- By Ugochukwu Okezie
Abia State’s Ukwa West Local Government Area is a crude oil producing area.
Ordinarily, one would have expected that Ukwa and its environs should have been a haven of infrastructural development, a paradise of holiday resorts, thriving businesses, academic institutions and huge federal government presence.
Unfortunately, the reverse is the case.
Recently, a friend of mine invited me to Ukwa West for the burial of a close relation of his. I had great expectations knowing that Ukwa West is the only oil producing area in Abia State. More so, I was excited not because I like attending burial ceremonies, but I saw it as an opportunity to touch base with Abia State – my state of origin. By the way, I was born and bred in Lagos, and so, every opportunity to travel home is a welcome one.
My excitement was further heightened knowing it was an opportunity to take a look at what the topography and environment of an oil producing community looks like.
The journalism instinct in me took over immediately after the burial, as I asked my friend to take me around oil locations/installations and villages in his local government area. The whole place looked like an abandoned property.
The sights that hit me were really disheartening to say the least. I saw roads in terribly deplorable conditions, dilapidated schools that looked deserted, and many projects abandoned by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
Out of extreme concern, I asked my friend why the situation was this bad. My friend of over 20 years almost broke down in tears as he narrated their ugly experiences with the government interventionist agency, the NDDC.
At this point, I begged of my friend to have him on tape and he obliged me. His words, “my friend and brother, when the Babangida administration created the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, we were all excited, and fortunately for us, as soon as the civilian government came into place, the Obasanjo led administration rechristened it the NDDC, and our excitement continued. Interestingly, the Commission got into work. Our people heaved a sigh of relief, believing that in a couple of years, our local government area would become a place of attraction to many.
“As we speak today, all that excitement has waned and expectations seems dashed. It is tales of woes and neglect. Today, all you see are bad roads, abandoned projects scattered all over our area like broken pieces of pottery. Is it not worrisome that twenty years after NDDC came on board, we do not have any standard primary school, secondary school or hospital in our area? There is no skills acquisition centre, and not one Computer-based Centre in the whole of Ukwa for students to take their CBT-JAMB exams.
The state of our local government headquarters is so horrible and no motorable road leads to the place. In fact, physical communication between us and our sister local government areas is a nightmare because of bad roads. In the face of all these deprivations, our elders have continued to dissuade the youths from fermenting trouble because our people reasonably believe the neglect is deliberate”.
My friend’s observations vividly capture the state of affairs in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State, and many oil-producing communities across the Niger-Delta. Isn’t it surprising that a local government that boasts of the presence of two interventionist agencies – the NDDC and the Abia State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission is gradually slipping back into those distant pre-colonial days when our people drank from streams and trekked bush paths?
Going by my friend’s pathetic story; there seems to be a disconnect here. It is obvious that both the Federal and State Government have hearkened to the challenges confronting Nigeria’s oil producing areas by creating the NDDC and the ASOPADEC; yet with these interventionist agencies, one is at a loss as to why there are unsightly sights everywhere.
The intendment of the Commissions is to address the developmental challenges of Ukwa, but from it does appear that some persons must have made themselves stupendously rich by converting the allocations to these Commissions to their personal use. It is saddening that many public institutions in Nigeria are not delivering on their mandates, thereby stifling the growth and development of the country.
Unfortunately, many people are not asking questions; they sit and watch persons vested with the responsibility to run these institutions behave as if they don’t have any responsibility to the people.
Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Petroleum Industry Bill into law. It is now an Act. It is hoped that the 3% provided for by the Act for the development of oil communities will be managed in a way that my friend and his kith and kin can heave a sigh of relief.
Ugochukwu Okezie, is a Lagos based journalist and Founder, Word Mart Media Services Limited.
