From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
President, Ijaw National Council (INC), Professor Benjamin Okaba, has accused the Federal Government of subjecting the Niger Delta region to ecological genocide.
Okaba called for urgent equity and justice for the long-suffering people of the Niger Delta region.
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While delivering a paper titled ‘Gaps and Silences in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Economy: Appraisal of Resources Control, Security and Media Dynamics’, at the 10th Anniversary Public Lecture of GbaramatuVoice in Abuja, Okaba bemoaned that despite the fact that the Niger Delta had been the economic backbone of the nation for decades, the region continued to wallow in poverty, neglect, and environmental destruction.
“Our freshwater, swamp, and mangrove forests have been mutilated by multinationals. Our rivers, once pure, now carry the toxic signature of extraction without restoration. These statistics are not just painful, they are criminal.”
The INC president further said that the situation in the Niger Delta region was nothing short of economic war, adding that with thousands of infants dying daily from toxic water and gas flaring continuing to release levels of carbon emissions in other climes like Europe, the situation would be considered illegal.
He maintained that between 1960 and 2024, Nigeria earned over $1 trillion in oil revenue, with more than 75 percent derived from the Niger Delta.
Okaba, however, said that while the proceeds have built skyscrapers in Abuja and Lagos, communities in the oil-bearing states were left in shanties, with over 70 percent of the people living on less than two dollars a day.
“Those who suffer degradation, those who bear the oil, those whom God has given the resource, should be the primary benefactors of the dividends of the oil industry. Anything otherwise will keep us in this trajectory of suffering, crisis, and conflict,” Okaba also said.
While condemning the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), especially the three percent allocation to host communities, Okaba said the allocation was an insult to the people of the Niger Delta.
He stated that bureaucratic bottlenecks ensured that no community successfully accessed the so-called community trust funds since the law was passed, reducing the oil-bearing communities to hostages in their own land.
In his remarks, the Ovie of Idjerhe Kingdom, Obukohwo Monday Arthur Whiskey, Udurhie I, bemoaned the ongoing deprivation of the Niger Delta despite being the backbone of Nigeria’s economy.
He said the region has contributed enormously to the nation’s prosperity, yet remained mired in neglect.
“If you take the state of roads in the Niger Delta; if you take the employment opportunities; if you take the development yardstick, we have nothing to show for what we are producing,” he said.
Publisher and CEO of GbaramatuVoice, Jacob Brakere Abai, said 10 years had been a decade of telling stories that matter and amplifying Niger Delta voices.
“Ten years ago, we saw a Niger Delta whose struggles were overlooked and voices muted. From a modest tabloid, we have grown into a multimedia platform with global reach,” Abai said.
The post N’Delta: INC president decries ecological genocide, calls for equity, justice appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.
