Our Love for the Niger Delta - By Soty Ray

Yesterday was father's day & the kind of love I saw on social media really got me thinking.......... really long thoughts.

My contact is majorly people from the Niger Delta Region & if we truly express love the way we do on social media platform then this world will be a better & peaceful place for us all to live in.

This picture should be a concern for us all in this region.

The average yoruba man respects his elders & have genuine love for his people, they protect their own whether related by blood or not.

For the hausas, unity keeps them. An average hausa man will never join to work against his fellow hausa irrespective of party affiliation, religion, background etc.

Here in our region the reverse is the case which is why our area is as can be seen in the picture. It's not marginalisation as some think, it's fully our own making.

If we can love the way we express on father's/mother's days as well show respect like the Yorubas & be united like the hausas then this would change.

It's only in this region that I see people who represent their communities negotiate with oil & other companies not to bother with any community project but can settle them with even if it's 10% or less of what would have been used for developing the community.

It's also only in this region you see youths stop ongoing work for the development of their communities & ask to be settled before commencement of any project. This is why we are so underdeveloped.

While working in the bank, I had the privilege of monitoring some projects in various states.
One of the projects failed in a community in Rivers State because the youths seized all the equipments & asked to be settled (a project that would benefit them & the whole community) so the company packed their remaining tools & left never to return again.
In Akwa Ibom state, a company asked them to get a project worth about N50m for them to carryout as part of their contribution to their host community but the community leader asked the company to settle him with N5m & forget about the project. The company agreed because this leader was ready to work against them if they didn't.
In Oyo state on the other hand, a project was to be executed in a community & the people were so excited, made provision for breakfast daily for the workers & gave them all the assistance they needed till the successful completion of the project.

I remember Dr. Emi Membere during the RIMA programme talked deeply on the negative effects of the youth restiveness on our economy, he mentioned why our port isn't functioning & why the Apapa Wharf is being used & Lagos state is booming. He also said all the major companies have relocated to Lagos & Abuja because of the issues they encounter down here. He said a lot that got me thinking & worried. I just wish our people can listen & desist from all such practices drawing this region backwards.
Until we change our mentality & orientation, we won't come out of this.

Kidnapping, robbery & other vices are worse in this area than in the Western & Northern regions because those people have regards for elders. They come back here & spoil our people against each other.

One of the thieves who robbed us (from Bayelsa, 1 from Ogoni, another from Eleme, one Akwa Ibom & an Ibo boy - all Niger Delta small boys) saw me the other day & was begging for forgiveness that it's the work of the devil & he's from a poor background. Who's from a rich background? I asked him. According to him, an hausa man will bring drugs from the north & give to them, they too will take & start working against their people. He claimed an hausa guy encourage them to steal & bring to him. That same hausa man who is doing this in our state cannot do same in his own state. Our people cannot even try that in their states but we allow them because we don't have regard for our own.

You see a child who doesnt have regard for his/her father or a wife who nags always show much love. If only we can practice some of the good things we see, write or read.

May God help our region. I go with the minister Ibe Kachukwu not to stop any good thing coming to this region as I plead with my people to embrace peace.

We need peace if we want to be developed, we need peace so that the investors will return & employ our people. What our people don't know is that when they burst oil pipeline, our people suffer because those that work as contract staff get sacked as their services will no longer be needed.

I believe in dialogue. I believe in peace. I believe in love. I believe in unity. I believe that someday we will get there. We surely will by God's grace.
So help us God!!! Amen

Soty Ray