ROYAL WARNING ON THE INTEGRITY OF IJAW TERRITORY AND IDENTITY By His Imperial Majesty, Ditari of Ijaw (Izon II)
Supreme Traditional Head of the Ancestral Home of the Ijaw Nation and Grand Traditional Authority of the Ijaw Nation.
I speak with the authority of the ancestral home of the Ijaw Nation and with a clear message to the Igbos and all other neighbouring peoples: Stop claiming Ijaw communities and territories as though they belong to another ancestral nation.
The Ijaw people have lived across a vast and continuous geographical space comprising 86 Clans and their combined 2,848 Ijaw villages, towns and communities, stretching from the Westernmost to the Easternmost limits of our ancestral homeland. The geographical extent is clear: Westernmost Edge: Igbobini — Apoi West Clan Easternmost Edge: Ibaka — Obolo-Oro Clan Northernmost Edge: Elemebiri — Kabuowei Clan Southernmost Edge: Ogbokiri — Akaha Clan.
These communities form part of the wider Ijaw ancestral geographical continuum: Western Ijaw — 1,143 communities Central Ijaw — 869 communities Eastern Ijaw — 836 communities Total — 2,848 communities. Geographically continuous and uninterrupted by none Ijaws if not for unjust State balkanizations into Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom States of Nigeria when all Ijaws are fully together and not even scattered in nature.
Let there be no misunderstanding: friendship, migration, intermarriage, trade and cultural interaction do not give one people the right to rewrite another people's ancestral identity. The Ijaw Nation respects the history and identity of every neighbouring people. We therefore demand the same respect in return. Where history is disputed, let evidence be examined. Let oral traditions, historical records, archaeology, geography and credible scholarship speak.
But repetition does not turn a claim into historical truth. This is not a declaration against any ethnic nationality. It is a declaration for the Ijaw Nation.
As per Self Determination, the Ijaw Nation is more than large enough to stand on it's own, we have Ijaw Republic suit for Referendum in Abuja High Court, we have given Ijaw Republic documents to United Nations. We shall continue to live peacefully with our neighbours, but peaceful coexistence must never be mistaken for surrender of identity. No people should claim what belongs to another. No generation should be permitted to erase the history of another. And no attempt to rename, absorb or politically appropriate Ijaw communities will be accepted as the final word on Ijaw history.
The Ijaw Nation knows its ancestral home. We shall preserve it. We shall document it. We shall defend its historical identity. Let every people stand proudly upon their own ancestral heritage.
His Imperial Majesty, Ditari of Ijaw (Izon II) Supreme Traditional Head of the Ancestral Home of the Ijaw Nation and Grand Traditional Authority of the Ijaw Nation
IJAW — OUR PAST, OUR PRESENT AND OUR FUTURE.
