By Sunny Ikhioya

WATCHING the transformation of the Ijaw group from a passive, friendly and harmless people in the sixties and seventies, to the ferocious, war mongering and hubris displaying people of today, is a handful assignment for researchers of societal inter relationships.

Even with the trade mark Warri jibes, the Ijaw will laugh with you; “My name is Zon, my father’s name is Zonson, altogether Zon Zonson”. The Warri joke did not start today, it has always been there and the Ijaws were part of it, together with their Urhobo, Itsekiri, Isoko,Kwale, Edo, Ibo and many other ethnic tribes resident in Warri and other parts of the Niger Delta.

What could have caused an Ijaw group, a naturally friendly people to become so hot headed and angling for battle at any slightest provocation?

Land ownership has always been a source of conflicts all over the world and the case is the same in the Niger Delta. Going down memory lane, there has always been land disputes between the Urhobos and Itsekiris, Urhobos-Ijaws, Ijaws-Itsekiris and so forth. There were usually light skirmishes but majorly, the disputes are settled in the law courts. So, despite this land dispute tension, the average Warri boy has always lived as brother to his fellow Warri boy, no matter the ethnic origin.

With the influx of oil and allied firms, the battle to be strategically positioned to enjoy benefits from these companies became prominent, in the same manner that the battle of the coastal people against people of the hinterland, for business deals with the early white traders.

Claims and counter claims became rampant amongst the Niger Delta tribes and this reached its peak in the eighties and nineties when the Ijaws pitched battle with their Itsekiri neighbours. The Ijaws claimed ancestral lands that belong to them have been taken over by the Itsekiris through the instrumentality of the courts, while the Itsekiris claimed the lands belong to them through their ancestry and by virtue of competent court judgements. Both sides were threatening and it was only a matter of time before things boiled over, this came in the manner of location of local government headquarter in Warri south; the Itsekiris wanted it at Ogidigben, while the Ijaws insisted on Ogbe-Ijoh. That was the genesis of the Warri crisis as we know it today. A battle of extreme brutality and massive destructions took place between the two neighbours,the number of lives lost and properties destroyed can never be quantified. Suffice to mention here that, after mutually assured destructions, both parties made peace but Warri and other Niger-Delta communities will never be the same again.

The fighters transformed to militants and started the resource control battle, which brought the Niger-Delta plight to the consciousness of the whole nation and the world. One thing led to another and before the whole world Jonathan became president of the Federal republic of Nigeria.

Jonathan’s presidency was welcomed by all the ethnic groups of the Niger Delta. When it comes to the Niger Delta struggle, the nations of the Delta are one; the same exploitation, despoilation of the land and lack of development plan for the people, Jonathan’s ascension was seen as an opportunity to redress all of these.

The Ijaws have always seen themselves as the most marginalised tribe in the Niger Delta region, in the mould of the Ogonis in Rivers state and have used every opportunity to express this sentiment since the days of Isaac Boro. With their man at the top and amnesty programme in place as brokered by late President Umaru Yar adua, it was hoped that the challenges of the ‘Niger Delta ethnic groups will be tackled effectively.

We are six years into the government headed by Goodluck Jonathan, it appears the other ethnic groups of the Niger Delta have been forgotten. It is not only the Ijaws that have oil produced in their land; the Itsekiris, Urhobos, Isokos, Ibos, Ogonis, Ikwerre, in fact almost all Niger Delta tribes have oil in their lands but it appears, now in Jonathan’s government, that the Ijaws are the only ethnic group in the Niger Delta. They are the ones getting all the top appointments and projects. As far as they are concerned, all other ethnic groups do not matter and this is where they are getting it all wrong.

If you claim that you have been marginalised and given the opportunity to be in position, you should correct the supposed marginalisation including relationship with neighbours. You do not continue with the oppressions of the past, as any foundation based on marginalisation will not last. There is no way that you can deprive the other tribes of the benefits accruing to them. The Ijaw youths are undergoing trainings, in diverse fields, all over the world, what plans do they have for other Niger Delta people? Equity demands that they are also factored in.

The present impasse surrounding the Ogidigben EPZ ground breaking is uncalled for if the President and his Ijaw brothers had handled it with the overall interest of everybody in mind. They also want the position of deputy governor of Delta state, after appropriating the senatorial seat. The President must not delay in performing the ground breaking ceremony for the EPZ project to take off and find a way to pacify his Ijaw folks.
It is in the interest of the whole nation.

*Mr. Ikhioya, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Lagos.