United Ijaw States

We are tired of 100 years of forced amalgation, servitude, injustice and outright scorn by the Nigerian nation. We are angry, agitated, and we will be restless until we break the yoke of Nigeria from our neck…. Titoe Miriki

“You cannot produce anything because you are lazy. It is your laziness that is making you to make all these demands”.President Olusegun Obasanjo to Niger Deltans on Monday, March 10, 2003

"It is the destiny of the whole, not of a part that is up for negotiation… Above all, however, let no one deny this inalienable right of a people, a right of any people, at any moment, under any circumstances, to embark upon the quest of coming into their own self-defining, self-constitutive history. (March 23-24, 2000)….. Prof. Wole Soyinka

"…..it is still a long way for our people to understand that they can take their destiny in their hands, and rise up against oppressive forces….Beko Ransome Kuti

What I saw in Odi reminds me of a phrase in Latin: hori willet wizzle, meaning horrible sight, agonizing, embarrassing, shameful. This was what I saw. I saw a degradation of human habitation and sadness written on the faces of hapless and helpless women, faces that showed mourning." Even the Butcher of Abuja did not do this! I hope one day Obasanjo will be put on trial for this, the murder of Lady Kuti, and other heinous crimes that apparently doesn’t bother the conscience of this ‘born again christian’. How any human being can support this sort of thing, especially in a ‘democracy’ is way beyond my imagination" …Senator Durojaiye

"When the people rise up, no one will be able to contain them. The government will be surprised by the magnitude of the uprising,"

"People will demand self-determination and resource control. We have been suffering under the bondage of an illegitimate Nigerian state for too long," Dokubo Asari

Nigeria is regularly ranked in the top two most corrupt countries in the world. Despite earning over $100m a day from oil exports, Nigeria and Angola are ranked among the 30 poorest countries in the world"… Antony Goldman

"I consider that Nigeria is on the verge, on the brink of a massive implosion that will make what’s happening in the Sudan child’s play. We know there are movements for secession in this country. We know that everybody is preparing for the contingency of breaking up. International organisations are also studying the situation,"… Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Prize Winner for Literature.. Reuters Alert, July 8, 2004.

“When the soldiers arrived at the community yesterday with their gunboats, our people thought they came for peace, and so no one raised any dust. Our chiefs gathered immediately at the palace of the Amanyanabo to await the soldiers to explain their mission, but the next thing that happened was shooting, shooting, shooting…. firing and firing. The soldiers were shooting at everyone, and started burning houses at the waterside”– Philemon Kelly Dickson, Odioma community spokesperson

“So, all I am saying is that if you make a law that there should be no resource control, does that law touch our minds? Does it stop us from our agitation? No. Resource control is part of federalism. There is no way anybody can divorce it from true federalism. We cannot run away from it, that is why I said  if you make a new enactment, a new decree, whatever you do, it will not stop us from talking about and insisting on resource control,” ...Chief E.K. Clark