By Isaac Olamikan / Special Correspondent, Benin
The promises of the two major players in Saturday’s presidential polls, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on how they intend to address the issue of the Bonga Oil Spill of 2011, will go a long way to determine the number of votes they will get on election day from the affected community, the artisanal fishermen and women scattered along the coastal region of Nigeria.
The artisanal fishermen and women, who are an integral part of the Nigerian labour force, have in recent times been bedeviled by different calamities in their bid to live a decent life. These silent toiling masses of Nigeria numbering in their millions contribute in no small way to reducing the pressure on the Nigerian ruling elite by providing their own means of livelihood and survival. The downtrodden and in the words of Frantz Fanon “wretched of the earth “in this instance wretched of the Nigerian state, not only contribute in the reduction of crime in society as no fishing trawler goes into the sea without at least five people being on board, they equally contribute to the security of the Nigerian waterways especially in the area of provision of information on happenings in the Nigerian waters.
This set of Nigeria entrepreneurs is not captured in any government indexing in the real sense of it. One will only wonder if their contributions to the national economic development were captured in the last Nigerian rebasing that presented Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa. Herein lies the crisis of the sector of informal employers of labour and workers little wonder then that in the on going electioneering of both the ruling party and the main opposition party little is said about this set of Nigerians even when issues around agriculture are talked about.
On the basis of the above, how will these people be convinced of the transformation agenda of the ruling party or the change agenda of the _main opposition party? Let us take for instance the over 100,000 members of the Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria from Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Ondo and Rivers states and the shoreline communities whose livelihood and earning capacities have been ruined by the Shell Bonga Oil Spill of December 20, 2011, who on their own have been making efforts at getting Shell to restitute them since the spillage without success.
Despite agreeing that the House of Representatives and the NOSDRA have been up and doing in getting the issues resolved, the fruit of those efforts have not been harvested by the impacted people. With some already dead while awaiting the outcome of their struggle for a better deal from the company that has ruined their livelihood means how will they believe in the political class to go and vote?
These people want assurances from those seeking their mandate to leadership that their case will not end up in the coolers while their suffering continues as according to the Niger Delta Coordinator of the Shell Bonga Oil Spill impacted fishermen, Pastor Samuel Ayadi in an interview.
“Since the incident of the Shell Bonga Oil Spill of 20th December 2011 and the stay away order of NOSDRA, the fishermen plying their fishing trade along the Nigerian coastal waters off shore have not recovered themselves. The most common fish, Bonga fish, has disappeared as the Shell platform was built at its breeding zone hence the name Bonga platform. With this sorry state, most artisan fishermen can no longer fend for their families, their children have dropped out of school while some, including my vice chairman in Akwa Ibom State, have lost their lives simply because they could not afford medical bills! NOSDRA and the House of Representatives have done their bit of which we are very grateful to them for standing by the truth. However, at this crossroads of making Shell to restitute us, the question is: “Who will come to the rescue of the fishermen?”
All hope is not lost! The tears of the fishermen can still be wiped as according to Prince Chima Williams of Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN), the group supporting the cause of the association.
“Thank God for the rescheduling of the 2015 general elections! For whatever must have been given as the reason for the postponement or the undertone behind it, eventually it will turn out to be for the best interest of Nigerians. It will afford INEC the opportunity to strengthen the mechanisms for free, fair, credible and transparent elections.
“It will create room for the political parties and their candidates to rejig their campaigns and electoral promises focusing on issues of importance to Nigerian people rather than the trend of name callings! “For instance, it’s been very highly appalling that none of the political parties have presented a clear roadmap on how to tackle the environmental problems destroying the fabrics of this country and how to handle the resultant mess already created by corporations’ activities especially as it affects the petroleum sector! There is no composite environmental law for Nigeria.
“The Petroleum Industry Bill is hanging, the UNEP Report on Ogoni land and by extension the entire Niger Delta and its recommendations may soon become history, with the various large scale pollutions and destruction occasioned by oil companies’ activities of which the Shell Bonga Oil Spill of 2011 is said to be the largest in recent times, impacting on artisanal fishermen and women in their hundreds of thousands across the five Niger Delta States of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Ondo and Rivers as well as shoreline communities in some of these states among others, helpless Nigerian citizens are left to the mercy of the multi-national corporations or to fight for themselves!“
At a point like this, it will be gratifying to Nigerian electorate especially those impacted by these and other myriads of environmental, social and political problems in this country to have those seeking their votes and mandate to lead them address these issues and provide roadmaps on how to tackle them if they are elected into office. Nigerians should get it right this time around.
Nigerians should vote only those that can remember that the ordinary Nigerian citizen is a human being that deserves respect after they get into office, not the showmanship they_ are doing now. After all every candidate has a background that can be measured. Cross check their activities in the past five to 10 years_ and make your decisions on who should have your votes”.
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