By Anwulu Utulu
Women in the Okpokrika-Ogbesu Community in Ndokwa East Local Government have cried out to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to give them a sense of belonging by directing development projects to their community.
The women who spoke during a capacity-building program organized there by a non-governmental organization, the Center for Rural Integration and Development, lamented in absence of facilities to make life livable.
They said that though they are an oil-rich community, there is no power supply, and no water despite heavy contamination of their water sources, no road, and no jetty. Even though the state is a top-rate education state, the 4000 population there has no access to a secondary or vocational school to prepare children for improved future living.
“We have nothing here. As you can see, there is no road to this community. Access is by water or a distant ride through the bush by motorbike and that means spending a lot of money.
Traveling from here to Aboh, the local government headquarters and main coastal town here is N4000-N5000 by boat and another N4000-N5000 coming back. Then you pay perhaps another N3000 to Ashaka the next big town. You must have at least N15,000 for transport before you set out of this community.
“We feel like we are not part of the state. We are suffering too much. Who has that kind of money now as our once-rich land is no longer doing well because of pollution from oil? The worst thing is that we cannot even get clean water to drink or cook. We are forced to use the polluted water which we try to filter with alum. That has caused many health problems yet we have no health facility.
“In addition, there is no light in this community. We struggle with darkness using lanterns and there is no secondary school for our children to attend. We are forced to bend over to send them to school in either Ashaka or Ndoni; Ndoni is on the other side of the river in Rivers State. There is nothing to give joy to the young or encourage them to stay. Okpokrika people just want to feel that they are part of Delta State. The governor should come to our aid and fast,” one of the women, Mrs Onwunaro lamented.
The women who are mainly farmers and fisher folks, listed such social amenities as water, power supply, the road to improve access to their agricultural produce, a good health center, a secondary school for their children, and empowerment in the form of grants, provision of farming implements including improved cassava stems, plantain suckers, pepper, and other seedlings as paramount needs.
They lamented that rarely are they visited by any government official or agency having no real road link with neighbouring communities. By sea, the community is a 45-minute ride from Aboh.
CRIDEV executive director, Lilian Nwokobia advised the women to organize themselves to push the demand for attention and an end to neglect of the suffering they experience. She told them that her organization has already begun advocacy for government attention to their plight through visits to some key officials and media outreach.
Resource person, Chief Constance Meju who took the women through the ‘Right to Say No’ told them that the government owes them the duty of protection from the devastating horrors of extractive activities in their community and ensuring that they have access to social amenities.
She, however, pointed out that until they tell their problem by speaking out, nobody will recognize they exist or address their problems so they have to come together and speak out through organized actions for the desired change to happen.
She advised them to pick leaders and work together to take their needs to those with the power to respond to their needs.
The capacity-building training was part of the Urgent Action Fund-sponsored program to advocate for the provision of clean water for Okpkrika-Ogbesu women.
Backing the women’s demand, the Okpookrika Ogbesu Community leaders have written to the commissioner for Oil and Gas and the Water Resources Development Commission requesting inclusion in development plans.
Part of the letter to the commissioner signed by the community chairman, Mr. Okwudili Owah, the general secretary, and the Okara Ukwu, read:
“We the above-mentioned community wish to use this opportunity to request some basic facilities in our community such as:
- Good drinking water as we have to trek about four kilometers to get drinking water.
- We have no road linking us to the next community.
- We have no clinic or any medical facility.
- Please, sir, we wish you to look into our case”
They appealed to their representative in the Senate, Senator Ned Nwoko to help facilitate the provision of three key social amenities-water, road, and health facilities in the community by the Delta State government, while thanking him for listing among communities to benefit from being linked to the National Grid supplying power to the country.
