…Supports restructuring and true feder
After over six decades of oil exploration and exploitation without any apparent presence of the state or federal government in Urhobo land, the people have vowed to demand several trillions of naira in reparation and remediation from the federal government of Nigeria and oil companies whose activities over the years, have negatively impacted on the environment .
This was part of the address delivered by the President-General of Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, Olorogun Moses Taiga, in a press conference at the Uvwiamuge headquarters of the Urhobo Union in Ughelli North Local Government Area of the State today Wednesday November 3, 2021 in preparation for the 90th anniversary celebration of the oldest socio-cultural organization in the country scheduled for early December.
Taiga, who reeled out the contributions of the Urhobo people to the making of the Nigerian State, lamented that several years of environmental degradation and devastation of the Urhobo land by the unrestricted activities of oil companies, has rendered farming and fishing, the main occupation of the people comatose.
Taiga disclosed that a think-tank had been put in place to fashion out Urhobo Agenda which, according to him, will include the demand for reparation and remediation in trillions of naira for the several years of the environmental degradation and devastation by the activities of oil exploration and exploitation companies.
He said: “The Urhobo people of nearly over 5 million are Nigeria’s fifth largest ethnic nationality with a treasure trough of oil and gas, rivers and arable land, has contributed immensely to the making of Nigeria.
“There is hardly any sphere of national development that Urhobo has not contributed to. In Nigeria’s quest as a nation, in politics, economy, military, media, medicine, education, corporate sector, sports, science and technology, the Urhobos have and are still paying their dues in the making of Nigeria.
“Having contributed so much to the making of Nigeria, the Urhobo people have been subjected to years of exploitation, oppression, environmental degradation, poverty, insecurity, marginalization and other negative manifestations of injustice that are not only reprehensible, but provocative.
“The Urhobo people have been victims of neglect by successive Nigerian governments and oil multinationals. Despite the unimaginable quantum of oil drilling in Urhobo land, since 1957, we can hardly get any advantage in terms of infrastructure to show. Our land and rivers have been polluted. We have lost our source of livelihood.
“A think-tank is at work drafting what we called Urhobo Agenda with which we will engage our people, Nigeria and the world. In crafting an Urhobo Agenda, we took a hard and dispassionate view at Nigeria of yesterday, today and what it will look like tomorrow. The Urhobo will begin by evaluating our present predicament and come up with a blueprint of a new deal in Nigeria.
“In line with this, we demand an environmental remediation programme for communities that were negatively impacted by the activities of oil exploration and exploration such as Kokori Erhoike, Erhobaro Orogun, Imodje Orogun, Afiesere, Evwreni, Eruemukowhoarien and, of course, Olomu.”
On how to promote agriculture, industrialization and attract foreign investment to Urhobo land, the President-General disclosed that the proposed Okugbe Microfinance Bank which is awaiting the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN will financially drive the micro, small and medium scale enterprises, MSME, in Urhobo land and improve the lot of Urhobo women and youths, adding that the Sapele port, the Delta Steel Company, DSC and the moribund African Timber and Plywood, ATP, Sapele must all be made to work.
“We are calling on both the state and federal government to create an enabling environment by providing constant electricity in Urhobo land to attract foreign investors.
“The Okugbe Microfinance Bank will drive small and medium scale enterprises in Urhobo land. It is hoped that the bank will change the fortune of our women and youths in Urhobo land.
Sapele port has to be revived. The moribund Delta State Company and the African Timber and Plywood in Sapele must be made to work”, he said.
Earlier, Taiga had noted that the ethnic nationality supports the clamour for restructuring of the country in the interest of peace, justice and fairness:
The “UPU strongly supports the emergence of the next governor of Urhobo extraction in 2023”, adding that “the Urhobos have been very supportive of governorship rotation on the basis of Senatorial district as a receipe for peace, equity and justice in Delta State and we shall continue to do so.”
On the large number of Urhobos aspiring to contest for the governorship of the state in 2023, Taiga said:
“We have already appointed a screening committee headed by the first Vice President of UPU to screen all the Urhobo governorship aspirants and the objective is to reduce them from 15 to 2. We want to ask each of the aspirant what they will do for the Urhobo nation. By next year April we would have reduced them to two.”
The UPU chief further averred that it does not support the idea of seccession in the country, pointing out that the Urhobo people will instead continue to join the clamour for true federalism.
“… the Urhobo Agenda seeks to build alliances with our neighours and other ethnic nationalities from the South South and beyond to work out a new destiny for Nigeria towards a new beginning.
“To this end, the Urhobo Agenda does not support seccessionist agitation. It aligns with the call for the restructuring of Nigeria in line with true federalism,” Taiga said.
