THE UNSUNG HEROINES: IJAW WOMEN SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER ON THE EDO IMBROGLIO
By Prof. Ben Binabai
Young Ijaw women have emerged at the very vanguard of truth and conviction in the discourse concerning the Ijaw condition in Nigeria. They are erudite in history, lucid in logic, sound in philosophy, upright in morality, and astute in geography as they mount a most resolute defence of Ijaw sovereignty in Edo State. I am both awestruck and profoundly gratified that the digital age has birthed avant-garde media platforms upon which these formidable daughters pour forth their intellect with consistency and precision. They do not merely rebut the inanities spewed by the detractors of the Ijaw Nation; they have taken upon themselves the sacred charge of educating the world, and indeed those armchair custodians of Benin historiography. With remarkable clarity and unassailable facts, they have dismantled even that which was touted as a court judgment purporting to appropriate Ijaw ancestral territories in Edo State.
These young Ijaw women have risen, unmistakably and with great dignity, as heroines of our time. The Ijaw Nation owes them an immense debt of gratitude for answering rhetoric with rhetoric, argument with argument, and history with history. In their mouths, history has been resurrected. It lives again. Some are showcased as Fortune Agbe whilst the most indefatigable amongst them — eloquent in her diction, compelling in her dramatisation, and expressive in countenance — adorns her discourse with deliberate infusions of Ijaw nuance and the cadence of Izon song and dance... They speak, without fear or equivocation, on behalf of over fifteen million Ijaws, as patriots, as nationalists, and as the digital conscience of our people in defence of our brethren in Edo State.
The annals of nations reveal a timeless truth: that civilisations are not preserved by arms alone, but by voices. And in this epoch, it is the voices of Ijaw women that have refused to be stilled. Female heroism is seldom ostentatious. It is quiet fortitude. It is sacrifice. It is love made manifest in duty. These daughters have chosen the frontline of truth at a time when expediency beckoned many towards silence. They have transmuted indignity into oratory, falsehood into fact, and erasure into enlightenment. Much like the women of yore who stood beside Egbesu, who bore sustenance to the creeks, who tended the wounded and yet lifted their voices in songs of war, these modern heroines have taken up new instruments — the lens, the microphone, the keyboard, and the platform. They contend not with rancour, but with reason. They defend not with acrimony, but with archives. This, indeed, is the hallmark of true heroism.
These courageous Ijaw women merit far more than perfunctory applause. They deserve honour, safeguarding, and institutional commendation from the Ijaw Nation. Their toil must be chronicled. Their voices must be amplified across every quarter. Their names must be inscribed in the annals of Ijaw pride.
To them we declare: You speak not for yourselves alone. You speak for fifteen million Ijaws. You speak for our forebears. You speak for generations yet unborn.May your resolve never wane. May your wisdom never dim. And may the Ijaw Nation you so gallantly defend today remember you tomorrow as the Heroines who stood when history summoned them.The Ijaw Nation shall not be effaced. And by virtue of your labour, our story shall be told, and told aright.
©Igumugumu
