From Helicopter To Oil Platform And Beyond...

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu




The joy of journalism is that you can afford to do the impossible. Given the fact that we do have many powerful sources, we can get into circles where mere mortals can only dream of. There was once the opportunity of flying out of Lagos early in the morning and getting to Aso Rock to interview then President Olusegun Obasanjo, and getting back to Lagos before sundry workers could well get to their Lagos offices!

Some of the readers of my last column entitled “At Sea in Niger Delta” had wondered how I managed to stay all of 36 hours on the volatile waters of the Niger Delta without getting kidnapped or even killed. Well, let me now inform them that I did not end the trip just being ferried about in a boat; I wangled a trip in a chopper, a helicopter.

As a true journalist, I will not reveal my source. This strategic source of mine was talking of hiring a helicopter to go to an oil platform in an island off the coast of Port Harcourt. I told him point-blank that I will accompany him on the trip. He said my cover will be blown as a journalist and I risk being killed or jailed or whatever.

“Don’t cry for me,” I replied, adding, “Just get me a space in the helicopter and I’ll take care of myself.”

So, off we went to Nigeria Air Force (NAF) Base in Port Harcourt. The helicopter people gave us pre-flight safety instructions and we boarded the small chopper. It took just 15 minutes’ flight to land on the helipad on the oil platform near the town of Idama in Rivers State. We had to descend a very steep staircase into the main building. Then we got into a boat for the journey into the town of Idama.

The Idama traditional town square is dominated by the statue of the ancestral mother of the town, known as “Mother of Wealth”, from whose redoubt one can clearly set eyes on the Generator house built by the Idama Regional Development Council (RDC) under sponsorship by an oil company. It did not end with just the construction of the generator house and the purchasing of 36.5 KVA soundproof generating set; the power line was equally extended thus aiding the town in electrification expansion. Idama thus boasts of two working generators; one generator is from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). There is electric light all over the community, all day and night, 24/7. So unlike major cities in Nigeria which complain of lack of power, here is one town that never ever knows darkness!

Aside from the road of the town, drainage, generator and generator house, the Idama RDC has also with support of the selfsame oil company renovated the six-classroom block at Government Secondary School, Idama. The work was commissioned by Governor Amaechi on December14, 2007.

The teachers’ quarters built by the company in partnership with the Idama RDC are all of 10 self-contained rooms. The science laboratory built through this partnership is spick and span, enabling the students to put their experiments to work while I was there watching with my source.

The Idama water borehole was made possible by the oil company, completing the picture of the Idama town as one example of what is possible when a host community works in tandem with the oil and gas companies, as confirmed by youthful Akobo Gogo-Abite, the Idama Youth Leader and RDC Secretary. There is no militancy here!

Exploring the town is a joy in itself; most of the locals are laid back, enjoying their lives as best they can. When it was time for us to leave in the evening we boarded the boat for the short journey to the platform. When we got to the building we found to our horror that the sea had dried up, and there was no way we could get the boat to the steep staircase we would use to climb up to the helipad. We were stranded! Eventually it was suggested that we should get to the nearby Joint Task Force (JTF) camp where the soldiers put a long plank for us to climb over the sea to an embankment. It was more than scary! As God would have it, I survived the unimaginable horror until I got into my helicopter seat for the 15-minute flight back to Port Harcourt. That is journalism for you, a life-and-death matter.