The first secessionist from Nigeria, known as “Boro,” was an Ijaw soldier from the Niger Delta and a nationalist. He is credited with starting the movement for minority rights in Nigeria. On February 23, 1966, he proclaimed the “Niger Delta Republic” to be independent: He uttered: “This is an important day in the history of the Niger Delta as well as in your own life. It might turn out to be the best day in a very long time. This is not because we intend to put the sky to an end, but rather to show the world our thoughts and feelings on oppression. Remember your impoverished folks; remember your 70-year-old grandma who still farms before she eats; remember your petroleum that is being pumped daily from your veins; after that, struggle to be free.”
He was born in the little village of Oloibiri in Ogbia LGA, which is in Bayelsa State, in the eastern Nigerian Niger Delta. In Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, Oloibiri is a historic town. On January 15, 1956, Shell Darcy made the first commercial oil discovery in Nigeria, in the village of Oloibiri. Odumegwu-Ojukwu received an instruction from Aguiyi-Ironsi to find Boro. Federal troops surrounded Mbiama and its surroundings. Since they didn’t discover Boro and his boys right away, they claimed to have received intelligence that he was hiding underwater at Mbiama. They were informed that the Ijaw man could survive for days underwater, so they decided to bomb the river at Mbiama in an attempt to kill Boro or force him to emerge from the water.
Actually, somewhere in late February 1966, there was a bombing of the Engenni river at Mbiama. The Ijaw locals were startled as the air force plane went extremely low, all the way up the river to Joinkrama and the surrounding bushes. The majority of Nigerians have not benefited from the oil discovery in Oloibiri; instead, it has mainly caused environmental degradation and the eradication of the Niger Delta’s indigenous population’s way of life.
Additionally, with a starting daily production of 5,000 barrels of oil (which would eventually increase to 2,000,000)
