"25% OF MY PEOPLE ARE BLIND"- HRH C.E. Collins

Imagine living in a community where the water is acidic, with PH value 4.8? Imagine living in a land and breathing an air with as low as 4.0 as its pH? Imagine living in a community which produces about 10,000 barrels of oil daily, amidst gas, and yet you can't afford a three square meal? What do you think your life would be?
Imagine a community with huge oil corporations which make millions of dollars daily from your land, and you don't benefit a dime from it? Imagine a community absent with the basic social amenities like electricity and water absent? Imagine a situation where about 25% of the people in your community have eye defects or are blind? How gross and frustrating, would life be for you in that community?



This has been the obvious fate of the people of Izombe, who seem to have been sentenced to a life of penury, hopelessness and sufferings, they have got all it takes to make their land the promise land, but the exploitation, negligence, and gross oppression of huge multinational oil corporations in that land have made their dreams look like a dashing hope and a total fiasco, they seem to have been forgotten, they seem to have been abandoned,  they seem to have been neglected, despite the conspicuous veracity that they are the primary landlords and host communities to the oil corporations.

His Royal Majesty,  Chijioke E. Collins, the Nwama 2 of Umunwama Autonomous Community,  and Chairman, Izombe Council of Traditional Rulers, Izombe,  Oguta gives us a vividly shocking and heartbreaking breakdown of the state of Izombe and the resolution of her people.
"For forty years, the people of Izombe have been screwed by Addax Petroleum Development Company who came into our land in 1974 as Ashland Oil.  For forty years, Addax has been taking our oil every day, and the people of Izombe are left to reap from the repercussions and effects of their oil exploration activities. As I talk with you, my people are sick because the environment is cancerous,  the air we breathe is contaminated,  environmental studies carried out Ezeigbo and other renowned environmentalists and published in the Journal of Biology, Agriculture and Healthcare ISSN 2224-3208 (Paper)  ISSN 2225-093X (Online) Vol.3, No.15, 2013, shows that the pH of the soil is as low as 4.0 in Izombe,  the air pH goes as low as 4.4 during the dry season which is acidic. Our water is very acidic with pH between 4.8 - 6.1, which is below the WHO standard and is also acidic, and our water is also very hard, if you soak your clothes for long, it can ruin them.

We have carried out a very simple experiment, take a clean empty basin, and put it on top of a long stool when it is raining,  and make sure it is directly in the rain, and no water from the ground is splashing the basin, there are no trees, roofs or houses blocking it, and then collect the rainwater falling directly from the sky into the basin, if you leave it to settle for few minutes, you will notice some oily black substances like carbon monoxide around the basin,  which means our water is poisonous. The mortality rate of my people is very high, because we are sick, and let's say there is an emergency at night, that requires immediate treatment, before that person is rushed to Owerri from Izombe, that person is dead. We have had series of those encounters in our land, and yet Addax is here drilling our oil, and doing nothing to salvage my people" The monarch cried out

"It is really shocking to know that about 25% of my people are blind. How do we know this? Last year, we conducted a free eye test, and health check up exercise in Izombe, and we were surprised when the statistics had it that, of the people who were tested, about 25% of them have eye defects and some total blindness. The doctors who did these tests said these were the worst cases of eye problems they have ever seen in their practice. How can I be leading a generation of sick people? This treatment meted to us by Addax is so unfair, unjust, and my people can no longer tolerate it. They have decided they don't want Addax in their land again." His Royal Majesty added

"How can you come to someone's land, take their oil, and leave without giving them anything? No Memorandum of Understanding between us and Addax whatsoever, I want to lead a generation of healthy people, and I want to lead a community that has all the basic amenities she needs like electricity,  pipe-borne water,  good hospitals and roads, and schools for our children. Let's say 50 years from now, our oil finishes,  what do we have to show to our generations and the generations yet unborn,  that we once had oil? What do we tell them? How can we explain to them that we had barrels of oil taken daily in our land? We have absolutely nothing to show for it.  And the people of Izombe have spoken their mind, they can no longer tolerate this unscrupulous treatment being subjected to us, we will not let us be ruined in our land by anyone, and we are saying Enough is enough."

"Take a look at my colleagues, the Obi-Ukwu of Ndeuloukwu Autonomous Community, HRH Eze Dr. D. A. Nwauwa and the Obi of Obeabor Autonomous Community, HRH Eze Dr. Oliver. A. Okorowu, sometime last year, they all could see, today they are blind, and Addax hasn't bothered to find out how they fair, and do something to treat them. They don't care. We are tired, we will not let anyone screw us, we've been screwed enough, and we can't take it no more" HRH Egwuagu Collins bled his heart out.

With the people of Izombe so pained with the maltreatment of Addax Petroleum Development Company,  one would only wish for a miracle to turn the hearts of these indigenes towards accepting and reconciling with the international oil company, which seem to have a stake in that land, as the people appear to have taken a stance on the future of Addax.