Our means of livelihood as a people has been systematically destroyed by the resultant effects of the mindless exploitation and exploration of oil in the Niger Delta. We cannot fish, we cannot farm, we cannot even sleep at night due to gas flaring.
By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – A non governmental organisation, Optimistic Outlook Initiative, has called for reparation to Ogoniland, the hometown of the late environmental rights activist and writer, Ken Saro Wiwa.
Speaking when the delegation met with residents of the area, leader of the delegation, Somi Uranta, said the compensation was due to years of environmental degradation as a result of mindless oil exploration and exploitation in the area.
Uranta, who is the Executive Director of Optimistic Outlook, held the youths who were present spellbound as they listened to his enchanting relatable analogies about the subject matter. And what a positive experience it was for the thousands of people in the audience.
Flanked by time tested journalists and others which included Chizoba Akunne, Albert Adebowale Orebiyi, Uranta who was in his element, took the happy and highly expectant youths through his story of a very fertile and productive woman who always bore twins and triplets each time she puts to bed.
According to him, the woman was so blessed that her community became envious of her family and then conspired and killed her husband. That was her reward from her heartless community and not only that, they took her children away and commenced a raping and abusing spree on her.
The community, he said, so debased and bartered this woman that she couldn’t even set her eyes on any of her children.
According to him, “After a long while, the community became diseased; and the only remedy for this diseased land was to pay reparations, do restitution as a way of atoning for the wickedness meted out to this woman and her household. This was tyranny of the many against the few, this was the intimidating marginalization of the minority, by the majority.”
He ended the story as he likened the arrested development in Niger Delta, the blessed land that produces the nation’s wealth used in developing Nigeria and is battered and debased with oil spillage.
Not done yet, Uranta narrated a story of the kind of life he lived in Queenstown Opobo before migrating to Lagos in search of the now elusive white-collar job.
Hear him: “When I was growing up in Queenstown, Opobo, my mother only had to announce the sort of fish she needs for the day’s soup. Be it tilapia, red snapper, barracuda or even mudskippers, I and my friends will quickly arrange the required implements and then go fetch the fish.
“Then, iced fish was a taboo in my place. But today, what do we have? Our means of livelihood as a people has been systematically destroyed by the resultant effects of the mindless exploitation and exploration of oil in the Niger Delta. We cannot fish, we cannot farm, we cannot even sleep at night due to gas flaring. We cannot drink rain water, because of it’s acidic content. We can’t even breathe in fresh air, yet the stupendous petrol dollars extracted from the soil of the South South and a few other states is being used for the development of the entire nation, except the Niger Delta region.
“As a young man, with little or no education, I left for Lagos, did some menial jobs, started a flourishing car wash, one of the biggest and busiest in Lagos, as he has decided to give back to his land of birth in form of Optimistic Outlook Empowernment Initiative, which has begun a Youthprenaurship Project.
“We are officially kickstarting our Youthpreneurship Project in this community because of our hero, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who led a peaceful movement for the environmental and human rights of Nigeria’s Ogoni people and was executed because of what he believed in, we have brought the forms here to offer free Entrepreneurial Soft Skill Training/ Technical Apprenticeship, with a set off seed grants.
“We’re also working with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) with the aim of inducting our graduands fully into the world of enterprise. May our land be known, going forward as a land of freedom, of justice, equity and fairness. May the Labours of our heroes past never be in vain. May we meet with a resounding success and prosperity in uncommon hours,” he said.