In 2008, American oil giant Chevron Nigeria Limited donated $6million to Ugborodo Community in Delta State for a protracted housing project. Over five years after, there are reports of alleged misappropriation of the fund. SHOLA O’NEIL tracks the gift, concluding that a lot more is at stake.
Tll parties in the leadership crisis of Ugborodo Community in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State seem to have one thing in common – they are very excited about the $16billion Ogidigben Gas Project and the Export Processing Zone.
The Warri monarch, Ogiame Atuwatse II, praised the Federal and Delta State governments for the decision and expressed the determination of his people to give all that it takes to make the project, like the Escravos Gas To Liquid project, a success.
Pa Jos Ayomike, a leader of the community and pioneer Secretary of the Governing Council of the Ugborodo Community Trust, at a news conference in Warri, debunked reports that the people were against the project. Conversely, he said the people were grateful for the project, which is expected to galvanise economic and social activities, not just in the state, but in the Niger Delta region.
He said: “Ugborodo people are not fighting Delta State Government, let alone the Federal Government that we are thanking and commending for siting the Gas City in Ogidigben.”
The two protagonists in the leadership tussles – Chief Thomas Ereyitomi and Hon David Tonwe – have also at various forums expressed similar views since the project escalated the leadership tussle in the community in recent months.
Nevertheless, in spite of the ‘supports’ for the project, as it gathers momentum towards kick-off, the crisis in the area had increased until President Goodluck Jonathan waded into the matter, in the aftermath of the bloody clashes of early January.
Both parties seemed to have sheathed their swords, at least their raging ‘war’ in the media, until Pa Ayomike, a renowned historian and literary critic stirred the hornets’ nest on Monday with a feisty press conference on the “Ugborodo-Gate Affair’.
Beyond asking Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to resign over his role in the crisis, which some reports put the death toll at 22 persons, the 87-year-old Ayomike, who interestingly is an uncle to the governor’s wife, accused Uduaghan of using his surrogates in the community to hijack the $6m donated by Chevron for the New Ugborodo Town Project.
The ‘surrogates’ alluded to in the statement were possibly Chief Thomas Ereyitomi, leader of one of the factions, whose contentious election and recognition by Uduaghan’s government laid the foundation for the latest crisis, and his alter ego, Chief Ayirimi Emami.
He said: “The community is resisting the imposition of these persons because Governor Uduaghan colluded with them to expropriate $6m that was sent by Chevron in the United States as contribution towards the development of the Ugborodo New Town Project. Exchanged into naira and deposited into a bank account controlled by signatories named by Governor Uduaghan, without the knowledge of the registered Trustees of Ugborodo Community, the initial deposit of N900m, fixed at a 13percent annual interest, had depleted after five years, when the account first became public!
“His Excellency, the American Ambassador (to Nigeria) has been told of the disappearance of Chevron’s USD$6million and probably, the US State Department also is interested.”
Niger Delta Report gathered that the New Town Project was conceived in the wake of the wanton destruction of Itsekiri communities and the oil major’s facilities during the fratricidal Warri crisis, which ended in 2004. The nearly $9bn EGTL project also increased Chevron’s stake in the area.
The project was therefore meant to give the host communities a befitting environment, at least close to the utopian suburb where the oil firm’s employees and top management staff live nearby. The disparity between the living condition of the Ugborodo people and Chevron had been a template for measuring the ‘injustice’ of oil firms on their hosts over the years.
Separated by just a tiny creek and a fence that is beyond a physical barrier, Arunto (Ode-Ugborodo) and Chevron yard could not be farther apart. While Chevron ‘community’ is a beautiful island in the sea, the other is withering; its shoreline losing metres of land yearly to an unfriendly incursion of the sea. On one side is neat houses, clean streets (on which heavy duty vehicles, trucks and cars cruise to and fro) and functional amenities, as well as an airfield where the company’s top shot fly in and out without coming in contact with their hosts. On the other sides, residents rely on motorcycle ploughing through dusty, sandy paths. They live in zinc and thatch houses without toilets and pipe borne water.
Pa Ayomike told newsmen that “there is no community in Nigeria abused, cheated, maltreated and marginalised as Ugborodo. Visit there and you will be reminded of Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities: the old Ugborodo is dying away while he Chevron/EGTL sector remains the Paris of Escravos.
He queried media tags of ‘Oil Capital of West Africa’ and ‘oil-rich community in Niger Delta’ bestowed on the community, asking: “Does Ugborodo look like Austin in Texas? Does it look like any oil-producing centre in California or like Bonny or Port Harcourt (bad as things are in Nigeria)?
It was against the background of this paradox that the plan to build 200 housing units of various 4-bedroom, 3-bedroom and 2-bedroom bungalows was conceived nearly a decade ago. The project was to be jointly financed by the Chevron and the state government.
Ayomike and other leaders in the community, particularly members of the Tonwe-led faction, have insistently blamed Uduaghan for the failure of the project to take-off.
Barely 24 hours after the allegation that he masterminded expropriation of the $6m, Governor Uduaghan addressed a press conference of his own at the Governor’s Office, Warri Annexe on Tuesday. He described the accusation as baseless, maintaining that “The money is intact in the bank.”
Uduaghan came prepared. He had with him Mr Mofe Pirah, who was chairman of the Itsekiri Regional Development Council, the organ through which the money was paid, and an official of Ecobank, which swallowed the then Oceanic Bank, custodian of the fund and others.
Udaughan explained: “The way (fund) it is arranged, Chevron has to approve the project. Chevron has to sign the cheque and Chevron has to supervise the project. The money is a fund that no single individual can withdraw.”
Taking on the governor’s defence, Pirah, who is Commissioner in charge of the Ministry of Oil and Gas in the state, clarified that the IRDC did not receive $6m from the Chevron. Instead, he said what it got was the equivalent in naira, which was N705 million (at the rate of N117.5 to a dollar) that was deposited “directly by Chevron” into the Oceanic Bank account.
Pirah went on to explain that the contention over the fund was Ugborodo leaders’ desire that the fund be given to them directly, against Chevron’s desire to deal with the IRDC, which is the organ through which the company engages with its host communities in development issues.
Finally, a local branch manager of Ecobank, confirmed that the defunct Ocean Bank received N705m on 18 December, 2008, adding: “The N705m was placed in a fixed account. Today, the money is now N968,614,613.42.
“The money is still in the bank’s possession,” the bank’s representative, who appealed that her name be kept secret, told newsmen.
Our investigations to unravel the cause of the delay in implementing the project for which the fund was released further threw up some debates and confusion.
Pirah explained that the project was being hampered by Chevron’s insistence that the community or the IRDC be responsible for the sand-filling of the project site. That task was rejected by the IRDC and the community.
It was gathered that the face-off over who should fill the site was sparked off by allegations that some persons in the community sold sand deposited at the site. As a result, a Chevron source said the company was not willing to expend money on a project it had already executed.
Further checks revealed that effort to use funds donated by CNL to the IRDC for community’s development was also rejected ostensibly because, although Ugborodo is one of the highest oil producing communities in Itsekiri area, it constitutes a fraction of the total communities in the council.
As plausible as Uduaghan’s defence was, there was no assurance that it would assuage his opponents or lay the controversy to rest.
A close aide of the governor’s told our reporter, “The issues involved are both political and personal. Political in the sense that people expect that the governor would contest the senatorial election in 2015 and they already have their preferred candidate They want to use every opportunity to rubbish him and cast aspersion to his name.
“Personal because the governor is caught in a web of intra-family dispute that predates his marriage to Pa Ayomike’s niece. But if you look at the history of the family you will realise that the governor may not be the actual target. I cannot say more than that,” the source, who is also an Itsekiri, told NDR.
Also, our findings also showed a disparity between the actual exchange rate used to deposit the fund and what Pa Ayomike and other Ugborodo leaders had expected. Specifically, although Pa Ayomike’s figure showed exchange rate of N150 to a dollar, the deposit was at N117.5.
Similarly, there is a wide gulf between expectation of the community leader’s calculation of “initial deposit of N900m, fixed at a 13percent annual interest” and the N968m sum revealed by the bank.
By Pa Ayomike’s expectation, “Simple mathematical extrapolation suggests that the balance should have been N1.4bn at this time.”
The $6m fiasco has also opened up debates on what became of several proposed housing projects, including the state government’s N5bn housing scheme that was to be funded by the Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC).
Meanwhile, it may not be only Uduaghan, who has been put on the spot over the Ugborodo matter. The Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II, also stoked the debate on Ugborodo crisis on Tuesday when he reprimanded Ayomike, cautioning him to stop parading himself as the leader of the community.
The admonishment came against the backdrop of criticism of Pa Ayomike’s alleged family-centric tendencies. Some of his opponents accuse him of attempting to hijack the community for his siblings and children.
“He nominated his son as Secretary of the Tonwe faction and when it was time for the EPZ committee, he made his younger brother the head of the committee,” a member of the Ereyitomi faction stated.
The monarch, who led prominent chiefs to a meeting with Governor Uduaghan in Warri, slammed Ayomike over his Monday’s press conference, describing him as an impostor who does not have claim to any leadership role in the community.
He said: “Pa Jos Ayomike, he is not the leader of that community. He is an individual of that community. We do not want a situation where Ayomike wants to draw the community backward and I want to let you (Uduaghan) know that he does not have my blessings.”
The monarch remarked that no single individual could be bigger than constituted authority and urged the State Government to take every necessary measure to deal with the situation and restore peace to the area.
But the second paragraph in the text of Ayomike’s press statement may as well be a befitting riposte. “Nobody is playing God in Ugborodo”, he explained.
“Born in Ogidgben (Ugborodo) about 87 years ago, I am participating among others, young and old, men and women, expressing our grievances against the illegal and iniquitous actions the governor had meted to our community.
“At my age, experience and exposure, I can’t allow that cheap blackmail to go unchallenged,” he said stated.
Cry my beloved Ugborodo (Escravos?)
Below is an abridged version of an article by Oritsegbemi O. Omatete
Ugborodo has a rich history. It was alleged to have been founded by Ijebu fishermen who came to settle in the area. Two brothers and their five sons fanned out to form the various communities of Ugborodo. Hence we refer to ourselves as “Ikpere ale meje – Ikpere (Ugborodo) of seven sections”. Ugborodo was a thriving community with its own ruler, Olaja-ori, before the famed movement of the Iwere (Itsekiri) royal family from the Benin royal family over 500 years ago. The Portuguese had a settlement both in Warri and in the island of Ugborodo in 1588. In late 19th century, the French built a salt factory in Ugborodo. When the British arrived and learnt about this, they threw a party for all the people and during that party the factory was mysteriously blown off and so was the French presence in what became Nigeria.
Ugborodo literarily means “Dry land in the Sea” and it was a huge island. I recall my grandmother describing how dangerous it was to move from the village to the beach after dark because large cats (probably leopards) and dangerous animals prowled at night. If they had to, people moved in a large group. I remember the Ugborodo I grew up in, with a large silk cotton tree (egungun) in its center, towering over all other trees and its huge buttress roots serving as gathering place for village elders especially during the secret masquerading season. We had to walk a long distance to get to the beach where canoes were loaded with conical nets used to catch crayfish. The village had mango trees that fruited abundantly annually to the joy of the youth. Edible fruits were everywhere in the bushes and palm fruits were harvested from there to prepare our delicious fresh crayfish banga* soups. These are all gone now along with my childhood house and neighborhood, which are at least half a kilometer in the Atlantic Ocean.
The estuary by Ugborodo was the entrance to the Delta ports. Ships had to change pilots here before they crossed the bar. The Nigerian pilots, usually Ijaws, were ferried from Ogidigben to the ships anchored at sea. These skilful pilots took the ships across the bar. Even then one or two ran aground especially if they tried to maneuver in the deep fog. Thus, in the 1950’s and 60’s, the lighthouse and the breakwater were built on the Ogidigben side of the estuary to facilitate navigation. That was the beginning of the end of Ugborodo mainland. The breakwater turned the fury of the sea into the erosion of Ugborodo, which continues to date unabated. Ugborodo is less than a quarter of the land I remember.
The 1950s brought another set of people, seismic exploration teams of the Shell-BP Company. They set off explosives; houses in the village shook and vibrated. The people did not know what was going on. In their superstition, they believed these foreigners were after huge reptiles that were said to protect diamonds and other precious metals. Little did they realize how correct they were. It was, indeed, something precious they found, it was liquid and black, oil. The whole area sits on oil and gas whether on land or on sea. Billions of barrels of oil have been exported yielding trillions of naira to the Nigerian coffer.
Ugborodo and the Oil Boom
What about the Ugborodo people, what have they received from the oil boom? First was the pollution always associated with oil exploration. The crayfish beds that provided livelihood and economic sustenance for the people disappeared. I wonder if dolphins (ubeje) that frolicked at full tide in the estuary in my youth still appear. What about the occasional manatee (ese), do they still exist? Second was the expropriation of the land with meager compensation that has sent the people into warring camps. Third, extreme poverty amidst the affluence in the rest of Nigeria brought on by the huge oil revenue. Fourth, all the oil jobs, from the highest to the lowest positions somehow, never seemed to come their way. The list continues. But worst and most damning is the surreptitious loss of their identity from Ugborodo to Escravos, the slaves!
So what do the Ugborodo people want from the oil companies and the governments of Nigeria? Nearly two years after the attack, should houses not have been rebuilt or, in particular, the school building renovated so that the children can get back to school? The hospital took over a decade of negotiations before it was constructed, should it not have been restored two years after it was bombed instead of keeping soldiers to protect its carcass? The people need jobs and education. The building of a new Ugborodo has been discussed for at least a decade. The site was sand-filled five years ago. When will the new Ugborodo be built? Let those planning it not forget that a town has to be economically sustainable and its peoples’ history need to be preserved. But whatever else is done, please, give the Ugborodo people back their name. Ugborodo is not Escravos, the Slaves
Is it not shocking that while the late Nigerian president-elect, Chief Abiola led the campaign for reparation for slavery and the United Nations is to hold a conference on racism, slavery and reparations in South Africa, where Nigeria, the former Slave Coast, will be represented, that we still call a river in Nigeria, Escravos, the Slaves? There is no doubt that thousands, if not millions, of Nigerians went down that river to fuel the European slave trade that built America. But should we still keep its disgraceful Portuguese name? I know as a child when we plied the river, we never called it Escravos, but called the river by its various local names.
This much all sons and daughters of the greater Ugborodo must request immediately. Give us back our name and our identity. Why is an oil terminal or a gas plant or an airstrip or any other installation on our land being called Escravos, the Slaves? Please stop this humiliation and degradation. Whatever it takes, change the name to Ugborodo now.
