COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF AN EXTRA-ORDINARY MEETING OF OPINION LEADERS AND GROUPS IN THE NIGER DELTA AND IGBOLAND



The history of the Niger Delta and its people is a very peculiar one. Ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta, as against popular perceptions, were never colonized by the British. Rather, they were tricked into signing series of dubious treaties of protection with the British Crown in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the British at the time, sought to retain exclusive trading relationships with the people of this region at the height of European colonial scramble for Africa.



The amalgamation of the Colony of Lagos with the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914 and the eventual christening of the newly founded territory as Nigeria were done without the consent of the people of the Niger Delta.



These fundamental defects (that have always afflicted the process of determining every constitutional frame-work of the polity) according to Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, are the root causes of our national tragedies.



Above all, the people of the country have never had the opportunity to make inputs into, accept or reject any constitutional framework through a referendum.



Consequently, the masses of our people have always been
treated as aliens in all constitutional processes from 1914 to 1999 as all
constitutional frame-works have always been imposed on them whether or not they like them.



It is important to note however, that none of the treaties of protection extinguished the sovereignty of the protectorates. Neither did the people of these protectorates relinquish their sovereignty. As a result, they expected that an end of British “protection” would mean a return to their pre-protectorate independence status.



That was not to be as they were later to discover that the British protectorate system had extinguished their independence and felt betrayed to find that their sovereignty had been transferred to the Nigerian State, the successor to Britain. With this illegal transfer of sovereignty, the people of the Niger Delta lost their jurisdiction over their territories, their natural resources and critical elements of their political and economic administration.



The concept of extinguished sovereignty as used above is deliberately framed to provoke an in-depth analytical discussion of the rights of the Niger Delta people, as well as those of other Nigerian nationalities covered by British protectorate treaties.



The following are some of the vital legal questions to which answers must be completely explored. Under what circumstances can the sovereignty of a people be said to be extinguished? Have the people ceased to exist? Are they extinct? Did they voluntarily extinguish their sovereignty?



By demanding the restoration of the rights of indigenous people to their lands and natural resources, the Kaiama Declaration was arguing for the non-extinguishable sovereignty of the people of the Niger Delta. Minority ethnic groups the world over, who are the indigenous or aboriginal people of their territories, face discrimination as they are marginalized and dispossessed of their lands and natural resources.



In declaring 1993 The Year of Indigenous People, the United Nations (UN) began to grapple with this problem at the global level. On June 26, 2006, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution adopting the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous People, recognizing their rights to their lands and resources. Does this Declaration apply to the people of the Niger Delta? Many of us believe it does. The challenge therefore is for us to advance this argument in our articulation of the plight of the Niger Delta.



Agitations by ethnic nationalities across the Nigerian state especially the Niger Delta will continue to be on the rise until specific processes are put in place to define and establish the sovereignty of these nationalities who were forcefully conscripted into the Nigerian state.



This meeting was convened by the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Front (NDPSF) on behalf of all self determination groups in Niger Delta and Igboland; namely, Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Itsekiri Peoples Congress, (IPC), Biafra Liberation Council (BLC), Ethnic Minority Rights Movement of Africa, Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and Ndokwa National Congress (NNC). The main agenda is to re-define the focus of our struggle and develop modalities and strategies for the successful restoration of the sovereignty of our peoples. It is on the basis of these that we make the following declarations



DECLARATIONS

· As part of activities marking the 50th Anniversary of the occupying Nigerian State, the Senate of the Nigerian State should commence immediately, public hearings that would lead to the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) of all the ethnic nationalities that were forcefully conscripted into Nigeria before October 1, 2010.

· Failure which, the British Parliament should immediately begin deliberations on the idea of abrogating the act of parliament empowering the 1914 Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate and Independence in 1960.

· Also, the African Union should as a matter of urgency, convene its General Assembly with a view to constituting a special Commission that will work out the modalities for the peaceful and constructive dissolution of the failed Nigerian State.

· On the submission of the AU Report, the United Nations should convene its General Assembly with a view to setting up a special Commission that will supervise the peaceful and constructive dissolution of the soon-to-explode Nigerian State.

· This is the only way that we can avert the major human catastrophe that will arise from this degenerating socio-political and economic quagmire, because we shall take practical steps to restore our sovereignty.

We would also like to correct the erroneous impression being peddled around in certain quarters that the emergence of Dr Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan as President of the Nigerian state will deter groups such as ours from agitating for the restoration of the sovereignty of the various component groups within our alliance.

We make these declarations with the strongest of resolve to free our people from the shackles, debacles and manacles of the Nigerian State.

The Struggle Continues!