How Lokiaka Trains Ogoni Women on Effect of Climate.
Communities in the Ogoni area of Rivers State have suffered legacies of spills by big oil companies over the years. Not even the halt of oil exploration by MOSOP and other groups spared them from the aftermath of the effects of the exploration. With oil companies’ divestment leaving behind a polluted and degraded environment, community women have been equipped to amplify their voices.
Lokiaka Community Development Center in a one-day women’s Assembly ranging from oil-bearing communities to those impacted by land grabbers, whose lands have been destroyed due to some environmental conditions beyond their immediate strength.
The Assembly, tagged “Ogoni Women’s Environment Assembly,” was held in Bori to help cushion some of the effects of pollution, which has resulted in insecurity, food security issues, and issues with herders. Over 200 hundred women participated in the meeting.
The executive director of the center, Martha Agbani, stated that the assembly is to create awareness and empower the women on how/where to champion their issues and offer solutions to them.
“We are meeting with them today to discuss climate change, insecurity, food security, herder issues, and oil companies’ divestment. If they know about it, and if they do, who are those diverting, and what measures they’ve put on the ground?”
Lokiaka Community Development Center ED Martha Agbani, speaking with Newsnowng, stated the challenges the Ogoni Women face from pollution, which has affected their environment, coupled with the effects of climate change, which have heightened its effects on the community.
“You go to the swamp forest area they don’t have where they can arc a living from and these are environment women normally arc a living from picking of prewrinkle we do not have them anymore and those that caused these are leaving the environment without compensation or recourse to the people”.
“They should also know what they are divesting, the compensation they need to pay, are they really paying them and what kind of compensation are they even paying and if companies are leaving their environment, how do they exit, those exist strategy and all that they need to know “
“Know that they know, they can now go further to demand for their rights ,they have their traditional rulers that they need to meet with,that is why we need to build their negotiation,leadership and Communication skills, the ED retorted.
A participant and Native of K-Dere Community in Gokana LGA Ladi Babari Gboro speaking with our correspondent lamenting that amongst the numerous oil wells in their community, they have not seen any positive impact on them.The spillage has affected their farmlands and caused them on told hardship, thanking Lokiaka and calls for government intervention.
“In K- Dere Community we have about 56 oil wells and in this community we have not benefitted from any of these oil well based on these is no compensation by the Shell.The pollution has caused a lot of hazards in K-Dere community. Many places have been having oil spillage of which we cannot plant our crop,if we plant we use fertiliser even at that our crops is not yielding like before this make us to have lack of production and in our land people are suffering hunger.
“I was one of the people leading them to see the place where they said they have done the cleaning-up but reaching there nothing has been done,even to our Rivers we cannot catch carb or go to pick prewrinkle which the poor women used to pick and they have something to feed their children when they come home especially the widows, so in K-Dere we are suffering so much.
” I see that most of them have not been enlightened just as Lokiaka has enlightened us, and sometimes when they come to liaise with them, they will have differences, which make them not concentrate and arrange on what to demand from them, and they will take it away. We need Cooperation, we need something out of this suffering, we have suffered a lot, and based on what we’re hearing and seeing, even our children will suffer more than us, so they should join themselves and make peace and make the women to benefit and understand all they are doing because I don’t think we have benefit anything”.
Glory Basi from Luusue Sogho in Ghana LGA also a participant in the Assembly narrated on their ordeal with the issue of herdsmen in their farmland in their communities and despite reports to authorities nothing has been done on the matter.
“The issue of herdsmen we are having in our community is so serious that we don’t know where to place our hands, we don’t know who to run to and where to start the matter from.
“The herdsmen that are in our communities, in my own community Luusue Sogho in Khana LGA they are so terrible that our women we are not save in the farm. When we go to farm, the moment they destroy our cassava and you make noise or you just open your mouth and tell them that they destroyed your cassava they will want to kill you in the farm.
“They are raping our girls anyhow, even our men, those of our men that are not strong to stand before them they kill them automatically, and one funny thing that we are seeing about the herdsmen; it’s the same our community people that are collecting money from these herdsmen, that are inviting them to our farm.
“As of last week when they destroyed our fa crops and we went to the Police, the Police invited the main man that is caring for their cows and the man came pricing whole cassava on two plots of land 30,000 naira, 30,000 naira is money for just two basins of garri this period, garri is too expensive in our community now. So the herdsmen even as they pay the money the man that brought them even collected the money into his own account and refused to give the people that owns the cassava that was destroyed. So what we are passing through is a terrible one, we are suffering, mostly our women, that has kept us under hunger and our children, we can no longer go to the farm because we are afraid, we are careful of our lives, nobody should kill us because we are going to farm, so since we cannot go to the farm again to plant and to get food for our children, our children become sick everyday, some of them cannot continue their education, we cannot train them again because we don’t have money to pay for their school fees and food.
“I want government to help us, let herdsmen go from our community, our farm, our locality, we don’t need anything like herdsmen in our locality, let government drive them out so our women will have peace, be able to go to the farm and work so we can sustain our children”•
She added that because of the chieftaincy tussle in the community, the Chief has been unable to attend to the matter for fear of been attacked.
Beatrice Waakae from Bori National Territory a participate expressed her pleasure about the event and how she has been impacted.
“This training today is very good to us women because this climate change as we are women, there are some things that we have not known before, but through our leader, Lokiaka Martha Agbani, we have learnt about climate change, which has caused food scarcity everywhere in Nigeria, today because of the population. That is why our leader brought this topic today for all the women to know about climate change, which is very good. We will carry this to our various communities to let them know what is good and right and for them to know what is called climate change and how to handle it”.
