26th August 2022
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE IJAW NATIONAL CONGRESS (INC), PROF. BENJAMIN OKABA, DURING AN INTERFACE WITH SOME CONCERNED IJAW YOUTH GROUPS ON THE TRENDING OIL PIPLINE SURVELANCE CONTRACT, AT THE IJAW HOUSE, YENAGOA, ON FRIDAY 26 AUGUST, 2022.
Preamble
1. I would like to commence my remarks by thanking God Almighty for making this day possible. I, therefore, welcome you all great Ijaw sons and daughters to this august meeting.
2. Let’s remind ourselves that Ijaw land and indeed the Niger Delta has been the petroleum colony of federal oligarchs and their cohorts, whose only interest is to plunder our oil and gas resources for their personal aggrandizement while our people and communities wallow in abject poverty, want and underdevelopment.
3. The INC, as the apex umbrella organization for all Ijaws, has been working on several fronts of advocacy to not only foreground the socio-economic and environmental predicaments of our people, but also pursue the course for resource ownership, equity and justice by all legitimate means possible.
4. [b]To chart a robust path towards collectivizing Ijaw unity and common goal of the Ijaw struggle, the INC organized an All Ijaw Summit on December 4, 2021 where the Ijaw Question in the Nigerian State and the imperatives of our age-long quest for [b]self-determination were re-defined and re-calibrated with a clear roadmap underpinned by the instrumentality of the rule of law and international instruments.[/b][/b]
5. It is in view of the above concise preamble that I deem it necessary for us to interface and interact based on the brouhaha being generated by the recent reports of the renewal of oil pipeline surveillance contract to our brother, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly called Tompolo.
6. We understand that youths from some sections of the country, particularly the North, have risen in opposition to the job given to Tompolo by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to curb pipeline vandalism, illegal bunkering activities and other forms of oil theft in the Niger Delta.
7. There were also reports that some of them, especially those operating under the auspices of Arewa Youth platforms, have staged a protest to the NNPC Towers in Abuja against the surveillance job to Tompolo. They were said to have also issued the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to revoke the contract. They also called for the resignation of the Hon. Minister of Petroleum (State) Hon. Timipre Sylva.
8. While the INC commends the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and other groups for adequately responding to the meddlesomeness of the northern interlopers, we would like to emphasize that this is a critical time in Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta in general.
9. Let me reiterate that the time we are in, as a matter of fact, calls for tact, unity, brotherliness, understanding and cooperation amongst ourselves as Ijaw people. It does not call for disunity and misunderstanding of any sorts among ourselves as Ijaw people.
10. It is very important for us to avoid internal squabbles. We must restrain ourselves from sowing the seeds of discord or promoting the “Pull Him Down syndrome”. We should rather resist external aggressors and invaders of Ijaw territory. We must be patriotic to the peace and unity of Ijaw nation. This, at all times, must not be lost on us all.
11. Recently, the INC has been buffeted with reports of brewing tensions among various Ijaw youth groups as a result of the pipeline surveillance contract. We frown at such divisive tendencies and propensities.
12. It must not be said that the token was targeted at creating an arena of infighting among Ijaw and Niger Delta people and distract them from focusing on our well-articulated goals and objectives.
13. There are oppressive and suppressive national issues that are confronting us a people. For instance, the National Water Resources Bill, designed to subjugate us further, which requires our collective resolve and determination “as to defeat this monstrous agenda”; in collaboration with other concerned ethnic groups that share contiguous peculiarities “with us”. We must take cognizance of this fact and other dangers to our existential realities as Ijaw people in a convoluted Nigerian polity.
14. Perhaps, it may interest some of you to note that one of the traps or snags contained in the Petroleum Industry Act, 2022, to which the INC has kicked against, is the clause that says that communities that fail to protect oil pipelines in their environment from vandalisation will not be entitled to their percentage profit. “It is instructive to bring this provision to bare, notwithstanding, we are not in tandem with the enactment.”
15. This interface, therefore, is primarily to enable us come together as a family to understand ourselves better and see the urgent need to forge a common front regarding the surveillance contract. There is no need for the threats and counter-threats being brandished from different quarters.
16. We must realize that the job should not be a source of internal conflict that would cause destabilization and insecurity in Ijaw land. Our people have already suffered enough invasions and harassments by federal troops over the years on account of our oil and gas wealth. As you all know, our people are mainly farmers and fishermen and women who depend on our rivers, swamps and creeks for survival.
17. We must love ourselves and not allow this “crumb” to tear us apart.
“I make bold to enjoin you resting on all that we cherish and believe that, all of you” have a responsibility to ensure that Ijaw land is not made a battlefield for the shedding of blood and destruction of property and values.
18. Permit me to stress again that the irreducible minimum target of the Ijaw Struggle is Self- Actualization: Resources Ownership, Resource Control and Resource Management. It is unfortunate and ridiculous, that Ijaw Brothers are threatening to kill themselves over Crumbs (not even by way of Ownership of Oil Wells) given to us to help the State siphon away our God-given wealth.
19. In furtherance of the cardinal objectives of the INC, I enjoin you to constitute yourself into a committee charged with the responsibility of interfacing with the different Ijaw groups with a view to harmonizing their individual interest and to ensure that in the process the Ijaw Unity and Agenda are not compromised.
Thanks and Godbless
Prof. Benjamin Okaba.

Ijaw Republic or nothing else.

Jennifer663:
Okay?

Yeah.

Jazz go soon follow suit .

Ijoh:
Ijaw Republic or nothing else.

Too long. Summarize it for the rest of us that don’t want to read that long essay.

vastolord4:
Jazz go soon follow suit .

Not with Ijaw.
We believe in Egbesu and that settles it.

Ijoh:


Not with Ijaw.
We believe in Egbesu and that settles it.

Sure

BloomingDale:


Too long. Summarize it for the rest of us that don’t want to read that long essay.

Ijaw Republic our home.
May God bless our Ijaw Republic Hero General Ditari the leader of Ijaw Liberation Front (ILF).

[quote author=BloomingDale post=116080962][/quote]
Yeah, the bolded explains it.

These names you mentioned, are they Ijaw leaders ?

nazicartel:
These names you mentioned, are they Ijaw leaders ?

Which name is that?

Ijoh:


Which name is that?

Tompolo, Asari etc

nazicartel:
Tompolo, Asari etc

Ijaw Apex socio cultural organization the INC rules the Ijaw Nation.

Ijoh:

Ijaw Apex socio cultural organization the INC rules the Ijaw Nation.

Okay. That means those names you called are Ijaw leaders then