The environmental suffering, violence, and degradation that the Niger Delta is undergoing have remained unabated. There is no gainsaying the truth that the Niger Delta is suffering. There is also the reality that much of the sufferings and abuses to which the Niger Delta peoples and its environment are subjected are manmade, avoidable and unjustified.
The environmental problems that have pervaded the Niger Delta include oil spillage, gas flaring, corporate deforestation, poverty, loss of biodiversity, etc. Oil companies in their prospect for oil and gas resources have also caused a lot of human rights violations and deprived people of their right to water, a healthy environment, livelihood, indigenous ancestral sites, etc.
In this regard, many militant group has risen and vowed to cripple the nations economy, since the region producing the wealth of the nation has nothing to show for it. The most dreaded militant group, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), has told President Muhammadu Buhari to visit the region so as to physically experience the pains of the community “in the hands of the Nigerian government and the multinationals”.
“The Nigeria President Buhari should visit Ugborodo host to Chevron crude oil Export terminal/EGTL gas plant, Ogulagha host to Shell Forcados Crude Oil Export terminal/tank farm, Bonny Island host to Shell Bonny Crude Oil Export terminal/NLNG gas terminal, Brass host to Agip/ENI export terminal, Ibeno host to ExxonMobil Qua Iboe crude export terminal,” the statement read. But it seems that their cry and sufferings all landed in a deaf ear.
Laura Pius, a native of the oil rich Niger Delta has this to say. Read below.
Niger Deltans!
This is why I wail.
This is why I stand with the Niger Delta Avengers.
This is the reason I support MASSOB.
This is why the 2014 confab must be implemented.
This is why I endorse regional autonomy.
This is why Nigeria can never be ONE.
So when you call me 'the wailer in chief' like Danbala Garba did the other day, know that I gladly wear the crest with pride. It is an emblem of honour. I'll rather wail and screech in defiance than watch in silence as the milk upon my breast is being fed to strangers while my own people starve to death.
Every Niger Deltan must ARISE and sound the gong of EMANCIPATION.
It is OUR collective duty as a people not a cause for selected FEW.
It is your RIGHT to live in abundance by the very natural resources Mother Nature has graciously bestowed on your lands.
Diezani is a daughter of the soil. From a royal family. Yet she owns no oil bloc. Still they hunt her for being enriched by the wealth in her backyard. Can you beat that? Aisha Buhari is 10 times richer. From an acrid region. What is the source of her wealth?
How many Niger Deltans own oil blocs in Nigeria? No, is like asking, how many house owners are the landlords of their houses? Does that make sense?
You see? The INJUSTICE that walks tall in the contraption called NIGERIA is like a time bomb, that when detonated, every one of us will bear the brunt.
Laura Pius
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