Cheers, fears as oil search resumes in the North
Barambu and other neighbouring communities in Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State, near the border with Gombe State, came into the limelight when President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Kolmani River II well.
The well is one of the sites of the ongoing oil drilling by Frontier Exploration, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Since the early 1990s, people of the communities around the area have seen many people and companies come and go in the name of searching for the black gold in an area they see as their only world - where they farm, rear animals, eat and sleep.
The road to the communities that will be affected by the current oil prospecting was built about 20 years ago when the survey to prospect for the black gold started during the late General Sani Abacha.
The road, which had almost disappeared, save for its remains on some sections, connects over 10 communities up to Kwaimawa, a popular settlement with a weekly market, where the oil prospecting issues are most widely discussed among the locals.
The road passes through Modo, Mai Madi and other smaller communities, and because of its difficult, sandy nature, apart from the popular small popular trucks that ply the road, only skilled young motorcyclists take passengers, charging exorbitant fees.
The prominent communities around the oil prospecting areas are all agrarian; hence their people are either farmers, herders, or both, because of the sizeable population of the Fulani, alongside the Kanuri and other tribes in Alkaleri and Kirfi local government areas.
Although a motorcyclist, Bala Abubakar, a resident of Lome village, knows the activities going on around the communities, he is oblivious of its long term impact on his life and that of his community.
“All I know is that they are drilling for oil in our area. If in the long run I can have good road, school, hospital, and may be a job in one of the oil companies, it will be fine with me,’’ he said.
Kwaimawa is the best place to get the locals at their best as most of them, including their community leaders will be at the local weekly market.
At his palace, the Sarkin Kwaimawa, Gimba Muhammadu, gave a vivid account of what oil prospecting activities in the last 20 years meant for their communities.
The community leader told our correspondent that a Chinese company known as J.B 219 carried out the first survey for oil prospecting activities about 20 years ago.
He said the first well was drilled during the administration of the late Sani Abacha, but the work was suspended during the government of Olusegun Obasanjo. The activities, however, resumed when President Muhammadu Buhari came to power.
He said the people whose farmlands, crops and economic trees were affected were compensated by J.B 219. He, however, added that the issue of land compensation had not been fully discussed as no land had been officially taken over yet.
“We were only informed that if oil was discovered and drilling started, all the communities within six square kilometres would be evacuated, resettled and compensated. So we cannot demand for land compensation. We cannot demand for anything now until we are sure that oil prospecting is realised. Survey is still ongoing at Bodejo community and other places close to Pindiga in Gombe