The Ijaw National Congress (INC), the apex socio-cultural organization of the Ijaw nation worldwide, has decried the recent exercise of the prerogative of mercy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which granted pardons to 175 Nigerians.
“While we respectfully acknowledge the constitutional right of the President to wield this power, and recognize the symbolic value in correcting certain historical wrongs, the INC views this action with profound skepticism. We are not oblivious of the serious moral issues and questions raised by other critical stakeholders within and outside the country, but feel more bothered by the fact that this gesture, though wide-ranging, does little to address the deep-seated, systemic, and ongoing injustices perpetrated against the Ijaw people and the wider Niger Delta region.”
INC made the following declaration in a public statement made available to The Solutions News:
1. The Pardon of the Ogoni Nine: A Welcome but Incomplete Act. The posthumous pardon granted to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni leaders is a long-overdue acknowledgement of the grave judicial murder committed by the Nigerian state in 1995. However, this symbolic act remains tragically disconnected from the living realities in Ogoniland and the entire Niger Delta. The environmental devastation, economic marginalization, and political repression that Ken Saro-Wiwa died fighting against continue unabated today. Pardoning the dead without healing the land and empowering the living is a hollow victory.
2. A Distraction from Core Issues of Resource Justice. The Ijaw nation remains the primary source of the oil and gas wealth that sustains Nigeria. Yet, we remain in the perpetual periphery of benefit, suffering from what can only be described as “economic asphyxiation”. The legal architecture of dispossession, from the Petroleum Decree of 1969 to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021, remains firmly in place, systematically expropriating our resources and severing our sovereignty. A presidential pardon that does not restore our dignity and right to control and manage our God-given resources is no use to us.
3. The Unaddressed Ecological Genocide. While the President offers pardons, the Ijaw homeland continues to endure an ecological collapse orchestrated by decades of oil exploration. With thousands of recorded oil spills and continuous gas flaring that poisons our air and water, our ecosystem—the bedrock of our livelihood and cultural heritage—is being systematically destroyed. We do not need paternalistic gestures of mercy; we demand environmental justice, ecological restoration, and accountability from multinational corporations and the Nigerian state.
In the statement, the President, Ijaw National Congress (INC) Global, Prof. Benjamin O. Okaba demanded that its struggle is not for symbolic pardons but for substantive justice. In his words: “we call on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the international community to:
· Initiate a genuine process of resource control and fiscal federalism that allows the Ijaw people to own and manage their resources as a right enshrined in natural justice and international law.
· Enforce a comprehensive and urgent environmental remediation program in the Niger Delta, in line with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on Ogoniland and beyond.
· Repeal obnoxious laws like the Land Use Act and review constitutional provisions that perpetuate internal colonialism and “legalized oppression”.
. Address the disparity between the governance of the oil and gas sector, as contained in PIA 2021 and the solid minerals governance by the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007. This discrimination is designed to militarise, plunder and marginalise the Niger Delta, while affording a more equitable regime for solid mineral resources.
· Address the historical and political grievances of the Ijaw people, including the brazen political assaults on Ijaw sons and daughters, as witnessed in the recent illegal impeachment attempts against Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State.”
The group insisted that their right to self-determination was inalienable and rooted in solemn treaties with the British Crown and validated by international law and would continue to pursue this cause through peaceful, diplomatic, and strategic means, with the full solidarity of the global community.
The INC remains resolute in its mission to champion the dignity, justice, and sovereignty of the Ijaw people. We will not relent until our people are free from the shackles of oppression and can truly determine their own political and economic destiny, the statement emphasized.
