…Royal Highnesses, King Bubaraye Dakolo creates awareness with his books
Tracy Ohovwore, Benin City
The Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, organised a one-day book reading session with its prestigious guest, His Royal Majesty, King Bubaraye Dakolo, on Monday, May 26, 2025.
While giving a welcome speech at the book reading event, HOMEF Executive Director Dr Nnimmo Bassey highlighted the importance of bringing together people from different segments of society to grace the event.
According to him, “It’s so important that you are present because the purpose of us having book reading, poetry reading, and movie days is for us to elevate the importance of culture in raising consciousness for a safe environment. “
He lamented how Africa today is popularised with young people compared to the reduced population of older people, highlighting the environment as a crucial factor. He noted, “If you don’t have a safe environment, you don’t have an elder.”
Dr Nnimmo Bassey acknowledged that the book reading series is critical to raising awareness and consciousness on environmental issues and sparking a need for action while informing the masses of the already documented solutions.
He explained that literary materials have addressed environmental injustices, such as oil spillages, pollution, and gas flaring.
Speaking at the event, his Royal Majesty, King Bubaraye Dakolo, spoke on the depressing nature of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta Region, most especially in Bayelsa, which has impoverished the communities, polluted the land, and had health implications.
His Royal Majesty highlighted the carelessness of multinational companies responsible for the oil spillage during oil, of course, extraction.
According to him, “And as they drill, they don’t follow all the standards, and so they spill crude oil, pour it into the river, pour it into the swamps, and so on and so forth.
“And then of course, to drill, they also let gas out and burn it. The gas we are talking about are hydrocarbon mixed with a lot of things.
“So many harmful metals are released into the water and their innocuous gases are released into the air. This had happened since 1956 up till date. There are many places where the gas flaring hasn’t gone out for 30 to 40 years.
“In a nutshell, we will say that in Niger Delta, the flare has been on for about 70 years non-stop. Though one or two may go off, the net position is that the flare is also burning.” He lamented.
He further explained how the streams were bountiful with different species of fishes and lands fruitful with fresh crops which have gradually become almost impossible as a result of the oil spillage and gas flaring.
“In the last few years, if you go to to fish as a fisherman in the river about 6pm and you come back the following morning like 9am, you will hardly come back the following have up to 3kg of fishes. This is because the pollutions had chased all the fishes into the far ocean.
“The pollution has killed all the fishes in the swooning area and in the fishes. Hence the river is as good as a soak-away pit where frogs breathe and not fishes.” The king noted.
The environmentalist and human rights activist, king Bubaraye Dakolo also disclosed how the regulator’s lack of needed infrastructure to carry out their activities have permitted crude oil theft and vandalism.
The traditional ruler expressed his concerns through his literary collections that the prevalence of crude oil theft, leakage, blast, or explosion of well heads in the Niger Delta, which is known to have many swamps, means that oil spills most likely spread to other streams and areas.
In addition, he pointed out the federal government’s position in the outplay of the devastating crisis of crude oil spillage in the Niger Delta. He explained that the federal government should also arrest oil thieves, but they go ahead and look for victims of oil thievery.
“An oil thief is not one who is usually from the Niger Delta.” He described them as those who live a luxurious life with so many properties In big cities in Nigeria and outside the country.
In order to proffer a solution to the ongoing crisis, the Bayelsa Royal figure urged the federal government to take swift action to provide security to the pipeline and nab those who are responsible. Also, the management should hold companies and have organizations responsible for their activities to the affected communities.
Her royal majesty, Queen Timinipre Bubaraye Dakolo, mentioned that a fundamental step should first begin from the family. Good parenting stands as one of the solutions. She urged that the parents should do the right thing by ensuring that their wards are not being used to carry out mischievous activities like crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
Other side attractions of the book reading include drama presentation and spoken word presentation.
