The Ijaw National Congress (INC), has warned that their silence should not be taken for granted in the face of insecurity, injustice, nepotism, and other problems plaguing Nigerians.
President of the body, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, stated this at a press conference in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
He said the Ijaw people had watched with keen interest the gradual decline of the Nigerian state like a rudderless ship.
According to him, rather than extinguish the rising tension in the country resulting from growing insecurity, mass poverty, and other atrocities perpetrated by well-known and unknown actors, the comments by some influential political and ethnoreligious leaders in Nigeria are divisive.
Okaba said one major reason for the detestable situation was the heightened injustice and marginalisation of Nigerians, particularly of the minorities groups, who have endured for too long.
He added that it might be suitable to conclude that if the current unrestrained violence unleashed on the country is not urgently tackled, the end of Nigeria as a united nation might just be irredeemable.
He also noted that despite the huge sacrifices the Ijaw people have made and are still making to the sustenance of the country, they have never been fairly treated by Nigeria.
His address, he said, also served as an advance notice to all Ijaws, their neighbours, particularly those in the Niger Delta region and others oppressed by the Nigerian state, as this is in preparation for an all Ijaw summit where they would ultimately decide on the way forward in very specific terms.
He said their current resolve for self-determination and actualisation could only be reversed if the government would take urgent steps in addressing the minimum conditions precedent to guarantee the continued commitment of the Ijaw to the Nigerian project.
The president of INC further advocated for the restoration of true federalism under a new constitution enacted by the people wherein a lean exclusive legislative list is prescribed for the federal tier of government.
Clamouring for the restoration of Ijaw territory as a non-balkanised administrative and political federating unit (s) for reassurance of the Ijaw development pursuit, he also asked for the repeal of all discriminatory laws, policies that have continuously undermined their fundamental human and environmental rights as indigenous people of Nigeria.
He added that the Ijaw land and the Niger Delta region are the only place in the entire world where oil and gas are produced but have remained neglected and underdeveloped while warning that their retreat from militancy to meaningful and constructive engagement should not be undermined for cowardice.
