"It is the destiny of the whole, not of a part that is up for negotiation... Above all, however, let no one deny this inalienable right of a people, a right of any people, at any moment, under any circumstances, to embark upon the quest of coming into their own self-defining, self-constitutive history. (March 23-24, 2000)..... Prof. Wole
Soyinka
"How many of us will want our own heritage, in our own area to be
devastated, exploited and expended for the common good with the result that we
will be the people who suffer as a consequence?"... Chief Gilbert
Akinyede, CON
"I consider that Nigeria is on the verge, on the brink of a massive
implosion that will make what's happening in the Sudan child's play. We
know there are movements for secession in this country. We know that everybody
is preparing for the contingency of breaking up. International organisations
are also studying the situation,"... Wole Soyinka, Africa's first Nobel Prize Winner for
Literature..Reuters Alert, July 8, 2004.
An Open Letter to President Umaru Yar'Adua
Mr. President,
We are writing to register our displeasure and calling on you to cease
and desist the ongoing slaughter of innocent Ijaw women and children and
the wanton destruction and bombardment of Ijaw towns and villages in the
Niger Delta area under the pretense of apprehending militants. You are
visiting Odi, Odiama, etc on us again. If Ijaws are truly Nigerians, then
this carnage must stop now.
We are deeply saddened by this unfortunate action of yours at this moment
in our history. Too many innocent civilian Ijaws lives and properties have
been destroyed by succesive Nigerian administrations including yours. It
is time to be serious about the grievances of Ijawnation and the Niger
Delta at large.
We remind you that you bear responsibility for any and all atrocities committed
by the Nigerian military on inncocent and peace loving Ijaw civilian women
and children.
Mr. President, stop this indiscriminate slaughter of innocent and defenceless
Ijaw women and children now. Enough is Enough.
Titoe Miriki
President
Ijaw Pro-Active
Leadership Council
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We The Ijaws,
the predominant indigenous people in the Niger Delta, moved to the Delta over
7,000 years. We have a distinctive
language.
The Niger River Delta, one of the largest and beautiful deltas
in the world, is the largest delta in Africa, and it covers approximately 14,000
square miles (36,260 square kilometers). Its origination is in the highlands of
the Fouta Djallon Plateau in western Guinea 150 miles (240 kilometers) from the
Atlantic Ocean.
At Lokoja in central Nigeria, the Niger is joined by its
chief tributary, the Benue. The Niger then travels south 250 miles or 400
kilometers, becoming a great fan shaped delta before emptying into the Gulf of
Guinea...