Advocate against Land Grabbing, Group Tells Rivers Farmers

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has sensitised farmers in Eteo community in Eleme, Rivers State, on the Land Use Act.

The group at a two-day sensitisation programme in Eteo said the training would help the farmers understand the land rights and advocate against land grabbing in the area.The Programme Manager of HOMEF, Stephen Oduware, who spoke at the training, explained that the community have allegedly been disposed of their lands, adding: “They have been stripped of their rights and we are here to sit together to look at these things.”

“We are here to examine the Land Use Act 1978, which takes the land from the people and puts it in the hands of the government under the pretext of putting it in the care of the government to hold it in trust for the people. But we have seen that the lands and peoples right have been taken from the people.

“So we see the Act as an instrument used to grab land from the people. How on earth can the government claim that what is on the surface is for the people and what is beneath is for government? I think that is the height of deception and disrespect to the communities.

“So we are here to discuss the way forward. We are here to look at the elements that make up our rights to examine the African Charter for human and people rights in a bid to look at those components that make us humans so that we can advocate and reclaim our lands.”

Oduware stressed that “we have a corps of farmers well-vested in their rights and is able to push for the recognition of those rights because if they do not push for it nobody will give it on a platter.”

He added that “for anybody to advocate for anything, one must seek knowledge first. If one does not know, one will not be able to advocate, and that is why we are taking the pains to make sure we do these outreach to communities to have them equipped with this knowledge so that together we will reclaim the land and move on with our lives.”

One of the resource persons at the training, Ken Henshaw, expressed: “We realised that Nigeria and communities in the Niger Delta are at a very critical juncture in their history. This is a period where for the first time there is a global consensus that oil extraction needs to stop. Because the consequences are dire and many of which include climate change.”

Henshaw, who is the executive director of We The People (WTP), continued that: “Part of what we are doing here is to engage those communities, build their resilience and support them in reclaiming their lives and existence ahead of a post-hydrocarbon age.

“What we are doing here is to remind them that they own the land and they have a right to their land and livelihoods, and it is their duty and responsibility to protect that land and their heritage.”