the support of the Niger Delta people; they wanted to use several parts of this amend on it to get other people, to support third term and when their idea failed, they just spoilt every other relevant items.

But let me tell you, the Ijaw people want the creation of Toru-Ebe state. It’s very important that Toru-Ebe state is created for the Ijaw people. We cannot spend the Ijaw people money to fund nothing less than nineteen northern states, five eastern states, six Yoruba states and may be some other funny states in the South-south states. Our own money nothing less than 65% oil earnings accruing to Nigeria nation comes from Ijaw land, you cannot use   our money to fund your local governments, your several local governments, nothing less than 44 in Kano state, and you give eight local government to Bayelsa state and you want peace, there can’t be peace.

If they want peace in the Niger Delta, it should be made clear to them that Bayelsa state must have not less than fifty local government areas, if Kano must have 44, because Kano is producing nothing. You don’t take my money to fund your local governments and you give me eight local government. Why the constitution says local government within a state must be nothing less than ten. You now give eight to us. So our state is even on a platform of some levels of illegalities. So we want nothing less than sixty local government areas for Bayelsa state. We want Toru-Ebe state with nothing less than forty local government areas created within it. Toru-Ebe state is an advocacy for the Ijaws of Ondo state, the Ijaws of Edo state and the Ijaws of Delta state to put together to form a state.

State creation should be based on sustainability. The state created must have an ability to sustain itself. You must not depend on other state to survive as a state. You must not depend on Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers state to sustain a state you want to create in a desert island, you do that but through military coup and military administration that they had the northerners were able to do that well for themselves and they gave equal opportunity to those who were now complaining at that time we were the people who suffered it, except for Gen. Sani Abacha we won’t have got to where we are today.

So we want President Obasanjo before he lives office to ensure that he compensates the Ijaw people. Mr. President has dealt serious blows on the Ijaw nation. Odi was destroyed under him. Several of our women and children have been maimed or killed in Ijaw land. He had made Alamieyeseigha almost a prisoner; Alhaji Dokubo-Asari is there under detention in Abuja at the Force CID. So Mr. President has dealt several blows on the Ijaw nation, hence we are saying he must compensate us with a state. It is relevant for him to do so.

We want Toru-Ebe state, then we want Oil Rivers state for the Ijaws of Rivers state and Akwa Ibom. In Akwa Ibom we have two Ijaw local government areas, Ebeno LGA and Eastern Obolo LGA, these are Ijaw people. Mobil in Akwa-Ibom is hosted by the Ijaw territory, but go there they put in place a deliberate policy to make it look like it is an Ibibio state. So you can see the Ijaw people are made to suffer everywhere they are.

We seem to be caused and because I have this history that we had moved from Israel, since Israel has know no peace, maybe we Ijaws too may not know peace, because everywhere you find an Ijaw man, there is one war between him and himself or between him and his neighbour. It is a terrible thing. But God who placed us in the territories with oil is not a mistaken God. He actually felt that look, stay here, use this resource to build yourself bring development and justice to yourself. So if human beings come from nowhere and collaborate and conspire against the owners of the resource one day they can only delay us we shall surely get freedom in whatever form. And I believe that freedom will come in this our time. I will die to hear it. I will be alive to see it come to past. So we want that state created for us. It is important.

You may want to ask, why do we need it? The Ijaw people are not championing a cause for secession, we are not saying we want to leave Nigeria, we are saying we want to remain as Nigeria and for me I believe it is better for us to be Nigerian than Ijaw Republic or Niger Delta Republic, no I am not thinking about that. I disagree with that, I want a situation where we will be Nigerians in a federal and truly equitable Nigeria that is what we are talking about. There must be equity, there must be natural justice, people must belief I have this resource and I must get a due share out of it. You don’t take my resource and develop your land and deprive me.

Go to the Niger Delta, every Ijaw community there is oil, you see multi-national corporations with electricity every social amenities is available in their house boats. If you look beyond that, you just see the Ijaw communities who are the host communities given them the oil in darkness, permanent darkness that is the kind of thing we are talking about. There is no University in any Ijaw land. Meanwhile they built all their Universities with our oil money. There is no Ijaw community linked to the national grid except Patani in Delta state which happened not long ago, even that itself, the supply is skeletal. Yenegoa the Bayelsa state capital is not yet connected to the national grid.

The Bayelsa State government spends the state money to source for electricity as against what obtains in other parts of the country. The state government spends the state money to but turbine and even now the turbine is burnt. There is no light anywhere in Yenegoa, maybe only in Government House and those who can afford plants and generators for themselves. In fact the kind of justice we are talking about in the country, for those who are advocating for peace must understand that we want development based on justice and equity. You don’t talk about peace without justice. We want justice first and for justice to come, we want further participation. We want more states to participate politically in Nigeria because they get our money and they divide the money on the bases of states and LGAs. So we want to participate in it. You don’t give us just one state. We want nothing less than 2 more states added to the existing Bayelsa state so that we can have more local government areas and three states for ourselves and participate well. We will be happy.

We want states and when these states come and they are now known as Toru-Ebe state, Oil Rivers state and Bayelsa state, the Ijaw people will be very glad with the Nigeria nnation.