A Lifetime Of Oil, A Lifetime Of Neglect
My name is Daddy Kris. I am Ogbevire, born of Ovade, raised in Oghara. And for all my 59 years on this earth, I have watched one constant: the towering presence of Pan Ocean Oil Company in my homeland, and the crushing poverty that has grown alongside it.
I was born in 1967. Pan Ocean was already here. Its pipelines run through our land like veins, carrying the black gold that fuels a nation. Yet, if you drive through Ovade today, you will see a community stripped of dignity. We are, without shame, the most deprived in Oghara, arguably in all of Delta State.
The question is: Where is the wealth? Where is our share?
For too long, the talk has been of “host communities” and “deve.” Let me be clear: the omonile and deve mentality is a highway to everlasting poverty. It is crumbs from the master’s table.
Well, I am not here for crumbs. I am here for justice.
Under the United Nations charter, the Nigerian state has a duty to protect our rights. Pan Ocean has a corporate duty to respect our rights, which fundamentally means do no harm. This has been translated globally as Corporate Social Responsibility. So I ask: what is the tangible, visible responsibility Pan Ocean has shown to Ovade? Where are the schools, the hospitals, the potable water, the light? All we have are the invisible poisons: the oil spills seeping into our water, the gas flares poisoning our air, the degradation of the land that once fed us.
I am not merely asking. I am acting. I will be dispatching a team of experts to Ovade to conduct a thorough forensic examination. Their mission would be to document every spill, measure every toxin, and build an irrefutable case. Pan Ocean will be held to account, not by agitation for handouts, but by the power of evidence and international law.
We all have a role to play except Our Kings are silent, Oghara Elite Forum is a waste of space, local politicians are blind and the people are now like sheep without shepherd
My pain goes beyond Ovade. It is the pain of being an Urhobo man watching others learn the rules of the game while we kill ourselves for the scraps. Out of frustration I set up Urhobo Television to preach to my people except they were not ready to listen.
Politically, look around. The Ijaws, our neighbours, have understood the power of a unified front. From Isaac Boro’s Niger Delta Republic to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s sacrifice, to the relentless agitation of Tompolo and Asari Dokubo. They have fought, and they have gained, producing a President, securing contracts, ensuring their youth are not only Keke riders. Their latest victory is legal: the UK Supreme Court just ruled that the Ijaw communities in Okpabi v. Royal Dutch Company can sue for environmental damages in English courts. It was their King, HRH Emere Godwin Okpabi, who led that charge.
Now look at us. Look at our 24 educated Urhobo kings. What is our collective strategy? Where is Urhobo Tompolo? I see our traditional rulers going to beg for a share of oil spill compensation from others. It is a shame that burns my soul.
In politics, only one Urhobo voice has thundered for resource control: Chief James Ibori. Where are the others? Uduaghan was silent. Okowa played the bigot. Oborevwori is a novice, learning on the job while our people drown. Even Ovie Omo-Agege, as Deputy Senate President, could not champion an Urhobo agenda. Meanwhile, the Anioma people, who have benefited immensely from Delta, are now boldly saying they want their own state, declaring that what exists is already “Anioma State.”
We are being carved out of our own destiny.
I, Daddy Kris, have been to the mountain top, and I have seen a future where Ovade is not a pit of neglect. I have seen a future where Urhobo land claims its rightful place not through strife with our Itsekiri brothers, but through strategic, unified legal and political action.
I weep for Ovade. I weep for Oghara. I weep for Urhobo.
But my tears are not of surrender. They are the fuel for a coming fire, a fire of evidence, of legal action, of relentless demand for what is rightfully ours. Pan Ocean has operated here since my first breath. By the time of my last, I will ensure they have answered for every single one of those years.
The era of begging is over. The era of accountability has begun.
This is about whether our children will inherit a land that nurtures or destroys. It is about choosing not which demon to tolerate, but how to dismantle the system that breeds them.
Let us move with clarity, courage, and unwavering resolve.
In solidarity,
Ogbevire Christian Ashaiku (AKA Daddy Kris)
PhD Research Fellow in Law & Human Rights
University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
