Indigenous Peoples Of Niger Delta Commence Earnest Self-Determin

 by Tim Elombah

The indigenous peoples of Niger Delta, under the auspices of the Niger Delta Self Determination Movement (NDSDM), has launched a movement to enable them secure the immediate political, as well as economic interest in Nigeria.

The Niger Delta has thus demanded the ‘political and economic restructuring of Nigeria to allow for political autonomy for our peoples and 100% ownership and control of their resources  from which they shall remit fair and agreed royalties and taxes to the Federation  of Nigeria’.

It the explanatory note to the Niger Delta Indigenous Peoples Charter made available to Elombah.com, they stated thus:

EXPLANATORY NOTE TO THE NIGER DELTA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CHARTER IN THE MATTER OF NIGER DELTA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CHARTER AND MATTER ARISING THEREFROM

A. The peoples of the Niger Delta are to be found in the following six states; Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Edo, Delta and Rivers states

B. The Expropriatory Laws that sequestrated our oil and gas resources are hereunder compartralized.

An index and sequence of such laws are as follows;

Abrogation And Repeal Of All Laws That Expropriate The Rights Of The People To Control Their Resources, Such As:

• Territorial Water Act, Cap. T4 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004

•  Exclusive Economic Zone Act, Cap. E17 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004

• Land Use Act, Cap. L5 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004

• Interpretation Act, Cap.123 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004

• Oil pipelines Act, Cap.07 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004

• Petroleum Act, Cap. 07 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004

• Minerals and Mining Act, CAP. M12 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004

• National Inland Waterways Authority Act, Cap. N47 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004

•  Section 44(3) of the 1999 Constitution.

C. The sequential progression and retrogression of the principle of derivation is also hereunder quintessentially serialized as follows.

The Derivation Principle 1951-1958:

(i) Hicks Phillipson’s Commission Report (1951) –  Derivation principles to the Regions were stated as follows:

a. 50% of the import and excise duties on tobacco.

b. 100% of the import duty on motor spirit.

(ii) Chiks Commission Report (1958) – Derivation was applied as follows:

a. Mineral Royalties – 100% to the Region of extraction.

This recommendation was in operation for five years from 1954-1959.

(iii) The Raisman Commisson Report (1958) – The derivation principle was as follows:

a. Central Government - 20%

b. Regions - 50%

c. Distributable Pool Account - 30%

See the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (Review of the Revenue Allocation Formula) main report (December 2002) at pages 8-19.

Federal – State percentage in petroleum proceeds, 1960-1999

Years Producing State Federal Government

1960-1967 50 20

1967-1969 50 50

1969-1971 45 55

1971-1975 45 minus offshore proceeds 55 plus offshore proceeds

1975-1979 20 minus offshore proceeds 60 plus offshore proceeds

1979-1981 - 100

1982-1992 1 and half 98 and half

1992-1999 3% 97

1999- 13% 87

D. We align our struggle with Resolution 1803 of the United Nations, on Permanent Sovereignty Over National Resources 1962 which supports our struggle for resource control by providing thus;

“The rights of people and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources must be exercised in the interest of their national development and of the people of the state concerned…”

Indeed, the leading international scholar in his seminal espouse titled Harris on Cases and Materials in International Law (1998), Chapter 8 at page 549 submits that Resolution 1803 has been accepted in a number of arbitration awards as reflecting customary international law. He relied on the case of Texaco v Libya (1977) 53 ILR 389, (1978) 17 LLM 2 and Kuwait v American Independent Oil Company (1982) 21 ILM 976.

Our call for resource ownership and control, therefore, merely invokes and affirms Resolution 1803 as well as our right to self-determination under United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples. We in the Niger Delta want to exercise, Permanent Sovereignty over our natural resources and wealth and have the right to determine our political, economic and development direction.

In the following document titled “The State Of The Niger Delta By Niger Delta Self Determination Movement (NDSDM)”, they;

- condemned the three months quit notice issued to the Igbos by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum and supported by the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF);

- decried the fallacious, deliberate and misinformative/disinformative falsehood by Ango Abdullahi over Niger Delta in particular and the South in general;

- lamented that the killing of their people “whenever they have attempted to assert their rights to control their God given resources”;

- complained bitterly how they have been shoved aside by northern oligarchs who now control 83 percent of oil well in Niger Deltaa;

- expressed seriously disappointed on the position taken by the United Nations, on the quit notice issued to the Igbos living in the North, by the Arewa people, by its Country Resident Coordinator Mr. Edward Kallon. 

- threw their weight behind any group or people that wishes to embark on similar self-determination course;

-       Etc.

See the document below:

THE STATE OF THE NIGER DELTA BY NIGER DELTA SELF DETERMINATION MOVEMENT (NDSDM)

We, the Niger Delta Self Determination Movement (NDSDM), wish to on behalf of our people categorically condemn the three months quit notice issued to the Igbos by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum and supported by the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) as clearly presented to the world through their spokesman, Alhaji Ango Abdullahi.

We are also alarmed by the persistent but false, malicious, provocative and unacceptable claims made by Alhaji Ango Abdullahi, on behalf of the Northern Nigeria, that “Southern Nigeria was developed by resources from the North”, and that “none of the Western and Eastern regions had the money to effectively run the affairs of its region until they get financial support from the Northern region”. 

Furthermore, the fallacious, deliberate and misinformative/disinformative falsehood by Ango Abdullahi, including the claim that “money from the North was used to construct Nigerian Railways, refineries and other facilities”.

And that the “First oil exploration was conducted using money from groundnut pyramid, cotton, hide and skin among other cash crops from Northern Nigeria”, are anti-historical and contrary to historical facts and figures in the British archives and all other historical records available to humanity.

It is on record, verifiable records, that before and after the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates, without the consent of the indigenous people of the Niger Delta, the North had been and still remains dependent on the South for its economic and infrastructural needs and wants like schools, hospitals, roads, workers’ salaries, etc.

It is on record that since the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri in 1956, the indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta have been excluded from the ownership, control and management of our natural resources by the Nigeria federation through the expropriation of our lands and resources by the Northern inspired and drafted military Constitution, amongst all other obnoxious Decrees that were later converted to Acts. 

Our people have been killed whenever they have attempted to assert their rights to control their God given resources. 

It is saddening that majority of oil wells in the Niger Delta are owned and controlled by the Northern cabals and even the few owned by our people have been fraudulently and forcibly taken from them.

Our people have been recently denied licenses for modular refineries while persons from the Northern parts of Nigeria have had a field day despite assurances to the contrary by the Nigerian state. 

These acts of the Nigerian state is in breach of Article 26 (1) of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples which guarantees the rights of the indigenous peoples to own, control and manage their lands and any resources found thereon; and the Declaration 1 of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1803 of 14 December 1962 on Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources which provides that “the rights of the peoples and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources must be exercised in the interest of their national development and of the well-being of the people of the state concerned.”

We want to make it clear that no modular refinery will be allowed to operate within the Niger Delta which is not owned and controlled by our people. 

And we further demand the immediate and unconditional relocation of the corporate headquarters of all international and national oil and gas companies including oil/gas servicing firms operating in the Niger Delta. Enough is enough.

We are seriously disappointed on the position taken by the United Nations, on the quit notice issued to the Igbos living in the North, by the Arewa people, by its Country Resident Coordinator Mr. Edward Kallon. 

The statement is nothing but a gross disservice to the very ideas and ideals of the UN, which through its various resolutions and declarations have established the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination, civil protest and peaceful association.

Whilst Mr. Kalon is quick to preach peaceful co-existence on behalf of the UN, he has failed to acknowledge, let alone condemn the wanton killings of defenseless and innocent Christians in several parts of Southern Nigeria and the Middle-Belt, including but not limited to Enugu, Delta, Rivers, Ekiti, Ondo, Edo, Southern Kaduna, Jos, Agatu, Nimbo by the Fulani herdsmen who have been identified as the fourth most deadliest terrorist group by the global terrorism index.   

The attempt by Mr. Kallon to justify the quit notice order given by the Northern youths on the basis of the sit-at-home strike of the Igbos to commemorate and mourn their loss during the civil war and others killed before and thereafter; a right guaranteed by the UN Declaration No. 2 of Resolution 1514 of 14 December 1960 and Article 3 of the UN declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples smacks of double standards.

Consequently, the NDSDM condemns in the strongest possible terms the position of the UN through its Country Resident Coordinator which justifies the quit notice order given to the Igbos by the Northern Youths.

Mr. Edward Kallon needs to be reminded that self-determination is contained in all the main instruments of the United Nations - the Charter and Inter-national Covenants on Human Rights in accordance with the UN Charter identify Self-determination as a right of peoples and is seen to be a fundamental human right forming part of the legal system established by the Charter.

In conclusion, we, the Indigenous Peoples of the Niger Delta demands the immediate and unconditional restructuring of the current faulty, evil and anti-Niger Delta Unitary-Federal structure.

Gentlemen of the press, we hereby present to the world the Niger Delta Indigenous Peoples Charter.

The struggle have just began.

Long Live the Indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta!

Long live the Niger Delta!!

Finally, see attached “The Niger Delta Indigenous Peoples Charter”:

THE NIGER DELTA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CHARTER

PREAMBLE

WE the people drawn from all the ethnic groups within the area referred to and known as the Niger Delta of Nigeria have met to discuss the survival of the indigenous  peoples of the Niger Delta within the Nigerian State.

After exhaustive deliberations by the representatives of the ethnic nationalities of the Niger Delta it was observed as follows;

A)        that the area referred to as the Niger Delta of Nigeria covers a total landmass of 20,000 square kilometres and is the largest wetland in Africa and the third largest in the world.

B)         That the area referred to as Niger Delta has a population of 40 million going by the Nigerian census figures of 2006.

C)        That the Niger Delta area today accounts for well over 90% of the oil and gas resources on which the Nigerian state economic depends and is sustained.  

D)        That it was the British colonialist that forcibly and without our consent put us under the Nigerian state.

E)         That before the advent of the British colonialists the indigenous people in the Niger Delta were not conquered by nor in servitude to ANY tribe or nationality

F)           That right from the time of the British colonialist till date our people have suffered economic, political and environmental genocide.

G)        That the quality of life of the Indigenous Peoples of Niger Delta has deteriorated and continues to deteriorate as a result of the deliberate neglect, provocative suppression, political oppression and economic strangulation visited on our peoples by the Nigerian state and their collaborative multinational oil companies. 

H)        That the consistent struggle for political control and power is mainly about the struggle for easy access and to control the oil and gas resources which account for well over 90% of national revenue and foreign exchange earnings.

I)           That despite our huge contribution to the economic survival and political stability of the Nigerian state our reward has been environmental degradation, military suppressions and killings, intimidation and harassment and political strangulation.

J)           That unabating and provocative damage done to our fragile environment and to the health of our people is due in the main to uncontrolled exploration and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas which has resulted in numerous oil spills, uncontrolled gas flaring, destruction of forests, indiscriminate canalisation, flooding, land subsidence, coastal/shore erosion etc. that our people been farmers and fishermen have had their sources of livelihood destroyed and degraded without any alternative economic source. That the multinational oil companies have operated like a law unto themselves within the protection of the Nigerian State.

K)        That in order to keep our people perpetually subservient to the Nigerian state and never having the rule over our destinies, the Nigerian state has enacted obnoxious laws which robs us of our natural rights to ownership and control of our land and resource. Such undemocratic Nigerian State legislations as the Land Use Decree of 1978, the Petroleum Decrees of 1969 and 1991, the Lands (Title Vesting etc.) Decree No. 52 of 1993 (Osborne Land Decree), the National Inland Waterways Authority Decree No. 13 of 1997 etc.

L)         That the principle of Derivation in Revenue Allocation has been consciously and systematically obliterated by successive regimes of the Nigerian state. We note the drastic reduction of the Derivation Principle from 100% (1953), 50% (1960), 45% (1970), 20% (1975) 2% (1982), 1.5% (1984) 3% (1992), to the current 13%.

M)       That the continued violence in the Niger Delta area is surreptitiously sponsored by the Nigerian state with active connivance of the multinational oil companies with an aim to keep our peoples distracted, divided and disunited in order to continue the looting of our resources without let or hindrance.

Flowing from the foregoing, we, the indigenous peoples inhabiting the area known and referred to as the Niger Delta of Nigerian which have been balkanised into present day Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers states, make the following resolutions to be known and called the NIGER DELTA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CHARTER:

That the indigenous peoples of Niger Delta demand the political and economic restructuring of Nigeria to allow for POLITICAL AUTONOMY for our peoples and 100% ownership and control of our resources  from which we shall remit fair and agreed royalties and taxes to the Federation  of Nigeria.

That the indigenous peoples of Niger Delta further demand our right and freedom for self-determination as enshrined in the UN Declarations of Indigenous Peoples and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

We affirm our support to ANY OTHER Indigenous Peoples’ struggle for self-determination within the Nigerian State. We express our solidarity with all  organisations in Nigeria and elsewhere who are struggling for self-determination and justice. In particular we note the struggle of the IPOB/MASSOB, Oodua Peoples Congress/ Afenifere, Middle Belt Forum, etc

Furthermore we demand the immediate convocation of a Sovereign Conference of Ethnic Nationalities made up of equal representatives of ALL identified ethnic nationalities within the Nigerian State to deliberate on the Nigerian situation and produce a peoples’ Constitution. The Government of the Nigerian State or any political party shall not nominate any representative to the Conference.

The indigenous peoples of Niger Delta therefore totally reject the oppressive and genocidal internal colonialism and calls for a new order in Nigeria, an order in which our indigenous Peoples shall have full responsibility for their own affairs.

We aver that failing the above by the Nigerian State we the Indigenous Peoples of the Niger Delta shall have no other alternative than to trigger Article 3 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Self Determination to freely determine our political status and freely pursue our economic, social and cultural development.