INC To Tinubu: Your Presidential pardon Incomplete, Disconnected

Tinubu’s Pardons by Bola Ahmed Tinubu: Ijaw National Congress (INC) Demands Environmental Justice, Ecological Restoration, and Accountability from Multinational Corporations and the Nigerian State.

In a strongly worded statement issued from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the Ijaw National Congress (INC), the foremost socio-cultural body representing the Ijaw people globally, has responded critically to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent granting of presidential pardons to 175 Nigerians, including a posthumous pardon for Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other members of the Ogoni Nine.

While acknowledging the constitutional legitimacy and symbolic intent behind the pardons, the INC decried the gesture as “incomplete and disconnected” from the harsh realities on the ground in the Niger Delta. The group emphasized that no amount of symbolic pardon can substitute for the “substantive justice” long denied to the Ijaw people.

“Pardoning the dead without healing the land and empowering the living is a hollow victory,” said Prof. Benjamin O. Okaba, President of the INC, in the press release dated October 13.

Central to the INC’s position is what it describes as an ongoing “ecological genocide” in the Niger Delta—driven by decades of oil extraction, widespread pollution, and neglect. According to the group, thousands of oil spills and continuous gas flaring have devastated the ecosystem that sustains the Ijaw people, with little or no accountability from the corporations involved or the Nigerian government.

The INC demanded immediate action to address the environmental crisis, including the full implementation of the UNEP Report on Ogoniland, a broader environmental remediation plan, and enforceable sanctions on offending multinational oil companies.

“We do not need paternalistic gestures of mercy; we demand environmental justice, ecological restoration, and accountability,” the statement declared.

Beyond environmental issues, the INC criticized what it sees as systemic economic and political marginalization of the Ijaw nation. It cited Nigeria’s petroleum legal framework—ranging from the 1969 Petroleum Decree to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021—as instruments of dispossession that strip host communities of their right to benefit from their natural resources.

“The Ijaw nation remains the primary source of Nigeria’s oil and gas wealth, yet we live on the margins, suffering economic asphyxiation,” said Prof. Okaba.

The group called for a genuine process of resource control and fiscal federalism, one that allows indigenous communities to manage and benefit from their own resources, as enshrined in principles of natural justice and international law.

Political Discrimination and Legal Reform

The INC also highlighted legal and political grievances, including:

The need to repeal the Land Use Act, which it argues facilitates land grabbing and disempowerment of indigenous communities.

A review of the PIA 2021, particularly its contrast with the more favorable Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007, which governs the solid minerals sector.

The protection of political rights of Ijaw leaders, with specific reference to the alleged illegal impeachment attempt against Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.

According to the INC, these issues form part of a broader pattern of internal colonialism and “legalized oppression” targeting the Niger Delta.

The Path Forward: Not Pardon, but Power

Concluding its statement, the INC made clear that the Ijaw struggle is not for tokenistic gestures, but for true self-determination, rooted in historical treaties and affirmed by international law.

“The Ijaw nation can no longer be placated by symbolic acts. We shall continue to pursue our cause through peaceful, diplomatic, and strategic means, with the full solidarity of the global community.”

Prof. Okaba reaffirmed the group’s unwavering mission to secure dignity, justice, and sovereignty for the Ijaw people, declaring that the struggle would continue until full political and economic autonomy is achieved.