Dear Mr. Project, #StoptheCook #StoptheSoot

BY KENNETH C. NWAOGU

I have lived in Port Harcourt my whole life. The city has been through a lot in its recent history. From the blood-curdling security challenges to the perpetual toxic political climate, we somehow still remain on our feet. But nothing, absolutely nothing is quite like this soot from hell. The lives of six million men women and children are on the brink of extinction of geological proportions.

I will bore you with the details of its make-up and chemistry.

Two years ago when it started to encapsulate us, medical experts warned of the short and long term effects of the deadly soot in our lives. They were spot on.

I visited a friend whose daughter was admitted in a hospital along the popular Stadium Road for an illness not related to the soot. There were about eight families with at least a child each at the reception waiting to see a physician. A child of about nine months old crawled towards me. She had a running nose. That was not surprising to see. The surprising thing was the colour of the fluid coming out of her nostrils. It was almost black. Then I took time to observe every child in that place. Each of them had one respiratory issue or the other. Their parents can afford to take them to see the doctor. There are many who can’t. What happens to them?

The popular Port Harcourt OAP Kofi Bartels posted this thread on his verified twitter handle:

‘A MESSAGE FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE’, the tweet started, “(read to know the effect the Soot is having on people’s health): I just received a terrible news of my friend’s husband passing away. He is a pilot with Aero contractors and had some congestion in his chest/lungs.

The hospital here in PH was treating Pneumonia, pumped him with lots of antibiotics, but to no avail. He was flown to National Hospital Abuja, where tests were carried out and they got samples of VERY BLACK SUBSTANCE AND PARTICLES IN HIS LUNGS – BLACK SOOT.

“The hospital also tested his wife(my friend) and their 2 children and found same substance in their lungs but was not as much as their Late Dad…He then passed. My friend explained to the National Hospital Abuja, about the ‘Black Soot’ and the doctors informed my friend that this has killed 6 children and 5 adults brought to them from Rivers State. The FG really need to act fast as I fear for young ones. #StopTheSoot.”

Reading that thread terrified and horrified me to my marrow because I wonder what one-year-old son’s lungs  look like. A child born today inhale very ‘sooty-air’ from the very first breadth.

A few weeks ago, I listened to a popular radio show in Port Harcourt, “The Funky 4” on their weekly comedy show. About midway through the two hour long show, they placed a phone call live to the Rivers State Commissioner of Health and they questioned him on the efforts made by the state to stop the soot and what measures are put in place should all hell broke loose.

His response?

Nothing cogent just like all other comments made by any River State Government official who has spoken on this issue in the past two years. He didn’t wait on a second invitation to take a veiled shot at the refinery in the state as being a major contributor to the soot.

How long has the refinery existed? Over half a century. It didn’t shower us with dangerous particulate matter until two years ago? How amazing.

The major cause/source of the soot is well known. Illegal refining of crude oil. The boys who are paid about fifty thousand Naira daily to cook crude oil are just pawns in this whole knavery.

The devilish scheme runs deep and spreads broad. It takes a certain level of expertise to safely and successfully ‘burst’ crude pipeline and move millions of barrels daily to the kitchen. Someone at NNPC or whichever of its subsidiary responsible for the pipelines have to watch someone’s back and always give the ‘all clear’ signal to the stealing process. Palms get greased down or I should say, up the the ‘value chain’ which includes compromised security agents.

The appetite for the product (diesel) is voracious. It is cheap and has a good flash-point. The market stretches as ‘far’ as Abia, Imo Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. Banks, companies, some homes, get steady supply of the product. Some petroleum depot mix the legally refined product with the illegally refined product to maximise profit. There is at least a fifty percent chance that the diesel in your vehicle, generator or any machine you operate (if you reside in Rivers State or a neighbouring state) is ‘kpo fire’.

The Rivers State and the Federal Governments point finger at each other on who should take responsibility, while we the sufferers turn our necks back and forth like we are watching a Grand Slam Final as they accuse each other. I find this extremely absurd.

The reality is this: Federal Government is in Abuja, and the soot is in Rivers State!

Dear Governor Wike, being a governor of a state is not all about projects. You swore an oath to protect and secure the lives of Rivers people. You have FAILED! I say it again, you are a FAILURE in this aspect.

This is not about PDP or APC. As a matter of fact I don’t belong to any and quite frankly I detest both. Our lives dangle by a thin thread, that’s what this is about.

It’s saddens me that the state government stands akimbo or make virtual motion without real movement and watch the soot filter through our lungs into our blood streams and mangle the life out of us.

Of course they live in air-conditioned house, possibly have air purifiers in their homes and offices, drive ‘A C tight’ vehicles and expose themselves and their immediate families as little as possible to the soot.

Oh! And yes, most importantly, they can buy the best medicare out there.

How about us?

Any day Governor Wike decides to stop this soot, it stops! It is not android science.

To stop the soot our dear Mr. Project you have to stop the cook. You MUST drive them all out of the kitchen. You must take the unicorn by the horn. I strongly believe the FG will give you its unalloyed support to achieve that. No product, no money for every one involved. They lock up shop. Your rudderless leadership in this issue is the reason it persists.

Does Mr. Project know the Local Government Areas the kitchens are located?

I believe he does.

Does he know the communities these dastardly acts are perpetrated?

Well, if he doesn’t, his Local Government Caretaker Committee Chairmen are a phone call away. (Oh! my! I forgot the Local government elections and general elections are in the horizon. So no one gives ‘real’ sh*t).

Can he work in tandem with the Federal Government controlled Security agencies to stop the cook?

Yes! He worked with FG very seamlessly when they decided enough was enough for the dreaded Don Wanny.

So why drag your feet and endanger the lives of six million people?!

Gosh!

A few day back, I wanted to buy garri from a local market in my Woji axis of Port Harcourt. I advised the trader to cover his open-goods because of the soot.

“How I go take sample my market nah?” She responded to my suggestion with a question of hers.

We have been breathing and eating this soot for two years now. Every oxygen we draw into our lungs draws our grave several times faster.

If our air keeps getting polluted by soot unabated for the next three years, boko haram and killer herdsmen would be child’s play compared to the zombie apocalypse we shall see in Rivers State.

Save our souls.

Stop the cook, stop the soot.

Governor.

Please.

email: @chimakenny910