Nigerian Human Rights Community (NHRC) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address what it termed the historic injustice faced by 1 million Itsekiri people in Nigeria, noting sadly that the Itsekiri people in Delta and Edo states produced some 30 per cent of the country’s total oil output yet remained the most oppressed and marginalised oil producing community in Nigeria.
NHRC, a coalition of 130 civil society and community-based groups spread across Nigeria, made this call on Wednesday in a letter to President Tinubu, which was said was despatched to Aso-Rock on Wednesday, further noting that the Itsekiri are a minority oil-producing people who had no voices and no one to uplift them from national isolation fuelled by historic injustice.
The coalition, in a statement signed by its Secretary, Abiola Adeleke; the Director of Publicity, Taiwo Adeleye; the Northern Coordinator, Mallam Yao Abdullahi and the Niger-Delta Coordinator, Steven Ekong, copy of which was made available to newsmen, asserted that the Itsekiri had been subjected to the worst form of deprivation for decades, calling on President Tinubu to listen to the pains and agonies of Itsekiri and compensate them for enduring the hardship without resorting to violence or armed conflict.
NHRC, while making the appeal, said President Tinubu should do this for the Itsekiri to prove that “diplomacy and peaceful agitation have rewards in Nigeria,” just as it lamented that the indigenous environment of Itsekiri territories had been devastated due to years of oil exploration and lack of Environmental Impact Assessment, (EIA), which it said had impoverished the land, the people and the environment.
Besides, the coalition also said the marginalization of Itsekiri was not only by the Federal Government but also by private oil companies operating in the Niger-Delta, adding that the percentage of unemployment among Itsekiri was the highest among ethnic groups in the Niger-Delta.
“Itsekiri produces 30 percent of Nigerian oil. In the distribution of natural resources, they are at the receiving end of the stick. The Federal Government’s presence in Itsekiri land is almost nil. The Federal Government boycotts Itsekiri when it comes to Federal appointments, including into the smallest unit of government institutions,” the coalition said.
“This oppression has been going on for over 50 years. At the political level, as we speak, Itsekiri has no Federal Minister. Itsekiri has no Senator. No Itsekiri person was appointed into any strategic position during the eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari and none has been appointed by current President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“No Itsekiri person has never been appointed to lead the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) even though the community produces 30 percent of Nigerian oil output. Itsekiri person has never led the Nigerian Maritime Authority, (NMA), Nigerian Port Authority, (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, (NNPC),” it added.
NHRC, however, demanded that it was time for President Tinubu to appoint an Itsekiri into exalted and inspiring position to compensate for the injustice to the people, even as it quickly recalled that Chief Alfred Rewane, a prominent Itsekiri leader, made the largest single donation to the pro-democracy movements in the 1990s, a choice which it alleged led to his assassination.
It expressed confidence in President Tinubu, saying that he had listening ears and would allow reason and justice to prevail.
The coalition reiterated that Itsekiri had made tremendous contributions to the civilisation and economic growth of Africa since the 15th Century without adequate recognition from the Nigerian successive governments but still did not take to violent armed agitation like some other ethnic groups, vowing that should nothing be done to address the problem, it would “protest to the United Nations (UN), the Nigerian National Assembly and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).”
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