Imagine living in a community where the water
is acidic, with PH value 4.8? Imagine living in a land and breathing an air
with as low as 4.0 as its pH? Imagine living in a community which produces
about 10,000 barrels of oil daily, amidst gas, and yet you can't afford a three
square meal? What do you think your life would be?
Imagine a community with huge oil corporations
which make millions of dollars daily from your land, and you don't benefit a
dime from it? Imagine a community absent with the basic social amenities like
electricity and water absent? Imagine a situation where about 25% of the people
in your community have
eye defects or are blind? How gross and frustrating,
would life be for you in that community?
This has been the obvious fate of the people of
Izombe, who seem to have been sentenced to a life of penury, hopelessness and
sufferings, they have got all it takes to make their land the promise land, but
the exploitation, negligence, and gross oppression of huge multinational oil
corporations in that land have made their dreams look like a dashing hope and a
total fiasco, they seem to have been forgotten, they seem to have been abandoned, they seem to have been neglected, despite the
conspicuous veracity that they are the primary landlords and host communities
to the oil corporations.
His Royal Majesty, Chijioke E. Collins, the Nwama 2 of Umunwama
Autonomous Community, and Chairman, Izombe
Council of Traditional Rulers, Izombe,
Oguta gives us a vividly shocking and heartbreaking breakdown of the
state of Izombe and the resolution of her people.
"For forty years, the people of Izombe
have been screwed by Addax Petroleum Development Company who came into our land
in 1974 as Ashland Oil. For forty years,
Addax has been taking our oil every day, and the people of Izombe are left to
reap from the repercussions and effects of their oil exploration activities. As
I talk with you, my people are sick because the environment is cancerous, the air we breathe is contaminated, environmental studies carried out Ezeigbo and
other renowned environmentalists and published in the Journal of Biology,
Agriculture and Healthcare ISSN 2224-3208 (Paper) ISSN 2225-093X (Online) Vol.3, No.15, 2013,
shows that the pH of the soil is as low as 4.0 in Izombe, the air pH goes as low as 4.4 during the dry
season which is acidic. Our water is very acidic with pH between 4.8 - 6.1,
which is below the WHO standard and is also acidic, and our water is also very
hard, if you soak your clothes for long, it can ruin them.
We have carried out a very simple experiment,
take a clean empty basin, and put it on top of a long stool when it is
raining, and make sure it is directly in
the rain, and no water from the ground is splashing the basin, there are no
trees, roofs or houses blocking it, and then collect the rainwater falling
directly from the sky into the basin, if you leave it to settle for few
minutes, you will notice some oily black substances like carbon monoxide around
the basin, which means our water is
poisonous. The mortality rate of my people is very high, because we are sick,
and let's say there is an emergency at night, that requires immediate
treatment, before that person is rushed to Owerri from Izombe, that person is
dead. We have had series of those encounters in our land, and yet Addax is here
drilling our oil, and doing nothing to salvage my people" The monarch
cried out
"It is really shocking to know that about
25% of my people are blind. How do we know this? Last year, we conducted a free
eye test, and health check up exercise in Izombe, and we were surprised when
the statistics had it that, of the people who were tested, about 25% of them
have eye defects and some total blindness. The doctors who did these tests said
these were the worst cases of eye problems they have ever seen in their
practice. How can I be leading a generation of sick people? This treatment
meted to us by Addax is so unfair, unjust, and my people can no longer tolerate
it. They have decided they don't want Addax in their land again." His
Royal Majesty added
"How can you come to someone's land, take
their oil, and leave without giving them anything? No Memorandum of
Understanding between us and Addax whatsoever, I want to lead a generation of
healthy people, and I want to lead a community that has all the basic amenities
she needs like electricity, pipe-borne
water, good hospitals and roads, and
schools for our children. Let's say 50 years from now, our oil finishes, what do we have to show to our generations
and the generations yet unborn, that we
once had oil? What do we tell them? How can we explain to them that we had
barrels of oil taken daily in our land? We have absolutely nothing to show for
it. And the people of Izombe have spoken
their mind, they can no longer tolerate this unscrupulous treatment being
subjected to us, we will not let us be ruined in our land by anyone, and we are
saying Enough is enough."
"Take a look at my colleagues, the
Obi-Ukwu of Ndeuloukwu Autonomous Community, HRH Eze Dr. D. A. Nwauwa and the
Obi of Obeabor Autonomous Community, HRH Eze Dr. Oliver. A. Okorowu, sometime
last year, they all could see, today they are blind, and Addax hasn't bothered
to find out how they fair, and do something to treat them. They don't care. We
are tired, we will not let anyone screw us, we've been screwed enough, and we
can't take it no more" HRH Egwuagu Collins bled his heart out.
With the people of Izombe
so pained with the maltreatment of Addax Petroleum Development Company, one would only wish for a miracle to turn the
hearts of these indigenes towards accepting and reconciling with the
international oil company, which seem to have a stake in that land, as the
people appear to have taken a stance on the future of Addax. 
No comments:
Post a Comment