Prominent Ijaw leaders and Niger Delta advocacy groups have issued a passionate warning to the federal government, stating that the continued neglect and oppression of their people is pushing the region toward a breaking point.
Speaking at a remembrance event in honour of the late Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, a pioneer of the Niger Delta struggle, the groups declared: “The Nigerian state cannot do without the Ijaw nation.” They argued that despite being responsible for the bulk of Nigeria’s export revenue through oil and gas, the Ijaw people remain sidelined, oppressed, and excluded from the wealth generated by their own land.
“It is an injustice of the highest order,” one speaker said. “The North is allowed to mine and refine gold with no interference, but when our people try to use modular refineries for oil in the Niger Delta, they are hunted down. What else is more oppressive?”
The leaders accused the Nigerian government of selective governance, saying the country places oil installations above the lives of the people who live around them. “Our people are kidnapped, our youth have no jobs, our environment is destroyed, yet all the government cares about is crude oil pipelines.”
A key point raised at the event was the total absence of what the speakers called a “people-owned” constitution. They described the current 1999 Constitution as an imposed and manipulated document, lacking legitimacy and serving only the interests of the powerful.
According to them, Nigeria is drifting away from democracy. “We are degenerating into a one-party state. The judiciary has become a department of the executive. The rule of law is gone,” one speaker lamented.
They hailed the legacy of Isaac Boro, noting that everything he warned about decades ago has now come to pass. “And just like before, from the creeks, more Isaac Boros are rising,” they warned.
The groups also criticized the government’s tendency to pacify a few elite Ijaw leaders with contracts and appointments, calling it a poor attempt to silence an entire people. “They think they have the Ijaw nation in their pocket—but they are daydreaming. The real voices of the struggle are not those being patronized. They are in the creeks, watching and waiting.”
