Abstract
The study based on the outcome of a 2 year involvement with women organizations in the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria avers that in spite of their apparent invisibility in the dominant Niger Delta discourse, women form the first line of social defence against socio-economic privation in the region. The women play active socio-economic roles in the hostile Niger Delta environment in engendering and sustaining group and individual development. In spite of the structural and cultural limitations imposed on women, their associational life seen in the formation of various socio-economic groups has been invaluable to development in the region. Thus apart from providing coping niches for individual women, these women pool together in groups and associations to tackle the every day challenge of living in the region. This fact makes women and their groups critical agencies of intervention and development devolution in the region that should be properly harnessed in addressing the complex Niger Delta situation in Nigeria.
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Notes
These recent protests include the Escravos protest of July 4, 2002; Ekpan women’s uprising in 1986; Obunagha, Okutukutu and Etegwe communities women protest over the environmental devastation by the Shell owned Gbaran Oil Field near Yenogoa, Bayelsa state (Dadiowei 2003).
This underlines associational obligations even though on a primary level of blood relationship.
Perception of marginalisation in the region can be seen as having started from the pre-independence days when the fears of the minority groups about domination by the majorities led to establishment of the Willnck Commission to look into the validity and amelioration of the fears of the minorities as independence approached.
The use of such instruments as the matching grant initiative in which government shares the burden of a development project with a benefiting community; the establishment of rural/community development bureaus/ministries; and government encouragement for the formation of community level organizations like the town union; the establishment of such programmes as the Department of Food, Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), Better Life Programmes for Rural Women (BLP), Family Support Programme (FSP) etc. were all one form or another of government’s support for self-development initiatives especially in rural and local communities.
According to most of our respondents the women wing nomenclature is an urban creation to designate women’s meetings that are in reality adjunct to the more serious meeting of their husbands. In the views of one of our respondents in Choba, women wing meeting is no longer in vogue since it is pejorative and sees the women as mere attachments to their husbands who belong to main union while women simply form a social women’s wing (Personal Interview, 20-01-2005). In fact the enormous socio-economic burdens women’s associations now shoulder in the various communities and the fact that the women are in many instances at the vanguard of community development have made the women’s wing tag unacceptable any longer.
In the 2002 Chevron case, the TWN (2002) reported that a prominent traditional ruler in the area, Chief Wellington Okirika stated that the women took everybody by surprise since they gave no warning to anybody in the affected communities about their intention. This is really a big departure from the norm in a patriarchal community in which the women usually occupy the backstage.
In the 2002 case about 100–150 women took possession of the facilities but with time the number escalated to over 2000 women (IRINNews, 2002).
This is not just an empty threat since it was actually used in the Niger Delta state of Edo by women protesting the results of the April 2007 gubernatorial election in the state (The Tide Online, April 19, 2007, p. 1).
A subaltern version of the English language that is spoken fluently by both the educated and uneducated in the Niger Delta region. It is a common mode of communication in popular culture in the region since it does not discriminate on basis of education.
Some types fishing in the Niger Delta are the exclusive preserve of women. For instance the utilization of man made ditches near water fronts to trap shrimps and lobsters during the flood season or what is more appropriately called ‘ponding’ is mainly a woman task in the region.
Personal Interview, 18-06-2005.
The communities are Gbaran, Epie, Atisa and Ekpetiama.
Perhaps the above pernicious life style is captured in the sentiments of one of the respondents in Nembe, “I have nothing to say except that we the women are suffering, we can no longer feed our families, our children are dying of hunger and the politics of government. We are organised, the women meeting is strong and we have been able to help ourselves but we are suffering, we are hardship” (Personal Interview, 6-02-2005).
Local expression for prostitution in the whole of the region and even beyond. A word easily evoked in popular culture to describe the tendency to hawking one’s body for cash mainly by women.
The position and desire of women in this connection is captured in the sentiments, “Yes, we have received some help from the oil company but it is not enough. What we want is for them to enable us sustain our families through our sweat. It is a lie that people of the Niger Delta simply want government to share money for them, it is unfair thinking, all we want is since we suffer the affects of the oil let the government and the oil companies make it possible for us to do business. The women only want employment for our husbands and sons and daughters but we want to be able to do something on our own” (Personal Interview, 15-03-2006).
In fact, the women are mindful of such efforts on their part hence one argued, “we have a small micro-credit scheme where we all pool our money together and rotate the sum among members on a two-weekly basis. We also keep something aside which we call association purse, we use the purse for entertainment when we go on social visit to a member’s place and we also lend small amounts of money from the purse to members in distress. Like in December 2005 we lent money from our purse to a member who needed a fibroid operation. Thank God she has recovered” (Personal Interview, 26-01-2006).
Typical of this form of socio-economic women groups is the Ahoada East/West Women Association in Rivers state which is a voluntary association that seeks facilitate savings by members for economic activities; advocacy for women in the area; and peace building through interaction with the youths in the area (Insight on Conflict, 2007).
“It is the responsibility of this association to maintain the market in the community. We also contribute to development projects, we do not just wait for things to be done for us, we do our best. But in this kind of environment it is very difficult especially for women. We do not like the circumstances our children live in now and we are doubtful it will be better tomorrow. We can no longer catch fish or farm on a fertile or large parcel of land. Every thing is polluted, the air, the water, the soil they say oil is good but we are yet to see the goodness of it” (Personal Interview, 22-06-2005).
A middle aged woman in Nembe informed us that the only meaningful petty trading in the region is to target the urban populations in Port Harcourt and Yenogoa. According to her, “fish and vegetables are really doing well in the various beach markets in these urban areas. Any serious woman has no choice but to engage in this trade if not who will buy your wares in the village. Every body there is looking for money, my brother” (Personal interview: 6-02-2005).
In fact the Environmental Impact Assessment done by Shell on the Gbaran Oil field has been roundly criticised for, among other shortcomings not taking women as significant stakeholders to be represented in the process (see, Dadiowei 2003).
Personal Interview (16-03-2005).
Actually the women see government as equally culpable for their plight. Thus, one of them averred, “The truth of the situation here is that the government is colluding with the oil companies probably because of the money involved. But when you look around and see the destruction, you cannot understand it all. I am a school teacher and when my pupils ask questions about what is happening, you know the kids are perceptive, I find it difficult to give them a reasonable and honest explanation, because I also do not understand the politics of it all” (Personal Interview, 17-02-2005).
Personal Interview (9-02-2005).
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Anugwom, E.E., Anugwom, K.N. The other side of civil society story: women, oil and the Niger Delta environmental struggle in Nigeria. GeoJournal 74, 333–346 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9239-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9239-4