BY Hycinth Egbebo
There would have been no need to feel abandoned if our environment is not unique in the support it offers to all the entire citizenry and the government of Nigeriaand yet without the compensating and commensurate infrastructural development here. We live with the hazards of oil exploration. Given the obvious fact that all sectors of Nigeria now feel abandoned by government, there would have been no need to further engage this obvious narrative that might eventually end upin futility and worst still, as we might not be heard despite the attempt to register this needless and crippling abandonment. Nevertheless, it is still worth my preoccupation to present the heavy weight of devastating feeling of abandonment by government to the purview of the public arena.
Anyone who has not visited the Niger Delta would conveniently presume that the wealth from this region has been duly expended on the development of the region and the living conditions of our people have been sufficiently raised. This is why even when one has genuinely informed or graphically captured the state of affairs about the lack of development of this region to an enquirer, it would still sound a disbelief to such a person. Yet this is the region that has produced the wide array of billionaires and beautiful cities all over this country. Suffice it to also add that these billionaires are not found here. This partial success story only exists in the cities and some other places that are very far-fetched from where we live. It is a common knowledge that oil blocks are assigned majorly to Northerners and Westerners who do not suffer from the negative effects of gas flaring and pollution of our lands and rivers. But we are very familiar with acid rains colouring our rivers from which our drinking water comes. Apart from the huge oil and gas deposits the Niger Delta is also a treasure house for many Sea Ports to spring up. The one closest to me (Age Sea Port) is exclusively being used now to export crude oil by the government. There is the tacit consent and statement that we are not entitled to use it for importation of our goods. The colonizing powers in Western Nigeria will not allow any other Deep-Sea Port to exist except Lagos. Indeed, slaves could have had fairer treatment than this option of being confined to look up to a congested Lagos for their need for importation when the opportunity exists right beside us here. It is also a pity that Dangote would not situate the building of his refinery here but in a congested Lagos area. I pray that the crude oil would soon cease from flowing from here to be refined there.
Our woes firstly started from lack of love for the Niger Delta Region by our highly placed sons and daughters in the political sphere. This is why they have become easy conduit/preyas as they are susceptible to the influence of the powerful government officials in Abuja for manipulation. Our sons and daughters have been known to be appointed by powerful people in Abuja for the purpose of benefiting from the resources here. If not for the purpose of their personal aggrandizement, those who are appointing them just for the fact that they merely bear names that seem to distinguish them as those whose origins are from the Niger Delta Region, it would have been very clear to them that these sons and daughters have no history or experience of having lived in this place. This explains why they would easily give up the prospects of the development of the Niger Delta in preference for the sumptuous bribery funds they receive in order to embrace this killing sell-out. Indeed, our children have become shields by means of which our resources have been easily syphoned away from here. Shamefully, our children have acted as breadwinners to bankroll the cost of elections for others, they expend their best efforts to train children from other regions rather than here, they zealously build roads and high ways/railways to other regions and countries. These enslaving ego trips have shamefully ended up without any commensurate reward for eventhemselves either. Could this be described as love of neighbour? The Scriptures that I know copiously say without any equivocation that we should “love others as we love ourselves”. Cf. Mk 12:31.
Another difficulty I can identify is the lack of focus and corruption of government officials at all levels in the Niger Delta Region. Often, the thirteen percent derivation fund that accrues to our states from the oil sector is shrouded in secrecy and bureaucracy of governance. We do not know what is done with this assignment of funds to governments of this region. There is no gainsaying that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is used by the Federal Government to short change this region. The NDDC is the whare-house of bribery for the boys in government. Therefore, we are not surprised that the real findings by the recently concluded forensic test with their eagle probing-eyes to reveal the dreadful and devastating activities of these looters cannot be made public. Besides, the Ministry of Niger Delta is not functional here where I live. What a pity?
The main grouse that has triggered this write up is my desire to identify and condemn the pointed hateful exclusion of Bomadi, Burutu and Patani LGA from the development scheme of the government of Delta State. The recent highly publicised borrowing of one hundred and fifty billion Naira for development of projects in Delta State did not feature any project from here. There is also the rumour of another engagement to borrow twenty-five billion Naira again. It is noteworthy that this present government has not done any sensible project for us since its inception. When the Governor came to us in Bomadi for a town-hall meeting a few years ago, he informed us that he didn’t have sufficient funds to build the Polytechnic Institution in Bomadi and the bridge to Ayakoromor that had been started by his predecessor, we believed him. It is now clear that all he told us was a BOLD LIE. But when he was talking to us it seemed like he was honest. It is a pity that this lie is being peddled by a man that is occupying the highest office in Delta State. Yet in poverty the Governor was able to raise three Polytechnics in proximity to each other to the status of Universities elsewhere. Who is fooling who here? Does the Governor know that Delta State is majorly ascribed an oil producing State because of us? Yet he borrows hugely to preferentially build his highways with the intention of using our oil money to pay the debt. This travesty of unnecessary borrowing spree will generationally mortgagethe future economic prospects of our children. This pointless preoccupation with borrowing will only end up with huge debts to be hanging over the future fortunes of Delta State like the sword of debacles. Unfortunately, the incoming administration will be constrained to perpetually pay up such back breaking and festering debts. Our records of history in Delta State would indelibly and perpetually reveal that you bequeathed to the next Governor a debt profile that kills progressive development initiative.
This is to let the Executive Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, know that the three local government areas of Bomadi, Burutu and Patani MATTER very much. It is a pity that we have not made any meaningful progress infrastructure-wise beyond where we were since this Governor came to power seven years ago. This hateful and oppressive record that the Governor has handed down to us will certainly hunt him all the days of his life.
Given the scenario above, it is my candid advice and hope that our people should not vote across party lines anymore, but for those who can deliver. The antecedence of the track records of those credible politicians would be the reason for our voting. As the saying goes, by their fruits you will know them. We will obtain a written agreement before we would vote for them. Enough of this abandonment!
Bishop Hyacinth O. Egbebo, MSP. (The Catholic Bishop of Bomadi).
About Author
