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IYC Celebrates the 1oth Anniversary of KAIMA
DECLARATION.
11th December 2008
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kaiama declaration - the road map to peace and economic
sustainability in the niger delta - A SPEECH DELIVERD BY
THE PRESIDENT OF IYC - DR. CHRIS EKIYOR
Today
marks in the history of the Ijaw people, 10 years after
the famous Kaiama Declaration; that serves to provide
justice, equity and respect in a truly Federal Nigerian
State. Followers of the socio-political development of
our people prior to the Kaiama Declaration on the 11th
of December, 1998 by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC); we
know that the destiny of our people seemed bleak. The
declaration, which is not a declaration of war serves to
create enablers that will bring an end to the descent of
the Barbarians and reintroduce values that cherish
equity, development, empowerment, survival opportunities
and also preaches freedom for all and a right, to our
God given resources.
The
declaration which reads thus;
“THE KAIAMA DECLARATION
We, IJAW
YOUTHS DRAWN from over 500 communities from over 40
clans that make up the Ijaw nation and representing 25
representative organizations met today, in Kaiama to
deliberate on the best way to ensure the continuous
survival of the indigenous peoples of the Ijaw ethnic
nationality of the Niger Delta within the Nigerian
state.
After
exhaustive deliberations, the Conference observed as
follows:
1. That
it was through British colonization that the IJAW NATION
was forcefully put under the Nigerian State;
2. That
but for the economic interests of the imperialists, the
Ijaw ethnic nationality would have evolved as a distinct
and economic, social and cultural AUTONOMY.
3. That
the division of the Southern Protectorate into East and
West in 1939 by the British marked the beginning of the
balkanization of a hitherto territorially contiguous and
culturally homogenous Ijaw people into political and
administrative units, much to our disadvantage. This
trend is continuing in the balkanization 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;
4.
That the quality of life of Ijaw people is
deteriorating as a result of utter neglect, suppression
and marginalization visited on Ijaws by the alliance of
the Nigerian state and transnational oil companies;
5.
That the political crisis in Nigeria is mainly
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;
6.
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 flaring, the
opening up of our forests to loggers, indiscriminate
canalization, 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;
7.
That the degradation of the environment of
Ijawland by transnational oil companies and the Nigerian
State arises 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 Lnads (Title Vesting etc.) Decree No. 52
of 1993 (Osborne Land Decree). The National Inland
Waterways Authority Decree No. 13 of 1997 etc;
8.
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 rumoured 13% in Abacha’s 1995 undemocratic and
unimplemented Constitution;
9.
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 are divided, weak and distracted from
the causes of their problems;
10.
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 Babagida and his cohorts.
We note that over 70% of the billions of dollars
being looted by military rulers ad their civilian
collaboratoers is derived from our ecological 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 recognize 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 are. We are tired of gas
flaring; oil spillages, blowouts and being labeled
saboteurs and terrorists. It is a case of preparing the
noose for our hanging. We reject this labeling. Hence,
we advice all oil companies staff and contractors to
withdraw from Ijaw territories by the 30th of
December, 1998 pending the resolution of the issue of
resource ownership and control in 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
neighbours: the Itsekiris, Ilajes, Urhobos, Isokos, Edos,
Ibibios, Ogonis, Ekpeyes, Ikwerres, etc. we affirm our
commitment to join struggle with the other ethnic
nationalities in the Niger Delta area for
self-determination;
6. We
express our solidarity with all peoples, organizations
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 – Abubakr 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 ethnic
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;
and
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, equally 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.
Kaiama Decleration was never a declaration of war;
however, the means by which we live out-distance the end
for which we live. By this, I want to say this
historical antecedents which started on the 30th
of December, 1998 led us through many phases that
finally culminated in a conflict that set to destroy the
very foundation we so desired to protect. Like in every
civil right movement that deep-rooted in self-identity
and awareness, conflict is bound to generate. What we
make of this conflict is what matters most. Our
historical background shows that the Ijaws are
indigenous to the Niger-Delta and we have no other home
than the Niger-Delta and remains the oldest indigenous
dwellers. Our unfortunate involuntary journey into the
Nigerian State, which basically was to protect the
British interest in 1914 marks the beginning of great
agitation that serves to give us our own identity.
Looking back, ten years is such a long-time.
We came,
we saw, we fought, we won and we are loosing; today, we
need a curious blend of ideology and practicality; a
constructive and not the destructive traditional values
is what we must begin to identify with. In the course of
pursuing of legitimate goals to protect our God-given
inheritance, we have lost brothers, sisters, loved one;
what manner of prize is this? The Ijaw Youth Council, a
pious but prevailing social force has dared all things
to bring about change that would bring meaning to human
personality and life, but has met with resistance from
all frontiers. Certainly, the Ijaws have been deprived;
Niger-Deltans marginalized. The agitations which brought
about the creation of the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC) seek to intervene and address the
change that we desire, but 8years after, the commission
has been disadvantaged, the people further impoverished
with our hopes dashed; there was an air of inevitability
in the region, first, there was tension, riots and then
blood. “Blood called to blood”, given rise to
kidnapping, hostage-taking and arms struggle from coast
to coast. A violence that has been unprecedented in
this contraption called Nigeria; now stares us like a
vicious circle. We had dialogues upon dialogues,
conferences upon conferences and yet another conference.
Despite the latent deficiencies of these conferences,
our hopes were always dashed. The turmoil of our
statehood shows clearly that Government come and go and
with the reckless abandon they loot our treasury with
great impurity they exploit our resources with the
Multinational Corporations conspiracy, the Federal
Government culpable, the Niger-Delta Governors are not
exempted. The National Assembly announced recently that
N500 trillion has been received thus far by the
Niger-Delta States from the Federation account in the
last ten years; there is nothing to show for this.
Corruption is legendary, darkness is legendary and
poverty is legendary. Multinationals, the Federal
Government has consistently turned the Niger-Delta into
a conquered territory by the presence of the military in
every corners of the creeks in the Niger-Delta. The
posture of the present President Musa Yar’adua’s
administration is one that pretends to seek peace in the
Niger-Delta by adding it as one of the 7 Points Agendas;
and such claim is a farce because as I speak now, the
President has visited the Niger Delta; have we been
excluded from the Federal Republic? In the 2009 Budget,
the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has been
sub-changed from 97billion in 2008 to 27billion in 2009
and the Niger-Delta Ministry supposedly created to
address the needs of our people is now saddled with the
burden of an East-West Road that leads to nowhere with a
petty sum of N47billion, obviously a deduction from the
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) regular
allocation. This is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Tell me my brothers, how do end this vicious circle of
crisis, when the shameful misdeeds of those who rule the
country have persistently exploited and subsumed the
desire of those who seek the freedom? ON KAIAMA
DECLARATION WE STAND: and today, we meet
under totally different condition; one which do not
usher in violent of any form, but which says, WE MUST
WALK TALL AND STRAIGHT and as Africans and
Nigerians, we must unite to resist the oppressions of
those who serve to lord over us in a so called
Democratic dispensation. Like Napoleon Bonaparte said,
soldiers you are naked and ill fed, the Government owes
you much and can give you nothing. I want to likewise
say; expect we rise up through a non-violent direct
action in a united force we will never see justice ON
KAIAMA DECLARATION WE STAND: The Government
must know this, that forces are now converging to make
possible for the first time, the hope that man’s deepest
aspiration can at least be realized and to match the
magnitude of this task, we need the energies of our
people, not in the barrels of the guns but in the
intellects of our head. If the distant goal we seek is
peace, then the road to peace is peace itself.
For our
cousin brothers who make the law and rule us: the
National Assembly, State Assembly and the Executive Arm
of Government, this is the time to begin to address the
issues of change that we all seek, ON KAIAMA
DECLARATION WE STAND: The Niger-Delta is
like a time bomb seeking to explode; the struggle this
time is a struggle for the soul of our God’s given
right. We would dare all things, ignoring the pressures
of our oppressors, so that every single man in the
Niger-Delta we truly be free. Our resource is our right
and our life. A deliberate attempt to ship the hub of
oil activity from the core oil bearing Niger-Delta to
the West is unacceptable. As a people, we must stand
united. All Niger-Deltans must key into the vision of
this Declaration and resist those who seek to oppress
us. ON KAIAMA DECLARATION WE STAND: We
reaffirm today that this solemn Declaration which Ijaw
Youths in worldwide gave to ourselves is our right and
our life ON KAIAMA DECLARATION WE STAND.
Let us not be deceived to think that struggle for self
determination will end without justice in the land.
Today, we have all been given the grand opportunity to
prove our worth as the architect of a new life and let
it never be said that we did not prove equal to the
task. ON KAIAMA DECLARATION WE STAND. This
is our chance for liberation and a new beginning and a
new life.
HAA
IJAW, HAA KALABARI YE, WOKITE, MMALMANA-YAH, AKUMAFIETE
OH …..! Today is a means to an end. Where do you
stand, and which are drinking, the waters or the waves?
May the walks of forefathers forever be on the sands of
time.
LONG LIVE IJAW YOUTH COUNCIL
LONG LIVE THE NIGER-DELTA STRUGGLE
LONG LIVE THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA.
Dr.
Chris Ekiyor
President
Ijaw Youth Council (Worldwide)
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