Eight months after she lost her daughter to oil spill, Annkio Kie (not real name) is still struggling to fight off pain and sorrow. Mary was sick for three years, after what started as mere rashes turned out to be a severe skin disease.
“We couldn’t send her to the hospital because there was no money,” Kie says, staring at the floor in her compound.
“Since the spill has destroyed everything we had, we were unable to go to the general hospital. We were getting the traditional medicine even though they never stopped referring us to the hospital.”
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And so, in the morning of March 4 2018, the daughter passed on. Nothing can be as painful as the loss of a loved one to circumstances that can be controlled but which you have no power over. Between the time she died and now, hundreds of people in Goi community, Gokona local government area of Rivers state, have been buried as well, most of whom suffered from strange sicknesses suspected to be an after-effect of oil spill in the area.
With frequent burials now the norm, a new day is a big testimony and celebrating one’s birthday means as much as celebrating additional ten years in life.
Oil spills in Nigeria dates back to the 1970s, and according to records, there were about 7,000 oil spills between 1970 and 2000. The Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor recorded some 5,296 oil spills between January 2005 and July 2014. As of 2010, Royal Dutch Shell admitted to have spilled nearly 14,000 tons (about 100,000 barrels of oil) which was majorly across the oil-rich Ogoni, made up of a total of 18 communities in four local government areas.
Amnesty International estimates total oil spill in the Ogoni to be between nine and 13 million barrels, with Shell and ENI, the Italian multinational oil giant, admitting to more than 550 oil spills in 2014 alone.
Goi happens to be the worst hit of the communities because it is located between two major Shell facilities; one in Bodo west and another at Bomo oil field. While the Bomo oil field is on the high land, the Bodo west is offshore. So, when there is pollution from Bodo west, the spilled crude oil is carried by the high tide into Goi creeks and farmlands. Pollution from Bomo will also see the crude oil spill downward into Goi.
“At that point, Goi is more or less like a basin,” says Eric Dooh, Lah-Bon, the traditional ruler of Goi community.
“In the end, the oil wreaks havoc and nothing is left out: the lands, the mangrove, the water bodies, the creeks. Everything is condemned.
Findings have shown major causes of the spills are worn out oil facilities like the pipelines as well as oil bunkering and sabotage by youth in the village.
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‘ECOLOGICAL REFUGEES’
Following the damage on the environment, the affected communities in Ogoni land were asked to evacuate to give room for a clean-up exercise. But there was no plan in place for them; no shelter nor provision of adequate amenities that would make up for wherever they were leaving behind – all the government did was to put up a bill board to the effect of a relocation order.
“Since the spill, there has never been any form of compensation or remediation for Goi,” Monday Mene, a youth leader in the community, says.
“The only thing I can say we have received from the federal government and Shell is the sign post asking us to evacuate after declaring this place a dead zone.
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