By Tari Nemi
I have asked this question several times, what is the Izon agenda? But no one has been able to tell me.
It is important that an Izon man knows what the Izon agenda is and carry it on his mind wherever he goes to.
Izon people must realize that in this artificial country called Nigeria, we are the endangered species. Everybody wants our lands even though we don’t have and everyone wants our resources.
Our major enemies are the Fulanis yet they’re the ones we must learn from if we must protect our lands and waters from them, their puns and every other predator that decides to prey on our destiny.
Izon people must know that this artificial country was carefully designed to steal everything from Izon people by our arch enemies the British.
When Britain decided to colonize this portion of West Africa, we gave them the most resistance because we knew them more than any other race. We were their business partners and sometimes friends. We got so close that we began naming our children their names as a result of the relationship we had with them. So when they decided to go mad, we didn’t make it very easy for them and some of our kings like Jaja had to suffer for it when they finally defeated us. This made the British to ensure that we remain consistently oppressed, divided amongst ourselves and like sheep without shepherds.
We must never take it off our minds that we are the endangered species.
Our enemies are first the British, next the Fulani and then Yoruba. Many Izon people consider Igbo an enemy but they’re wrong. Igbos are not exactly the way we will like but it doesn’t make them enemies. They’re unique in their own way. As we go further, I will tell you how we should relate with Igbos and still come out successfully. I will also tell you how to relate with other people too.
We should understand that every human being fights for his own interests first not the interest of others.
OUR RELATIONSHIPS
- Izon to Izon: It is important that we learn from the Fulani. In this fake union, the Fulani has some things in common with us. That thing they have in common is that they are a scattered race in the North. Fulani is all over the north and beyond yet they’re not divided. There are different types of Fulani yet they’re not divided. Fulani is all over West Africa yet they’re not divided because they think Fulani first.
When a Fulani child is born, he is brought up with the mindset that they’re born to rule over wherever they are. They are brought up with the mindset of war to dominate wherever they find themselves and love only Fulani and use the Fulani styled Islam to hypnotize and dominate their host.
Now, our similarities is that we are scattered all over the coast as they’re scattered all over the desert. We are warriors and they are warriors as well.
The difference are that we are not out to dominate anyone but they are out to dominate everyone. We are not offensive, only defensive but they are offensive. We don’t hypnotize anyone but they do. We have not learnt how to cut deals based on interest but they are masters of it.
If Fulani could cut deal with the British which brought about their desire to colonize NIGERIA and in extension Africa then you can understand how far they can go in cutting deals. Fulani identified Britain and saw that just as they (Fulani) desire to own from the desert to the coast, the British desire to own the resources in the coast so they decided to cut the deal and today our resources belong to Britain while our lands and waters belong to Fulani. Britain doesn’t like Fulani because they’re Muslims, Fulani hate Britain because they’re Christians but that their arrangement never breaks because if it does both parties will lose it all.
If Izon must take back our destiny, lands, waters and resources back from these predators we must also learn to cut deals.
To be a very strong group, we must learn to talk Izon to our babies from the day they were born. They must love Izon with their lives. Stop telling your children that everyone in your community is a witch and they shouldn’t go there. Speak Izon to your children from when they start learning how to talk, stop speaking our enemies language (English) to our children, it makes us more vulnerable.
It is only Izon people I have seen that becomes too civilised to speak their language in public. Our language is unique and sweet, most people love it, stop being shy about it. Izon women must marry Izon men and Izon men must love their Izon wives so as to promote a very strong Izon consciousness. Learn as much Izon dialect as you can so you can communicate in the local language to any Izon you meet. Even if you as an Izon man gets married to a non Izon woman you must indoctrinate your wife to make her Izon at heart and in extension your children. Visit your community often and have investments close to home.
No Izon tribe should look down on any other. We are a unique race. No two Izon tribes speak exactly the same thing. As the rivers flow into the ocean so does our dialects differ from each other. Some can easily understand each other while others find it difficult to communicate outside their tribes. Some dialects are closer than others and so on and so forth but we remain Izon from Arogbo in the West to Obolo in the East.
- Izon to Hausa/Fulani: We have no relationship with these people apart from Abuja which binds the fake country together. If not for Britain, we wouldn’t have known whether there’s a tribe called Hausa that is ruled by Fulani. Our forefathers never knew them and had nothing to do with them so we must thread with so much caution.
We untrusted Igbos because of the perceived oppression in the old Eastern region and decided to cut a deal with the devil without knowing what they want. Our Izon martyr Major Isaac Adaka Boro together with our fathers Harold Dappa Biriye and few others in an attempt to flee from Igbo continued rule over us cut a deal with Fulani without first identifying their interest and today we are worse for it. They made the same mistake Nigerians made in voting in Buhari to power. Nigerians were so much tired of the impunity of PDP that they didn’t care to study what the interest of the guy they are giving power to will do with it and today everyone is worse for it.
I know Izon seem to be very comfortable relating with Hausa Fulani. I call them Hausa Fulani because now I am not talking about just the elite tribe (Fulani) but the whole people and their rulers. Izon people are okay with them because of this their deceptive appearance of humility but that’s how they get us to submit to them, thinking that our people and neighbors are too arrogant and they are so humble and calm. What we don’t know is that they are calm to keep us calm but when it’s time to plunder on our resources they become lions and tigers. The only interest they have is to steal from us and we can never gain anything in return from them rather they use us to keep their greatest rival in check (the Igbo).
- Izon to Igbo: Igbo and Izon are two rival brothers who cannot do without each other. We are both very proud people and so always want to prove how best we can do it alone.
Like the Izon, Igbos are also oppressed irrespective of their large number. As a result of that oppression they led a war against mostly the tribe oppressing everyone, the Fulani, but because we didn’t understand what we may likely gain siding with them we decided to take sides with our enemies and at the end we were all crushed together.
We didn’t understand that in this world no one is ready to become your saviour, everyone wants his own mission met. Anyone coming to say they want to save you it’s a lie, it’s a scam, they may actually want to enslave you.
The Igbo could be seen in the past as those who want to possess our lands and decide for our destiny because we were subjected to the same region in which they were majority but today the case is different.
What the Igbo man needs is to save himself from Fulani strongholds and British oppression. It is frustrating to have a gift but be forced not to be able to use it. Igbos are a gifted race, gifted with science, craft and business. The fake and artificial country fears their uprising so they ensure the gifts of the Igbo are better kept under check and controlled so they don’t become powerful like they were in the 60s and decide to take back their destiny again.
Where does Izon (Ijaw) come in in this case?
Igbo needs our sea. Until the Igbo man is able to get access to the sea without fringes then only can the full potentials of the Igbo be established. Igbos hate to be limited so even if they can manage their access to the sea from Azumini in Abia state they cannot all be going to that small single seaport to do transport their business to the world, they still need Izon and other coastal tribes access to the sea.
The question now is if we know what they need from us, what do we need from them?
Izon has been trying to fight off this Fulani/British oppressive state we brought on ourselves from the 1990s till date without the help of Igbo but instead of getting freedom we get deeper into slavery. Since they know we don’t have have the space enough to combat the rest of Nigeria in a full blown war as the Igbo lead in the 60s, they just designed the strategy of just ensuring they keep us busy fighting soldiers and buying us out little by little until they bought over all our struggle with the GREEK GIFT called AMNESTY. The acceptance of amnesty brought the Izon struggle or Niger delta struggle to an end. Now our agitators are used as political thugs to impose corrupt politicians on the people. If they are not fighting for politicians they are fighting for their bribes not to end. All they are now interested in is the constant flow of amnesty money not the development and freedom of our people.
We need an alliance with Igbo so we can merge our strength together and bring Nigeria to their knees forever because Nigeria can never stand the alliance of Izon and Igbo.
Some people will say, we can have this alliance without standing as one country but as two but the truth is that we can’t use a weak unity against Britain. We can only win this fight when we win international conscience and we cannot win international conscience if we are not one. We must stand as one unit and our struggle must have one name. If after freedom and living together for some years and the unity doesn’t work then we can use referendum and go our separate ways in peace.
We also need the alliance with Igbo to be a strong voice internationally. Igbo is well spread all over the world and as such if Biafra is sovereign it won’t take time before we begin to become a voice to recon with in Africa and the world over. It is important to have a strong country that’s also rich other than having a country that’s rich but weak.
Provided Biafra is a confederation and Izon (Ijaw) is a nation with 100% resource control Izon have nothing to fear so also other ethnic groups which share the coastal region with us.
- Izon to Yoruba: Yoruba is a very smart nation. Like the Fulani they know how to cut deals for survival and oppression. Yoruba will never cut deal with Izon because they don’t need us, they can only use us. We might have some relationship with Yoruba through our relationship with ancient kingdom of Benin but we can never be useful to them. Yoruba will always see us as a people to be conquered, used and dumped.
Yes, Yoruba can be friendly somehow too but the truth is that they don’t need us and we don’t need them. Yoruba might need Igbo but not us (Izon). Any relationship Yoruba tries to get with us is either to make us slaves of Fulani or slaves of themselves. Yoruba is a tribe that can take any insult provided their interests remain in tact. Yoruba sees us properties, all they want is our oil. The reason they try to get us close to themselves and input hatred against Igbo is to get Igbo off the oil sharing table. Provided they can get Igbo off that table then they will invite Fulani and Fulani will chase us out and they will say they’re not the ones that did it. Then only them and Fulani will have the table to themselves and what ever Fulani gives to them no matter how small they wouldn’t bother because they believe that if Igbo were to be there their share may not even come. I don’t hate them and I don’t want any Izon to hate them either but this is the reality on ground. It’s not their fault, it’s survival of the fittest.
Like us, Yoruba needs Igbo businessmen to develop their land and pay tax to Lagos but yet they don’t want Igbo to dominate Lagos do they keep on oppressing Igbo little by little just to keep them in check. Igbo doesn’t want Yoruba sea but Yoruba has forced Igbo to use their sea by shutting down ours.
Some foolish Izon people join Yoruba to love the fake country but they don’t ask themselves why Yoruba love this fake country.
Yoruba love this fake country because they have Igbo where they want them to be and Fulani where they want them to be. They use Igbo to develop Lagos and use Fulani to keep Igbo in check with fear. Though Fulani is attempting to change the game and own all the lands for themselves. They know Yoruba is blinded by their position that before Yoruba wakes up they must have colonised Yorubaland with their militia and politics.
Yoruba are the people directly sitting on Izon destiny that’s why no matter how many guns we shoot in the creeks provided Nigeria survives Fulani will never value us because all they need from us they get from Yoruba.
They need access to the Atlantic, they get it from Yoruba’s Lagos which is somehow closer for them or equal distance unlike Igbo that Izon sea is just a stone throw from them but because we refused to work together our seaports are now abandoned because Yoruba needs all the investors in their land.
- Izon to other coastal tribes: By other coastal tribes I mean those who share states with us from Edo to Akwa Ibom and by extension Cross river which we called Niger Delta just to identify others in the Biafran region that doesn’t include Igbo or rather put a non Igbo Biafran region.
We all have similar destiny but we must understand that we can’t rely on the alliance we share with these our brothers to get freedom from our oppressors. Yes, we can stand as one and challenge any invading force but we can’t stand as one to break free. Our alliance is weak because Izon bares almost all the risk and the sacrifice. The oppressors consider us the strength of the union so they attack us more, divide us more, bribe us more and bribe them to fight us in some little ways just as they deceived us to fight against Igbo.
The only alliance that will give us freedom is to lead all our coastal brothers to align with Igbo and chase our external aggressors forever. Then sit on a round table, design a proper constitution for a new country where referendum shall be a human right and move forward.
Tari Nemi is a revolutionary writer and a refined teacher
