Former President, Goodluck Jonathan’s kinsmen congregating under the umbrella of Ijaw National Congress, INC, yesterday rose from a summit where they insisted that the current structure of the Nigerian state was lopsided in favour of other ethnic nationalities in the country.
They lament in a communiqué issued after the Pan Ijaw Stakeholders summit titled, ‘Ijaw Agenda Beyond May 29, 2015′, that the inequality was such that there is no adequate sociopolitical and economic space for the minor ethnic nationalities, particularly the Ijaws, to thrive.
The communiqué was signed by 31 prominent Ijaw leaders, including former Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; former Military Governor of old Rivers State, King Alfred Diete-Spiff; and Emeritus Professor of History, Ebiegberi Alagoa.
Co-hosted by the INC and the Bayelsa State Government, the event was chaired by Diete-Spiff, who is also the Amanyanabo of Twon Brass. The summit regretted that successive administrations in Nigeria had proved unwilling to accede to the demand by the Ijaws to be united in a homogeneous political entity of their own.
Observing that Nigeria was made up of diverse ethnic nationalities with varying histories, motivations and aspirations, they held that the ethnic nationalities should rather form the basis of a true Nigerian federation.
The communiqué reads in part, “Conscious of the fact that the environment remains the most valuable physical resource for development and survival of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, the summit notes that the Ijaw oil and gas communities suffer the deleterious effects of oil and gas exploration and exploitation.
“But we regret the inability of the Nigerian state to address the concomitant negative impacts on the health, economy, culture and environment of the Ijaw people. This reality is leading to the gradual extinction of the Ijaw people.
“Dissatisfied with the present constitutional and legislative arrangements for resource control and allocation in Nigeria, the summit observes that in all true federations and other civilised states, the communities that bear natural resources control these resources and only pay taxes to the central government. Nigeria is the only exception.
“Aware of the fact that violence and restiveness is a new phenomenon foisted on Ijaw people by circumstances of oppression and frustration, we observe that continued militarisation of Ijaw territory has resulted in severe erosion of our cherished values as a people,” it noted.
The Ijaw nationals resolved on the imperative for them to go about promoting and sustaining the Izon language as part of the desires to maintain and promote their cultural values in Nigeria.
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