The Niger Delta Congress (NDC) has released a list of conditions that the Federal Government of Nigeria must fulfill in order for the Niger Delta region to continue to remain part of Nigeria.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the conditions were contained in an amended Niger Delta Peoples Charter Draft released by the NDC on Friday.
The NDC stated that if the FG should fail to create and adopt a constitution that captures the rights of the people of the Niger Delta as declared and proclaimed in the charter in the shortest possible time, the Niger Delta people will have no option but to exercise their rights to self determination as a people independent of the Nigerian federation.
The group, a socio-political organisation of ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta established in 2019, also requested the FG for the reparations of oil revenue deprived the people from 1960 till date to be paid in full.
Here is the full text of the Niger Delta Peoples Charter Draft (Amended) as released by NDC
NIGER DELTA CONGRESS
NIGER DELTA PEOPLES CHARTER DRAFT (AMMENDED)
PREAMBLE:
We, the people of the ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta Region drawn from Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers State, after due deliberations amongst ourselves, conscious of our peculiarities and diversities in traditions, heritage, culture, civilization, customs and fully aware of our predicament, status, experience and prospect in the Nigerian Federation, do hereby state as follows:-
- That the ethnic nations that make up the Niger Delta as outlined above were invaded by the British, and against the wishes of the peoples of the region forcefully merged with the Lagos Colony in 1906 to form the Southern Nigeria Protectorate.
- That in 1914, the peoples of the region were once again forcefully merged with the Northern protectorate of the colonialists to form the country known as Nigeria.
- That in 1946 the ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta region were forced under the Western and Eastern region within the Nigerian creation respectively, consequently putting the independent ethnic nationalities of the region under the hegemonic control of the Yorubas in the Western region, and the Igbos in the Eastern region.
- Whereas the Niger Delta peoples protested against these colonial constructs being created in the run up to Nigeria gaining independence from Britain, the wishes of our people were not satisfactorily addressed by the pre-determined Henry Willink’s Commission setup by the British Colonial Government for the purpose of looking into the fears of our people.
- That in the period after Nigeria’s independence on 1st October 1960, the Niger Delta peoples have been victimized and robbed of our lands and resources by a system of government built on ethnic hegemony, injustice and inequality.
- That the victimization and robbery of the Niger Delta people has been done using various laws and decrees, including constitutions which have over time been forced on our people despite protest against such from our people.
- Whereas in the course of violently repressing the Niger Delta people, the Nigerian state and its constituent major ethnic blocs have committed numerous acts of genocide against us, using its security agencies, and the various ethnic and religious militias available to it, leading to the death of approximately 1,500,000 Niger Deltans from the start of the Civil War in 1967 till date. Notable mentions of these ethnic genocide are: the civil war genocides superintended by the Nigerian and Biafran forces on our people which has today been erased from the public eye via omission from historical accounts of the civil war, the Ogoni massacres of 1993 to 1995 under the orders of General Sani Abacha, the Odi genocide of 1999 perpetrated under the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, and the Gbaramatu massacre of 2009 under the President Umaru Musa Yar’adua administration.
- That the Nigerian state has mined oil from the Niger Delta worth over $600 billion since 1957 when commercial oil exploration began, of which the Niger Delta has gotten less than a cumulative 15% as “derivation” in return.
- That in the process of the forceful exploration of our mineral resources by the Nigerian government in collaboration with foreign governments and oil companies, our environment has been severely degraded and devastated, destroying the economic livelihoods of our people by rendering our lands unfit for agriculture and harmful for habitation; while rendering our rivers largely unfishable and poisonous for consumption where available. In addition the ground water reserves of our land has been contaminated with benzene making it unfit for consumption, putting the lives of millions of our people in the balance between a certain death from dehydration or a certain death from the consumption of hydrocarbon contaminated water.
- That as at today the Niger Delta region has been purposely underdeveloped and the people economically strangulated by legislations and policies of the Nigerian federation which has limited, or in most cases eliminated the socio-economic and socio-political freedoms of our people as a means to keep our people perpetually down and completely subjugated.
- Whereas it is only a just society with economic, social, and political freedoms that can develop in peace and unity, however the existing framework of the Nigerian government has neither been just to the people of the Niger Delta, neither has it provided or allowed for the exercise of our freedoms as human beings.
- That the current administration of the Nigerian Government though said to be democratic, has so far manifested as an ethnic and regional dictatorship with no regard for the principles of fairness and equity, and has shown utter disregard and disrespect for the people of the Niger Delta who contribute 90% of the resources that fund the budget of the Nigerian Government.
- That the rising cases of insurrections, ethnic cleansings and land grabs, and insurgencies within the country, puts to question the usefulness of the current security architecture and has shown the failure and inability of the Nigerian government in protecting the lives and properties of the people of the Niger Delta.
- That the blunt refusal of the Nigerian Government to heed to several calls for resource control, restructuring and devolution of powers by the region as documented in the various charters and declarations of our people over time, has brought the people of the Niger Delta to a critical point where we have, collectively, decided to take our destinies in our own hands.
Based on the aforementioned, we, the ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta hereby declare our inalienable rights as follows:
- OUR RIGHTS TO LIFE: And to defend our land and people against violent attacks.
- OUR RIGHTS TO OUR LANDS, WATERS, AND RESOURCES: That all land, resources (onshore and offshore) in the Niger Delta belong to and shall be controlled, managed, and protected by the peoples of the Niger Delta for our benefit. By this, we mean complete land and resource control.
- OUR RIGHTS TO POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC AUTONOMY: That the political and economic affairs of the Niger Delta shall be controlled by Niger Delta people for the advancement and development of the Niger Delta.
- OUR RIGHTS TO A CLEAN AND CONDUCIVE ENVIRONMENT: That an environmental assessment of the entire Niger Delta region and a corresponding cleanup of the region must be carried out.
- OUR RIGHTS TO JUSTICE: That adequate compensation for the destruction of the Niger Delta environment must be paid by all oil companies that have operated in, and are currently operating in the region, in collaboration with the Nigerian government. That reparations of oil revenue deprived the people from 1960 till date must be paid in full.
- OUR RIGHTS TO FREEDOM:
In addition to the declaration of these inalienable rights above, we the people of the Niger Delta also assert our rights as proclaimed in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of June 1981, and by the United Nations General Assembly’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10th December 1948, under General Assembly Resolution 217A, and accordingly demand as of right that the Nigerian Government and Federation be immediately restructured to reflect these changes as a condition for the United Niger Delta People to remain within the Nigerian Federation. That failure to create and adopt a constitution that captures the rights of the Niger Delta people as declared and proclaimed in this charter in the shortest possible time, the Niger Delta people will have no option but to exercise our rights to self determination as a people independent of the Nigerian federation.
In furtherance of the above stated objectives, we, the people of the Niger Delta Region, recognizing the need to raise our moral and intellectual dignity, rekindle in ourselves the spirit of Unity, Peace and brotherhood as a single geopolitical entity and aware of our duties as protectors of our cherished history, culture, traditions, customs, heritage, destiny and rights as a free people and coherent region, unanimously and solemnly resolved at the Niger Delta Peoples’ Conference held at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Friday, October 8, 2021 and do hereby make, enact and adopt this CHARTER, which shall be known, called and addressed as “the Niger Delta Peoples’ Charter” that we shall as a people defend this historic and solemn CHARTER in the interest of unity, peace, justice and equity. So help us God.
Signed by the representatives of ethnic nationalities in the Region.