“Isoko Nation Is Not A Contract Negotiation Tool” Says Isoko Group, Warns Against The Use Of Isoko As An Ethnic Group By Individuals, Groups To Drive Personal Interest -

By Uche Alvin

OPEN LETTER TO THOSE SPEAKING IN THE NAME OF ISOKO

RE: ISOKO NATION IS NOT A CONTRACT NEGOTIATION TOOL
DATE: 11/2/2026

From: Concerned Isoko Patriots for Justice and Strategic Development
To:
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
The Isoko People Worldwide
The General Public

To the signatories of that publication,

Let it be known clearly and without ambiguity that you do not own the conscience of the Isoko Nation. You do not monopolize our voice, our struggle or our destiny. Isoko is not a pressure group to be deployed when convenient. Isoko is not a bargaining chip in pipeline politics. Isoko is a people with history, dignity, intelligence and strategic depth.

What you presented to the public may wear the clothing of justice but beneath it lies a dangerous narrowing of our collective vision. You have reduced the destiny of an entire ethnic nationality to a surveillance contract. You have shrunk a people with oil-producing capacity, human capital and historical relevance into applicants for a temporary security arrangement. That is not equity. That is not restoration. That is not strategic thinking.

We are tired of being emotionally mobilized and politically positioned without structural clarity. Isoko’s future cannot revolve around who guards pipelines. Our future must revolve around who builds industries. Our future must revolve around who secures federal presence. Our future must revolve around education, infrastructure, industrial zones, technology hubs, political appointments and sustainable economic frameworks. Surveillance contracts are transactional. Development is transformational. One expires. The other endures.

It is deeply troubling that instead of demanding structural integration into Nigeria’s economic architecture, some have chosen to cry for participation in a contract that remains under federal security classification. Justice is not measured by who holds a surveillance kilometre. Justice is measured by systemic inclusion and long-term empowerment.

Let us be brutally honest. If tomorrow the surveillance contract disappears, what remains for Isoko? Have we built industries? Have we secured refineries? Have we attracted manufacturing plants? Have we positioned our youth in strategic federal institutions? Have we created wealth ecosystems that outlive contracts? These are the questions that should keep serious leaders awake at night.

Isoko must not be dragged into rivalry politics within the Niger Delta. We must not allow our name to be used to settle scores or negotiate leverage in conflicts that are not fundamentally about our people’s structural progress. That is short-sighted. That is reactionary. That is dangerous.

We are not a people of small ambition. We are not a tribe of emotional outbursts. We are thinkers. We are builders. We are contributors. We deserve federal institutions on our soil. We deserve industrial expansion. We deserve strategic appointments. We deserve structured economic participation. We deserve dignity that does not depend on handouts.

To those who signed that letter, understand this: history will judge whether you expanded the horizon of Isoko or reduced it. Leadership is not noise. Leadership is foresight. Leadership is not public sentiment. Leadership is long-term architecture.

Isoko Nation must think beyond immediate gains. We must refuse to be used. We must refuse to be reduced. We must refuse to be emotionally steered into limited frameworks while others build long-term economic empires.

If we truly want justice, let us demand structural integration, not symbolic inclusion. Let us demand permanent development, not temporary allocations. Let us demand industries, institutions and influence, not merely involvement.

Isoko is not a contract.
Isoko is not a slot.
Isoko is not a negotiation tool.

We are a people with a future and that future must be bigger than pipeline surveillance.

Let no one use our name lightly again.

Signed:

Chief, Ejiroghene Mathew

Hon, Avwerosuoghene p. Topman

Cc:

NNPC