Women Protest against Decades of Injustice in Rivers Community

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

Hundreds of women from Elem Kalabari, in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State, recently  defied a heavy downpour to stage a peaceful protest at the Cawthorne Channel 2 Jetty, drawing national attention to what they described as decades of systemic exclusion, environmental devastation, and economic injustice in their area.

The women, who lamented the decades of injustice, said despite being Nigeria’s most oil-producing host communities, they hardly felt the impacts of the natural abundance.

Carrying placards bearing messages such as “We Carry the Burden, They Take the Benefits”, “Our Sacrifice, Their Gain”, and “Local Content Law Violated: Kalabari Demands First Right of Refusal,” the women declared that their long silence had ended.

According to the protesters, Elem Kalabari has for decades hosted critical oil infrastructure pipelines, flow stations, gas facilities, and export routes, yet remains one of the most neglected communities in the Niger Delta.

The immediate trigger for the protest, it was gathered, was the recent award of the OML 18 pipeline security and surveillance contract by NNPC Eighteen Limited to Manton Engineering Limited, a company neither based in Elem Kalabari nor in the state.

The women described the decision as a violation of Nigeria’s Local Content Law and the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which guarantee host communities the right of first refusal in contracts affecting their territory.

They questioned what they called a glaring contradiction in the law, noting that while Section 257(2) of the PIA holds host communities responsible for sabotage, those same communities are excluded from securing assets on their own land.

“How can we be blamed for insecurity and yet denied the right to protect our own territory?” one of the protest leader asked.

Elem Kalabari serves as the export corridor for crude oil from OML 18, including production from Cawthorne Channels 1, 2, and 3, Awoba, and Krakrama. Crude oil is said to be evacuated daily through its waterways to the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite this strategic role, the protesters revealed that none of the vessels involved in the operations belong to Elem Kalabari indigenes, none are owned by Kalabari people, and none are owned by companies based in the State.

They also alleged that oil companies operating in the area neither engage the Amanyanabo of Elem Kalabari nor observe customary protocols, despite earning millions of dollars daily from operations conducted through Kalabari waters.

“What flows through our rivers enriches others,” a women leader said. “But when it comes to opportunity, our people are treated as strangers on their own land.”

The women also lamented the fate of their children, many of whom, they said, were sent to universities through years of sacrifice, only to return home unemployed while companies operate profitably on their ancestral land.

They further alleged that workers who were previously full staff under the former operator, Eroton, were downgraded to contract staff under NNPC Eighteen Limited, with reduced pay, poor working conditions, and no job security.

“In some cases, local workers reportedly trained personnel brought in from Lagos, only for the trainees to be offered permanent positions while the locals remained on contract. It is not just unfair,” one protester said. “It is humiliating.”

The protesters further accused oil operators of causing extensive environmental damage in communities such as Mbi-Ama, Moni-Kiri, Portuguese Kiri, and Jacob-Ama, citing oil contamination, declining fish populations, and dying mangroves caused by constant barging and operational discharge.

They said repeated complaints to regulatory agencies have yielded no meaningful response, describing the silence as tacit complicity.

Despite hosting decades of oil extraction, the community was found to have no public electricity, no functional schools, no clinics, no market, and no visible economic infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the women have vowed to sustain their protest until their demands are addressed. They warned that failure by government and operating companies to respond could lead to escalated actions, including the shutdown of operations at the flow station.