Date Published: 09/26/09

Niger Delta: Why youths took up arms, by IJAW Foundation

AN IJAW group, Ijaw Foundation, says the prevailing pervasive youths restiveness and resistance in the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil and gas region, are compelled and propelled by the imperative for survival and self-defence, in the spirit of Isaac Adaka Boro. 

In an on-line statement to our correspondent on Friday, the Ijaw group claimed that the armed youths were resisting '' political subjugation, relentless ruthless oppression, unbridled plundering of their oil and gas resources, wanton destruction of their habitat and means of subsistence, their utter neglect and deprivation, and atrocious violation of their basic human rights and dignity through genocidal military occupation perpetrated by an occupying military force of the Nigerian State that kills Ijaw people with impunity. They are fighting against resultant abominable squalor, hopelessness, despair and anarchy''.

 The statement which was jointly signed by Dr. Ebipamone N. Nanakumo and Mr. Lincoln Snithers

president and secretary,respectively of the  Ijaw group said, ''o

ppression is enforced by violence and terror that rob its hapless victims of their peace. The Nigerian State has visited tremendous violence and terror upon us to subdue us in order to steal our resources. Nigeria’s military forces of occupation in Ijawland continually murder and maim us, and rape our women''.

According to them, ''we, the Ijaws, are therefore engaged in a noble and heroic Struggle for Peace, Human, Economic, and Environmental Rights by protesting against the horrendous violence and terror that have robbed us of our peace, dignity and natural rights. Ijaw youths are engaged in a noble and heroic pursuit of peace and natural rights by resisting and repelling the invading and occupying military forces of the oppressive Nigerian State that subjugates the Niger Delta people and deprives and wantonly violates their human, economic and environmental rights. Contrary to the disinformation and misinformation being spread about the noble and heroic activities of Ijaw youths, they do not perpetrate violence; instead, they are resisting violence and oppression; and, indeed, they are harbingers of peace and justice''.

Adding, they said, ''the Ijaws are engaged in a noble and legitimate agitation for Self Determination, Socioeconomic Justice, Environmental Protection and Survival. We only claim, demand and defend that which is rightly and justly ours. Our motivation is love, our passion is survival and justice, and our goal is peace. The Ijaws want peace in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and in the entire world. We welcome all genuine efforts geared towards achieving peace in the Niger Delta''.

On the the Amnesty Programme of the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration, they said it is not a genuine effort to achieve peace in the Niger Delta because it deliberately fails to address the fundamental causes and issues of the Niger Delta Conflict. ''The Amnesty Programme is unrealistic, confrontational, and inciting to violence and war. It is doomed to fail because it woefully fails to address the God-given and inalienable rights of the Ijaw people to self-determination, socioeconomic justice, environmental protection and survival'', they said. 

Continuing, they said, ''the programme is fundamentally unjust and unconscionable because it presents the unacceptable scenario whereby the Nigerian State that perpetrates heinous violence and genocidal military attacks against the Ijaws would keep and enhance its arms and ammunition while the Ijaw youths who are acting in self-defense will unilaterally surrender their arms so that the Nigerian State would, in an aggravated and accelerated manner, kill defenseless Ijaw people, destroy their habitat and means of sustenance, and rob them of their God-given wealth of crude oil and natural gas! It is crystal clear, therefore, that the amnesty is an instrument of subjugation and enslavement. It is intended to break our collective resolve. It is a phony promise of peace while it sets the motion for a military bloodbath!!''

The rest of the potentially controversial statement said: ''While it speaks about peace, the Nigerian government is aggressively sourcing weapons and military training from several countries to further its genocidal war against the Ijaws and the peoples of the Niger Delta. Instead of engaging the Ijaws in dialogue to peacefully resolve the conflict, the Nigerian State has entered into alliance with foreign countries and foreign interests against the hapless Ijaw people. Instead of protecting the Ijaws as its own citizens, Nigeria is treating the Ijaws as foreigners, colonial subjects and enemies. Nigeria is determined to exterminate us.

''In an article published by Niger Delta Rising on September 12, 2009, Daniel Volman, the Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC, reports that “t here is mounting evidence that the government of Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is set to launch a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta when a ceasefire declared by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) ends on 15 Sep 2009. And this time, Nigerian military forces will be using special warships, helicopter gunships and troop transports, and unmanned drone intelligence planes and ships sold to Nigeria by Israeli, Malaysian, Singaporean, Dutch, and Russian companies. Israeli and Russian instructors have been providing specialized training to Nigerian Navy and Air Forces sailors and pilots in how to operate the ships and helicopters over the past few months, and some of these instructors may help operate them during the offensive.”

''He also reveals that “the Nigerian government has recently been buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sophisticated weaponry and military hardware in preparation for a new offensive in the Niger Delta. These include deals worth $25 million for two 24.8-meter Shaldag MK-20 patrol boats (generally armed with artillery guns and machine guns) from the Israeli firm, Israel Shipyards—one has already been delivered and the other is on its way—and another deal involves air and sea drones from Aeronautica Ventures, another Israeli company. 80 Nigerian sailors are presently being trained in counter-insurgency operations at the northern Israeli port of Haifa. Nigeria recently bought a surveillance system for the Delta that uses Aerostar unmanned drones and Seastar vessels produced by Israel’s Aeronautics Defense Systems/Aeronautics Ventures. Nigeria acquired 20 troop-carrying catamarans from the Dutch firm, TP Marine, to transport soldiers up the creeks and small rivers of the Delta region. And the Nigerian Navy recently took delivery of two 38-meter Manta-class patrol boats built by the Nautica Nova Shipbuilding yard in Malaysia. These ships were officially commissioned on 12 April 2009. Another four 17-meter Manta-class patrol boats have also been delivered to Nigeria from Singapore Technologies Marine. The Nigerian Navy also recently procured 35 new machine-gun equipped fast patrol boats in a deal that was paid for by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, reportedly on the instructions of President Yar’Adua.” http://www.nigerdeltarising.org/article/2009/09/12/nigerian-government-preparing-imminent-military-offensive-delta

''We hereby recall with extreme sadness and pain that, in May 2009, the Gbaramatu Kingdom of the Ijaw Nation was visited with heinous genocide by the Nigerian military forces of occupation in the Niger Delta, the Joint Task Force (JTF): Operation Restore Hope, whereby thousands of our unarmed, non-combatant and defenseless people [mainly women, children, the elderly and the infirmed] were brutally murdered or maimed, and the towns and villages were viciously decimated and ferociously razed, by aerial bombardments, grenade attacks, and artillery attacks from fighter jets, warships and naval gunboats. It is ironical and unacceptable that the fighter jets, warships, naval gunboats, grenades, artillery and bombs that have been unleashed on our hapless Ijaw people are bought with the Ijaw oil money!It is unacceptable that our God-given wealth is being used to exterminate us!!

''Ijaw Foundation , a platform for collective action by all Ijaws and all Ijaw organizations in the Diaspora and the Ijaw homeland, hereby avers that armistice and justiceare absolute prerequisites for peace in the Niger Delta. Peace in the Niger Delta will be a mirage until the ruthless oppression of the Ijaws is fully and effectively remediated. Peace in the Niger Delta will remain an illusion as long as the occupational and genocidal military forces of the Nigerian State, the Joint Task Force (JTF) remains in Ijawland.

''It is highly hypocritical and offensive for the Nigerian State to talk of peace when it is aggressively procuring weapons to annihilate the Ijaws and consolidating the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta by relocating it from Warri to Yenagoa in the heart of the Niger Delta. It goes without saying that the total withdrawal and disbandment of the Joint Task Force (JTF) is an important prerequisite for disarmament and peace in the Niger Delta!

''The Niger Delta Conflict is a political conflict, and it demands a political solution rather than a military one.It cannot be over-emphasized that the only just and effective solution to the Niger Delta Crisis is the granting of political autonomy to the Niger Delta people to enable them have control and responsibility for the exploitation of their natural resources, including oil and gas, as well as the protection of the Niger Delta habitat on which they depend for their survival.To this end,we call for the immediate convocation of aSovereign National Conference to restructure Nigeria to give political autonomy to every ethnic nationality with a view to enthroning True Federalism; whereby the geopolitical units of the country control and manage their respective natural resources.The Sovereign National Conference must provide for Referendum on Political Autonomy for each ethnic nationality to make its own sovereign decision.

''We hereby call on President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the Nigerian State to work for, and create, genuine peace in the Niger Delta by implementing Armistice and Justice for the Niger Delta. We urge President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the Nigerian State to begin the process immediately by implementing the recommendations of the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta.