Mineral deposits, especially oil, can be a source of stupendous wealth, affluence and power for the region where it is found. The people of the region automatically become the proverbial geese that lay the golden eggs. They also expect to be the primary beneficiaries of accrualls from their God-given resources.
But this is not the situation in some communities in Imo State where oil is found in commercial quantity. The rate of poverty in these communities makes one ask whether inhabitants of Ohaji-Egbema and Oguta local government areas are part of humanity.
In the past 48 years, oil exploration in Imo State has left tales of anguish, death, tears, impoverishment and anger among the people of these oil-producing communities in Imo State.
The people of Ohaji-Egbema and Oguta local government areas where the oil deposits in the state are located, have nothing but pains, death, neglect, deprivation and environmental abuse to show for the 48 years of oil exploration in the areas.
No thanks to the activities of major oil companies operating in the area, that have capitalised on the rather peaceful nature of the host communities to exploit them, without giving back to the society in terms of corporate social responsibilities as obtained in other places.
Recently, the patience of the youth and elderly women in Umudike, Etekwuru and other adjoining villages in Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area, was exhausted as they resisted what they described as deliberate abuse of their environment and hazardous practices by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
The youth, who turned out in a very large number and accompanied by their aged mothers who were equally in high number, took over the Umudike-Assa-Etekwuru delivery pipeline and disrupted the activities of a maintenance team sent by Shell to clean up a crude oil spill along the pipeline.
Their anger could be felt from a distance, their pains and disappointments boldly written on their faces as they defied the stern-looking and heavily-armed soldiers and the scorching heat of the sun to press home their demands before a rather indifferent company that was only interested in getting the business going.
The angry protesters who displayed placards with various inscriptions like; ‘SHELL stop killing our people’, ‘compensate the victims of the 2001 pipeline explosion’, ‘SHELL activities have destroyed our environment’, “we demand an end to SPDC marginalisation’ and “SPDC has turned our oil into a cause’, among others, refused all entreaties by the SPDC team to allow them clean up the spill.
The cause of the outburst, according to the youth leader, Mr. Reginald Egini, was the recent massive oil spill that has covered about one acre of farmland, which he said the SPDC had, as usual, sneaked in to quickly clean up.
“This is not the first time we are suffering as a result of oil spill. In 2001, there was a pipeline explosion that killed about 13 people with several others severely burnt and eventually incapacitated and Shell promised to pay compensation but nothing has been done up till today,” he said.
The youth leader, who vowed that they will not allow any hurried repair of the pipeline or minor clean up of the spill, said that there should be proper negotiation with the host communities to know the loss they have suffered as a result of the spill.
“There should be first an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to ascertain the level of damage on the environment. This is because we are farmers and any damage on the soil will drastically affect our means of livelihood,” he said.
Reeling off their grievances against Shell, Egini noted that: “Since 1964 when SPDC began exploration in the community, there was nothing to show that the community is an oil-producing area like other places in the Niger Delta region. “There is no single hospital, school; market built by SPDC in the community neither has it given our youths any employment or scholarships. But it has kept making promises they never cared to fulfill,” he added.
Listing their demands to include, removal of the old pipelines and replacing them with new ones to avoid continuous oil spills, payment of all outstanding compensations, including the N4 billion awarded the community against SPDC by a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt and provision of employment for graduates and artisans from the community, among others, the youth, who displayed the photographs of the victims of the 2001 pipeline fire, rejected the monetary offer suggested by the SPDC team.
The look of a 99-year-old woman, who leaned on a walking stick as she rained abuses on SPDC for what she described in Igbo dialect as igbuisi anyi ntakiri ntakiri (‘systematic elimination’) of their people by the company, was rather pathetic.
She lamented that aged women and men in other communities that are blessed with oil were taken care of by their children who were gainfully employed by the oil companies.
Mama Felicia, as she was simply addressed, told our correspondent that “I decided to join the protest because the community is no longer safe and the land is no more fertile for agriculture.
“If we don’t join the youth, it will be taken for youthful exuberance but seeing me at my age (99 years), you will know that our pain is heavy and we are ready to die demanding our rights,” she said.
Also speaking, another community leader who preferred anonymity, blamed the state government for the woes suffered by the people in the hands of the oil companies, alleging that, “even our state government has not done anything to provide basic amenities in the oil-producing communities. All they are interested in is the royalties and contracts they collect from the companies.”
The source further stated that, “the Imo State Oil-Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC) has not done anything with the money voted for the development of the communities. In fact, it has become a conduit pipe for draining the resources meant for the development of the communities, while the people languish in poverty and deprivation.”
However, when contacted, the traditional ruler of Umudike community, Ezeali James Nwanro, said the protest was premature.
“When the spill occurred, I was informed and I know that SPDC will first embark on preliminary investigation to know if the spill was an act of sabotage, in which case no compensation will be made or equipment failure, where the communities will be paid for any damage as a result of the spill. It is only after the investigation that we can know what to do as a community.
The monarch, who is also a contractor with one of the oil companies said: “The youth are not in any position to speak for the community. We have leaders and me as the traditional ruler and we will do everything possible to ensure that Shell does the right thing. So, preventing the team from carrying out the inspection is not in the best interest of both parties.”
Meanwhile efforts to speak with the management of SPDC were unsuccessful as the team that was on the scene of the spill when our reporter visited, declined comments on the issue.
Our investigations revealed that most of the communities in the two council areas (Ohaji-Egbema and Oguta local government areas) where oil are produced in the state, are confronted with massive youth unemployment, infrastructure decay and poverty.
In the face of these daunting challenges, the state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, recently released the sum of N500 million to be shared among the youth from the area as empowerment package.
But instead of ameliorating the suffering of the people as intended, the largesse further threw the communities into turmoil as the youth took up arms against each other over how the money would be shared.
At the last count, over 20 houses have been burnt, including the palace of one of the kings, while several people were severely wounded in the crisis that engulfed the oil-producing communities.
Although most of the armed youths from the area are currently benefiting from the Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government after they laid down their weapons, fears are that if effective measures are not quickly taken to address the issue of youth unemployment and poverty, the area may slide back into the dark era of militancy.
