1000 Kids Learn Under Trees In Ogoni Community

Akanimo Sampson

Bureau Chief, Port Harcourt

1000 Kids Learn Under Trees In Ogoni Community

OVER 1,000 primary school pupils at Kerebangha, an Ogoni community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, are still learning under trees 21 months after the collapse of their school.

The Kerebangha Community Primary School collapsed on April 1, 2007 following a devastating wind storm that wrecked havoc in the largely farming community.

There are growing fears at the moment that the children might be forced to proceed on a long break when the rains set in if help fails to come from either official or public-spirited quarters. Already, Oyigbo Local Government Area, Ogoni neighbours, experienced the first rain of the year on Monday, January 12.

However, efforts by the community people to rehabilitate the collapsed primary school are not yielding any good result due to the rampaging mass poverty in the area.

Community ruler, Chief Israel Pie-Uwe, told our correspondent yesterday in the area that they have also not been able to meet with the relevant authorities in Port Harcourt, the state capital, since June 25, 2008 on the state of the school.

Kerebangha is a remote Ogoni community without any basic necessity of life. It has no good source of drinking water, no health centre, no electricity, and no access roads. The only educational institution there is the community primary school.

The community is claiming that they have been appealing to the state government and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to assist them in constructing a three-kilometre road that will help to impact positively on the lives of their farmer.

''We are appealing to the Rivers State Government and the NDDC to help us construct the three kilometre Bionu-Kere-Lumene road to help our farmers evacuate their farm produce to the market'', Chief Pie-Uwe said.

The nearest health facility to the community, according to Pie-Uwe, who is also the community traditional ruler, is some 10 kilometres away. ''That is at Bori, the headquarters of our local government'', he said.

Their main source of drinking water is fromMa-Ayor Lake which usually dries up during the dry season. ''Once the lake dries up during the dry season, our people trek for more than four kilometres to fetch water from the Imo River'', the community chief said.

As a result, the community is frequently hit by cholera epidemic, leading to loss of lives In 2007, the community said it lost two lives on their way to hospital in Bori, for treatment.

The state Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, had earlier this month acknowledge publicly that the Ogoni people who were locked in conflict with the Anglo-Dutch oil major, Shell, that culminated in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his kinsmen on November 10, 1995, have been victims of neglect.

“I agree that you have been cheated, I agree that both the state and Federal Governments must do something to better the live of our people” Governor Amaechi said while calling on the Ogoni people to allow oil explorations to begin in their area, after years of disagreement with oil prospectors, so that more funds would be available for the development of the state.

Amaechi who made the plea on Sunday, January 4, while speaking as Guest of Honour at the 2009 Ogoni Day celebrations at Birabi Memorial Grammar School Bori, which held with the theme “Ogoni After Shell, said the development challenges before the state were enormous, said government needs more funds to execute them.

He claimed that in the last few years the state government has been constrained to use funds from oil prospecting activities in other areas to develop Ogoniland, saying that except Ogonis agree that oil activities resume in the area, so that more funds are available for government, it would be difficult to meet the needs of the people.

The governor, who sympathized with Ogoni people for the years of neglect, said it was time to turn a new page in history, seek for new ways of development and support government so succeed in its efforts to develop the communities.

“If you want us to tell the Federal Government to look for another oil company to exploit oil in the area, we will do that, but you must agree with me that time has come for us to allow oil exploration activities in the area”, he said.

He disclosed that money from the oil in Ogoniland would be used in developing Bori into a modern city but urged youths of Ogoni to stop kidnapping to promote development in the area.

“Again, one thing I will do before the end of our administration is to dualise the road from Saakpenwa to Kono and name it after Ken Saro Wiwa again, because as you know the Stadium Road in Port Harcourt has already been named after him”, he said.

Governor Amaechi said the Ogonis, being part of Rivers state and the Nigeria society, should not do anything that would be seen to undermine respect for the Nigerian state assuring that the views of the people would be respected on issues affecting them..

According to him, “the interesting thing about the Ogoni people is that while they were making the states, countries and the world to know about their oppression, other ethnic groups in the state, who are equally oppressed, did not” and enjoined them to consider him a member of the struggle since he abhors oppression in whatever form.

Governor Amaechi, who announced that a lot was being done for the people in the area of road construction, said electricity would be provided for Ogoniland before June this year, saying that already efforts are being made to temporarily connect the area from Afam Power Station pending when work on the Eleme Gas turbine station would be completed.

He also disclosed that ten primary schools were being built in each of the four local government areas of Ogoni while four modern secondary schools and at least 21 health centres were been constructed in Ogoniland apart from the taking over of the payment of Primary School teachers.

The governor enjoined the chairmen of the four Ogoni speaking local government Councils to use the money saved from the payment of teachers salaries to execute projects that would be of interest to the people.

ENDS

© Scoop Media