FOR a year and three months, Veronica Aloy Khenom worked tirelessly on her okra and cassava farm, just adjacent her home in Gokana, one of four local government areas in Ogoniland. One bright afternoon towards the end of January, she returned to finally gather the produce. But what she met was disappointing—though unsurprising.

Since constant spilling of oil has taken a great toll on the quality of soil in her community, making it less and less fertile, Veronica’s harvests have dropped in both size and quantity, despite the use of fertilisers. And she is no novice when it comes to farming. She learnt the work from her mother several decades ago and has since used it to sustain herself, feed her family, and sponsor her children’s education.

“Before the spill, when we farm sometimes, if it is okra, we can get four or five basins from one plot of land. But now, you will toil hard before you get one,” she laments.

“You can see the cassava now. Before, we used to train our children with cassava, but look at it now. And this is harvest from all the farm,” the mother of four says as she points at empty sacks on the floor.

“In the past, today would have been our happiest day because we would have got money. But with this, you won’t get anything. Even if you try to sell this, nobody will buy because it is too small. The harvest is very poor.”

This has been the lot of Veronica for years and now she is considering a career shift to trading, which appears to be more profitable. Her children, one in JSS3, one in SS1, and the eldest, studying Surveyor and Geometrics at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), are all out of school due to financial constraints.

Kadi Aloy Khenom, 14, who hopes to become a naval officer, makes up for lectures missed by visiting her friends after school hours to learn from them.

“I hope to help the orphans when I grow,” she enthuses. “I won’t allow them to come the way I came—as in they won’t suffer these kinds of things. I have to give them a scholarship so that they can become something in the future.”


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smI5m-YWies

Read more: https://www.icirnigeria.org/special-report-life-in-ogoniland-still/