The Ijaws (Ijo, Izon) were the first people in the Nigeria Coast or Niger Delta Coast otherwise known as the Oil Rivers Coast and even the Slave Coast, to encounter the Europeans merchant traders and slave raiders and traders. This first contact was not always cordial. In 1480 the Ijo coastal town of Kula in the eastern delta was visited by a Portuguese merchant. The Portuguese received a hostile reception and turned back never to trade there again; “…1480 The Portuguese are stated to have first landed at Kula, where they met with such a hostile reception that their visit to that neighbourhood was not repeated…”[3] In 1485 the Portuguese led by John Affonso D’ Aveiro passed Oporoza on their way to Benin city. In the same year of 1485 the Portuguese issued themselves a royal privilege; claiming for themselves the sole right to trade and acquire captives from the five River Niger outlets, which were Mahin, Benin, Escravos, Forcados and Ramos.[4] Arriving in the Niger Delta, they observed...
PANDEF’S CRY FOR JUSTICE: WHEN THE GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN EGG IS LEFT HUNGRY The Niger Delta Cannot Continue to Finance Nigeria While Remaining on the Fringes of Development" By Engr. Yeigagha Henry, JP There comes a moment in the life of every nation when silence ceases to be wisdom and becomes complicity. That moment has once again arrived for the Niger Delta. The recent approval of approximately N3.9 trillion by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for strategic road infrastructure across Nigeria should ordinarily have been a celebration of national development. Instead, it has opened yet another chapter in the long and painful narrative of perceived exclusion, compelling the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) to raise an alarm that resonates far beyond the creeks and mangrove forests. Infrastructure is the language through which governments communicate their priorities. Roads are not merely ribbons of asphalt; they are the arteries through which commerce flows, opportunit...