THE KAIAMA DECLARATION
BEING COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE ALL IJAW YOUTHS CONFERENCE
WHICH HELD IN THE TOWN OF KAIAMA THIS 11TH DAY OF DECEMBER 1998.
Observations | Resolutions
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INTRODUCTION
We, Ijaw youths drawn from over five hundred communities from over 40 clans
that make up the Ijaw nation and representing 25 representative organisations
met, today, in Kaiama to deliberate on the best way to ensure the continuos
survival of the indigenous peoples of the Ijaw ethnic nationality of the
Niger Delta within the Nigerian state.
After exhaustive deliberations, the Conference observed:
a. That it was through British colonisation that the IJAW NATION was forcibly
put under the Nigerian State
b. That but for the economic interests of the imperialists, the Ijaw
ethnic nationality would have evolved as a distinct and separate sovereign
nation, enjoying undiluted political, economic, social, and cultural AUTONOMY.
c. That the division of the Southern Protectorate into East and West
in 1939 by the British marked the beginning of the balkanisation of a hitherto
territorially contiguous and culturally homogeneous Ijaw people into political
and administrative units, much to our disadvantage. This trend is continuing
in the balkanisation of the Ijaws into six states-Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa,
Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, mostly as minorities who suffer socio-political,
economic, cultural and psychological deprivations.
d. That the quality of life of Ijaw people is deteriorating as a result
of utter neglect, suppression and marginalisation visited on Ijaws by the
alliance of the Nigerian state and transnational oil companies.
e. That the political crisis in Nigeria is mainly about the struggle
for the control of oil mineral resources which account for over 80% of
GDP, 95 %of national budget and 90% of foreign exchange earnings. From
which, 65%, 75% and 70% respectively are derived from within the Ijaw nation.
Despite these huge contributions, our reward from the Nigerian State remains
avoidable deaths resulting from ecological devastation and military repression.
f. That the unabating damage done to our fragile natural environment
and to the health of our people is due in the main to uncontrolled exploration
and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas which has led to numerous
oil spillages, uncontrolled gas flaring, the opening up of our forests
to loggers, indiscriminate canalisation, flooding, land subsidence, coastal
erosion, earth
tremors etc. Oil and gas are exhaustible resources and the complete
lack of concern for ecological rehabilitation, in the light of the Oloibiri
experience, is a signal of impending doom for the peoples of Ijawland.
g. That the degradation of the environment of Ijawland by transnational
oil companies and the Nigerian State arise mainly because Ijaw people have
been robbed of their natural rights to ownership and control of their land
and resources through the instrumentality of undemocratic Nigerian State
legislations such as the Land Use Decree of 1978, the Petroleum Decrees
of
1969 and 1991, the Lands (Title Vesting etc.) Decree No. 52 of 1993
(Osborne Land Decree), the National Inland Waterways Authority Decree No.
13 of 1997 etc.
h. That the principle of Derivation in Revenue Allocation has been consciously
and systematically obliterated by successive regimes of the Nigerian state.
We note the drastic reduction of the Derivation Principle from 100% (1953),
50% (1960), 45% (1970), 20% (1975) 2% (1982), 1.5% (1984) to 3% (1992 to
date),and a rumored 13% in Abacha's 1995 undemocratic and unimplemented
Constitution.
i. That the violence in Ijawland and other parts of the Niger Delta
area, sometimes manifesting in intra and inter ethnic conflicts are sponsored
by the State and transnational oil companies to keep the communities of
the Niger Delta area divided, weak and distracted from the causes of their
problems.
j. That the recent revelations of the looting of national treasury by
the Abacha junta is only a reflection of an existing and continuing trend
of stealing by public office holders in the Nigerian state. We remember
the over 12 billion dollars Gulf war windfall, which was looted by Babangida
and his cohorts We note that over 70% of the billions of dollars being
looted by
military rulers and their civilian collaborators is derived from our
ecologically devastated Ijawland.
Based on the foregoing, we, the youths of Ijawland
hereby make the following resolutions to be known as the Kaiama Declaration:
1. All land and natural resources (including mineral resources) within
the Ijaw territory belong to Ijaw communities and are the basis of our
survival.
2. We cease to recognise all undemocratic decrees that rob our peoples/communities
of the right to ownership and control of our lives and resources, which
were enacted without our participation and consent. These include the Land
Use Decree and The Petroleum Decree etc.
3. We demand the immediate withdrawal from Ijawland of all military
forces of occupation and repression by the Nigerian State. Any oil company
that employs the services of the armed forces of the Nigerian State to
"protect" its operations will be viewed as an enemy of the Ijaw people.
Family members of military personnel stationed in Ijawland should appeal
to their people to leave the Ijaw area alone.
4..Ijaw youths in all the communities in all Ijaw clans in the Niger
Delta will take steps to implement these resolutions beginning from the
30th of December, 1998, as a step towards reclaiming the control of our
lives. We, therefore, demand that all oil companies stop all exploration
and exploitation activities in the Ijaw area. We are tired of gas flaring;
oil spillages, blowouts and being labelled saboteurs and terrorists. It
is a case of preparing the noose for our hanging. We reject this labelling.
Hence, we
advice all oil companies staff and contractors to withdraw from Ijaw
territories by the 30th December, 1998 pending the resolution of the issue
of resource ownership and control in the Ijaw area of the Niger Delta
5.. Ijaw youths and Peoples will promote the principle of peaceful coexistence
between all Ijaw communities and with our immediate neighbours, despite
the provocative and divisive actions of the Nigerian State, transnational
oil companies and their contractors. We offer a hand of friendship
and comradeship to our neighbors: the Itsekiri, Ilaje, Urhobo, Isoko, Edo,
Ibibio,
Ogoni, Ekpeye, Ikwerre etc. We affirm our commitment to joint struggle
with the other ethnic nationalities in the Niger delta area for self-determination.
6. We express our solidarity with all peoples organisations and ethnic
nationalities in Nigeria and elsewhere who are struggling for self-determination
and justice. In particular we note the struggle of the Oodua peoples Congress
(OPC), the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (Mosop), Egi Women's
Movement etc.
7. We extend our hand of solidarity to the Nigerian oil workers
(NUPENG and PENGASSAN) and expect that they will see this struggle for
freedom as a struggle for humanity
8. We reject the present transition to civil rule programme of
the Abubakar regime, as it is not preceded by restructuring of the Nigerian
federation. The way forward is a Sovereign National Conference of equally
represented ethnic nationalities to discuss the nature of a democratic
federation of Nigerian ethic nationalities. Conference noted the violence
and killings that characterized the last local government elections in
most parts of the Niger Delta. Conference pointed out that these
electoral conflicts are a manifestation of the undemocratic and unjust
nature of the military transition programme. Conference affirmed
therefore, that the military are incapable of enthroning true democracy
in Nigeria.
9 We call on all Ijaws to remain true to their Ijawness and to work
for the total liberation of our people. You have no other true home but
that which is in Ijawland.
10 We agreed to remain within Nigeria but to demand and work for Self
Government and resource control for the Ijaw people. Conference approved
that the best way for Nigeria is a federation of ethnic nationalities.
The federation should be run on the basis equality and social justice.
Finally, Ijaw youths resolve to set up the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC)
to coordinate the struggle of Ijaw peoples for self-determination and justice.
Signed for the entire participants:
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Felix Tuodolo
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Ogoriba, Timi Kaiser-Wilhelm
The Ijaws are a nation of more than ten million people in the Niger
Delta
region of Nigeria. Since the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity
in
Oloibiri (Ijawland) in 1958, oil companies such as shell, Agip, and
Chevron
have colluded with the military government of Nigeria to wage a war
of
economic exploitation, environmental degradation, and the institution
of
internal colonialism.
The Ijaw National Congress is involved in the struggle to free the peoples
of
the Niger Delta, and the Ijaws in particular from decades of environmental
pollution, economic deprivation, and political oppression.
For more information, please contact
Paul Ekadi
President,
Ijaw National Congress- USA (INC-USA)
Email: [email protected]
Tel. 410 6022720
Fax 410 6023046