Yoruba group tasks Tinubu to address historic injustice against Itsekiri

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A coalition, Alliance of Yoruba Democratic Movements (AYDM), has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to tackle what it termed the historic injustice suffered for centuries by Itsekiri indigenous ethnic group in the country.

AYDM, a coalition of 121 pan-Yoruba groups spread across Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Edo, Kwara, Kogi and the West African coast, made this call in a letter addressed to President Tinubu on Tuesday, after an extensive meeting it held in Lagos, saying that for more than 1000 years, the Itsekiri, who found in Delta State, Niger Delta, with current population of 1.5million were often classified as minorities, undermining their access to political, economic and social opportunities.

The group, in a letter signed by its General Secretary, Comrade Popoola Ajayi and Secretary for Mobilization, Chief Kunle Oshodi, respectively, however, quickly noted that the true situation is that Itsekiri had asserted themselves as a unique people with a rich civilization and made tremendous contributions to African cultural and economic growth.

According to AYDM, the Itsekiri produce 35 per cent of Nigerian oil and gas but get little or nothing in return, adding: “They have received little or nothing in return for the enormous resources successive governments exploit on their ancestral territories.”

“There are no economic landmarks, no industries, no commensurate employment opportunities in the oil companies on their land, while they are given crumbs when it comes to political appointments at the Federal level.

“No Itsekiri man has ever led the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. No Itsekiri man has ever emerged as the Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. No Itsekiri man has ever been made a Federal Minister since 1999. This is ridiculous,” the AYDM said.

The group observed that even in the face of repression, oil pollution, and exclusion, the Itsekiri were one of the few ethnic groups in the Niger Delta that had never resolved into violence, vandalisation of oil pipelines, bunkering or oil theft, urging the Presidency to demonstrate that there was reward for peaceful conduct and not just reward for groups that threatened violence and armed insurrection at all times.

Speaking further, the coalition recalled that the late Pa Alfred Rewane was the financial backbone of the resistance against military rule, which it noted was “a dangerous assignment that eventually led to his assassination in November 1994.”

AYDM, however, commended President Tinubu for recognizing the role the late elder statesman played by naming one of the longest streets in Lagos after him, when he served as governor of the state, calling the president to correct this historic injustice to a great people whose land it said provided immense resources to the country “by recognizing the Itsekiri ethnic group through significant industrial investments in their homeland, Federal appointment that will give the people a deep sense of belonging, a step that will justify their non-violence to the long chain of repression they have suffered.”

“We commend President Tinubu for recognizing the role of Pa Rewane. As the then Governor of Lagos State, he named one of the longest streets in Lagos after Pa Rewane for his contributions to democracy and justice without which the military would have remained in Nigeria.

“We call on President Tinubu to correct this historic injustice to a great people whose land provides immense resources to Nigeria.” AYDM said.

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