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The Ijaw people, otherwise known as the Ijo people, are an ethnic group found in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, with significant population clusters in Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers. They also occupy Edo, Ondo, and small parts of Akwa Ibom. Many are found as migrant fishermen in camps as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon. They account for about 1.8% of the Nigerian population according to CIA Factbook. The Ijaws are one of the most populous tribes inhabiting the Niger Delta region and the eighth largest ethnic group in Nigeria.
The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical zone, one state (Ondo) from South West geopolitical zone and two states from South East geopolitical zone.
Bayelsa is a state in the South South region of Nigeria, located in the core of the Niger Delta. Bayelsa State was created in 1996 and was carved out from Rivers State, making it one of the newest states in the federation. The capital, Yenagoa, is susceptible to high risk of annual flooding. It shares a boundary with Rivers State to the east and Delta State to the north across the Niger River for 17 km and the Forçados River for 198 km, with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean dominating its southern borders. It has a total area of 10,773 square kilometres (4,159 sq mi). The state comprises eight local government areas: Ekeremor, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Yenagoa, Nembe, Ogbia, Sagbama, Brass and Southern Ijaw. The state is the smallest in Nigeria by population as of the 2006 census. Being in the Niger Delta, Bayelsa State has a riverine and estuarine setting, with bodies of water within the state preventing the development of significant road infrastructure.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is a decentralised militant group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. MEND's actions – including sabotage, theft, property destruction, guerrilla warfare, and kidnapping – are part of the broader conflict in the Niger Delta and reduced Nigeria's oil production by 33% between 2006-07.
The Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) is one of the largest armed groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and is composed primarily of members of the region's largest ethnic group—the Ijaw people. The group was founded in 2004 in an attempt to gain more control over the region's vast petroleum resources, particularly in Delta State. The NDPVF has frequently demanded a greater share of the oil wealth from both the state and federal government and has occasionally supported independence for the Delta region. Until 2005 the group was spearheaded by Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who is viewed by many Delta residents as a folk hero.
Asari-Dokubo, formerly Melford Dokubo Goodhead Jr. and typically referred to simply as Asari, is a major political figure of the Ijaw ethnic group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He was president of the Ijaw Youth Council for a time beginning in 2001 and later founded the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force which would become one of the most prominent armed groups operating in the Niger Delta region. He is a Muslim with populist views and an anti-government stance that have made him a folk hero amongst certain members of the local population.
The Niger Delta Vigilante is an armed militia group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The NDV is led by Ateke Tom. The group is composed primarily by ethnic Ijaws from in and around Port Harcourt and their main goal is controlling the area's vast oil resources. In late 2003 the NDV precipitated a conflict with their rival Ijaw ethnic militia, the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF). The two groups spent most of 2004 in an escalating conflict which was ended when the Nigerian government and military eventually intervened on the side of the NDV in summer of 2004. The government's support of the NDV would eventually precipitate the Nigerian oil crisis, beginning in October 2004.
The current conflict in the Niger Delta first arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a number of the Niger Delta's minority ethnic groups who feel they are being exploited, particularly the Ogoni and the Ijaw. Ethnic and political unrest continued throughout the 1990s despite the return to democracy and the election of the Obasanjo government in 1999. Struggle for oil wealth and environmental harm over its impacts has fueled violence between ethnic groups, causing the militarization of nearly the entire region by ethnic militia groups, Nigerian military and police forces, notably the Nigerian Mobile Police. The violence has contributed to Nigeria's ongoing energy supply crisis by discouraging foreign investment in new power generation plants in the region.
The Niger Delta Congress (NDC) is a socio-political organization of the ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta region. The NDC was established on 26 December 2019 in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, to serve the purpose of uniting the minority nationalities of the Niger Delta region as a means to achieving political and economic autonomy for the peoples of the region. The NDC is under the leadership of an executive council that comprises representatives of the different nationalities that make up the region. The current executive of the NDC which is in acting capacity is led by Nubari Saatah as President, and Mudiaga Ogboru as its National Spokesperson.
Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, fondly called "Boro", was a Nigerian nationalist and soldier of Ijaw descent. He is considered a pioneer of minority rights activism in Nigeria.
Egbesu is the deity of justice of the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta region. Egbesu is also perceived as the spiritual foundational force for combating evil. The Egbesu force can only be used in defence or to correct an injustice, and only by people who are in harmony with the universe. The symbols of the divine force are the leopard, panther, and lion. Egbesu has both a philosophical and spiritual dimension, the latter of which has been more prominent during recent times due to conflicts in regions where the Ijaw reside.
The Warri Crisis was a series of conflicts in Delta State, Nigeria between 1997 and 2003 between the Itsekiri, the Ijaw, and the Urhobo ethnic groups. Over 200,000 people were displaced by the Warri conflict between 1999 and 2006. Over 700,000 people were displaced during this period by violence in Delta State overall.
Cletus Komena Emein was Governor of Niger State in Nigeria from 9 Dec 1993 to 22 Aug 1996. He became a member of the Niger Delta Committee, tasked with solving the endemic violence in the oil-producing region, in September 2008.
Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo predominantly referred to by his sobriquet Tompolo is a former Nigerian militant commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta and the chief priest of the Egbesu deity, which is the Niger-Deltan god of war.
The Niger Delta Liberation Front (NDLF) is a militant group in Nigeria's Niger Delta. The group's former leader John Togo claims that their main goal is to secede from, and gain independence from Nigeria. The group is best known for their notorious leader John Togo who is known throughout Nigeria as a fierce soldier. Although Togo is the NDLF's most notorious member he was killed on July 19, 2011, by a Nigerian air strike near Warri in Delta State. The group is closely linked to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta and fight side by side against the Nigerian Army. In early 2013 war erupted within the NDLF after 2 different commanders claimed to be leader. It ended after one was killed in March 2013.
Kingsley Kuku is a Nigerian political and environmental rights activist, the special adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria on Niger Delta Affairs and the chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
The Kaiama Declaration was issued by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) of Nigeria on 11 December 1998 to attribute the political crisis in Nigeria to the struggle for the control of oil mineral resources, while asserting 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. The council was formed in the town of Kaiama after 5,000 Ijaw people representing over 40 Ijaw clans, chose to articulate their aspirations for the Ijaw people, and to demand an end to 40 years of environmental damage and underdevelopment in the region.
The 2016 Niger Delta conflict is an ongoing conflict around the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in a bid for the secession of the region, which was a part of the breakaway state of Biafra. It follows on-and-off conflict in the Christian-dominated southern Niger Delta in the preceding years, as well as an insurgency in the Muslim-dominated northeast.
Chris Ekiyor is a dental surgeon and the president emeritus of the Ijaw Youth Council. He is the founder of RAHI Medical Outreach, an NGO that meets the health needs of rural Africa with a focus on the Niger Delta region.
ChiefMofia Tonjo Akobo was a Nigerian politician and his major campaigns were on environmental and resource control issues. He was the first Minister of Petroleum Resources in the Federal government of Nigeria. He was trained as a medical doctor and a soldier and was deployed in the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). As the first Minister of Petroleum, it made him a key figure in developing the economy after the war, unfortunately still heavily reliant on oil.
References
- ↑ Turnbull, Megan (2021-01-01). "Elite Competition, Social Movements, and Election Violence in Nigeria". International Security. 45 (3): 40–78. doi: 10.1162/isec_a_00401 . ISSN 0162-2889.
- ↑ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Nigeria: The Ijaw Youth Council including leadership, headquarters, aims and whether membership includes non-Ijaws". Refworld. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
- ↑ Profile: Nigeria's oil militant BBC News, 4 Oct 2004.
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