Pauline Onyibe 
Background
Niger Delta region has continued to be an endangered and challenged region, especially suffering from all manners of deprivations because of environmental pollution arising from the uncouth activities of oil companies operating in the region.
The federal, states and local governments are not also helping matters due to their neglect of the region. They collect royalties from the oil companies including the 13% oil derivation without putting the welfare of the people of the region into consideration.
It is estimated that as at 2021, the sum of N6, 587,895,590,862.78, was paid to the Niger Delta states by FAAC.
Ijaw Women of America
The abandonment of the region and its people when it comes to human development indices has over the years given birth to different Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), which constantly engage with the people in trying to resolve some of these challenges.
It was in the light of this that a group known as Ijaw Women of America (IWA) recently organised a medical outreach to Odoni community in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa Sate.
The medical outreach was conducted under two days, with about 800 persons including children benefitted from the kind gesture of the team. People with different health challenges were attended to during the programme, which was conducted at Odoni Health Centre.
The team, which visited from the United States of America had about six medical alongside a number of health care practitioners including 10 nurses, pharmacists and numerous volunteers.
According to the lead medical doctor of the team, Seleipiri Iboroma Akubo, the team had about 40 medical personnel. Akubo said that part of their mission as Ijaw Women of America was to bring clean water to Ijaw Nation, empower women in education and entrepreneurship and to bring heath care to the people.
Disclosing the progress of the medical outreach, the doctor said that a lot of the patients came with various pathogenesis, adding that they diagnosed patients with malaria, high blood pressure, diabetics, and eye issues.
She further revealed that an Optician was available to see patients, with free eye glasses offered to those that needed them. According to her, ‘‘we have done what we can and we educated the people on how to discover and manage their health status better.
We also gave them health education on how to manage their blood pressure, with diet exercise and we also talked about nutrition to manage these diseases. “We also talked about genetics because it is important to know that illness that run in the family lines can also affect people.
We have younger people having high blood pressure. We also educated the people about type two diabetics, which a lot of the people didn’t know about. “We are trying to raise awareness about these illness and it is also imperative that we talk about the environmental impact of oil and what it does to our people.
Our people are drinking water that has been affected and eating foods that have been affected, so we saw other illnesses we are not supposed to see.
We hope that somehow, we can send this massage out so that other nongovernmental organisations like us and even the government should do so much more.’’
Curiousity
She further noted, “We need to hold people accountable to ensuring that there are a lot of infrastructure in place to clean up what has already happened. So that we don’t continue these issues because we have been going on with this for years and it has really not changed and we are having more companies come and do what they want.”
In her remark, Dr Valentina Bennett Daminabo disclosed that one of the preventive conditions has been malaria, stating: “we have identified a lot patients with high blood pressure. We have given them education to avoid salt and watch their dietary intake.
But the most important thing is that they need to regularly check their blood pressure. “We have done the check and we can’t say that they are hypertensive but they need to follow up with doctors and continue to check their blood pressure so that the doctors can follow up with and continue to treat them as needed.
“Above that, life style changes matter a lot, they need to reduce stress, eat the right diet and be able to control their blood pressure as needed.” While Eunice Bratua Apreala, who is the Founder of IWA and lead of the medical outreach, stated the reason for the project, as she noted that most of the time, her people call for medical treatment.
“We thought that it is time to extend the services we give to our families to people who don’t have family members abroad to receive a direct service from us,” she disclosed.
He added: “We decided to come and give quality medical service to our people back home and you know that our Ijaw people are marginalised. So we feel that it is time to do our bit since we already have the experience and knowledge. We felt we should bring the knowledge to our people here.
Sustaining momentum
“This is the first time we are doing this and by God’s grace, we will continue to do it. The first week, we did it in Bonny Kingdom, we saw close to 1, 000 people and we are breaking record here again.
“We are a nonprofit organisation and our funds come from fund raising. We don’t depend on the government to fund us. We used our personal money and some donations to fund this medical outreach.
“I want to use this opportunity to tell people to come and invest in Niger Delta. This is a safe place.
Please, ignore whatever you see out there that is a red flag. We have foreigners here that came with us and they are not feeling that they are not from here and they are safe.
They don’t even feel that they are outside their country.” Timipa Okorowanta, who is the Vice President of Ijaw Women of America, expressed satisfaction and fulfilment, saying, “We have been educating the Ijaw child and making sure that we impact on the lives of people in the Niger Delta Area.”
She also disclosed that the group had built some boreholes in some communities. ‘‘We have built about nine water wells so far and we are expecting to build more.
Our goal here is to treat at least 1, 000 persons and whoever that is in here, will be taken care of and our team of doctors and nurses are working so hard.
People in need
Deborah Dein Abbey, who is the President of IWA, said that was very evident that the Niger Delta communities suffer a lot.
She noted: “It is evident that our people need medical help, they need educational help, clean water. I’m not sure why the communities themselves do not provide for the communities but we see the need for those and that is why we came.”
She continued: “The governments at various levels need to do what they supposed to do and I think, it is a combination of self – ishness and greed that one person would have everything and the whole community has nothing.
“There is undue stress in the country. The minute an average Nigerian wakes, it is undue stress, so we have a high rate of high blood pressure, diabetics and high rate of cancer now because of the oil pollution in the area.
‘‘We know for a fact that since Oloibiri, there has not been one clean up in the Niger Delta. Therefore, the communities and government should make sure that they look into the lives of the people or else we miss everything.’’
On the selection of the communities, she said, “In the unification of Ijaw Nation, we see no state boundaries, or local government boundaries, we see only clans.
We are all brothers and sisters, we pick these communities either by application or we ballot them.” On the challenges of coming to Nigeria for the medical outreach, she said, “Coming here and shipping the stuffs and coming here to see people that need health care, I was crying when I saw the outpour of people that could not normally get what they were getting right now.
“For me, it is a big deal and we pray that we continue to do this. Others should come and join us, we are a people of unity, the more we are, the merrier. Together, we can do great things.”
She further disclosed that the outreach was based on an invitation to all Izon women in the United States of America and other places to either join them or form their groups wherever they are and collaborate with them.
Appreciation
In appreciation of the gesture by IWA, His royal Highness, Stephen Pere-Albert, Abubu III of Odoni Kingdom, expressed appreciation to the team, disclosing how fulfilled and happy his people are for the kind gesture by IWA.
“This is wonderful, for people in the Diaspora to remember this place and they have been touching lives. It is very commendable. I charge them to go on doing this good work. I encourage other groups to emulate what this group is doing,” stated.
He further said, “I thank the group for what they have been doing in Ijaw land and I urge them not to relent and let other organizations do similar things.
They may not need to come to my place too. Let them go to other places and touch lives like this group.” “If our youths are reacting somehow, it is because they have been pushed.
You can’t have youths that have no jobs, nothing to do. Most of them are graduates. Some have learnt skills but they need empowerment so that they can be on their own.
I have been telling them, if there are no jobs, you create one.’’ Zaria Tamarakuro, Youth President of Odoni Clan, in his reaction thanked the group for bringing the outreach to his community.
“The whole community is happy and we are so grateful for this opportunity, we won’t take it for granted. It is not all the communities that have this kind of opportunity,” he said.
Capacity building
Benedicta John Jacob, an Ijaw woman from Central Zone, said, “We want to say thank you to Ijaw Women of America for doing this and for always remembering their home and I pray that they will continue to do it and let God bring the funds that they need to do more.”
One of the beneficiaries of the medical outreach, Michael Engbi, thanked the team for their show of kindnesses. Saying, ‘‘the treatment that was accorded to me was very wonderful.
I thank the Ijaw Women Association of America for bringing this outreach to Odoni Kingdom.” Regina Urowu, who said she had malaria and was treated, thanked the team for remembering Odoni community.
She said, “God will bless them and when they want to go, God should take them back home peacefully.”
