An Open Letter To Mrs. Remi Bola Tinubu By: Annkio Briggs
ATTENTION,
MRS. PASTOR REMI BOLA TINUBU.
I hope this meets you well, l have no doubt you are safe & well fortified, it comes freely to you as the wife of Mr. President of Nigeria.
I put this out publicly as a fellow woman, sister, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother. I am a freeborn and proud daughter of Rivers State & from the Ijaw Ethnic Nation of Rivers State it is only as the above that l claim my Nigeria citizenship, no person is more Nigeria than another.
I choose to refer to you as my sister because you are from the Niger Delta that is been set on fire as you read this, where? you may ask, it has started in Rivers state.
This fire once out of control in Rivers State will quickly affect the Niger Delta. I believe you know why?
Just as Lagosians refused to accept that lagos is a 'No Man's Land' l assure you Rivers State is NOT one man's State.
There are many ethnic nationalities in Rivers State, and we all know ourselves. It is not true anything can happen in Rivers State and nothing will happen.
With the economy in shambles, and PBAT your dear husband taking knocks here and there, please ask him if he is willing to take the chance of Rivers State going up in flames?
The poor and hungry people of Rivers state, dying from oil and gas pollution and now hunger that is not of their making do not deserve the political war front our state is been turned into.
Last weekend the Senate President came and further inflamed the state with his insensitive statements, he may think that is politics, but l will inform you my sister to us in Rivers State, coming from a man who is is not a Rivers State indigene, this is political recklessness and a threat. It will not make us like APC if we choose not to. Because some people people go around dancing and singing "Jagaban on your mandate they stand" does not mean it is true.
Ijaws are a peaceful ethnic nationality but that will never mean we will roll over and play dead or actually die.
In Rivers state we have lived in peace for decades until reckless politics and politicians came into play. Lies, threats, guns, political thugs, and gangs are coming into Rivers State, we are hearing rightly or wrongly that the way things are in Rivers State is with your husband's approval. Everyone says wrongly or rightly that PBAT is a clever politician, taking the say-so of a handful of people without listening to what the majority are
saying may end in regret. Hunger, Anger and fear of the unknown is a volatile situation anytime anyplace, but in Rivers State and in the other 3 major oil and gas states of the Niger Delta, it is in-flammable to say the least.
The majority of the people of Rivers State of ALL ethnic nationalities are wondering with the percentage that INEC documented for PBAT and bearing in mind Rivers People did not contest the results should the President not treat Rivers State and Niger Delta like the egg it is.?
No matter the evil plans for the future against the people of Rivers State, today Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Rivers States are all PDP. The next election if Nigeria remains as is, is in 2027, yet last week we saw in Rivers State the declaration for the 2027 elections.
Nobody is GOD in any of the Niger Delta states, only GOD is GOD, based on what is happening in Rivers State, and what l am been told and the questions l have been asked since Senate President Akpabio over stepped himself and his political party when he declared where the next governor will come from in Rivers State.
The people he referred to have a 100% right to produce a governor of Rivers state, but he Akpabio have no political or APC rights to come and tell Rivers people where our next governor will come from when we have a duely elected incumbent Governor, Akpabio should be called to order for making such an inflammatory utterances in our state.
There are Ijaws in Akwa Ibom and the oil in Akwa Ibom is in ijaw land. He should remember that unless Akpabio believes along with his political friends that Ijaws are not Niger Delta people.
Ijaws will be willing to conduct a referendum to decide if they will choose to stay in Nigeria or have their own republic as Issac Adaka Boro believed.
The majority of oil and gas in Akwa Ibom state are in Ijaw territory, he should name one Ijaw man who have governed Akwa lbom state. Does he think Ijaws in other states of the Niger Delta are not aware of the oppression of our kit and kin in Akwa Ibom.
May l add here that we are seriously considering the SW call for the creation of more states in the South West, as a humble delegate of the 2014 National Dialogue convened by President Jonathan, l suggest the South West should please go further and call for the recall of the 2014 NC report and let's study it again for implementation, we will the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta join the call. Our major demand remain resources control in our ijaw territory .
My dear sister Remi l would have preferred to have said these to you sister to sister but the times are too hot and too dangerous to be silent hence l have come public.
There is a lot more l will say, but not today.
If you find it needful and speak with your dear husband the President l have no doubt he will find out he have been misinformed about Gov. Sim Fubara, People of Rivers State and the Ijaw nation.
I want to recall my younger brother Asari Dokubo who is a friend of your husband saying during campaigns "if his friend BAT fails we should hold him responsible". We may have to hold Asari Dokubo the one l call Nnam, and he knows l will the it if Rivers people decides PBAT has failed us. We are equal to every ethnic nationality in rights. We seek to oppress no other state we will not allow any to oppress us, and finally some may choose to deny the very Riverine and Upland dichotomy in Rivers State that they have benefitted from, but it is there and it will remain as long as Rivers state remain as is. If some choose not to recognize this political dichotomy, we have to find another way. That way will be to take our destiny in our hands we have given all we have and gotten zero in return.
I remain a truthful and passionate daughter of Rivers State, Niger Delta and Proudly Ijaw.
May GOD give you the wisdom and grace to see the justice, truth and concern in this letter.
I am not a politician so presentation is not political but humane. I see what politician know but pretend is not there or that they can use our rights, money and communities to buy.
My name is
Annkio Briggs
Akuku Toru
Abonnema
From
The Oruwari/Briggs War Canoe House.