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Give us our republic -Niger Delta leaders tell Buhari

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•Say N/Delta oil is the reason every dick and Harry wants to be president

Leaders of the Niger Delta region have demanded self-determination to take total control of its resources to end the alleged exploitation, deprivation and slavery of their people in the Nigerian state.

According to the leaders, the people of the Niger Delta had been talking and agitating for resource control and restructuring of the country through conferences but to no avail, noting that the time had come for them to take their destiny into their hands.

Speaking at a conference by the Niger Delta Alternative Convergence (NDAC) to endorse the eight-point demand in the “Niger Delta Manifesto for Socio-Ecological Justice” in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Thursday, former Chairman, Editorial Board of The Guardian, Prof. G. G. Darah stated: “From the challenges we are facing in the Niger Delta region, we seem to assume that the Federal Government is on our side whereas the Federal Government is the number one enemy of the Niger Delta.

“Today, people are anxious to be the president of Nigeria because there is the Niger Delta oil for them to squander. What this means is that the political system is all organised for taking control of the oil money, to share it among the friends of the president. All the parties are organised gangs to loot and plunder the Niger Delta resources.

“That is the country we are in, therefore we must assume that whatever government that comes to office in 2023 will not be different from the past ones since 1960. Nigeria has been designed to steal our resources and share. They gather monthly in Abuja to share the money. All our presidents, now and past, occupied office to plunder our resources, otherwise, our son would have done something. Jonathan, when he was president, could not touch any bad section of the constitution against the Niger Delta.”

Darah emphasized, “Nigeria exists today because of Niger Delta oil and Nigeria is the only country in the world that has colonised its people.

“Now we are pleading that the Federal Government should implement the manifesto. We have to do it by ourselves because if you look at history, it is not today that our people have been fighting against injustice. Jonathan called for a national conference and all the issues raised could not be implemented. So what we are doing now is the authentication of the national conference for the Nigerian people.

“The structure of Nigeria is against us and to build a new Nigeria will take time. We need a Niger Delta that will be in charge of its resources and aim to be a country of its own, a sovereign country. Some ethnic groups in the Niger Delta are bigger than some European countries and our ancestors in their grave will not forgive us that we succumbed cheaply. We are well populated.”

However, Prof. Lucky Akaruese of the Itsekiri nationality aligned with the position of Darah, stressing that many countries of the world like East Timor and Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, Denmark and Norway, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union that split into many countries are products of negotiations, so the Niger Delta and Nigeria cannot be an exception.

A prominent traditional ruler from Rivers State backed the demand for a sovereign state.

“I agree with Prof. Darah that we should clamour for the Niger Delta Republic and the manifesto we are signing today, we should speak with one voice. We have been talking and now it is the only action that will bring results. There is nothing the Niger Delta has gotten without struggle.
The manifesto will remain a document if we do not put it into action. The Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) presented a 16-point agenda but only two were implemented. So we need to take deliberate action on some of the issues we raise here.”

According to the convener of NDAC and Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Comrade Nnimmo Bassey: “The convergence also aims to produce an inclusive Niger Delta Manifesto for Socio-Ecological Justice highlighting needed alternatives for transformation and social mobilizations for resource justice. It is hoped that NDAC will provoke a platform for convergence of communities in the region to galvanise action for needed changes for re-source access, including through demands for legislative changes, debates on the Petroleum Industry Bill and for critical attainment of re-source democracy – defined as the right of a people to live in harmony with nature and to retain a right to use, or not use, the gifts of nature.”

He maintained that 64 years of oil extraction had brought untold misery and cut life abysmally low in the region.

“Things cannot continue this way. We have demands and resolutions in the proposed Niger Delta Manifesto shared with delegates. Let’s all rise to be counted, and demand that politicians declare their environmental plans before they gain our votes. Let us demand real climate action, including a halt to gas flaring and a restoration of our ecosystems. Let us demand action to stall the washing away of our communities. After 64 years of a nightmare, it is time to wake up, it is time to demand socio-ecological justice. We are not calling for charity, we are calling for justice.”

Meantime, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah and the National Chairman of PANDEF, Senator Ibok Essien clamoured for restructuring and total control of resources. They pleaded with the people of the region to get their PVCs to vote for people that will carry out a restructuring of the country.

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