Written By Ekpegha T.
Ambassador Shedrack Agediga delivered a powerful and passionate address at the 2nd inauguration of the Ijaw Publishers Forum (IPF), emphasizing the critical role of the media in the emancipation of the Ijaw people.
Presenting what he described as a personal call to action, Amb. Agediga greeted distinguished guests, traditional rulers, youth and women leaders, comrades, stakeholders of the Niger Delta, and members of the Ijaw Publishers Forum. He made it clear that he was not merely attending as a guest speaker, but as a product of the very struggle under discussion.
“I stand here today not just as a speaker,” he declared, “but as someone who has walked the creeks, sat in tense community meetings, listened to angry youths, disappointed elders, and helpless mothers. I have seen firsthand how silence continues to harm the Ijaw people.”
He stressed from the outset that the Ijaw Publishers Forum is not a social club but a necessity. According to him, for too long the stories of the Ijaw people have been told by outsiders who determine who is portrayed as the villain and who is labeled the victim.
“When others tell your story,” he said, “they define your reality.”
Speaking on emancipation, Amb. Agediga urged the audience to move beyond “big grammar” and confront the reality on ground. He explained that emancipation is practical and personal. It is the woman in Ogulaha Kingdom trading under the shadow of gas flaring yet unable to afford basic needs. It is the youth in Egbema and Gbaramatu asking how a region so rich in oil resources can remain so poor.
For him, emancipation is multi-dimensional. It is political the need for the Ijaw people to be respected and reckoned with again. It is economic the right to benefit fairly from the resources drawn from their land. It is environmental the right to drink clean water and farm on clean soil. And it is cultural the determination to preserve Ijaw identity in a world that seeks to erase it.
He maintained that any conversation about emancipation that ignores these four pillars is incomplete.
Addressing the central theme of his speech, Amb. Agediga asked why the media is so crucial to the Ijaw struggle. His answer was direct: no people in global history have achieved emancipation without controlling their narrative.
“Media,” he said, “has always been the engine room of resistance.”
For the Ijaw people, he concluded, media is not decoration. It is strategy. It is defense. It is power.
