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| By Mike Ozekhome |
Genocide In The Creeks
We continue today, government-driven acts of genocide across Nigeria
The Setting
It was a hot afternoon at the Palace in Oporoza,Gbaramatu
Kingdom , Delta State Nigeria , after the
Hausas/Fulanis, Igbos and Yorubas, spread across Bayelsa (a whole state),
Rivers, Edo , Delta, Ondo and Cross River
states. The Oporoza community was in a festive mood, for the Amaseikumor
festival, with influx of hundreds of guests into the community, to partake of
the presentation of the staff of office to the king, the Pere of Gbaramatu
Kingdom, HRM, Ogie III. It also marked his one year anniversary on the throne.
It was about the same time that nearby city of Warri was to be inspected by
FIFA delegates, towards considering Nigeria’s hosting of the 2009, under 17
World Cup. Umaru Yar’Adua was president. Air Marshall Paul Dike was Chief of
Defence Staff.
It was a hot afternoon at the Palace in Oporoza,
Suddenly, three low
flying helicopters emerged from the serene skies. The people gawked, awed, clapped,
salivated, believing erroneously the helicopters bore dignitaries to add to the
glamour, razzmatazz and panache of the royal ceremony. But they were wrong,
dead wrong. The helicopters were actually harbingers of death; deadly gunboats,
deployed by the Joint Task Force (as ordered by then President Umar Yar’Adua),
to mow down Gabaramatu
Kingdom 5” and “Iroko Camp.”
Ironically, one of
the villages destroyed, Oporoza, had hosted the crew who made the movie, “Sweet
crude.” But the crude was now sour.
Genesis Of The Crisis
The Niger Delta is buried in the creeks. Fragile, swampy and neglected by successive governments after the discovery of oil at Oloibiri in 1956, the people felt short changed. Where they asked for fish, they were given stones. When they asked for bread, they were given bullets. Like in the ancient Mariner, they have “water, water everywhere, but none fit enough to drink.” They defecate in still, spirogyra-infested ponds from which they also drink. The perennial gas flaring leaves cancerous skins and diseases. Aquatic and agrarian life is completely destroyed. The black gold, rather than be a blessing, has thus become a curse. There are no roads, hospitals, schools, infrastructure. No nothing! The people live in pains, pangs, sweat, blood, exploitation and crude marginalization.
The Niger Delta is buried in the creeks. Fragile, swampy and neglected by successive governments after the discovery of oil at Oloibiri in 1956, the people felt short changed. Where they asked for fish, they were given stones. When they asked for bread, they were given bullets. Like in the ancient Mariner, they have “water, water everywhere, but none fit enough to drink.” They defecate in still, spirogyra-infested ponds from which they also drink. The perennial gas flaring leaves cancerous skins and diseases. Aquatic and agrarian life is completely destroyed. The black gold, rather than be a blessing, has thus become a curse. There are no roads, hospitals, schools, infrastructure. No nothing! The people live in pains, pangs, sweat, blood, exploitation and crude marginalization.
