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NIGERIA-MOROCCO GAS PIPELINE IS A CRIME
AGAINST IJAWS OF THE NIGER DELTA
Open Letter to Ms Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, President of European Commission.

Madam President,

It is with deep sense of concern we bring to your attention an operational risk posed by the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP). As you may be aware, the NMGP, a monumental infrastructure project, should be a game changer for Africa’s economic integration and global trade positioning. This pipeline augments Europe’s energy diversification efforts by providing alternative to Russian gas; thus safeguarding energy security for Europe. We are Ijaws and as Ijawland hosts majority of Nigerian oil and gas fields, we have vested interest in the success or failure of this project. Below is an overview of history of the project and anatomy of threats it poses.
In 2016, Nigeria’s former President Mohammadu Buhari, entered into an agreement with King Mohammed VI of Morocco to build NMGP. This project was never approved by the Nigerian parliament. Following this illegality, Morocco in 2017 applied as a full member of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. This is unacceptable. The ECOWAS was established in 1975 without North African Morocco showing interest. We believe that the sole reason why Morocco now wants to join is for pecuniary gains.
In December 2021, Nigeria and Morocco signed the pipeline feasibility study agreement. Final Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, was hastily signed in 2022 in Morocco by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines, ONHYM, of Morocco and the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, countries. The other parties must have been under the impression that Brass Island in Ijawland, the pipeline host community in Bayelsa State of Nigeria was carried along by the NNPCL.
The NMGP measures 5600 kilometers from Brass Island in Ijawland to Dakhla in Morocco. From Morocco it will link the existing Maghreb European Pipeline, MEP; expanding to 7000 kilometers to Spain in Europe. Its configuration is 48 Inch X 5,300 Km (offshore from Brass to Dakhla in Morocco) and 56 X 1, 700 Km (onshore from Dakhla in Morocco to MEP). With thirteen Compressor Stations, the pipeline route covers Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Siera Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, the Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Morocco and Spain.
The estimated cost of the project is $25 billion to be funded by the Islamic Development Bank, IDB. Construction started in 2024. When completed, the NMGP will deliver 3 billion Standard Cubic Feet, scf, of gas per day from Ijawland to Europe through Morocco. This is laughable as there are no corresponding benefits accruing to Bayelsa State. We ask, will Morocco consent to this flawed arrangement were the reverse the case?
Drilling activities for natural gas extraction of this magnitude will significantly impact the Niger Delta ecosystems because every stage of the extraction process is accompanied by one or more environmental issues. For that reason, an environmental impact assessment to study habitat destruction, pollution from spills or leaks, changes in local water quality and the effects after cessation of drilling becomes a sine qua non for the project to proceed.
Securing the pipeline is paramount to King Mohammed VI who allegedly is presently negotiates ECOWAS regional security behind our backs with the American-owned African Command, Africom. Whatever happens to Nigerian sovereignty? We are apprehensive that Rapid Special Force, foreign mercenaries and armed drones would be deployed to deal decisively with expected or perceived threats from communities hosting the pipeline. And this is where it concerns your office as President of European Commission and that of the President of the United States of America.
Conservative estimate credits Nigeria with 9th position in global gas production with proven reserves of 187 trillion cubic feet, tcf, or 3% of total global natural gas reserves of 6,923 Tcf. These reserves are in the Niger Delta states of Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Imo, Abia, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Ondo. The Nigerian government, in line with its exploitative policies against oil and gas-producing communities, pays 13% derivative income to these states for crude oil while paying nothing for gas. Billions of naira that should come to the rightful owners are denied them, translating to crushing poverty. We opine that the NMGP is economic terrorism against Ijaws and other gas bearing communities of the Niger Delta. Any project that threatens the very existence of Ijaws is legitimate target for disruption.
The Ijaws, and indeed, other Niger Delta gas-bearing communities, have their God-given rights opposing this gas pipeline project designed to further impoverish our people; just as Northern Nigerian Muslims exercised their Allah-given rights opposing the building of a French military base in Northern Nigeria. On 28th November 2024, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu went on a state visit to France and all hell was let loose. Upon his return, the Arewa Consultative Forum and Coalition of Northern Groups, CNGs, threatened a regime change except Tinubu issued a public statement assuring them that not an inch of Northern Nigeria will be given to President Emmanuel Macron of France to build military base (see “Northern Coalition Kicks against alleged plans to establish French Military Base in Nigeria,” Nigerian Tribune, December 6, 2024). President Tinubu reversed course when the CNGs threatened to unseat him over French Military base in Nigeria. But Ijaws are peaceful over this extreme NMGP provocation.
Apart from the NMGP, there is also the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline, TSGP, to run from Warri in the Niger Delta to Europe through Algeria. The TSGP will carry 30 billion scf of gas yearly from Nigeria. When you add the 3 billion scf of gas to be carried daily by the NMGP to the 30 billion scf to be borne yearly by the TSGP, the self-serving intention of the facilitators becomes apparent. What will Nigerians, not just Ijaws, survive on when you pipe away such quantity of gas? The American liquid gold, namely, oil and gas, made that country great. But before our very eyes two gigantic pipelines are being constructed to pipe away our own liquid gold; just as our crude oil is shipped to Malta leaving our people without ways and means.
Each year thousands of Ijaw and other Niger Delta youths trying to access Europe by land through North Africa are allegedly murdered by North African Arabs on the burning sand of the Sahara Desert. Those who made it to Europe are clamped down in detention camps. Africom is fully aware of these extrajudicial killings but prefers to look the other way. Its mandate is securing oil and gas facilities. Arabs have their uranium, sardines, Iron ore, oil, gas, gold, pyramids, etc, that generate billions of dollars annually for them. Ijaws did not hijack their resources to build infrastructure for ECOWAS.
Citing black labour as justification, whites murdered 20 million Black Africans during their Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; a genocide approved by Catholic Popes and Anglican Archbishops. The Islamic Caliphate in Constantinople and Mecca also used the same argument to justify their Trans-Sahara Slave Trade that killed over 30 million Black Africans. Today, Arabs and whites are united once more against Black Africa in their scramble for our resources. Their quarrel over 9/11, Al Qaeda, Islamist terrorism, etc, is a farce. Madam President, expect unmanageable black resistance this time. Whites, Arabs and internal colonialists in Nigeria are united in their economic terrorism against Ijaws. We will defend our resources and our unalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Since the arrival of this Trojan Horse, Arabs from the Sahel invaded rural Nigeria in the name of ECOWAS cooperation, inflicting unprecedented violence on defenseless blacks. We cite these instances:

(a) Under the Buhari government, 20 farm settlements were razed in Eha-Amufu communities of Enugu State and over 123 Igbos killed by Arab militias who joined local Fulani herders in attacking Igbos (see “Three Enugu Farmers Killed in Renewed herdsmen attacks,” Punch, 23rd November 2024).

(b) Arab militias invaded Yakurr Local Government Area, LGA, of Cross River State in search of solid minerals (see “Armed Malians, Mauritanians, Others Invade Cross River Communities for Natural Resources,” Daily Post, 18th December 2024).

(c) Over 300 Arab militias killed 30 blacks in Benue State (see “How suspected foreign marauders invaded Benue, killed 30 – Community leader,” Punch, 26th November 2024).

(d) Fulani herdsmen killed Ijaw fishermen and farmers in Bayelsa and Delta states (see “Armed herders terrorise Bayelsa, Delta farmers, Fishermen,” Vanguard, 6th February 2024. Also see “Uneasy Calm in Bayelsa over Herdsmen Invasion,” The Sun, Retrieved 14th March 2025; and “Herdsmen: Trouble looms in Bayelsa over Destruction of Farms,” Tribune online, 6th March 2021).

If Arab terrorists can use vehicles to crush white women and their children in Europe, you can imagine the carnage they wreck in Ijawland. Darfur is here. Ijaws must form militias and defend their communities against militant North Africa Arab expansionists actively supported by a section of the Nigerian military to kill ethnic minority Nigerians.

Here is the big picture: In its 1989 Abuja Declaration, the Organization of Islamic Corporation, OIC, stated only Muslims must rule Nigeria. Morocco is signatory to this Islamist declaration. The 2015 decision to rig out the Ijaw-born President Goodluck Jonathan in favour of Buhari was taken in Morocco. Equally so, the 2023 decision to rig out the Igbo-born Peter Obi in favour of Tinubu was taken in Saudi Arabia. Jonathan and Obi are Christians while Buhari and Tinubu Muslims.
On 10th November 2024, Tinubu attended the Arab-Islamic Summit in Saudi Arabia even though Nigeria is neither an Arab nor Islamic state. This summit was midwifed by the OIC to fast-track the NMGP; but the Israeli/Hamas War was fronted as ruse for his presence. Tinubu returned from the summit and announced policy change prioritizing the pipeline under ECOWAS regional infrastructural development (see “Nigeria pays ECOWAS N85 bn community levy, boosts regional cooperation,” BusinessDay December 15, 2024).

REASONS IJAWS OPPOSE NMGP

The NMGP is genocide against Ijaws by economic means. It will enslave and kill Ijaws for the next millennia that gas will power human civilisation; having placed our economy in Moroccan hands to exploit. Not America, not Germany nor any self-respecting people will accept this fate reserved for Ijaws. Morocco’s territorial ambition of hijacking our gas will definitely lead to unending major supply disruptions by aggrieved Ijaws, rest assured.
We have reasonable cause to believe that Morocco, the IDB, foreign consultants, emirs and sheiks are the real beneficiaries of NMGP. The project lacks transparency and is devoid of national interest. There is no concrete evidence that the Federal Government strictly followed the provisions of the Public Procurement Act and other relevant laws before awarding the contract. We challenge the facilitators of this project to show us how Nigerian national interests are secured.
Contrary to the assertions of NNPCL, dollars generated from the NMGP will never benefit ordinary Nigerians. Just as ordinary Nigerians have not benefited from the billions generated weekly from crude oil sales since 1970. The NNPCL, the most corrupt entity under the sun (only after the Supreme Court of Nigeria), is a conduit pipe for funding local and Middle Eastern terrorists (see “How NNPCL diverted N2.68 trillion, $9.77 million, shunned probe invitations,” Punch, 12th January 2025.” Also see “Terrorism: Ali-Keffi’s allegation must not be ignored, experts insist,” The Guardian, 23rd January 2024).
For too long, Ijaws have tolerated the machination of the Federal Government of Nigeria (euphemism for the three big ethnic nationalities) to undermine the Ijaw aspirations for self-development on account of our peace-loving, benevolent and hospitable nature. Violence, obnoxious military decrees and legislative sabotage are some evil tools used by the government of Nigeria to emasculate us. In essence, we are not good enough to own our God-given oil and gas fields. Under such a pretext, our oil wells are allocated to Muslim emirs and generals in the military.
Who are Ijaws? Let us, strictly for the sake of this exercise, limit our answer to how the colonial Percy Amaury Talbot defined the “Ijaw country” and Ijaws. He said Ijawland was a geographically contiguous land mass between the Yoruba in the West and the Ibibio in the East stretching about 250 miles along the Atlantic coast, “The Niger Delta, therefore, is, with the exception of few small tribes, occupied by these strange people (the Ijaw) – a survival from the dim past, beyond the dawn of history….” However, as prelude to depriving Ijaw people control of their oil and gas resources, successive Nigerian governments balkanized Ijawland into the existing regions and later states. Overnight this made Ijaws minority in the political administration of Nigeria. But our argument remains political boundary is not cultural boundary. This is how the Ijaw demographic was minimized:

First, using the River Niger as measuring rod, the Ijawland was split into two under the 1951 Regionalism. One half was administered as part of the Eastern Region under Michael Okpara; while the other was administered as part of the Western Region under Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

And second, in subsequent state creations, resulting in today’s 36 states, Ijawland was further balkanized into Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo and Rivers States. This left us with little or no political clout. Only Bayelsa, created in 1996, has homogenous Ijaw population. Sadly, this Ijaw state was created with only eight Local Government Areas (LGAs) while states with comparable populations have twice the number of LGAs. Limiting the only Ijaw state of Bayelsa to just eight LGAs is a deliberate ploy to strangulate Ijaws politically and economically. Bayelsa should have an additional 30 LGAs considering our impossible terrain.

Other instruments used in marginalizing the Ijaw nation are obnoxious military decrees and Legislative Acts. Some of these are:
Petroleum Decree 1969, later an Act of 1990 as Amended, CAP 350 and currently the Petroleum Industry Act (2021)
Oil Terminal Dues Act of 1965
Oil Pipelines Act of 1959
Land Use Decree Act 1978, later an Act of 1979
Exclusive Economic Zone Act of 1978
Associated Gas Re-injection Act of 1979
Oil Pipelines and Lands (Title Vesting etc.) Act of 1993
National Inland Waterways Authority Decree No. 13 of 1997, currently the National Inland Waterways Act, 2004.

Sadly, Ijaws and other ethnic minorities in the Niger Delta, disadvantaged by population compared to the combined populations of the Big Three- Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, cannot in majority-carries-the-vote democracy effect amendments to these unjust laws.

Manipulation of the derivation principle of federal revenue allocation by Nigerian internal colonialists was the ultimate Coup de Grâce that sealed the fate of Ijaw nation aspirations to fast-track development in Ijawland.
Kindly note during the period 1951 – 1959, federal revenue allocation to the constituent parts of the federation was by the principle of derivation. In the beginning, the federating units take home 100% while paying appropriate taxes to the central government. But with the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri in Ijawland in 1958, the revenue allocation based on derivation principle spiraled downward. From 100% in 1951 to 50% (1960), 50% (1963), 55% (1969), 30% (1970), 25% (1977) 20% (1979-1981), 0% (1982), 1.5% (1982) 3% (1992-1999) and 13% (1999-to-date).
These outrageous injustice against the Ijaw nation was arrogantly justified by the Nigerian Government: That creating homogeneous states for Ijaws, whose homeland has the highest concentration of oil-wells and gas fields in Nigeria, and reverting to true fiscal federalism whereby the federating units control their on-shore and off-shore resources, would give Ijaw people preponderance of economic clout. In other words, making more money available to Ijaw people through derivation to the oil producing areas would be dangerous to One Nigeria. This is a view favoured by the Aboyade Technical Committee on Revenue Allocation Report 1977; chaired by Prof. Olatunji Aboyade. According to the Aboyade Report, derivation “had little or no place in a cohesive fiscal system for national, political and social development.”
A similar sentiment was shared by the report of the Presidential Commission on Revenue Allocation, set up by the Shehu Shagari administration in 1979, headed by Dr. Pius Okigbo. The report failed to assign a percentage to derivation. In other words, 0% derivation to the oil producing states. Thus, the federal government stopped payment of derivation in 1982 in what was termed “in the interest of past experiences and exigencies of national security.” Whatever that means! This was the backdrop in which the approximately 24 million strong Ijaws, fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria, have been kept in a state of underdevelopment.
Madam President, now you understand why in the interest of unborn Ijaw children the NMGP, as currently packaged, is an existential threat to us as a people, present and future. Ijaws are not against the sale of their gas to the European Union by Nigerian government. What we are against is the capture of our gas resources by Morocco, however the subterfuge.
The NMGP is violence prone as it currently locks out the Ijaw nation as a beneficiary. We fear that in the not-so-distant future the IDB, Moroccans, Arab-Islamic Summit and OIC will be locked in vicious struggle with Ijaws and other gas-bearing communities over its ownership. Never give a thirsty monkey a cup of water as it will never return your cup peacefully after quenching its thirst. You must fight it at tree top to retrieve your cup. Better this pipeline project is properly vetted with gas bearing and host communities for millions of lives to be saved. For that reason, the Ijaw nation MUST be carried along!
Madam President, it is inherently evil electrifying Europe with Ijaw gas while Ijawland is wrapped in permanent darkness. Ijaws and other gas-bearing nationalities of the Niger Delta deserve to be beneficiaries of gas infrastructure. We are interested in powering our territories with hundreds of Thermal Electricity Generating Plants that use gas.
History has demonstrated time and again that repressive schemes designed to subjugate fellow humans, no matter how well-crafted or coordinated, are impossible to sustain for long. Eventually, through events beyond the control and comprehension of humans, the winds of change and good fortune inevitably emerge and blow out the old evil order. As in the case with Apartheid in South Africa, it is no more. The NMGP will go the way of all unhappy evils.
The Ijaws have been pushed to the extreme and will no longer remain passive; not when we are gasping for the breath of our life. This NMGP may well be the last straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back with respect to the Ijaw question in the Nigerian political economy. It should be apparent by now to the powers that be in Nigeria, that the rise of the Ijaw Renaissance will not subside until we free ourselves and future generations from political oppression, economic slavery and local imperialism.
From time immemorial, Ijaws have remained peace loving, benevolent, and hospitable to a fault in accommodating our neigbhours in the Niger Delta. Too often, these virtues have been taken for weakness in view of legendary Ijaw leaders’ use of diplomacy as their preferred method of conflict resolution. The Indomitable Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye embodied this virtue that earned him the role of Treaties Mandatory for his diplomatic efforts during the colonial era. Who can forget the great Ijaw son, Earnest Sisei Ikoli, pillar in the constitutional development of Nigeria, statesman and one of pioneer builders of Nigeria, to paraphrase Sir John Stuart Macpherson, Governor-General of Nigeria (1949-1954).
Madam President, we have taken the trouble to provide you with the historical context of the predicament of Ijaw people within Nigeria. Our letter should enable you use your good office to impress upon the sponsors of the NMGP to, as a matter of utmost urgency, address the concerns of Ijaw people to avert potential disagreements capable of never-ending cycle of disruption of gas supply to Europe. Or, in a worst-case scenario, prevent the takeoff of the project from our end in Brass Island, Ijawland.
We end by reminding ourselves of the immortal words of the late President of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, that “those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable.”