THE table has turned against the Ijaw ethnic nationality and it is now losing the sympathy of the world as far as the Niger-Delta struggle is concerned because of the unashamed contamination of the agitation by criminals.

And the only way out of Armageddon in a probable full-blown war is for the gun-carrying youths to take a break from kidnapping, bombing of oil installations and other acts of criminality and re-strategize with other stakeholders in the region and the country at large.

These were the submissions of the National President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide, Dr. Chris Ekiyor in an interview with Saturday Vanguard at which he fielded questions on the controversial order by the council on militants to shut down militant camps in Bayelsa State; allegation that the IYC leaders were bribed by the Bayelsa State Government to issue the directive; threats to his life by militants over the closure order; and the real reason why the IYC took the hot decision.

Dr. Ekiyor was emphatic that the Ijaw nation was fast losing the gains it has made in the Niger-Delta struggle since the Kaiama Declaration, particularly the very important support of foreign countries, but, the chief militant group in the region, the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND),

in an exclusive electronic mail response to inquiry by Saturday Vanguard, told the IYC forget about foreign sympathy, unequivocally declaring, " We say that we do not care about any foreign sympathy at this time because these same foreigners are a part of the problem we are suffering today. The IYC is seeking to be noticed by suggesting the closure of camps without taking into consideration the implications".

"It is naive of anyone to suggest that we should disarm without following a proper international peace protocol, which includes the involvement of international mediators. Just asking us to close shop verbally is ridiculous. The peace process will be a holistic approach like what we are doing with the Coventry Cathedral. This covers amnesty and disarmament", its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo stated.

But Dr. Ekiyor who reviewed the Niger-Delta struggle, 10 years after the Kaiama Declaration of December 11, 1998 and three years after the arms struggle by the MEND asserted, "We have fought, we have won and we are losing now".

His words, "The reason for that it clear, when this agitation started, the world had sympathy for Ijaw people, they realized that we are suffering and passing through pains and they were showing desire to help, they were putting pressure on government to do something about it, but, the table has turned, now, we see world-class leaders coming to Nigeria to provide heavy military equipment to the Army to kill Ijaw people.

"The Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown said that, last year, and the Foreign Affairs Minister in Italy came and said the same thing and even in America is not left out, it is providing Africom so that they can have military occupation of our territory and take charge of some security need. Rather them seeing the need to respond to our plight, they are now beginning to sympathize with the government for want of oil, blood oil as people call it".

His caveat, "So, if we are not systematic with the approach in what we are doing, you have won sympathy, but, you are losing sympathy. If in the scenario like what we have now, the militia wing of our struggle loses sympathy of the world, who is going to come to mediate if there is a full-blown war, the other larger world will just take side and of course, there is no way that, as Ijaw people, we can fight a war against the rest of the world.

"There is no way, it is an impossible feat, so we need to get the rest of the world to understand our issues but as long as this arms conflict is there and it is being misrepresented, people will cash in and create loopholes to discredit us, so you see, we must go ahead now and take a break from violence for a while and go back to non-violence ,if it fails again, we fall back , that is how movements operate everywhere in the world, it is some arms conflict, some dialogue, and at this point, we think that all armed conflict should cease while a deliberate process of serious dialogue by the youths is allowed to thrive because every other dialoguing sector seems not to be working.

"But if we are on the dialogue table and we are talking about achieving point A and the armed group is doing something different, it creates conflict of vision and I can see that already in the Nigerian state. At a point in time, we have gained so much mileage for implementation, but, the activities of criminals, not even the militants, the genuine freedom fighters, who steal people's children, steal people's wives and kill people and created elements of doubt whether there is even a need to even develop the Niger-Delta.

"And so you have a President who had said, I will not develop the region until you have peace and we say no, Mr. President, you have to develop the place, and he replied, how can I do that? As you can see, the companies are not coming", he added disappointedly.

Asked whether the non-obedience of its camp closure order would mean that the whole gains have been lost entirely, he said, "No, I see a serious stalemate. I see a situation where every developmental step that will be taken will be hinged on the disbanding of militancy and so, we will be stagnated".

"Rather than go forward, we will only have local and state development and some smarter states will begin to develop at the expense on the core Niger-Delta states. If you look at it, we say we want road, Julius Berger came, Setraco came, we catch the Oyibos in those projects and they go and Julius Berger has packed, who is going to build the road, the army comes and take it over, when the army comes, they will be no Ijaw man or Igbo man in that place, they will be Hausa people building roads for us.

"Yes, the roads may be built, whether to specification or not is not the issue and there will not be any empowerment for the local people because the army will not give you local content, and if we are not careful, the army will take over the NNPC and become the all-in-all, they have engineers and they can train them to go and drill oil for the NNPC in the creek, they are security people and can be trained in anything , they can even bring it foreign experts to work for the army in such business enterprises and we are the losers".

Dr. Ekiyor, however, explained that the IYC had not at anytime told the MEND to drop its arms, as some people speculated, pointing out its directive was that it should close its camps to create a peaceful environment for government to develop or not develop the Niger-Delta.

He said the order to close militant camps in Bayelsa state came with a caveat, which is that the Federal Government should grant amnesty to militants, including Henry Okah and re-integration of militants by the Bayelsa State Government by way of providing them job opportunities.

He maintained the IYC has no regrets over its decision, calling for closure of militant camps, saying it was taking by Ijaw youths in the interest of the Ijaw nation and MEND or whichever militant group that claims to be fighting for the Ijaw interest should read between the lines and key into the peace process.

The Ijaw Youth Council recently said that militant groups should close down their camps in the Niger delta. The instruction was defied by the militant groups especially MEND. The situation has created a standoff which has provoked tension in the Niger Delta. Saturday Vanguard spoke with the president of the IYC on the development and he insisted that it has a right and authority to speak for the militants.

Recently, the Ijaw Youth Council rose from a meeting in Bayelsa State recently, directing militants to shut down all militant camps in Bayelsa State among other things, what informed this epochal decision?

Yes, as Ijaw people, with specific reference to the youth wing of the Ijaw people, what brought about the agitation 10 years ago, was because we wanted justice, development, fairness, empowerment and sense of ownership in what we call the oil and gas sector, which is our God-given natural endowment.

When we started then, we tried to use non-violent processes, which did not yield result and then it gave birth to the violence of today.

But like a system that goes round, there is a time for everything, even the Bible is very clear, there is a time to sow, a time to reap, a time to fight, a time to make peace, a time to smile, a time to cry.

In this crossroad of the Ijaw struggle, IYC has reviewed our activities 10 years after the Kaiama Declaration and we thought at this point in time, what we need is to keep our camps closed while we go back to the drawing board and begin to organize ourselves to strategize with other stakeholders in the Niger-Delta and the larger country, especially now that we have a Vice President that is an Ijaw man, a junior Minister that is an Ijaw man that are supposed to create the templates for development in the Niger-Delta, which we are crying for.

We felt it was not enough as leaders for us to pontificate and sermonize on our own, we have to call a summit of Ijaw youths to discuss the matter and a summit was well attended and we specifically chose Bayelsa state because it is the only all-Ijaw state in the county, and there is an Ijaw Governor there, who we feel we can mandate to implement the far-reaching decisions because if we are going to ask people to close down militant camps, we all know we don't want them to close the camp and be in the limbo, we want them to also feel the impact of development immediately.

So we are looking at how they would be transformed, re-integrated into the society and opportunity for employment created so that they will be involved in the development, which we all seek. We met in this summit, some camps sent representatives while some did not for reasons best known to them but we reached out to all the camps because first and foremost, we are all Ijaw people before we are what we are.

And in a guerrilla warfare, people may not know the man who is talking to you now can be involved in arms conflict, is carrying a gun, you may not know, anybody in the street may be one of the combatants in a guerrilla war.

But you know those who have the voice will always ventilate their opinion and all that and we said so long as we are one family and what we are pushing for is justice and development, we have to think together, we had that one day summit and after that, we put out a communiqué in which this issue is one of them.

And the point is clear: that there is need to cease hostilities, but if we just say ceasefire like we use to do, the JTF will go about hitting our communities again and we said, let us keep the camps closed, which is different from disarmament.

We are saying let us keep our camp closed, so if there is any settlement that there is a militant camp, it should be closed for now and the people who occupy that camp should be reintegrated into the society and they should come to the dialogue table as equal partners and make their arguments clear to the IYC, as the umbrella body to present those issues to the government.

We've no apology

And looking back at our decision to order the closure of militant camps, we don't have any regrets. Not only did we say the camps should be closed, we went further to say that the government must provide the enabling environment to integrate those people, grant amnesty to those who are already in the prosecution list of government or declared wanted.

That includes Henry Okah and any other known name in the struggle that is being blacklisted for punishment because of the agitation. My take on it is that the people have the right to agitate but if we must make peace, the government must extend the olive branch, that is to say whatever happened has happened, now, come let us talk and the only way they can come out from those camps is when they are granted amnesty.

We also charged the government of Bayelsa state to now be more transparent and more holistic in its approach to development issues, responding more to what the people desire than what he thinks he is right and we also requested a restructuring of the security arrangement in Bayelsa state with special emphasis on reducing the presence of the JTF in the state.

For us, we wanted by that summit to create a working civil community in the state, where those in the camps, those in the streets and those who are doing their own struggle in the media can sit together at a round table and begin to develop Bayelsa with the government of Bayelsa state for people to see that it is a workable thing without arms. Indeed, we have seen it all, and I use to say, we have fought, we have won and we are losing now.

The reason for that it clear, when this agitation started, the world had sympathy for Ijaw people, they realized that we are suffering and passing through pains and they were showing desire to help, they were putting pressure on government to do something about it, but, the table has turned, now, we see world-class leaders coming to Nigeria to provide heavy military equipment to the Army to kill Ijaw people.

The Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown said that, last year, and the Foreign Affairs Minister in Italy came and said the same thing and even in America is not left out, it is providing Africom so that they can have military occupation of our territory and take charge of some security need.

Rather them seeing the need to respond to our plight, they are now beginning to sympathize with the government for want of oil, blood oil as people call it.

Niger-Delta is losing

So, if we are not systematic with the approach in what we are doing, you have won sympathy, but, you are losing sympathy. If in the scenario like what we have now, the militia wing of our struggle loses sympathy of the world, who is going to come to mediate if there is a full-blown war, the other larger world will just take side and of course, there is no way that as Ijaw people, we can fight a war against the rest of the world.

There is no way, it is an impossible feat, so we need to get the rest of the world to understand our issues but as long as this arms conflict is there and it is being misrepresented, people will cash in and create loopholes to discredit us, so you see, we must go ahead now and take a break from violence for a while and go back to non-violence ,if it fails again, we fall back , that is how movements operate everywhere in the world.

At this point, we think that all armed conflict should cease while a deliberate process of serious dialogue by the youths is allowed to thrive because every other dialoguing sector seems not to be working. But if we are on the dialogue table and we are talking about achieving point A and the armed group is doing something different, it creates conflict of vision and I can see that already in the Nigerian state.

At a point in time, we have gained so much mileage for implementation, but, the activities of criminals, not even the militants, the genuine freedom fighters, who steal people's children, steal people's wives and kill people and created elements of doubt whether there is even a need to even develop the Niger-Delta. And so you have a President who had said, I will not develop the region until you have peace and we say no, Mr. President, you have to develop the place, and he replied, how can I do that? As you can see, the companies are not coming.

Army plots to take over

So we are in a mire, companies don't want to come, we want development, we don't have the skill and let me tell you, the Army is registering companies to start building bridges and roads in the Niger-Delta because the army has engineering corps, it is sad because, already, before this conflict, Ijaw people provide barges, houseboats and occupy the cabotage industry to escort barges and all that, now it has been taken over by the JTF, they now provide house boats for companies and secure the property.

They even provide local surveillance and security details for companies. Construction companies that are here can't come because of the fear of being kidnapped, the JTF going to take that over and the army is going to begin to build roads in the Niger-Delta and forced it on us. And if we are not careful, they will build sub-standard roads because they don't have the international expertise that the multinational construction companies have.

But if that is the only way the government can go, it will go that way and I hear from the grapevine that the army is seriously putting materials on ground to start building projects in the Niger-Delta and once they get it right in one place, it becomes a thing to celebrate.

I remember that a Non Governmental Organization I am part off had a medical mission with the JTF in Warri and environs sometime ago, and the then Chief of Defence Staff mentioned to the governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan that the army is into everything, that they are trying to start building roads and the governor said well, they have construction work going on, he is going to partner with them, once Uduaghan partners with the army to provide that kind of infrastructural development, I can assure you every other governor will copy him.

And I can tell you the army is going there with their equipment, gun and everything and they will be executing projects. But what will happen is that our economy would have gone down, nobody will developed within the local terrain, the roads will come, nobody will be able to use it because of the quality, so we must look beyond the immediate picture and look into the bigger picture.

Are we getting this agitation right with arms, is it okay to continue in that direction, who are we kidnapping, are we kidnapping the people who are under developing us or people who are developing us or are we kidnapping our brothers and sisters.

The struggle has been contaminated

The other day, a young guy, who is probably one of the few Niger-Deltans working in SPDC had his 11-year-old daughter killed and seven -year-old son kidnapped, former Petroleum Minister, Edmund Daukoru, who is now a traditional ruler had his wife kidnapped and I can go on and on to list a lot of pains that Ijaw people have suffered.

Agge was razed because of the action of a few and the army is not even ready to chase genuine militants, they are ready to overrun our communities under the pretext of searching for militants. A classical case is what is happening in Port-Harcourt, the Ijaw youths cannot gather for a meeting because the military will just come and raid the place and carry them away as militants, and is that how we want to live our life?

Drawing board

That is why we think we have to go back to the drawing table, take a break from violence for a while, go and follow the process of the law, get Henry Okah released, get amnesty for our people and begin to get together to develop our region, that is why we met in that summit and took that position, unfortunately, a lot of radical elements are saying we are not serious, we are saying things and we cannot do it, we are not at war with ourselves, we hope that those who have logical reasoning will key into this opportunity to see how all of us can jointly develop our region.

So, do you see the entire gains of the struggle going down the drain if the militants refuse to close camp at this strategic moment?

No, I see a serious stalemate. I see a situation where every developmental step that will be taken will be hinged on the disbanding of militancy and so, we will be stagnated. Rather than go forward, we will only have local and state development and some smarter states will begin to develop at the expense on the core Niger-Delta states.

If you look at it, we say we want road, Julius Berger came, Setraco came, we catch the Oyibos in those projects and they go and Julius Berger has packed, who is going to build the road, the army comes and take it over, when the army comes, they will be no Ijaw man or Igbo man in that place, they will be Hausa people building roads for us.

Yes, the roads may be built, whether to specification or not is not the issue and there will not be any empowerment for the local people because the army will not give you local content, and if we are not careful, the army will take over the NNPC and become the all-in-all, they have engineers and they can train them to go and drill oil for the NNPC in the creek, they are security people and can be trained in anything , they can even bring it foreign experts to work for the army in such business enterprises and we are the losers.

Why do you think these militants don't want to close camps?

To change from bad to good can never be without resistance. A man that has been indoctrinated and he believes that that is the way to go and he has nowhere else to go, it is not easy, I don't envy them, they are working so hard, you are respected and a leading journalist in the Niger-Delta, we know you and have been following your trips to the militant camps, you have been there and you know the pains they are going through there, the harsh weather and living conditions, I feel their pains, so you don't wake up one day and tell them to close camps, where do they go from there.

That is why we told the Bayelsa government to be ready to integrate and provide a landing pad, which the path they have not looked at. An average militant gets N20, 000 two weeks in, if he gets a job in town that will pay him N60,000, why should he not the job where he can move freely.

Are you sure the Bayelsa state government is prepared to take up the challenge?

Once we are sure that foreign direct investment can hold in the state, once we are sure that the people in the creek can work with us in the process, we can get people to develop, Bayelsa state has an estuary that is rich, has opportunities to grow, it has the fastest growing economy in the Nigerian state, but the challenge is the fear of the unknown, there is a foreign group I have been talking to, they want to move in investment here, but the issue is, are we sure of the security of their investment.

So we are saying let all the Ijaws who are in the armed struggle in Bayelsa state and those who are not armed come together and let us agree that Bayelsa is a free town, no kidnapping, no oil bunkering, no bombing of oil installation, all the company should come out and work, the companies should come with their investments, we will protect them, we will earn more money and develop our community, the Bayelsa state government will take up such a challenge every time, there is nothing wrong with that, that is what those fighting in the creek want, development and job opportunities.

What really informed the decision to order closure of militant camps?

Looking at what the military has been doing over a long period of time, if anything happens near a community, take assault on soldier, they go to the community and burn down the place, they say there is a militant camp in the community. So what we have found out is that the JTF is capitalizing on the presence of camps to perpetuate heavy criminality on the people, which is why we are taking this step on our own. The JTF cannot order the militants to close down their camps, they cannot, it is Ijaw people who decided to have camps than can close the camps and therefore, it is timely decision that Ijaw people gathered and said the camps should be closed because we want development to come.

To close the camps, we say the camps should be closed in 90 days but government should provide amnesty, so there is a caveat to that, the camps can only close if there is amnesty. So we have told them that once the amnesty is out, camps should close. It is a wise choice; everything we achieved in the last 10 years is going to erode away if we are not careful in the shortest possible time. None of the communities that were burnt have been rebuilt and so many people have paid the ultimate price on the side of the youths, even innocent persons.

So, we are going to pause in this battle, close our camps and go to the dialogue table since the government seems to be offering opportunities for dialogue and development. Let's us tap into that opportunity and see how genuine these people will be instead of allowing them to say that the people don't want to dialogue, they are fighting , that is why we are not developing the area, we are saying no more fighting, come and develop our place.

Even as you speak now, you know that the MEND, the main militant group in the region had rejected the directive or pleas of the IYC to close down militant camps in Bayelsa state. It is saying that the IYC had no right in the first instance to even issue such command to it because the group is superior to the IYC, what is your reaction to this?

In every movement, there is a synergy of people who are bonded by their ideology. If MEND seeks justice and development for the Niger-Delta, then it will be bonded to the position of the Ijaw Youth Council.

I may not know who is MEND or who is not MEND because I have said in the past that it is a faceless organization but I do know that majority of the people who are participating in the activities of MEND are Ijaw people, of course, they have made some Ijaw demands hitherto, and if they are Ijaw people, they will not come out and say they are not part of the IYC, the Ijaw Youth Council is not a Dr. Chris Ekiyor private estate.

By birth, every Ijaw youth below the age of 45 years is a member of the IYC, by activity, every Ijaw youth below that age is an active member, I am just one of the active members, they are a lot of other active members there, including those that have gone to the organization they call MEND to reinforce the fundamental issues the IYC is fighting for through political debate and non-violence.

MEND is not indispensable, the activities of MEND has brought a lot of goodwill and limelight to the struggle, and if we are to remain on course with the vision of MEND, we will not have the crisis we have here today, but, we have scenario in while MEND is agitating... if your look at the pattern of MEND activities, they have not even been involved in kidnapping all manner of people, it has been war on oil, expatriates who they take hostage and make clear demands. Now, the issue is this, if that is how the struggle has been, they will be no need for us to say close camps but we have scenario where criminals are stealing people and putting it as if it is MEND that has done it.

MEND should read between the lines

The other day, the Utorogu Gas Plant attack was said to have been done by MEND and a fortnight later, the people who did it came out, so I think that MEND need to look in between the lines of the positions and decisions the IYC has taken.

We are not in argument over supremacy between the IYC and MEND or the IYC and any other group, we speak for Ijaw people and our decision is an Ijaw decision. It was not Chris Ekiyor, it was Ijaw youths gathered and a decision was taken, I was only a signatory to the communiqué because I represent that institution.

So MEND has the right to its opinion, we will not join issues with them on that, if MEND feels that fine, by its own understanding, the best way to go is to keep violence on in the region, fine for it, but, I think if MEND requires and seek development, it will also be calling for amnesty because Henry Okah needs amnesty.

Today, the fundamental issue that the MEND is talking about is underdevelopment and release of Okah and the only way we can get Okah out is to request for amnesty because they have said the man supplied arms and the army has prosecuted some people and they admitted that they sold arms to Okah, so it is a case of Henry Okah's case versus their case and the Federal Government is the only institution that has the right to grant pardon.

And our position is that any crime that may have occurred within the period of this so-called crisis should be treated as a war crime and should be forgotten through a state pardon and I think MEND will need that kind of state pardon because the law is clear in the country, if you carry gun illegally, you have broken the law, so anybody who is faceless, who has taken arms may be safe, but, what of those ones that are known, the known names, they will never be safe, once they come out, they go for them, even when Dokubo -Asari was out, they went for his head, even when this same people went to South-Africa to beg Henry Okah to join the peace process, they have gone for his head, so what is the guarantee that when this war is over, all these names that we already know in the MEND and other militant organizations will be truly free.

So, the IYC is saying grant amnesty so that we can interrelate with our brothers and know what are the issues and it is only the IYC that can reach out actually to the MEND legitimately and speak to them on equal grounds and say, look, what is the problem, government is on a high-horse position and it doesn't want to come down, MEND is at daggers drawn and it can't come to talk to the government, so we are actually the mediators, bridge-builders and I think that anybody who says he is contesting powers with the IYC is doing himself a disservice because it is the only legitimate voice of all our agitations.

Yes, the world media is very happy to hype all these illegal activities of the arms struggle, but they have failed to hype the underdevelopment any longer, so the situation has changed from discussing the real issues of our survival to how many guns have fired, how many people have been kidnapped, what oil pipeline has been blown up and all that. But are they the real issues, the real issues are that people are dying, there is no water, no hope, no roads, no opportunity to go the school, no hospitals, no employment and the international media is not seeing it now from this perspective and it is not in our interest.

And so long as this crisis is on, we can't move forward, the JTF is catching in on the fact that there are militant camps to bombard Ijaw communities, so if we don't have camps, where are they going to hit and what will be their excuse for doing that, we are providing them canon fodder with our camps, if they hit anywhere, it is going to be a war crime, a crime against humanity, now they can do anything, even in the city of Warri or Yenagoa and get away with it, and claim that they saw 10 militants or that they were attacked.

The other day in Delta state, two soldiers shot themselves to death and the JTF said they were attacked by militants, it is not true, the facts are very clear, we knew what happened, that is the scenario, they always justify what they do one way or the other. Well, I know that they are genuine militants and criminals posing as freedom fighters, MEND should read between the lines and understand that there is a time for us to organize ourselves.

But the MEND is saying that it is not an Ijaw group, that is a pan-Niger-Delta group with volunteers from Ijaw, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ikwerre and other ethnic groups in the region and on these grounds, the IYC, which is just an Ijaw group cannot give it orders. By the way, the IYC is not an armed group, how does it intend to enforce a shut-down order on an armed group and what does it mandate to the Bayelsa state government on the closure of militant camps entail?

In clear terms, we have been doing a lot of things to shield our brothers and justify their actions as the IYC, we are not an armed group and those groups that are armed have the firepower, but, between the firepower and the willpower any day, I will take the willpower because it is only the willpower that can even move the trigger. So we are not afraid of anything, everybody will pay the ultimate price of death some day, both the man who carries the gun and the man who does not carry.

So that is not the issue to worry about, we have told them what we think is right, it is now left for them to key into the right thing and do it so that we can continue to justify their activities of the armed group.

We have not said they should disarm, we have said close your camps and come let us talk, let us integrate ourselves into another pattern of agitation, we have not said the agitation is over, we have said stop shooting for a while, let us get to the drawing board and go through the process of non-violent direct action with government and bring government to its knees and if that fails, we all go back to the camps and wage war against the government, that is the way we look at it, we have not said, they are useless, we have not said so.

We appreciate their role; in fact, they have been the engine rooms for the major strides we have taken as a people in the Niger-Delta. Now, the issue of whether MEND is bigger than the IYC, I have said here that organizations exist of different groups of people, the people we are talking to are Ijaw people, so if MEND is not an Ijaw group, then it is not affected by our position, they shouldn't bother themselves but just for the record, the JTF published the locations of militant camps sometime ago in the Niger-Delta, the communities that have camps and the ones that were to be overrun by the JTF, they did not mention any Urhobo, Itsekiri , Isoko or Yoruba community, the whole communities listed in that secret JTF report are Ijaw communities, so the demands of MEND are mostly Ijaw demands and when these kidnaps and all sort of things take place, they don't affect other ethnic groups, it is the Ijaw they accuse and target for attack, not the Ikwerre people. When the international media is reporting, they don't even say MEND, they say Ijaw youths have done this, Ijaw youths have done that, in BBC, in VOA, it is Ijaw youths all the way, so we have responsibility to God, to our fatherland, to our nation and to the people to say look... o, we stand on the path of justice.

Izon means truth, we are waging a war for justice, we are not waging a war for selfish gains and if the pattern of the war is beginning to hoodwink us or no longer in consonance with the general purpose, we need to stop the war for a while and re-organize ourselves, that is what the IYC is asking for and we have not erred in that regard and in a meeting where there is Dokubo-Asari, first IYC National President, Felix Tuodolor, Jonjon, the President of the Supreme Egbesu Assembly, Patterson Ogoun, Von Kennedy, Maxwell Oko who was Central zone secretary of the IYC, myself and then, some leaders of the militant groups who came to that meeting that I don't want to mention their names and we looked at the issues and said we must stop the violence cycle for now, then the MEND should take us seriously.

We consulted with the Ijaw National Congress , Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark was there and we praised the boys in the creek, we said they have done their part, we have seen what we can see with the barrel of the gun, let us put that aside and see what we can do with the intellect of our head.

And if our intellect can give us better result, then we go in that direction. Tell me if I want to build a house and the war is one, I cannot build a house and we keep warring, am I going to build the house , no way, so we must break the cycle of war.

The oil, which they are even talking about, has plummeted and I am praying every day that is should go to zero naira and in fact, oil should go out of circulation, let everybody go back to agriculture and other natural resources that we have.

While we are busy fooling ourselves here, the government is busy planning and if you take statistics of what is happening in Nigeria today, we have lost a lot of things to nothing, the Niger-Delta people have even lost budgets. Last year, we have N79 billion for the NDDC, this year, both the NDDC and the Ministry of the Niger-Delta put together have N60 billion while the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja is enjoying N123 billion, so what are we talking about, have we really achieved much apart from fighting.

I hear that your life and that of other youth leaders are under threat by some militants who have even called you up on the IYC shut-down order on militant camps, are you mortally scared?

A year and half ago, I granted an interview in which I said I move with my coffin because from the day I was sworn in as IYC national president, I knew that my life is on edge.

I pray to God every day and the gods of our land and so, I want to keep my hands clean so that when that day comes, I will not be found wanting.

Yes, we are under threat, we under all kinds of calls, why did we order this and order that, but, we are not answerable ... we were elected by all these people, they came to even provide security at the election venue in Arugbo and they gave us the mandate to speak on behalf of the Ijaw youths and it is based on this mandate that both those in the creek and those in the town, that we speak. We are not scared in anyway so long as we are saying the truth.

Gov Sylva did not bribe us

The allegation that we collected money is not true. What we did was to organize a summit and provided transport allowances for people who participated in the summit and we are grateful to the governor of Bayelsa state, who decided that it was wise to provide the venue, security logistics for other state apparatus in the meeting, and then provided refreshment and stipends for people who participated to go, because people came from the creeks, different local governments, different communities in the Niger-Delta. Apart from those in Bayelsa, the western zone of Ijaw people came with 100 delegates, the Eastern zone with 100 delegates and these people had to be transported and the government was magnanimous to foot the bill.

We did not spare the governor on his own, we told him point-blank that he must as a matter of urgent importance, begin to develop Bayelsa and make it a working state, so how they come and tell us that the governor of Bayelsa state bribed us.

If anybody has been worse hit by the position of the IYC, it is even the governors of the region, was it not in that forum that I requested that the governors of the Niger-Delta states should begin to account for the trillions they have collected over the last 10 years and that we should hold them responsible. So our job is to say the truth, and we will continue to say it, no matter whose ox is gored.

Dilemma

You see, we have been on the edge, the militants have always thought that we collect money from government, so we are comfortable and they are suffering in the creek, so they can't trust us 100 per cent except of course, a few mature minds that understand what we do; others in the creek also feel that we are government people because we relate with government on one hand; government also thinks that because we are with the militants on the other hand, we are criminal elements or we are militants like them and we are the ones causing trouble, engineering the militants to do what they are doing.

So even the government want our head; and the JTF on the other hand, that we are saying that they have militarized our region, that they should go home , leave our territory for us, are also on our neck with the nozzle of their gun, that is one of the reasons why I was brutalized and almost killed in Lokpobiri, last year, it was not that they don't know what they were doing, it was a deliberate attempt to reduce me to nothing, to kill me.

If not for the intervention of God, something else would have happened, they knew I am the IYC national president but they were bent on maiming me, saying I talk too much and they would deal with me.

I have kept accusing the JTF of attacking our people and occupying our territory and they see me as an enemy, now, the militants are beginning to see us enemy, so we are between the devil and deep blue sea. But that is the price of leadership, we are paying the price, now that we are in office, people will not know but when we leave, when we hand over, they will know.