BY GODWIN IJEDIOGOR

AS Nigeria struggles with its problems, the Ijaw Nation, on its part, seeks to chart a pathway out of its numerous challenges, especially environmental degradation largely due to oil exploration and exploration.

A good starting point is the forthcoming First Pan-Ijaw Economic Summit 2024, scheduled to hold between December 3 and 5 at the Hotel Presidential, Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Themed ‘Environmental Regeneration and Economic Sustainability,’ it would be preceded by a Pre-Summit Conference on October 17 at Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha Banquet Hall, Government House, Onopa in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, at 9a.m.

This is against the backdrop of a rapidly changing global economic dynamics, with the age of oil coming to an end, climate change, energy transition and the repossessing of national asset, which demands the articulation of responses to aforementioned challenges.

      The Summit is carefully designed to provide a platform to articulate conversations, plans and actions that will harness the various strengths and strategies towards the socio-economic development of the Ijaw people.

It also hopes to help in reversing the decade-long trajectory of underdevelopment and environmental degradation of the entire Niger Delta.

It will be an assemblage of distinguished and illustrious sons and daughters of the Ijaw, with the opening ceremony billed to feature eminent personalities worldwide to share perspectives on socio-economic growth and development roadmap.

     The Summit will bring together prominent stakeholders across the nation, including state governors, members of the National Assembly, cabinet members, top government officials, traditional rulers, captains of industry, representatives of women and youth groups, academics, professionals and civil society organisations.

     Participants will be drawn from the six states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Rivers, as well as other parts of Nigeria and the Diaspora.

The Ijaw, otherwise known as the Ijo people, according to Wikipedia, is an ethnic group found in the Niger Delta or mainly South-South region of Nigeria, with significant population clusters in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers, as well as Edo, Ondo and small parts of Akwa Ibom states.

     Many of them are also found as migrant fishermen in camps as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon.

    The Ijaw are believed by some to be the descendants of an autochthonous people or an ancient tribe of Africa, known as the Oru; hence it is said that the Ijaw were originally known by this name (Oru) and said to be the aboriginal people of West Africa and the region of Niger/Benue.

     Based on ancestral tradition, the Ijaw people are named after their ancestor, known as Father Ijo, who was an Oru ancestor and son of the great and mysterious King Adumu, also referred to as Odudu, who founded his theocratic city state confederacy at Ife in the ancient time. They are the descendants of the Oru, who migrated from the Nile River Valley and Lake Chad region in northeastern Nigeria to the Delta region of the Niger River.

     The Ijaw, also known by the subgroups, Ijo or Izon, are a collection of peoples indigenous mostly to the forest regions of the Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states within the Niger Delta, while some are natives of Akwa Ibom, Edo and Ondo states.

     Although this might not always the case, but it is said that wherever there is a river, an Ijaw born is not far off. And because of their affinity with water, a good number of them are found in the six aforementioned states bordering the Atlantic Ocean or other major rivers. Thus, the bulk of Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves can be said to be found in Ijaw territory. 

    According to Gabriela Figueroa-Rojas, in Study.com, historians have concluded that the Oru migrated in ancient times using the waterways and rivers connecting the Nile Valley with the inland sea of Lake Chad and the Niger river systems. This land migration marks the Ijaw as descendants of the Oru, the aboriginal people of West Africa and the region of Niger/Benue.

There is archaeological evidence that the Ijaw settled the Niger Delta, or southwest coastal region of Nigeria, by 800 BCE. The timeline that the archaeological excavations provide offers about 3,000 years of evidence of Ijaw history and presence in the Niger Delta.

Agadagba-bou, the first ancient Ijaw city-state, existed for over 400 years, lasting until 1050 CE. But due to internal conflict and violent weather patterns, this city-state was abandoned and some of its descendants created another in the 11th Century, called Isoma-bou, which lasted until the 16th Century.

This city-state was founded in the Central Delta Wilberforce Island region (Bayelsa), which remains the most Ijaw-populated state of Nigeria.

Previously, the Ijaw economy was predominantly supported by fishing and each clustered group claimed a specific culture and autonomy from the others. But after contact with European merchants around 1500 CE, communities began trading in enslaved people and palm oil.

Figueroa-Rojas wrote that “traders who amassed wealth within this business market found themselves parading power over the government, adding that each trader purchased as many enslaved people as possible, valuing ability over genetic relation as most enslaved people’s families were split apart and not valued for their rich culture and heritage.

“Because an able enslaved person could inherit the business of a trader with no heir, it was possible to have (non-Ijaw) leaders who had been born into slavery, such as Chief Jaja of Opobo…”

According to ijaw/ijo historicaldocumentation on brief history of the ijo people, published in ijawworldstudies.com, during the early phases of the collapse of the Ogisos (1190 AD), the Beni-Ijos moved first to Oporoza, near the Atlantic coast (Escravos), and then eastwards (1400 AD) to the Central Delta.

“These people founded sections of the Kalabari Clan. During the time of the civil war at Benin (1500 AD), others moved first to Aboh, which was still Ijo-speaking, into the Central Delta and settled with the ancestors of the Tarakiri, Kolokuma, Opokuma and Ogbein, to collectively give rise to the Tarakiri, Kolokuma, Opokuma, Ogbein and Beni (Oyiakiri) and Mein and Kalabari clans or sections of Ijo and maybe others…” 

     Historians believe the ancestor, known as Ujo or Ijo, is also known in traditional Ile-Ife history as Idekoseroake, with the traditional titles Kalasuo and Indo-Oru, and his identification as Oru means that he was of the tribe of Oru.

      The Ijaw is one of the oldest tribes in Nigeria and studies on the Ijoid language place the tribe 5,000 years before the origins of neighbouring language groups.

In Bayelsa, which is regarded as the capital of the tribe in Nigeria, the predominantly Ijaw local councils include Kolokuma Opokuma, Yenagoa, Nembe, Ogbia, Sagbama, Brass and Southern Ijaw, with the four main languages spoken being Izon, Nembe, Ogbia and Epie-Atissa, Yenagoa serving as the capital city.

The Ijaw language consists of two prominent groupings. The first, which is termed as either Western or Central Izon (Ijaw) consists of Western Ijaw speaking Ekeremor, Sagbama (Mein), Bassan, Apoi, Arogbo, Boma (Bumo), Kabo (Kabuowei), Ogboin, Tarakiri and Kolokuma-Opokuma.     

Nembe, Brass and Akassa (Akaha) dialects represent Southeast Ijo (Izon), while Buseni and Okordia dialects are considered Inland Ijo.

On the other hand, the second major Ijaw linguistic group is Kalabari, which many refer to as Eastern Ijaw. Kalabari, the name of one of the Ijaw clans that reside on the eastern side of the Niger Delta, include Abonnema, Buguma, Bakana, Degema etc., who form a major group in Rivers State, as well as the Okrika, Ibani (natives of Bonny, Finima and Opobo) and Nkoroo, who are neighbours to the Kalabari people.

Other ljaw dialects include Tamu, Mein, Jobu, Oyariri and Tarakiri, but Ịzọn, also known as Central Western Ijo, Ijaw, Izo and Uzo, is the dominant Ijaw language spoken by a majority of Ijaw people.

The Ijaw people greet ‘Noa’ and ‘Dou’ at every time of the day and this form of greeting is also used for saying welcome, thank you or well done, but some say ‘Seiridou’ for good morning.

Younger ones kneel to greet elders, saying ‘Koide’ or ‘Okoido,’ meaning, “I am on my knees,” in respect for elders, while the most important deity among the Central Ijaw is Egbesu.

The Ijaw have 86 clans, with over 2,800 villages and settlements under them, the largest clan being Egbema Clan, with over 350 villages and settlements, followed by Arogbo and Kalabari Clans.

Typically, the Ijaw man dresses in a trouser and shirt, with a cloth on top and a hat. The Ijaw have their shirts in three major styles- the etibo, owoko and jumper.

The woman may have one tied from her bust downward and the other one wrapped around her shoulder, or the cloth could be tied on her waist, while wearing a blouse and still wrap the cloth around her shoulders. 

    The Ijaw of the Niger Delta, refer to their kings as Pere, Obanema, Mingi, Obanobhan or Amanyanabo.

     In the traditional religion of the Ijaw, veneration of ancestors plays a central role, while water spirits, known as Owuamapu, feature prominently in the Ijaw pantheon.

In addition, the Ijaw practice a form of divination called Igbadai, in which recently deceased individuals are interrogated on the causes of their death.

     Ijaw traditional foods include Polofiyai, a very rich soup made with yams and palm oil; Kekefiyai, a pottage made with chopped unripened (green) plantains, fish, other seafood or game meat (bushmeat) and palm oil; and fried or roasted fish and plantain, with the fish fried in palm oil and served with fried plantains.

The predominantly Ijaw festivals are the new yam festival, festival of the Supreme Creator- Tamarau (Tamara, Ayibara, Woyengi) and Amatemesuo, as well as various masquerade festivals in honour of the nature (divine) forces- Nunuma and Owu (Owuamapu).

The Ijaw have been at the forefront of resource control in Nigeria, due to many years of neglect, environmental degradation from oil exploration and exploitation and lack of will power or reluctance of the federal government to tackle these challenges head-on.

But like a former governor of Delta State and a strong advocate of resource control, Chief James Ibori, said  at the launch of a book, Attah on Resource Control, authored by Obong Victor Attah, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, in April 2018, those saying the issue of resource control had been settled were making a mistake, as it remains on the front burner, especially in the Niger Delta region.

According to Ibori: “This is a subject that has not come to an end. When you say it has been settled, I am trying to understand what that means, because it has not been settled. What may have been settled, politically, is the offshore/onshore political solution. But the derivation principle is totally stated in the agitation of the people of Niger Delta. That has not been settled; we still have a long way to travel.

“I want it to be on record that every single person in the Niger Delta supported the advocacy. All the governors of the states, from the legislators to the ordinary woman in the market, to the creeks and even today, we are still passionately holding on to that idea that someday, there will be paradise in the Niger Delta.”

At the anniversary of the death of prominent Ijaw son and former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha, Ibori added: “Alamieyesiegha was my friend, brother and co-fighter on the resource control and fiscal federalism front. We were not just colleagues in the Governors Forum from 1999; in the man I found a boundless and dependable warrior in the battle for the cause of the Niger Delta.

“He was fearless, forthright, outspoken and dedicated his life to the causes he believed would benefit his people. In fact, he was consumed by the cause of the Ijaw people, the degradation of their environment and collective psyche. He was in a hurry to see that the injustice under which they laboured was redressed; and he was ready to bear any pain, pay any price, to see that their day of liberation arrived fast.”

Like Governor Douye Diri put it during the seventh anniversary of his death: “When people say that Alamieyeseigha felt offended, I always reply, he was just fighting all his battles to immortalise his name as a David. He was also a Solomon, because he laid the foundation for which other governors have been building on.
    “He was a wise man to have established the Niger Delta University, initiated bursary, attracted foreigners to bring home investment and so he remained one of the greatest Kings to have ruled Bayelsa.

“He was also a Peter, who stood for resource control and stood by the gospel of resource control and he was crucified for it.”

Indeed, Alamieyeseigha was a political liberator who championed the struggle for resource control and fiscal federalism in Nigeria, directly or indirectly sacrificing himself for the first Ijaw man to become President of Nigeria through struggles for the minorities to be recognised at the highest level of governance in the country.

     Rhuks Ako, a lawyer and  a lecturer at the University of Hull Law School in the United Kingdom, in Resource Control in the Niger Delta: Conceptual Issues and Legal Realities, identified three broad notions of resource control since the Ijaw Youth Council’s (IYC) Kaiama Declaration that linked the phrase in connection with oil resources and the Niger Delta for the first time.         

These include absolute, principal resource control and increased derivation. But whether absolute resource control,that allows every region to control its resources 100 per cent or principal resource control that allows the Niger Delta region to have “a direct and decisive role in the exploration for, the exploitation and disposal of, including sales of the harvested resources,” or resource control in terms of the right to control or manage the revenue accruing from oil and other natural resources, in line with the tenets of true federalism, where states ought to control their resources and contribute a percentage of such revenues to the federal treasury, the Ijaw have been the main protagonists.

Resource control simply means allowing inhabitants of the Niger Delta region the opportunities to access the environmental resources and benefits of their ancestral land, following failures of the political elite and militants to positively impact the lives of the ordinary Niger Delta citizens they claim to represent. 

In November 2021, the Ijaw ethnic group became the first to sign the Niger Delta Peoples Charter on resource control and self-determination.

HRM, King Frank Okiakpe, Agadagba X of Gbaraun Kingdom, on behalf of Ijaw nation at a ceremony in Yenagoa, one week after Prof. Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa do so on behalf of Bayelsa State.

The agitation is age-long. Indeed, in 2017, the IYC president, Eric Omare, promised to do all he could to engage the Federal Government in a purposeful dialogue to achieve resource control.

He stated: “Our mandate as Ijaw youths is to demand for resource control and self-determination; we will continue the agitation for resource control.

“…We are no longer interested in the short solutions to the Niger Delta problems; we are only interested in long term solutions and that long term solution lies in resource control or true federalism as the case might be.

“So any solution to the Niger Delta problem without addressing resource ownership is unacceptable to the youth council and Ijaw nation in general.”

No doubt, the issues of economic empowerment, resource control and economic degradation have made it expedient to convene a Pan-Ijaw Economic Summit to proffer solutions to these challenges faced by the Ijaw nation. And who is best to do so than the Azaiki Foundation and its Chairman, Prof. Steve Azaiki, who is also Chairman and Coordinator of the National Think Tank.  

The Azaiki Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation established in 2012

support in building a more educated, egalitarian, and responsive society.

In the past 12 years, the Foundation has provided bursaries and scholarships to over 1,000 students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria and abroad.

It has also supported over 2,000 women in commerce and provided medical support to over 300 individuals from the rural part of its host community.

The Foundation established the first privately-owned library in the Niger Delta- The Azaiki Public Library.

In 2015, the Azaiki Foundation established the Institute of Science and Technology, Yenagoa, the Azaiki Museum of African Arts and the Azaiki Museum of Niger Delta, also known as the Oil Museum.

The Foundation has supported the building of primary school blocks in several communities and played crucial roles in the establishment of Skills Acquisition Centre, Polaku, Bayelsa State. A good example is the Yenebebeli Primary School, built over three decades ago

        The Azaiki Foundation is the main financier of the National Think Tank Nigeria, an organisation that provides policy formula to state and federal governments.

      The Foundation is equally funding the International Society of Comparative Education, Science and Technology, Nigeria.

Azaiki, a former secretary to the Bayelsa State Government (SSG) under the  Alamieyeseigha administration and Founder of the Azaiki Public Library in Yenagoa and Institute of Science and Technology, which played host to the first International Conference of Science, Technology and Education in Nigeria in December 2014, is a visiting Professor/Fellow to a number of institutions, including the Institute of Petroleum Studies, University of Port Harcourt and the Inter-regional Academy (University) of Personal Management (IAPM) and a past president of the International Society of Comparative Education, Science and Technology.

In addition to being National Coordinator of the National Think-Tank, Azaiki is also president of World Environment Foundation For Africa (WEFFA), an offshoot of the World Environmental Movement for Africa (WEMFA), founded after the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine.

He has contributed immensely to the establishment of the Niger Delta University and launch of a Development Fund to fast-track the pace of infrastructural development in Bayelsa State shortly after its creation and was the pioneer commissioner for Agriculture.

Azaiki, who was appointed into the Governing Council of the Federal University of Technology, Akure in 2009 and the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, by the Bayelsa State Government in 2014 as the youngest Pro-Chancellor, is a professor of Agronomy, Institute of Potato Research, Ukrainian Agricultural Academy (now University of Life and Environmental Sciences), Kiev, Ukraine, with specialisation in Psychopathology (Plant Protection).

He attended the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences for his first, postgraduate and doctorate degrees, as well as the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (MBA in Project Management); University of Abidjan, Cocody (Certificate in French Language) and Ukrainian Agricultural University (Certificate in Russian Language).

The environmentalist and activist and Epie-Atissa son, popularly called The Yenagoa Boy, after a book he wrote with the same title, has made positive contributions to  society, in terms of physical infrastructure, building of primary school, church, museum, public library, hotel, etc.

He is unhappy with degradation of the environment, especially in the Niger Delta, saying: “The Niger Delta is like a volcano waiting to erupt. The place is still devastated; the ecology/ecosystem of the region is completely gone. The whole of the area need remedial measures.

“Gas flaring must stop and illegal bunkering must stop too. Destruction of pipelines must stop immediately. These are the challenges. Stopping gas flaring will be a big step.

“Allowing the people that the oil is in their underbelly to participate is crucial.”

     According to a former President of South Africa, Mr. Thambo Mbeki: “Azaiki is a reflection of the ideal African; I have interacted with him for several years now. He is a man of great vision.”

    With his love for education and equity, he has created employment and offered scholarship opportunities for over 1,000 indigenes within and in the Diaspora.

Considering his sterling qualities and achievements, and of course, contacts at home and abroad, Azaiki, the recipient of the national honour of Order of the Niger (OON) in 2011, and  author of several books, including Oil, Politics and Blood (2006); Oil, Gas and Life in Nigeria (2007); The Evil of Oil (2009); Thoughts on Nigeria (2015); Oil, Democracy and the Promise of True Federalism in Nigeria, among others, is in a good stead to anchor such a Summit that could change the lot of the Ijaw Nation and indeed, Ijaw people for good.