The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Natives

  • Return of the natives

    Return of the natives

    Residents of Ngamdu,Tamsu Karuri, Mainok, Jakana and Beneshiek on Damaturu-Maiduguri Road could not hide their joy when they returned a fortnight ago to their villages ruined by Boko Haram insurgents four years ago thanks to  Borno State Government, which rebuilt the villages and  gave their schools a facelift. Some of the excited villagers relived the harrowing experiences.  JOEL DUKU reports from Maiduguri

    Residents of Ngamdu, Tamsu Kawu, Makinta Karuri, Mainok, Jakana and  Beneshiek –  all on Damaturu- Maiduguri Road, were full of joy  when they returned to their homes a fortnight ago.They were forced to flee four years ago  following  attacks  by  Boko Haram insurgents.

    Though Borno State government  has renovated some of facilities in the villages, what gladdened the villagers most were the 13 renovated primary and junior secondary schools.

    A fortnight ago, Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima All Progressives Congress (APC), national leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and other personalities inaugurated some projects in the villages as part of the state’s post-insurgency recovery plans. They included 432 resettlement houses, 26 furnished apartments in five detached three-storey buildings, a general hospital, five primary healthcare centres, tractors, poultry and other agricultural equipment for women in particular, among others.

    For many of the villagers, Tinubu’’s visit was a soothing balm and the climax of their excitement since their return.

    Interestingly, the 13 rebuilt schools were destroyed by Boko Haram explosives four years ago.

    The once-boisterous villages used to be the delight of travellers who often stopped by to either pick up souvenirs or take refreshments during the long journey to Maiduguri.

    For parents, teachers and students, their joy knew no bounds looking at the beautiful structures which now adorn their schools.

    Abdullahi is one of the pupils  forced to beg with his mother after Boko Haram forced them out of their village.

    ”I was begging with my mother on Maiduguri/Damaturu Highway for three years before we returned to our village,” said 10- year-old Abdullahi from Ngamdu Village.

    He recalled the ill-fated night  Boko Haram attacked their village and forced them to flee.

    “Some of us were schooling before we ran from Boko Haram to start begging from people to help.

    ”My father took us to Kukareta in Yobe State to the check point on the Maiduguri/Damaturu Highway where we begged for money and other gifts from travellers,” Abdullahi said.

    He  said he and his siblings were not the only ones who begged for alms.

    “I wasn’t the only one begging. There were other mothers  with their children. Many of us, alongside our mothers, begged for alms. We the children were the ones that rushed to ask for alms any time a new vehicle arrived at the check point.

    “Our mothers collected all the money and shared among the families  that came out for the day’s job. Everybody got equal share of whatever we gathered in a day. Sometimes, we made as much as N500, sometimes, N300, and on some bad days it could be N200,” he explained.

    Falmata Shehu is a 40-year-old widow with three children. She fled from Benishiek  to Maiduguri and later settled in one of the IDP camps. Unlike others who went begging with their children, She took advantage of the primary school in the camp to enrol two of her children, Sani, 12 and Aisha, 10.

    Falmata said: “It was some people from NGOs that were asking us to bring our children to the school. I later asked about the school and took my son and daughter there one day. I didn’t doubt the importance of the school because I want my children to be great in life. I want them to aquire education and be responsible. I’m not educated, but I like school and my prayer is that my daughter continues even after we may have left the camp.

    ”I am happy they will continue with their education in this school (pointing at one of the new primary schools) here now that we are back home.”

    Yaagana Ali is 14 years old and from Baga Village near Lake Chad. Her mother is now married to another man in Jakana Village after Boko Haram killed her father. Yaagana recalled the horrendous moments they went through in the jungle surviving on groundnuts and rotten watermelon before they got to Maiduguri and later to Jakana. Over the last four years, Yaagana abandoned her education and resorted to hawking petty food on the streets to survive.

    ”I have been in Maiduguri for about two years and now Jakana for another two years, Yaagana recalled.

    “I fled Baga because Boko Haram attacked our community. They came in the night, firing shots and killing people. We were trapped in the bush for about five days, hungry and thirsty. We relied on groundnuts and some rotten watermelon or anything that we came across, for survival.  But Boko Haram kept pursuing us. They killed some of the people including my father before we got to Maiduguri. We were very traumatised. We were staying at a place with some relations but we left because food was in short supply.

    “Later, my mother got married to another man because of my father’s death so I moved with my mother and my siblings to this place (Jakana). All this time, I could not go to school because I was hawking so that we could survive.”

    But that unpalatable experience has further empowered Yaagana spirit.

    “I would like to complete my education up to university  level and become a soldier to fight for the country,” she said confidently.

    Another victim, Halima Modu, is a widow who lost her husband in a Boko Haram attack in Ngamdu in 2013. Her five children, who escaped with her are now back and have been enrolled in school, (four in primary school and one in junior secondary school) given the free feeding, free uniform and free books programme of the government.

    “With everything given free at the school, I have enrolled four of my children in the school now. Before, I was not able to pay for their uniform or books but now they can go to school with the policies of the Borno State Government,” Halima explained.

    Tamsu Kawu Primary School also experienced the anger of the insurgents four years ago. Today, the story is different.

    Going down memory lane, the headmaster of the school, Alima Gana, told our reporter that the school was established in 1976 but was completely razed by Boko Haram four years ago.

    Gana recalled that in the wake of that incident, the entire town was deserted as villagers with their children sought refuge in safe neighborhoods such as Kukareta in Yobe State. The development led to many children abandoning school for a long period of time, Gana lamented.

    Now beaming smiles, Gana relished the comfort of his newly-constructed office, new classrooms, a borehole, VIP toilets, and solar panels, among other facilities.

    The school was in a sorry state long before the Boko Haram attack, Gana said, and likening its new look to the proverbial king’s palace.

    In addition, enrolment in the schools has shut up, Gana continued, noting that the school boasts of nearly 300 pupils due to the government’s free uniform and feeding for pupils.

    “This school was established in 1976. Since its establishment, nothing good has come into this place. We didn’t have classroom or office but now, the government has provided us with all the good things in the school. We now have a borehole, we have enough classes, pupils are given free uniform and feeding, there is staff quarters, VIP toilet and solar light every time.

    ‘’This community is very grateful to Governor Kashim Shettima because, apart from this, he has changed our community entirely. People are empowered to forget Boko Haram and start living a normal life. The children are now coming to school in large numbers,” Gana said.

    One of the victims, Aji Bamai Bulama, from Ngamdu Village, had this to say:

    “What we have today is completely different from what we used to have. Our school has completely changed. Though Boko Haram burnt down the school, what the government has put up now is 10 times better than what the school used to be. Besides, the government has given us hope when we thought our situation was already hopeless.”

    Earlier at the inauguration, Tinubu described as impressive, the comprehensive post-insurgency plans and projects Borno State has for its subjects.

    He was delighted with the  volume of projects executed by the government.

    He said: “Only a humanitarian, God-fearing, committed, honest and transparent leader can go extra miles to carry out such gigantic projects at this critical period despite the security challenges in the state.”

     

  • Rage of natives

    In the past few days, South Africans’ resurgent violent attacks on foreigners, particularly Nigerians, have been a major news item in the Nigerian media and threatening Nigeria-South Africa relations. Nigerian youths, who have been largely docile on the many pains inflicted on the Nigerian people by capricious elite, suddenly got their adrenalin worked up enough to demonstrate in Abuja against South African business interests in the country, targeting its most visible asset – MTN, the telecom giant.

    Xenophobic attack is an extreme, violent manifestation of nativity angst about foreigners when institutions of state fail to proactively address fears of indigenes. Xenophobia is generally not spontaneous, but rather a product of simmering resentment. So, what are the lingering resentments of South Africans which find expression in repeated violence against foreigners?

    Perhaps, we need to start with definition of terms to put matters in contextual balance. To citizens of host countries, calling non- citizens ‘foreigners’ is a generic, cosmetic flavouring of a stark reality – the reality that such non-citizens who are generally engaged in informal trade and small businesses are simply economic refugees or economic irritants.  Who can be expected to be accommodating of irritants? Such perception shapes relationships. The issue is: What will make someone leave what normally should be his/her natural comfort zone – the native homeland – in search of greener pastures if not for economic deprivations and unfulfilled aspirations at home?

    In the recurring episodes of xenophobic attacks by South Africans against foreigners, and particularly those from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, DR Congo, Pakistan, two charges have endured – economic ascendancy and drug trade/prostitution by the foreigners.

    While many of the commentaries in the media by Nigerians on the xenophobic attacks have a nationalist fervor against so-called ingrate South Africans ignoring Nigeria’s sacrifices in liberating them from the shackles of the racist Apartheid regime, two critical areas have been largely ignored or glossed over. One is the failure of public governance in both Nigeria and South Africa that has left masses of their people marooned in poverty. For instance, given the economic endowments of Nigeria, Nigerians should not be economic refugees in other lands but for the mindless looting of its public treasury by unconscionable elite, which has led to stunted economic growth thereby forcing thousands of its citizens to flee the land in search of economic refuge abroad. For the South African government, making scapegoats of foreigners by its citizens for their economic woes is convenient as it diverts attention from its failure to deliver on the good life promise of Black majority rule.

    The other xenophobic trigger is the seeming lack of humility by prospering foreigners seen as putting on airs and being denigrating in relating with their hosts. A mix of aggressive, rich foreigners and pauperized indigenes is a recipe for violent eruptions by the natives. Xenophobia, the South African brand, is also a repudiation of globalization that preaches tolerance of migration/mobility of labour, capital and innovation to any part of the world to generate maximum returns. The natives are demanding localization – South Africa for South Africans – and telling the strutting foreigners to let charity begin in their home countries! That is the crux of the matter.

    The victory of Donald Trump as American president in the November 8, 2016 general election is seen as Xenophobia by Ballot!  Isn’t it ironical that such virulent anti-foreigner sentiment should be exhibited in a country of immigrants and a leading proponent of globalization?  It indicates times are changing, with an undercurrent to reverse globalization and the return of nationalist sentiments.

    Another sticking point is the association of foreigners with escalating crime in South Africa. Foreigners have been accused of importing violent crime, drugs and prostitution into South Africa, with many fingers pointing at Nigerians. This perhaps explains why South African President Jacob Zuma described the violent attacks as anti-crime protests and not anti-foreigners’ xenophobia. If crime surge seems to accompany immigrants’ influx, can South Africans be honestly blamed if they linked the two developments?

    There could also be the sense of entitlement among Nigerians in South Africa given the huge sacrifices Nigeria made in the struggle to dismantle the racist Apartheid regime. Even an intellectual, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, a professor of International Relations, could not resist the notion of Nigerians deserving special treatment by South Africans. In his Sunday, February 26, 2017 column in THISDAY newspaper he declared :  ”South Africans can be hostile to foreigners but Nigerians ought to be an exception…South Africans, no matter their grievances , cannot have any legitimate animosity vis-à-vis Nigeria and its people who did what was humanly , financially, educationally, materially, diplomatically and culturally possible to support the liberation of black South Africans from the shackles of domination of segregationist white South Africans.”

    The danger here is that such attitude could unwittingly induce arrogance among Nigerians in South Africa which can be offensive to the sensitivities of indigenes. When such perceived arrogant foreigners are linked with crimes, it creates a volatile situation. Prof. Akinterinwa pointed out that even where allegations of drug peddling and prostitution are levelled against Nigerians; it is for the police to tackle. That was the point made by South African High Commissioner to Nigeria Lulu Mngulu that police ineptitude in handling the allegations led the people to engage in self help.

    The reality of Nigeria-South Africa economic relations is that Nigeria cannot flex the muscle of reciprocity – reprisal against South African companies here will create job losses for Nigerians and as such counter-productive. Rationality, not emotion, should guide Nigeria’s reaction to South Africans’ xenophobia. We need to educate our people on proper conduct in foreign lands and have our embassies document allegations against and convictions of Nigerians in the Diaspora to empirically establish the justification or otherwise of their criminal tag. That Nigerians abroad don’t want to return home, in spite of the attacks they suffer, is the shame of a nation.

     

    • Dr. Olawunmi is Senior Lecturer, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State

  • Ilese: Return of the natives

    No prize for guessing right: the credit for this headline goes to Thomas Hardy and his novel, Return of the Native.

    But unlike the grim story of Clym Yeobright, the Paris, France-returnee to his native Edgon Heath in England, this is a gaily “annual convocation of Ilese-Ijebu people”, in the very words of the commemorative brochure, to mark the 12th Ilese Day celebration, which started on August 7 and climaxed on August 13.

    Ilese is a community contiguous to Ijebu Ode, in Ogun State.  According to unofficial figures, the town boasts a population of some half-a-million people, a good chunk of which are youths, many of them students of the Ogun State College of Health Technology, sited in the town.

    But that population excludes Ilese-Ijebu natives, living and driving their businesses outside the town.  As a tool of indigene mobilization, township development and sheer civic pride, the “Ilese-in-exile” would appear the ultimate target of Ilese Day.

    It is, so to say, the communal end-and-of-year bash, and start of another; when indigines, many of them having made good outside, come back home to felicitate and party, crowing Kennedy-speak: ask not what your town can do for you; ask rather what you can do for your town!

    That appears the message from the KK (formally, Otunba Kunle Kalejaye, SAN)-chaired Ilese Day Planning Committee; and Mr. Popoola Ojikutu, secretary, under the umbrella of the Ilese Development Council (IDC), chaired by Otunba Segun Demuren and Omo’oba Segun Adebanjo, secretary.

    With the massive turnout by indigenes, and the festive and carnival-like atmosphere the town wore throughout proceedings, particularly in the last two days, that message appeared to have resonated well

    Still, the Planning Committee put together a carefully calibrated programme of events, part-service (what your town can do for you); part-duty (what you can do for your town); and general business/financial education for personal use, viz: free medical check-up, free eye test, an Annual Enterprise Development Seminar for 2016, a grand finale quiz competition, football competition among youths, Woro traditional dance, a cooking competition for Ikokore, the Ijebu special cuisine, beauty pageant and music performance extravaganza, the Ilese Day Grand Finale carnival, which featured five groups and a band of stunt-pulling Okada riders, and a gala nite to round off the celebrations.

    Among performers at the music and showbiz extravaganza, Terry G Plkin (real name, Michael Ogunyomi), a student of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu Ode, stood out, with his unique stripping and teasing act.  He stripped off no less than 30 clothes, starting with an Aladura (white-farment church) soutane!

    But the grand finale carnival garnished the celebrations with a pan-Nigeria mix.  Sappers Barracks, a military formation, is located in Ilese.  Though based in Ilese, members are from different parts of the country.  The Sappers performance, therefore, pushed a subtle lesson: every Nigerian domiciled in Ileseland was an integral part of that community.  To boot, the Sappers came with three Eyo masquerades!

    Otunba Kalejaye made that telling point, when the Sappers, in their glorious maroon colours, made their grand entry: with the barracks community part and parcel of Ilese, there is little chance of any communal violence.  Other communities nationwide ought to take a huge lesson from that spirit of community amity and integration.

    Ilese Day is necessarily youth-driven.  For one, the town is host to a tertiary school.  For another, the college has conferred on the town some élan, associated with youths flouting their educational status.

    Yet, the Beauty pageant — and indeed, the youth funfair nite, where perhaps too many strutted, sang and danced to thrill the appreciative audience, in a town hall packed full with hollering youths — was a thoughtful mix of business and fun, laced with Ilese history and civics.  Miss Oluwafunmi Imoleayo Ayeni, a graduate of the local College of Health Technology, Ilese, emerged winner from a packed field of 14.

    What most would see in that funfair nite was fun.  But behind that fun was business, hard core business.

    For starters, to enter for the pageant you buy a N5, 000 form.  But the winner’s prize is a car.  That is no unattractive prospect!  But standing between application and winning is the rather hard part of mastering Ilese tradition, history and contemporary civics, to answer rather tricky questions at the quiz segment.

    So, to triumph, the winner must invest in and study a book on Ilese, specifically rolled out to prepare the contestants.  But the beauty of that is the youth are motivated to learn about the local history and culture, with a glittering prize in view.

    Then the carnival proper!  Imagine the costumes of some 600-strong youth: the design and tailoring, all offering boom times for the local guild of tailors and fashion designers!  That would appear a pocket-friendly — and fun-filled way — to re-flate and energise the local economy, get local enterprises productively busy and empower local entrepreneurs.

    Then, the local food vendors!  The parade grounds, for the grand finale carnival, offered an excellent mart for all sort of players, small and medium, to sell their wares and offer their services.  Of course, alongside is the souvenir business: commemorative hats and other branded gifts.  All help to boost the local economy; and put money in the pocket of the enterprising.

    So, when the guild of Ilese tailors was publicly toasted for sewing, free-of-charge, the giant banners dotting strategic parts of town, before announcing; and after thanking those who attended and calling for an encore in 2017, the gesture was an excellent show of community recognition.

    Even then, the business part of it would appear not so hidden: the guild perhaps was so charitable because of the business boom the festival yearly offers it!  Talk of win-win!

    But still talking of charity qua charity, the 2016 Ilese Day also offered excellent opportunity for local philanthropists to show compassion for the less privileged, with the launch of the Rufus Olukayode Odusanya Foundation, with a rather striking acronym of ROOF, with its self-set mandate of providing “bursary awards to students attending secondary schools established in Ilese” from 2016; and, by 2017, “provide bursary awards to students of underprivileged parents that gain admission into university”, harnessing funds from “interested community supporters and interested donors”.

    Still, again, the business cum empowerment part of this charity is not far away.  The livewire for the charity is the Catland Microfinance Bank Limited, the community-owned microfinance bank.  “Catland”, by the way, is the English translation of Ilese, “Ile Ese” (Ijebu for “home of cats”).

    Now, if the Ogun government is watching, it may not be a bad idea to structure the yearly  Ilese Day into a state-wide calendar of tourist destinations to be vigorously marketed, after the famous Ojude-Oba festival, which the neighbouring Ijebu Ode hosts every year, after the Muslim Ileya (literally in English: time to go home) festival.

    Ojude Oba, Ilese Day and such festivals may well gift Ogun a belt of cultural tourism, from which the state can reap quite some cash, in these times of dwindling revenue.

     

  • Tears of the natives

    Tears of the natives

    Five communities in Ugheli South Local Government Area of Delta State are being ravaged by death due to inaccessible roads that would link them to the outside world. In some of the areas, the men are afraid to make love to their wives for fear of the trauma of delivery. Assistant Editor, SEUN AKIOYE, who visited the area, reports on how safe delivery is not a guarantee for pregnant women.

    • Communities where husbands are afraid to touch their wives

    BAD things happen to the pregnant women and children in Esaba community. Many of them die either at home while being treated by the village herbalist or in the canoe on the Esaba-Owahwa River, which flows into Forcados tributary of the River Niger. But of these two violent means of exiting the earth, death inside a dugout canoe, on a hyacinth-infested river, is the most dreaded. That was where Ogheneyoma Makaba died in March 2015. He was six years old.

    His father Francis remembered it all.  He was a good boy, his father’s favourite because “he was always asking after my wellbeing; he was also an only son,” Francis said.  And he loved to play football; someday the father reckoned, his son might become one of those rags-to-riches stories, instead he became history. The day he died, the sickness came suddenly and wasted no time in killing him.

    “He was not sick previously. I had gone to the farm and on my return, he was feeling hot; so, we gave him some medication. That night about 11pm, he went to sleep and we even played together. Around 2am, his sickness returned and we decided to rush him to the hospital in Warri; we could not use the road, so we had to put him in a canoe. He died in the canoe,” Francis said.

    Francis is not the only mourning father in Esaba. Kingsley Clark is also mourning the death of his daughter who died on April 17, 2015.  Clark’s pregnant wife, Beatrice, went into labour in the night, a bad time in Esaba. “My wife went into labour in the night and because we could not get her to the hospital, we had to settle for an herbalist to take the delivery,” Clark told The Nation.

    That decision proved to be fatal. A baby girl was born and complications occurred; mother and child were put in a canoe on the way to the hospital in Warri, again the baby died in the canoe; she never even got a name, nor the chance to live.

    For the people of Esaba, in Ugheli South Local Government Area of Delta State, life could not have been more cruel. Esaba, with a population of about 6,000 people with half of them resident outside the community, is located 15 kilometres southeast of Warri, is one of the 10 settlements of Owahwa in the Ughievwen section of the Urhobo nation.

    It lies on the Southbank of the Esaba-Owahwa River which serves as its main source of water. The land itself is a tropical rainforest on the northern border of Ijaw swamps of the Niger Delta; the land is conducive for farming, and thus the people follow after the profession of farming and fishing.

    Ordinarily, Esaba should be blessed. The land is fertile and the river has abundant fishes. Also just four kilometres away is Otorogun gas plant, operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and reputed to be the largest in West Africa, producing 500MMscfd of gas.

    Today, Esaba has been brought to her kneels by poverty and government’s neglect; death prowls around the community and a simple injury may prove fatal. In Esaba, it is not taken for granted that the pregnant would be delivered safely or that the child would live. Life is lived on the edge; it is a constant reminder that death is just around the corner and all the woes of the community is blamed on only one thing: lack of access road.

     

    A road to hell

    There are two roads that lead to Esaba and both begin from Ukperhren, one is on land and the other on water. But the road on land from the beginning was a road that never existed.  Miller Abedi, 80 years, who is the oldest man in Esaba, said he has never seen any motorable road to the community.

    “We have never had any road here, even though if the government had helped us we would have been able to drive into this community. Since I was young, we have always been suffering because of the road and it has continued till today. Government has just forgotten about us here despite all our pleas,” Abedi said.

    Accessing Esaba is an undertaking that would try the soul of the hardest of men. Usually, in the absence of the road, residents are compelled to use the Esaba River which is usually not reliable. On the day The Nation visited the community, about a quarter of the river was infested with water hyacinth, forcing everyone back to the road.

    It was a journey no one would willingly undertake. The over five-kilometer road is a marshland, totally impassable to vehicles and humans quickly get stuck in it. For about five kilometres, one would have to traverse what the locals have termed the “devils road,” falling down and getting stuck in the mud repeatedly.

    The access road has been the bane of all the problems of Esaba and the Owahwa island communities. The road, which spans from Ekrota, Ukperhren, Esaba, Otutuama, Ophorigbala and Iwhreogun is important for the social economic development of the communities. The executive chairman of Esaba community, Comrade Sane Peter Darah, said government has been promising to fix the road since 1980. “They know the way here when it is election time; we have always voted for the government in power but what do we get in return? This road leads to three local governments of Ugheli south, Udu and Burutu, yet the government abandoned us,” he fumed.

    In frustration, the community decided to build the road through manual labour; in July 2015, a levy was raised and  youths between 15 and 25 years were levied N2,000 while all the adults paid N20,000. The money came in trickles and work began. “We were dredging sand using crude instruments; we did the drainage channels, an indigene invented a dredger using water pump and pipes,” Darah said.

    These brave efforts yielded little fruit as less than two kilometres have been dredged. It has also consumed at least N2, 000,000 and when the funds ran out, work also stopped. “It is very painful that our little efforts have made no big difference. That is why the government has to come in and help,” Darah concluded.

    The state of the road has been blamed for all the misfortunes in Esaba. For instance, some teachers posted to the community primary school were said to have stopped coming, while those who still do come very late.

    Francis believes the road killed his son. “If the road was good, I would have used my motorcycle and my son would have been alive today. It is a great pain for me even to talk about now,” he moaned.

     

    Death is just around the corner

    •The Esaba health center
    •The Esaba health center

    The people of Esaba, determined not to be defeated, decided to solve their major health problems by building a clinic in 2008. The community rented a residential building for a monthly fee of N5,000, which was converted into a hospital. The local government posted a nurse there.

    To keep the clinic open, the community levied every household to pay the monthly rent and other expenses. The clinic is hardly anything of substance but for the desperate people of Esaba, it was a life saver and for seven years, it was the only wall standing between the villagers and death.

    But it was not only Esaba community that benefitted from the clinic, the surrounding communities of Otutuama, Ophorigbala, Iwhreogun and Otitiri also benefited. Then, everything went to hell. In February 2015, the matron of the clinic died unexpectedly and, according to Darah, the community had sent entreaties to the local government for a new nurse but has been rebuffed.

    The death of the matron led to the closure of the clinic and while the community awaits a new nurse from the government, the body bag mounts. Both the old and young, pregnant women and nursing mothers all became casualties.

    Thirty-year-old Elohor Siakpere is one of the prominent women in Esaba. She is the woman leader and the village hairdresser. On July 19the 2015, her labour pangs began; it was her fifth child. “The labour pains started in the night and in the morning we entered the canoe and went to Warri,” Elohor said. She was lucky to have made the journey on the river, but her luck ran out in Ukperhren.

    “I got on a motorcycle that would take me to Warri, but because the road was bad, we kept falling off the motorcycle. It was a painful experience for a woman in labour to enter a canoe and also fall off the motorbike many times, it was like I was going to die,” she said.

    Elohor survived her ordeal. But more bad news awaited her. In the hospital, doctors said she had lost the baby and an operation was conducted to evacuate the fetus. Since then, the picture of the child she couldn’t have has remained, haunting and driving her mad.

    •Elohor and her surviving children
    •Elohor and her surviving children

    Elohor was lucky to be alive. In August 2015, pregnant Mrs. Dora Oritsheju, a resident of Otutuama, was not that lucky. She died with her baby, again in the canoe, on her way to the hospital. The death of Mrs. Onojirhayie Waka was most painful. On September 29, 2015, while leaving her house, she slumped; neighbours rushed to her aid and an herbalist was sent for. After one hour of battling for her life, she died, right in the hands of the herbalist.

    The people bemoan the lack of health care in Esaba and other communities. According to Darah, since the hospital was shut down, over 50 children have been born in all the communities. The process involves dragging the woman in labour to the canoe and taking her to the general hospital in Warri over the river and unmotorable roads. “Many of them give birth in the canoe; some of the children die. In all, we have lost about five children because they could not access healthcare on time. The clinic here saved our lives; we plead that the government should send us a nurse fast before we all die,” he pleaded.

    Elohor said the greatest problem facing the women is the road which made pregnancy less enjoyable and labour a deadly affair.” That is our problem,” she started in a low voice. “We don’t have antenatal and from the beginning to the end of pregnancy, it is problems. The only problem is the road, it prevents workers from coming here and also the residents from accessing the rest of the world,” she said.

    The situation has forced the people to reorder their lives; husbands are afraid of going into their wives for fear of endangering their lives if they become pregnant. Fear rules the community as a small injury may prove fatal. “Since the nurse died, we have made adjustments to child bearing, we are afraid to even make love, we are afraid of any injury,” Madaki said.

    But the herbalists have profited from the absence of government healthcare, with disastrous consequences for the people. In Esaba, shrines dedicated to gods abound everywhere. “Since the nurse died, many people have been patronising the herbalists either for health care or for child bearing,” a resident said.

    Patience
    •Patience Etete…vowed to give birth at home

    One of those likely to patronise traditional birth attendants is Etete Patience. The 40-year-old is in the last trimester of her ninth pregnancy. The delivery date is not looking too good as she would have to be transported in a dugout canoe to the Otujere. “I am not looking forward to that day,” she said.

    She has a good reason, her house is far from the riverside and the peril of the journey to Otujere may put her life and that of the baby in jeopardy. That was how Elohor lost her baby and almost her life. “I want to give birth here, in my house,” Etete said, a frown playing on her face, it was a firm decision to patronise the village herbalist despite its dangers; she would rather face that uncertainty than a grueling journey on the river.

     

    If education is expensive, try ignorance

    The people of Esaba did not take education for granted; the Emoghwe Primary School was established in 1957 and for many years remained a mud school. Today, the school is roofed and plastered and modestly kept clean. There are over 200 children in the school and facilities are beginning to be overstretched.

    There is no secondary school in the five communities of Owahwa; the closest secondary school is Adadja Secondary School in Emadadja. Though only about 10 kilometres away, Emadadja is not for the faint-hearted as students would cross the river and traverse a difficult and almost impossible mud ridden road to school.

    It was 3pm and activities were high at the Esaba riverbank. On the river, one could see some canoes being paddled by school children rowing gently towards the shore. In one of them, Samson Ogheneremo, Benson Ayorome and Otor Christabel talked excitedly. They are Senior Secondary three students of Adadja Secondary school.

    Directly across the river, about 20 students had just wadded through the muddy road, their legs were kneel deep in mud and on getting to the river as if on cue, they all jumped into the water and began to wash their feet.

    “This is the way we go every day; we would trek the muddy road and when we get to Ukperhren, we wash our feet and on coming back we do the same. It is a difficult journey but we have to go to school, if the road is good, it would make it easier,” one of the students named Benjamin said.

    For majority of the students who could not afford the fare for the canoe, they simply wait for the community raft which can contain at least 10 people at a time. It is operated free of charge by the community. To pull the raft, a rope has been tied at both ends of the river; the rider would pull at the rope, slowly drawing the raft to its intended destination. As long as the rope remains intact, all lives would be saved, but if the rope snaps, one’s survival would depend on his swimming skills.

    “We are used to living like this,” Christabel said. She is a rugged woman who wears low cut hair and unafraid to speak her mind. “We can never drown on the raft because it is strong and all of us can swim,” she said. Now preparing for her West Africa Senior School Certificate (WASSC) examination, Christabel and her friends have little time for rigorous study; neither do they hope to come out of the examination in flying colours.

    But despite the hard and impossible conditions under which the people live, they cling tenaciously to their culture and ways of life. The women in addition to farming are experts bamboo cane weavers. One could see by the bank of the river, their expert hands cutting the bamboo which would then be made into fish trap and other utensils.  In the evenings, they gather at the various beer joints to drink away the day’s sorrow and fashion out a solution to the myriad of problems confronting them. If a general assembly is to be called in the community town hall, a flute, made from cow horn known locally as the Ogbon is blown by one of the youths. The ogbon resembles the horn used in the Middle East.  It is heard in every corner of the community and a signal that something important is about to be discussed.

    Communities like Esaba, located in the oil rich Delta State, are a habitual reminder of the enormous work needed to be done by the government of Nigeria to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At least more than half of the 17 goals are lacking in Esaba and other communities.

    In spite of the government, the community has devised a self-sufficient way of coping with every situation through direct labour and taxes. “That is how we have been living; we tax ourselves and live as a community. But how much can poor fishermen do by themselves, that is why we need the government,” Darah said.

    In the air, the smell of death pervades the community. No one is sure where the death knell would sound. Etete looked out of the corner of her eyes and gave a weary smile. Any moment, she would fall into labour and if that happens in the night, she already knows what to do. “I will stay here in my house and give birth,” she repeated, with a fervent obstinacy.

  • RAGE OF THE NATIVES

    RAGE OF THE NATIVES

    • Day Delta communities shut down Jones Creek flow station

    PENULTIMATE Thursday, May 21, dozens of placard-wielding Ijaw and Itsekiri communities’ leaders and their members stormed the Jones Creek flow station of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company to protest perceived unfair deals allegedly meted to them by the management of the national oil firm and its contractor, Nestoil Nigeria Limited.

    Their posters expressed their dissatisfaction over the relationship with the oil firms: ‘No More Divide and Rule in Jones Creek’, ‘Comply With Local Content Laws’, NPDC/NESTOIL Flouting Local Content Laws,’ among others, were inscriptions on the placards.

    For four days, the Ijaw and Itsekiri protesters shut down the facility reputed to be one of the largest producing oil facilities in the African continent. By the time they finally left the scene last Sunday, May 24, the nation, oil industry and the companies had suffered massive loss resulting from downtime and lost man-hour.

    The Jones Creek Flow Station, one of several oil wells from which Anglo Dutch Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has divested its stake, is reputed to be one of the largest and most prolific oil installations in the company’s Western Operation. It has a production capacity of about 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The facility is jointly hosted by four Ijaw communities of Kokodaigbene, Okerenkoko, Akpatagbegbe and Akpataekpemu located in Warri South West Local Government Area and an Itsekiri community of Omadino in Warri South LGA of Delta State.

    The inheritance of the oil facility by NPDC has been dogged by several controversies; from host communities calling for the firm and its contractors, mostly Nestoil and Lee Engineering Limited, to engage them in dialogue over the sharing of lucrative contracts and patronages, to the debate over ownership of the licence to Oil Mining Lease (OML) 42 on which it is located.

    Environment activist and chairman of Kokodiagbene community, who led penultimate Thursday’s protest, Sheriff Mulade, told The Nation that the communities were not bothered by the debacle over ownership of the licence. He said their major concerns were their stakes in the facilities and how to get the benefits due them, adding that the host communities were determined to extract their due in spite of whoever wins the licence ownership tussle.

    He disclosed that the issues that led to the invasion and disruption of activities at the station bordered on an alleged breach of the terms of the Freedom to Operate (FTO) given to the NPDC before its re-entry to Jones Creek.

    “The agreement was that NPDC will manage 60 percent of the contracts, while the host communities will be given 40percent in the area of pipeline repair, dredging and revamping. The NPDC’s share (60 percent) was given to Nestoil, a contractor to NPDC. What NPDC said is that they don’t have fund, so Nestoil would pay the (host) contractors their 40 percent of any job completed or agreed milestone.

    “NPDC also agreed with communities to build infrastructural projects; some communities like Kokodiagbene have three housing units of two bedrooms. Others were allotted two in line with the re-entry agreement.

    “There are also community development projects, like the electrification project, where host communities will be connected electrically through Jones Creek flow stations. All these community development projects are expected to run simultaneously with the construction jobs,” he added.

    Mulade further claimed that there was a gentlemen agreement with NPDC on the employment of communities’ members. He said although there was no concrete decision on this deal with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) subsidiary, there was an understanding that managerial positions would also be given to them.

    In the case of Nestoil, he said it was agreed that the management of the company would source and employ 60 percent of the skilled workers, while communities get 40percent; while on menial labour jobs, the formula would be 60/40 percent in favour of the host communities.

    “Sadly, we found out that on site, Nestoil has four 100-man houseboats  that is over 400 workers, excluding communities workers. Yet, communities were entitled to just 10 slots each, which gives the five communities a total of 40 out of a possible 400 workers on site. This is a gross violation of the agreement and the FTO signed with them. That is one of our reasons for stopping the operation. The 40 allocated to the communities is not allocated to us in terms of contracting employment.

    “Outside the failure of that agreement, Nestoil, in connivance with top personnel of NPDC who are indirectly directors of Nestoil has not been fair to the communities in the area of 40 percent contract specified in the dredging aspect which is over 90% complete,” Mulade alleged in an interview with our reporter after the siege.

    Spirited attempts by our reporter to get the views of Nestoil on the community leader’s allegations were futile. Series of telephone calls to the switchboard of the company’s headquarters in Lagos were passed to key officials who refused to comment on the protest.

    Ifeoma Oragwu, who was listed under ‘Corporate Communication and Business Development’, refused to answer our reporter’s inquiry, after initially denying knowledge of the protest by the host community. She said: “I do not speak for the company”.

    Pressed for information and link to a competent mouthpiece of the organisation, she asked for our reporter’s telephone number and promised to get in touch, but she was yet to do so at the time of concluding this report on Tuesday evening  that was over 24 hours afterwards.

    At the project site, two officials of the company, simply identified as Odili and Iyke  Project and Site managers respectively, reportedly told the aggrieved locals that they were aware that the company’s management was in discussion to resolve the issues raised.  One of them said he “believed that some payments had been made.”

    Nevertheless, Mulade, who volunteered information on his people’s grouse with NPDC/Nestoil partnership, accused some of the companies’ officials of using tactics to blackmail “host contractors who refused to dance to their tune”.

    He alleged that the NPDC officials were wont to arm-twist locals to part with their contract allocation for stipend or a percentage of the profits. Such contracts, he said, were usually done by the oil workers using proxy firms that are paid in record time, unlike their local counterparts.

    Besides that, another issue concerns lack of employment for youths, men and women from the host communities”, Mulade said.

    “There have been a lot of altercations over this matter and it has led to the stoppage of the company’s operation on several occasions. The last one, we discussed and they asked for two months to clear all contractors’ (debts) and at the end, nothing came.

    “Again, we issued threats and they invited us and they asked and got two weeks; still nothing. Then there was another month and a week before the action.

    “The very painful and sad part is that as we are giving them time, they would be rushing in more workers to quicken the job; they want to complete the job and run away without meeting their obligations to us.

    “Our action (invasion of the platform) opened our eyes to some of the things that are going on behind our back. For instance, they are already doing the upgrade, civil jobs, piling and even working on wells allocated to the communities. These are unacceptable acts which we hope to stop,” he vowed.

    However, at the time of filing this report on Wednesday, sanity had returned to the area after a truce was brokered by the Joint Task Force, through the Commander, 3 Battalion of the Nigeria Army, Col Ekong Bassey, last Saturday. Ekong invited the two sides for a roundtable meeting in his office at the Effurun Barracks.

    Some of the communities’ leaders, who spoke with The Nation after the meeting, expressed satisfaction with Col. Bassey’s handling of the dispute. They said it was a break from the past experience when the oil firms and their servicing companies used the force of the military to stifle genuine and peaceful protest.

    “That had always been the problem because they (companies) would tell you that if you disrupt the Federal Government’s job, you will have to face the wrath of the federal might, which is usually the army and navy. The military would be deployed and without hearing our side of the story, they would descend on us. But the CO listened, investigated what was happening and he understood that our issues were genuine.”

    However, there were conflicting signals from a follow-up meeting held on Monday at the Effurun Barrack. Mulade told our reporter: “We were able to get the company to agree that all outstanding debts would be paid within two weeks, while henceforth, due to the distrust we now have for them, communities would now be mobilising side-by-side with Nestoil; if there is no money to mobilise community contractors, then they too should not be able to work.

    “Also, we have decided that after this job, Nestoil may be declared a persona non grata in Jones Creek because we (communities) would no longer grant them the needed FTO. We will now be carrying out headcount of workers on site to avoid a situation where the company employs arbitrarily without giving us our due 40percent.”

    Col. Bassey, who confirmed that there were discussions between the two sides, declined to divulge details. He said: “They are discussing but they were not able to arrive at any conclusion, but work is ongoing in the Jones Creek.”

    Investigation also revealed that there could be more protests at the Jones Creek facilities as the communities are also girding their loins in preparation for similar face-off with another indigenous firm, Lee Engineering Limited.

    A source in one of the Ijaw communities disclosed: “What Nestoil does is what Lee Construction is also doing. They are both NPDC contractors and we believe they have the backing of NPDC in whatever they are doing. Whenever we have issues with them, they use the military to intimidate us but we are determined to get justice.”

  • Scrap land-swap policy, natives urge Buhari

    The natives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under the auspices of the Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja (OIDA)  have appealed to the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the land-swap programme of the outgoing Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed.

    They said the swap deal was a conduit pipe for allocation of massive lands to cronies of the outgoing PDP-led federal government.

    In a statement by the President of the association, Pastor Danladi Jeji, the natives who congratulated the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President-elect, Professor Yemi Osibanjo on their victory in the March 28 polls, said the victory is a right step towards the fulfillment of the aspiration of Nigerians through the ballot box.

    The natives further appealed to the in-coming Buhari-led government to appoint competent natives of Abuja as Minister of the FCT and political aides, so that the incoming government will not have a crisis of confidence between it and Abuja original inhabitants, urging the federal government to ensure that all Nigerians have a say in the people-elected government.

    “The election of Gen. Buhari is the fulfilment of our aspiration for a people-centered government and we will offer maximum support to the incoming federal government which we are optimistic will have policies that will benefit not only original inhabitants of Abuja but also all Nigerians resident in the capital city. We also seek a total audit of land allocations by the Abuja Geographic and Information System, AGIS,” the natives stated.

    OIDA stated that the natives have fought and endured injustice for long in the administration of the outgoing PDP-led federal government, especially on the protracted issues of land-grab, demolition of native houses, non-development of satellite towns, marginalization in appointments, non-compensation of compulsorily acquired lands and massive sacking of whole villages for the appropriation of their lands by selfish politicians and their cronies in government.

    They urged the APC-led Federal Government to create a development commission to cater for displaced indigenous communities in Abuja. “The proposed Abuja Original Inhabitants Development Commission (AOIDC) should be statutory and derive its funding from 30% of all sales accruing from allocable lands within the FCT.

    “When established, AOIDC should deal with the lingering issues of relocation, resettlement and compensation for all project affected communities and persons. We have the confidence in the ability of your government to end these injustices,” OIDA said.

    The natives also commended President Goodluck Jonathan for accepting defeat and saving the nation from crises that may have occurred if the election had not been conducted according to international best practices. They wished him the best of luck in his future endeavours.

    “Formally welcoming the President-Elect and his vice to the nation’s seat of power, the natives urged General Buhari not to let Nigerians down considering the massive votes given to him by citizens from all parts of Nigeria including the natives of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja,” Jeji said.

  • Natives feast amid gloom

    Natives feast amid gloom

    Everyone knows the tall buildings, paved roads and streetlights. They know it is the federal seat of power, where people of means and power live. But who knows the native inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)?

    Who knows the Amwamwa, Bassa, Egbura, Gade, Ganagana, Gbagyi, Gbari, Gwandara and Koro, all of whom claim to be the hosts of everyone who lives there or visits the 8,000 sq. km territory?

    But whether they are recognised and given their due or not, the various tribes came out to celebrate what they called their Heritage Day.

    They came with their women, drums, masquerades and hunters, among others, united under the Original Inhabitants Development Association (OIDA).

    They were determined to make themselves heard even if no one else bothered to look their way.

    It was far from a feast of frollicking. As the various tribes displayed their cultures, none lost sight of the fact that they are a threatened lot. The consciousness of marginalisation is strong, as is the gloom of being cheated and even the despair of cultures belittled and spited.

    When most Nigerians relocate to or visit Abuja, the natives are seen as a local set of people, forgetting that every community in the country has its own share of local people who are yet to catch up with the standards of the educated and professionals in big cities.

    When asked, most of the natives of Abuja will tell you that every other Nigerian has an ancestral home and community to call home but theirs have given way to beautiful edifice, which they are unfortunately not a part of.

    Although for years, they have been known to clamour for a form of independence in the form of a Mayoral status as is seen in different cities like theirs around the world, a ministerial slot, additional Federal Constituencies and Area Councils, they have come out more boldly in this era of campaign to make their demands and conditions as an option for voting.

    President of the Original Inhabitants Development Association (OIDA), Pastor Danladi Jeji, during their third FCT Heritage Day celebration in Abuja, said that he cannot reconcile the fact that although the natives have peacefully harboured the capital city of the country and visitors for 38 years, they still feel like hermaphrodites, and not sure of what they really are.

    He said that his people are not asking for what is not attainable in other states of the Federation but a simple chance to have a government that they can recognise as theirs and also hold accountable when things do not go well like in other states.

    He said, “I want to clear the air by saying that what the original inhabitants are clamouring is for the Nigerian government to assert the Nigerian constitution with a clear democratic structure for the people so that those representing us, when something comes we will be able to hold them accountable, as it is, this House of Representative and the Senate is not officially their by the law for the Original inhabitants.

    “We cannot reconcile the fact that Abuja, as it is, we are above five million people with only one Senator and two House of Representative members and Nigerians are also saying that the original inhabitants should hold them accountable. On what ground? Every state has a State House of Assembly except us, so matter how anybody gets there, we will hardly ever get the person to do anything that will satisfy the people because they have already tied us to a position.

    “How can I pass a vote of no confidence when I have no government, how can you pass a vote of no confidence on a hermaphrodite condition, the government has made the FCT look like neither a man or a woman, how can you pass a vote of no confidence on someone that is neither a man or woman.

    “Let anyone who desires to be the next Head of State notice that we are here, any political party that will recognise communities of the FCT is already coming to partner with us and that kind of person is who we can give our vote.

    “We are saying that the Nigerian government cannot divide us, God gave us this land and flesh and blood cannot divide us.

    “The Abuja Heritage Day is to showcase how accommodating the Original Inhabitants have been to all Nigerians, despite the fact that the system is trying to not know that we are existing. To insinuate that Abuja was a virgin land and people did not exist here is a very big error.

    “To say that the land was compensated for is a kind of derogatory word; it is not right. Now that we are in a democracy, it is very unconstitutional for the government to practice democracy and our people are marginalised in all ramifications.

    “People may say that Abuja is very beautiful but Abuja is very beautiful because the people have been accommodating, that is how the development has kept on going and the government continue to behave like we don’t even exist. The government is building Abuja in the wrong footing because the law stipulates that you don’t take somebody’s land until adequate compensation has been made even if it means relocating the person completely out of the place.

    “There are about 808 villages in the FCT, if as you say that the FCT is looking beautiful and 808 communities with almost 2 million inhabitants are still here, the idea is that the people have been accommodating but there is fear.

    “People say that when original inhabitants are settled, they sell of the lands to foreigners but i want to explain it this way, in the whole 36 states, all Nigerians have their ancestral lands that they can lay claim to and they can go to their states and have title ownership given to them to do anything with, the 2million Nigerians of the FCT cannot do that with their fathers land.

    “So now you are saying that because an original inhabitant decides to have land and sell it, he has committed the worst sin but all Nigerians can sell of lands in the 36 states and no one says anything.

    “36 states of the nation does not go to ask the Head of State to give them ministers, it is automatic in the constitution, now why will the Nigerian government say that they want to give us, Minister of the FCT? The issue is that the confusions in the constitution that operates the FCT is what comes into play.

    “We asking for it to be addressed, you can’t be dribbling Nigerians by saying that you are practicing democracy and telling people that you are not part of the democracy yet they are the owners of the place where the democracy is being operated from, this is pure apartheid in Nigeria which is not suppose to happen.

    “We will go with that head of state that will come and recognise a community here, campaign and demand for our vote.”

    An Original inhabitant and Director FCT Universal Basic Education Board, Adamu Noma who was also present at the heritage day celebration added, “We want to display that we the original inhabitants of the FCT have our culture to protect and showcase to the entire world, we are identifiable and our culture is very simple, accommodating and friendly to everybody.

    “With this event, our young children will see that we have a culture that can be emulated by everybody. Many people that have come to the FCT thought that there are no original inhabitants, today is the day for us to showcase that we have original inhabitants and we have a culture to be identifies with and we don’t want the culture to die, we want our children to continue with the culture even after we have gone because we want our culture to be sustained through this cultural events.”