BusinessDay... the voice of business: Dealing with the plight of Niger Delta women

Dealing with the plight of Niger Delta women
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CHIDI NDUKA AJA on 30 April, 2008 02:00:00
 
Victoria Omadeli is a housewife in a rural Nigerian community. She travels
several kilometres to the city to buy food and other basic needs for her
household because her community has no market. But even if they have a market,
food is not one of the items sold there because their terrain which could have
supported farming has been completely destroyed by the activities of oil
exploitation.
Welcome to the world of Ugborodo, a rural community in the Niger Delta. As it
is for this tiny Itsekiri village so it is for other communities in the area.
Indeed, since the discovery of oil in Nigeria, the conditions of living of the
people of the rural communities where oil exploration is carried out, has become
terribly unbearable.
A visit to the rural communities of Itsekiri and Ijaw, who are mainly riverine
people, will reveal that they are living in abject poverty despite the fact that
the survival of Nigeria's economy depends on the resources of the area.
Efforts by successive governments to ameliorate the sufferings of the people
have made little or no impact on their pitiable conditions of living.
Though the multi national companies, who are the main actors in the oil
industry, have programmes to assist their host communities in the areas of
education, healthcare delivery, infrastructure development, among others, yet
the people have continued to live below poverty level. The problem of the
people, especially the Itsekiris has been compounded by the hostilities which
broke out between them and their Ijaw neighbours from 1997- 2004.
In its continued attempt to bring about a change in the living conditions of
the oil producing communities, the Delta State government in 2007 set up the
Delta State Oil Producing Area Commission (DESOPADEC) to bring succour to the
hopeless people with the derivation fund due to the state from the federation
account.
Laudable as this bold step by the government was, the view of a great number of
people is that like the NDDC, which is a federal government intervention agency,
the commission's impact may not be felt on short term basis.
What the people yearn for now is a pragmatic approach that will guarantee their
survival to enable them witness the long term effect of the government
intervention agencies.
Perhaps, this explains the overwhelming joy of the people of Ugborodo in Warri
South Local Government Area of Delta State when members of a non-governmental
organisation, the Escravos Women Empowerment Foundation (EWEF), visited the
community recently.
The purpose of the visit was to enable the members see for themselves the
untold hardship the people are subjected to and to give them the good news of
the NGO's plans to bring a turning point in their living conditions, especially
the women and children. The Executive Director of the NGO, Praise
Gbubene-Abraham, not only gave the women a feeling of hope for a better
tomorrow, but also donated some items of foodstuffs to the women as the
organisation's contribution towards the reduction of hunger among them.
But what are the objectives of EWEF?
One of our goals is to see how we can bring positive changes in the quality of
life of the people those riverine areas, says Gbubene-Abraham.
"We are not going to limit ourselves to just Itsekiri communities. We are going
to go to other oil producing areas like Ijaw and Urhobo communities. We have
realised that this people are living below poverty level. The activities of the
oil companies have affected their terrain. You can hardly get fish; their
terrain is not designed for farming so their economy is gone. They have to
travel miles upon miles to go to the township to get food. So they are hungry,"
she adds.
Gbubene-Abraham maintains that the NGO can no longer fold their arms looking at
the people who God has given to this nation as a gift; but contribute their own
quota in whatever way they can.
"We are going to create micro finance organisations, cooperatives, skills
acquisition programmes, vocational centres, capacity building, adult education
centres, computer centres. We will also be involved in crises resolution,
abatement and management, preventive and curative healthcare, self-help
entrepreneurship."
This is encapsulated in the following core objectives; to intervene in the
terrible health conditions of poor people of the region occasioned by the most
prevalent diseases, and contribute to their better living standard by assisting
to provide portable drinking water and micronutrient foods fortifications;
develop sustainable entrepreneurial business as an empowerment tool for the
women and youths by providing trainings and micro-credit facilities; assist the
rural farmers and fishermen and encourage better yields; create a developmental
institution for education and information services to the youths, and create
opportunities for youth-led organisations on capacity building and exposures at
all levels; promote urban self-help organisation and encourage skilled
leaderships in planned process of advocacy and lobbying.
Others are; to carry out research works, records, data and documentations on
specific issues aimed at the region's development, with emphasis on peace
processes, conflicts resolutions and abatements and stability of the country in
general; create favourable environment whereby youth-led organisation can
participate effectively with full representation at all levels of
decision-making, and increase key stakeholders support for their organisation
and individuals on HIV/AIDS, sexual reproductive health and rights issues;  and
contribute meaningfully to the national, regional and global responses and
ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) enjoy equal rights, opportunities
and responsibilities as every citizen of the country without any form of
discrimination.
The intervention of the EWEF in the plight of the women of Ugborodo whose means
of livelihood has been completely destroyed at this time, is no doubt, a step in
the right direction, however, such a laudable gesture will meet the yearnings
and aspirations of the people only if it is tailored in line with the
peculiarities of their problems. It is important, therefore, that for EWEF to be
relevant, it must first of all; identify the peculiar problems to which it is
out to proffer solution.
The executive director agrees, saying that the journey to Ugborodo by sea
opened the eyes of members of the NGO to the difficult terrain to get to the
area and witness first-hand the hazard the people face to get food from the
town.
"For instance, in Ugborodo, we discovered that they don't even have a market.
Their market has been burnt down. Their economy is completely destroyed. They
can no longer fish which is their main occupation. So foodstuff is very
expensive. Their children are malnourished. They are living below poverty level.
We realised that there is hunger in those places and that's going to be our
first focus to see how we can arrest the situation.
We need to help them to improve their economic life so that they can live
better lives. As the saying goes, a hungry man is an angry man. We cannot be
looking at the Niger Delta only as troublesome people. If this people are well
fed, I'm sure the Federal Republic of Nigeria will to a great extent get peace
from those areas."
Although the genuineness of EWEF is not in doubt, the magnitude of the problems
and the capital intensiveness of the project it plans to embark upon make it
imperative to seek the hands of fellowship of the government at all levels and
their agencies as well as the multinational companies operating in the area.
The executive director says that the organisation welcomes partnerships with
communities, like-minded organisations, government and their agencies, the
private sector and development partners, both at home and abroad.
The implementation of any plan or proposal no matter how good and laudable can
only succeed if the hands of all the stakeholders are on deck. It follows
therefore that the EWEF will succeed in putting smiles on the faces of the
people only if the people themselves provide the enabling environment for it to
work.
Though the people accorded the NGO warm reception, experience has shown that
many good things had eluded some communities because of internal crisis arising
from leadership tussles and selfish tendencies of some of their leaders. A
spokesperson of Ugorodo women however allays this fear.
"We are very happy with all that they told us. We have been looking forward to
seeing such people. But now that they are here we are very happy. We will
support them and whatever they want us to do we will do for them to succeed,"
she assured.