Passage of PIB Bill: lNC salutes action of patriotic lawmakers staged walk out

Passage of PIB Bill: lNC salutes action of patriotic lawmakers staged walk out

Ijaw nation salutes the courage, sagacity and dexterity of our Senators and other patriotic

National Assembly members and, in unison, support their historic and symbolic walkout during

yesterday’s rowdy session in defense of the teeming masses of the criminally marginalized,

balkanized and brutally bastardized Ijaw people and environment by successive administrations

of this country. 

The walkout staged by our distinguished Senators is a clear message to the Nigeria state and the International community of our total rejection of the 3% allocated to Host communities, the misapplication of the concept of host communities and the allocation of whooping 30% of profits from our oil and gas resources to the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in frontier  basins in the PIB.

The walkout by our patriotic Senators further expresses our disillusionment over the continued unsavory treatment meted against the over 27 million Ijaw people who, in spite of bearing the burdens of sustaining this country, have experienced irreparable and unimaginable losses of their sources of livelihood as they continue to suffer the pollution of their ecosystem on account of the activities of  insensitive multinational oil companies without appropriate remediation as well as existential threats in the hands of the Nigerian state.

The Ijaw nation shall continue to condemn any policy that attempts to make what duly belongs to us as belonging to everybody and anybody without first respecting our right to ownership as we have at no time assumed ownership and control over what belongs to others. 

We are finding it difficult to calm down the nerves of our people whose anger is daily heightened by the unrelenting oppressive demeanour of those presiding over the fortunes of our God-given resources. Whereas we thought the PIB offered a veritable opportunity for the leadership to redress and pacify our people by hearkening to our petitions and cries of marginalization and underdevelopment, the recent decision by the Senate of the Federal Republic to allocate a paltry 3% to the Host Communities Trust Fund has poured fuel on an already combustible situation.

We wish to restate that the 3% provision for the Host Communities Trust Fund, 30% of Profit provisions for oil and gas exploration and exploitation of Frontier basins and the arbitrary distortion of the definition of host communities in the PIB remain totally unacceptable to the Ijaw nation.  Since our appeal as the leadership of the Ijaw nation appears to have fallen on deaf ears, we cannot promise or guarantee that we shall be able to contain any recourse to restiveness that could arise in Ijaw land.

Prof. Benjamin O. Okaba

President, Ijaw National Congress (INC).