Ijaw ⚔️ itsekiri peace Deal🔥
President Tinubu intervenes as The NSA chairs the resolution meeting
Details below ⬇️
The dispute was rooted in INEC’s ward delineation exercise which the Ijaw and Itsekiri nationalities both had strong competing interests in. It was sensitive enough to require presidential attention.
President Tinubu personally intervened by meeting Delta stakeholders at the Presidential Villa on Thursday June 11, which set the entire resolution process in motion.
NSA, Nuhu Ribadu chaired the resolution meeting on Friday and was the central figure in getting both sides to a signed agreement. The DSS Director-General Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi was also present alongside other senior government officials, signaling how seriously the Federal Government treated this matter.
The agreed power sharing formula gives the Ijaw ethnic group the House of Representatives seat in Warri Federal Constituency II for the first two consecutive terms, after which it rotates to the Itsekiri for the next two terms.
Both ethnic groups had credible signatories at the table. Former Delta Deputy Governor Kingsley Otuaro and Dr. Eric Omare signed for the Ijaw. Sir A.S. Mene and Chief Robinson Ariyo signed for the Itsekiri. This gives the agreement weight and legitimacy on both sides.
The Federal Government’s endorsement through NSA Ribadu, with Olorogun Victor Okumagba and Chief Westham Adehor as witnesses, means this is not an informal understanding. It is a documented political framework.
The resolution is a reminder that ethnic disputes over representation in Nigeria are not unsolvable. What they require is early intervention, the right mediators, and genuine willingness from all parties to find common ground.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from everything that happened on Friday is this. A potential crisis was stopped before it became one, and that does not happen without the right person in the right place at the right time. NSA Nuhu Ribadu was that person.
The Niger Delta has seen what ethnic tensions over land, resources and political representation can produce. The scars are still visible. So what happened on Friday prevented something far worse —These things escalate. They have before and the fact that this one did not is directly connected to the seriousness with which NSA, Nuhu Ribadu approached the assignment.
That is true leadership, not the loud kind that seeks applause, but the quiet, deliberate kind that actually changes outcomes. Nigeria needs more of that.