From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The oil-rich Egni sub-ethnic nationality in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, Rivers State, has expressed concerns about developmental abandonment by federal and state governments.
The people have lamented that for the past 50 years of oil exploitation and exploration in their area, they lack social amenities, which have led to the forthcoming Egni Development Summit 2023.
Briefing journalists in Port Harcourt, at the weekend, Chairman, Egni Professors and Academic Doctors Forum (EPADOF), Professor Daniel Ogum, said the forthcoming summit would produce Egni Declaration 2023.
He continued that the Egni Declaration 2023 would serve as Egni’s development compass and strategic plan in the decades ahead.
Professor Ogum said the development summit, which will hold on December 26, 2023, in Obite, ONELGA, would address their concerns, which included peace and security in Egni, Education, Youth and Women Empowerment, Health challenges and the Egni environment, Egni urbanisation, Investment and Industry, Leadership: Institutional and Traditional and many others.
He said: “Having this press conference, the pain in our heart is enermous over the past 50 decades, crude petroleum and natural gas have been extracted from our gain born land. So much revenue has been donated to the Nigerian nation, from what we have as our endowment of nature.
“But, there are no flyovers in Egni; there is no hospital today that is functional in Egni. There is no hospital even in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area. Even as I speak, that no hospital has oxygen. So, if there is a case of emergency, it is a case of ‘God be with you till we meet again’.
“As we speak, when we are young, we knew a lot of animals, we knew a lot of plants, a lot of species of fishes, they are no more, they have gone extinct, because of the deployable condition of oil exploitation and exploration.
“However, we are peace loving people, we are in pain, but we smile and beckon on the government, Federal and State governments to come to our aid, to help our children go to school well.
“When you are in a land and you have seen so much, so much wealth and there is no opportunity to partake of these wealth, it is very likely that there may be one or two forms of disturbances.”
Professor Ogum added that natural justice demands that the ‘goose that lays the golden egg’, should benefit from the wealth gotten from Egni ethnic nationality.
He said: “Today, it is a knowledge driven economy, we would not wait for oil and gas to seize to be in our home land. Nobody remembers Oloibiri anymore and today, we know that the hydrocarbon source of energy is been frowned at all over the world.
“This is the time to think of how to channel our energies more valuably and we believe that the government and the cooperate citizens that have gained so much from our home land and people of goodwill, will come to our rescue, so that we can plan a vision that is sustainable and by the grace of God, we shall succeed.”
The organisers urged members of the public to participate in laying a solid foundation and erecting a sustainable superstructure of development for Egni homeland.