The Distinguished President of the senate,
The Senate of the federal Republic of Nigeria,
National Assembly Complex,
Abuja.
The Hon. Speaker,
House of Representatives,
National Assembly Complex,
Abuja.
IJAW DEMAND FOR TORU-EBE STATE: PROTEST AGAINST THE INCLUSION OF OUR TERRITORIES
We humbly make this Joint petition on behalf of our above-named ethnic nationalities.
1. we are aware that a few weeks ago, the ijaw ethnic nationality, our neighbor in the Niger Delta, submitted to you for the creation of Toru-ebe sate. We are sad to note that the propose state out rightly includes our homeland territories, and for this reason, we make this petition , strongly opposing the proposal, and stating our reasons. Also we attach our document tittled: Recreation of the Benin-Ibibio-Ilaje-Itsekiri Ethinc Nationalities to the Demand by Ijaw… for… Toru-Ebe state dated 18th November, 2009 which we forwarded to the conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta (CENND), stating our opposition and reasons to Ijaw Ntional Congress (INC).
2. We are anguished by this ijaw claim which amount to a betrayal of the stand of CENND, a betrayal of the measures of gratitude we have accorded INC in the liberation struggle, and a betrayal of our faith in the total ideological position of the Niger Delta nationalities. We concede to the ijaw their right to demand for states and local governments, but we, however, are unable to accept a situation whereby the Ijaw will proposed Toru-Ebe state, lands owned from time immemorial by Itsekiri, Benin & Ilaje are included without their boundaries delineated. Surely, the Ijaw ethnic nationality is by nomeans the only ethnic Nationality of the Niger Delta. Niger Delta is not synonymoux with Ijaw nationality.
3. What makes this vexatious claim most painful is the apparent Ijaw denial of the homelands of others in the Niger Delta; homelands with well-known natural/traditional/historical boundaries thet enabled the various nationalities to, horizontally, trade, inter-marry and promote other relations before the British imperial rule was imposed.
4. Historians, anthropologists, missionaries and geographers have over the centries recorded these various homelands, their sizes and locations. For example, all such authorities say of Benin Homeland as follows:
About 4000 square-mile Benin contry is bounded on the NW by Ondo, on the East by Urhobo/ Ukwani and on tne South by Warri. The western boundaries between ondo (Ilaje), Benin warri is defined in the boundary of 1904 in gazette No. 193 on page 128 of February 1937. The Benin Eweka dynasty from the 12th centuary AD has had 38 obas to date, and the preceding long ogiso dynasty dates beyond the Birth of Christ. All available West Africa maps from 17th century (include in the enclosed document) doned by French, Dutch & British etc show Benin Kingdom/Empire as a massive land area across present-day southern Nigeria. In 1980, ethnicities in Benin were 26%, including Ijaw who were just6%.
Warri homeland-maps, referred to above, also show warri close to Benin City, as trding centre, in those early days. Historians and early intelligent reports record their existence in their 1520 sq. mile country delinested by lat 5 20’ and 6N & long. 5-5’ and 54E, bounded on the North by Benin, Ondo (Ilaje) on the NW, Urhobo to the East and Ijaw to the south. It is recorded by several historians,including G. T. Stride and C. Ifeka at p.321 of their book, that: “The principal peoples of the Delta are the Itsekiri and the coastal dwelling sobo (Urhobo) in the west, the Ijo in the centre, the coastal Ibibio and he Efik of old Calabar who lives in the easten delta” in 1963, Itsekiri in warri represented 64%, Ijaw & 14% & others 21%, and their 19th Olu is on he throme. Today, they are about 400,000 to 450,000
Ijaw Homeland: Two vwry authoritative Ijaw writers have definitively described the trsditional Ijaw country/homeland. Prof. E. J. Alageo and Jasper Adaka Boro have located theor 6000 square-mile homwland within the central delta: “from the Forcados River to the Opobo River and upstream to the Niger tributaries of the Nun and Forcados Rivers.” (the Twelve-Day Revolution by Adaka Boro edited by tony Tebekaeme). And prof. Ade Ajayi writes: “Pereira… saw all the coast from the Forcados River to the Bonny River (Rio Real) occupied by Ijo –‘Jos’ – This Stretch of coat, does in fact, correspond to that curretly inhabited by the Ijo…”The same source had earlier said in the same paragraph, “Elmina became an important trading station on the Gold Coast To the east, he poutuguese governor of Elmina Pacheco Pereira, found that the Itsekiri and Urhobo of the Niger Delta were already living around the Forcados river about 1500…”(people &
Empires of west Africa in History by G. T. Stride & caroline Ifeka, with advice from prof. J. F. Ade Ajayi, p.22).
And significantly, the Ijaw themselves have, unequivocally, IN THEIR Queen of Britain, and copied the fed. Attorney-General and Minister so too they made treaties of trade and protection with Benin in 1892, Itsekiri in 1884 and 1894, etc. And the “Oil Rives protectorate” (which became “Niger coast protectorate”) became the trading zone for not only the Ijaw, but the Ibibio, Itsekiri, Benin and Ilaje and other neigbouring nationalities.
Ibibio Homeland covers the area in the extream south Estern corner of Nigeria bounded by Ijaw on the west; north-east by Imo state, north by Ekoi and on the east by cameroons and has coastline on the Atlantic stretching over 130km. Aseries of court of their boundaries. Ibibio, numbering about 4 million, are the third largest group after Yoruba and Ibo in southern Nigeria. Ijaw on their coast represent less than 3% of Akwa-Ibom.
Ilaje Homeland : with a population eatimately at about 70,000, Ilaje are believed to be the earliest Oduduwa children from Ule-Ife to have settled on the coast abutting a vast shoreline, bounded on the west by Ijabu, on the east by Benin, south-east by Itsekiri and on the north by Ikale and on the south by the Atlantic. The 10th olugbo, Oba Akereti, allowed the first Ijaw migrants to settle under price Omobegbe in his domain early in the 18th century. In 1980, Ugbo kimdom had ijaw population of 15%, others 3% and Ilaje 82%.
Migrations
There are authoritative records that Ijaw later moved both west-ward and east-ward from their homeland about early 18th century, P.C. Lioyd in the journal of African History iv. 2 (1963) p207-231 says: “the Ijoh coming from the southern delta, have moved as fishermen into the westherndelta area, extending northwards even ti the modern Yoruba town of Okitipupa”. Other sources confirming Ijaw movement to the neighboring homelands include:
Intelligence Report of 1938 by Lt. com S.E. Johnson (R.N) Age. District Officer;
Intelligence Report of 1938 on Ekhuan District by Mr. H. F. Marshall, District Officer
Another on Ilaje by R.J.M Curwen, District Officer in 1936
Prof. E.J. Alagoa, G. T. strke & C. Ifeka etc
In the course of these migration some Niger Deltans settled in one another’s homelands. Until recently, we had all lived happily among ourselves, respecting one another’s customs and traditions. The new expansionist agenda of our Ijaw brothers began early last decade, leading to a series of inter-ethnic crises between 1997 and 2003. this state creation proposal by the Ijaw to Forcefully claim our lands –the subject of this [petition-is part of this new agenda, and we reject it
As at today there are Isoko communities of Canaan, Trofani and Isoko have not sought to have Isoko kingdoms in Bayelsa, nor have they tried to excise them from baelsa. There are Urhobo communities of U duofori and odurubu in patani. We Burutu and Forcados, representing 16% and 17% respectively of the 1953 population figures of those towns, that have been wiped out during the crisis referred to above.
Pitfalss to avoid: we are a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural region, and there can’t be any cast-iron approach to make or mold us into a people. The failure of the manipulated willink Report to specifically underpin this verity has been its undoing.
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S president proposed self-determination as a policy during world war Ito resolved the problems of the failed Russian, Austro-Hungarian & Ottoman Empires in Europe. His secretary of state, pondering the ambiguity of the term, wondered whether it applied to homelands, race or communities. It was not resolved until Adolf Hitler, twenty years on, misapplies the idea of dismemberment of, or exciting, German enclaves in foreign countries (homeland). In 1938, Hiltler imposed the Anschluss (i.e Germanization of Austria) aganst the peace treaty of 1919. in 1939 Britain and French signed the munich Agreement (appeasement policy) up her Sudetenland to ethnic Germans. And in 1936, Hitler attacked and seized Poland from Russia. Then the world war11!
Even, nearly 70 years after the war, the bitterness of Sudetenland Still lingers. Last year, the Czech Republic, the half of old Czechoslovakia (a sovereign state) that now inherits Sudetenland, refused initially to sign the Libson Treaty to avoid, apparently, strengthening the hands of the 3 million Germans that still remained there.
We think it was the dangerous Hitlerite approach to self-determination (i.e. grabbing other people’s territory) that sparked world war11 and its consequential humanitarian catastrophe. Our Ijaw brothers should not encourage that.
Conclusion
Benin, Ibibio, Ilaje and Itsekiri (and others) in the Niger Delta lived together for so long that, to us this new irredentism (i.e. expansionist agenda) is not only raw and strange but divisive. And we repeat, Ijaw cannot premise their existence in the Niger Delta on the denial of the existence of other neighbors. While they can request for the creation of state(s) in whatever name, we oppose inclusion of our lands.
Signed for and on behalf of the Benin-Ibibio-Ilaje & Itsekiri Ethnic Nationalities.
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