RIVERS IJAW FOUNDATION
RC104658
NYESOM WIKE’S BLATANT DISRESPECT FOR THE IJAW NATIONAL LEADER, CHIEF E.K. CLARK, FABRICATIONS AGAINST GOVERNOR SIMINALAYI FUBARA AND INCITEMENT TO HATE RIVERS IJAW PEOPLE
INTRODUCTION
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Our attention at the Rivers Ijaw Foundation has been drawn to distasteful utterances made by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and former governor of Rivers State, Chief Ezewon Nyesom Wike on a Channels television programme “Politics Today” on Friday, 13 September 2024.
Our attention was further drawn to the communique issued at a conference of a so-called Ogoni, Oyigbo People’s Assembly held earlier on the same day at Eleme, Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike repeatedly disrespected the revered national leader and father of the Ijaw nation, Chief E.K. Clark, on national television. He maligned former Governor Rufus Ada-George and Governor Siminalayi Fubara. He incited hatred against Ijaws in Rivers State.
In the same manner, the communique of the so-called Ogoni, Oyigbo People’s Assembly contained disrespect for the Ijaw national leader, Chief E.K. Clark and the people of Opobo-Ijaw.
After an extensive review of the utterances made by former Governor Nyesom Wike and his cohorts, the Rivers Ijaw Foundation considers it a duty to put the records straight as follows:
NYESOM WIKE’S UTTERANCES WERE CRUDE AND DIVISIVE
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The Rivers Ijaw Foundation considers the utterances of former Governor Nyesom Wike and the so-called Ogoni, Oyigbo People’s Assembly as crude, rude, cultureless, insensitive and divisive.
We condemn in the strongest terms, the disrespect to our highly revered national leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark and former Governor Ada-George by Nyesom Wike and his political cronies.
We are utterly disgusted by the attack on Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the unwarranted incitement of hate against the Rivers Ijaw people by Nyesom Wike and his cohorts.
NYESOM WIKE’S BLATANT DISRESPECT FOR CHIEF E.K. CLARK OFR, CON, NEGATES NIGERIA’S DIVERSITY AND INSULTS IJAW SENSIBILITY
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Nyesom Wike’s glib and condescending remarks on national television about the 97-year-old national leader of the Ijaw nation were most indecent of a serving minister and former governor.
The Minister of FCT needs to know that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic country and national integration cannot be achieved by the deliberate demeaning of what others reverence.
This blatant disrespect for the Ijaw national leader by an Ikwerre-born, Nyesom Wike negates Nigeria’s diversity and insults Ijaw sensibility. For him to have encouraged the so-called Ogoni, Oyigbo People’s Assembly to do the same, is extremely vexatious.
The Ikwerres and the Ogonis would likewise be incensed if their national icons like Dr. Obi Wali and Ken Saro-Wiwa were deliberately disrespected by others.
PRESIDENT TINUBU MUST CALL HIS FCT MINISTER TO ORDER
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The Rivers Ijaw Foundation strongly requests the President and Commander-in-Chief, His Excellency Bola Tinubu to call Nyesom Wike to order.
The president must not give the impression that he prioritizes political exigencies above the peace, happiness and prosperity of Rivers people and Ijaws.
Needless to say that former President Goodluck Jonathan, an Ijaw son, never had Ministers who publicly disrespected Elder Statesmen like Pa Reuben Fasoranti, Chief Olu Falae and Pa Ayo Adebanjo, even though his greatest critics were from the south-west.
Nyesom Wike is at the centre of the crises in the People’s Democratic Party and Rivers State.
As minister, he hides behind the protection of his office to act as if he is above the law.
President Bola Tinubu must call Nyesom Wike to order or risk being asked to choose between Wike and the entire Ijaw nation.
THE OGONI, OYIGBO PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY IS NYESOM WIKE’S BRAINCHILD
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The communique of the so-called Ogoni, Oyigbo People’s Assembly says clearly that the body was put together by former Governor Nyesom Wike.
The recent formation of emergency ethnic groups, like the so-called Ogoni, Oyigbo People’s Assembly and the treacherous Rivers Ijaw People’s Congress, is Nyesom Wike’s method of kick-starting the 2027 Rivers State governorship campaign and his ill-conceived plot to stop Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s second term.
CHIEF E.K. CLARK HAS VERY STRONG STAKES IN RIVERS STATE
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Chief Edwin Clark is the leader of Ijaws no matter which state the Nigerian State finds it convenient to put them.
The Ijaws of Delta, Edo, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Ondo and Rivers are the same people, and for anybody to say that Chief Clark is meddling in the affairs of Rivers State, is to state the irony of the Nigerian State.
WIKE’S BLATANT LIES AGAINST FORMER GOVERNOR RUFUS ADA-GEORGE
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Contrary to Nyesom Wike’s claims, the communal crisis in Okrika between the “Bush Boys” and “Vigilantes” did not occur during the administration of former Governor Rufus Ada-George. It happened between 2001 and 2003, eight years after the military removed Ada-George in 1993.
For Nyesom Wike to say that it happened in Chief Rufus Ada-George’s administration is to engage in flagrant disinformation.
NYESOM WIKE DID NOT APPEAL TO THE OGONIS IN 2023; HE SUPPRESSED THEM.
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Nyesom Wike’s claim that he appealed to the Ogonis to allow Opobo to produce the governor in 2023 cannot be further from the truth.
Nyesom Wike does not have the temperament for dialogue and persuasion; he gags, bullies and muzzles.
Governorship election is never decided within a single senatorial district and cannot be the exclusive decision of Ogonis alone.
If Wike so loved the Ogonis, why did he not support them for governor in 2015? Why did he succeed his kinsman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi?
It is public knowledge that Nyesom Wike denied everybody, including Ogonis the right to freely contest in the PDP. As governor, he used Executive Orders against candidates of other political parties, including Senator Magnus Abe of the SDP.
OPOBO-IJAWS ARE NOT A “MINORITY OF MINORITY”
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To refer to Opobo as a “minority of minority” is the tragedy of state creation in Nigeria.
Nyesom Wike is only able to deride Opobo-Ijaw as the “minority of minority” because of the balkanization of the Ijaw nation by the Nigerian State. It is the price Ijaws pay in an unjust federation.
Ijaw land stretches from Eastern Obolo in Akwa Ibom State to Arugbo in Ondo State and is large enough to be created into four or more homogenous and contiguous states.
The fact is that Ijaws are not a minority in Rivers State. They are the largest ethnic group with eleven out of the twenty-three local government areas. No other ethnic group has more than four LGAs.
NYESOM WIKE INCITES INTER-ETHNIC AND INTRA-ETHNIC CRISES IN RIVERS STATE
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Nyesom Wike by his utterances on national television, instigates ethnic discord between the Ijaws and Ogonis of Rivers State. He fuels intra-ethnic crisis by saying mischievously that some prominent Ijaw leaders did not support Fubara in 2023.
Rivers people are happy that the Ogonis and their Ijaw neighbours of Opobo, Okrika, Andoni and Nkoro have lived in peace without skirmishes for a long time now. But Nyesom Wike is about to plant crisis in the area and exhume the long-dead upland/riverine political crisis in Rivers State.
IJAWS VOLUNTARILY HANDED OVER POWER IN 1999 AND PRESIDENT JONATHAN AND HIS WIFE MADE WIKE GOVERNOR IN 2015
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It is the height of divisive politics for Nyesom Wike to say that the Ogonis now see their 2023 support for Governor Siminalayi Fubara as a mistake.
Rivers Ijaw leaders like the late Chief T.O. Graham-Douglas and Dr. Marshall Harry spearheaded the election of Dr. Peter Odili against their son, Chief Ebenezer Isokrari in 1999.
Nyesom Wike was supported for governor in 2015 by former President Jonathan and his wife on account of Wike’s perceived support for Jonathan’s re-election.
In the end, Jonathan lost, and Wike succeeded, yet no Ijaw person has gone on national television to say that Nyesom Wike was a mistake, despite being so obvious.
GOVERNOR SIMINALAYI FUBARA MUST CONTEST AGAIN IN 2027 AND WIN AGAIN
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The Rivers Ijaw Foundation hereby calls upon Governor Siminalayi Fubara to contest for a second term in 2027 and win.
Governorship election is state-wide and like Ikwerre, Ogoni and other ethnic nationalities, Ijaws need others to make this a reality. No individual or ethnic group can produce a governor alone.
Sotonye Ijuye-Dagogo
Director of publicity
Rivers Ijaw Foundation
27/09/24