Eleme, Speak Out
Are Eleme People really singing
their problems loud and clear enough? Are they actually telling the world their
sufferings, deprivations, and other challenges? Speaking out or dramatizing a problem
through writings, speeches, acts, etc. is a sure way of bringing same to the
forefront. What many term “mere song” has proved to be an effective strategy
for dismantling barriers and solving problems.
All over the world organized people
have sang their problems into solutions. Repeated song is a powerful weapon. The
blacks in former Apartheid South Africa dismantled the bricks of oppression
through the instrumentality of “song”. They attracted the attention of the
international community by effective songs – music, dance-drama, literature, protest
and so on to drag home their demands. They were consistent, focused and
determined to be liberated and they attained that lofty goal.
The economic, social, environmental
and health situations in Eleme should be of concern to the average Eleme man
and woman, boy and girl. The armies of unemployed youths on our streets, lack
of infrastructural facilities, the social decay in the land, the environmental
challenges, rising health issues, the rapidly decreasing populations are enough
to propel us to saturate the mass media (print and electronics), social media
and the entire universe with the “Eleme Song” when well-defined and articulated.
People are attracted by what they
see and/or hear. Our oppressors want to extinct us by inflicting pains and
environmental atrocity on us and hiding our predicaments from the world. Let us
expose their evils by speaking out. Help only comes to those who seek it! We
cannot fight our oppressors because they have the wherewithal to exterminate us.
But, with help of our immediate and remote neighbours and the international
community, we can appeal to their conscience and ask for a better deal. Besides,
if telling the world our ordeal is song let us sing on. Speaking out is no sin,
telling your story is no crime, and narrating your experiences is no hate
speech. Fear not, be courageous, and be strong!
In fact, one of the responses to my
write up “Facilities of Death” on the wall of Nneka that has attracted my
interest and that should be of great concern to the leaders of Eleme is that of
Ibim Semenitari who wrote, “Many years ago while in Tell magazine, I did a
story on the situation in Eleme and some other impacted communities. The story
was borne out of research conducted by my late uncle Prof Difini Datubo Brown.
He was a professor of plastic surgery and long before reparative surgeries for
cleft upper lips and other congenital malformations became known he had done a
lot of these at UPTH and he discovered that most of his patients who came in
with congenital malformations were from communities with high levels of
pollution. He went ahead and took samples from Eleme, then NAFCON was in full
operation and his findings were troubling”.
Are you aware that most of Eleme
people today have one congenital challenge or the other? Are you also aware
that while the populations of other ethnic nationalities are increasing ours is
declining? Let us all sing the “Eleme Song” until things change for better.
Semenitari concluded by calling on “Corporations
and agencies in the Niger Delta … to look critically at the environment and
issues around the health of our people. Truly Eleme has taken a lot of beating”.
A friend of Eleme singing the “Eleme Song” (if
you like) while, Eleme people watch in fear and silence, expecting miracle. It
is the repeated song of the Hebrews,
cry of the oppressed Israelites, which moved God to raise Moses to lead them
out of Egypt, not fear and silence. Moses started fighting for the Hebrews long
before God supported him with miracles. Every Eleme person is a child of
miracle. Let us take the first step and God will do the rest. Today, the Ibos
are singing the Biafra Song, the Yoruba are singing the Oduduwa Song, and the
Hausas are singing the Arewa Song. The Ijaws are drumming for Niger Delta
Republic? Even the Ogonis are asking for Ogoni Nation. Where is Eleme? What is
the Eleme Song? Let us stop being one of the crowds and be what God wants us to
be.
The Queen of Great Britain and
Ireland Express of India usurped our independence from us on 19th
and 20th of April, 1898 with the promise to offer us protection which
they never did but rather turned around to fraudulently mortgaged us without
our consent to Nigeria that is not only robbing us of our wealth but decimating
us. What do we want from Nigeria? Say it, write it, act it! The world is
listening to true cries. The universe has ways of responding to true complains.
There are people outside Eleme who
are willing to sing the “Eleme Song” more than we do now because we are
suffering from overdose of our problems. These friends and well-wishers of
Eleme are only waiting for us to start singing and they will join. What are we
waiting for? It is time to speak out! What do Eleme want from Nigeria that
British married her illegally to?
this is a nice writeup
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Lift up the trumpet and loud let it run
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