By Ignatius Chukwu
The Navy has rolled out non-kinetic strategies to win the hearts and support of communities along its areas of operation. All this is to boost daily oil production which has hit 1.3mbpd.
Details:
Cast off from the mainland Bonny Town, Community Secondary School, Burukiri, in Bonny Local Government area of Rivers State, is ensconced in the tropical forest and has to be accessed by navigating a swinging spiral of creeks more than 30 nautical miles off Bonny Town. Same as St. Bartholomew’s Primary School in the community.
Pupils, students, and teachers have to grapple with the challenge of traveling by a small wooden boat powered by a small outboard engine to and from the school daily, sometimes the boat is not available and only a negligible few who can afford the exorbitant fare can make it to school.
Not a surprise, when the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base (NNFOB), Bonny on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, adopted the Community Secondary School, Burukiri, as part of its community engagement efforts in line with its non-kinetic approach to delivery of its ongoing Operation Delta Sanity.
There has been no perimeter fence around it, and the school lacks basic amenities such as toilets, water, sickbay, classrooms, desks, staff room, accommodation for teachers, offices for administrative staff, playground, laboratories, principals’ offices, hostels, and assembly hall.
Commanding Officer of the NNFOB, Bonny, Capt. Maksum Mohammed, announced this when he led senior officers of the Base on a visit to the school and donated educational materials including school bags, writing materials, etc. to the students, and also to pupils of St. Bartholomew’s Primary School, Burukiri.
The team was also at Lighthouse Fishing Settlement in Finima Community where the Commanding Officer, represented by the Executive Officer of the NNFOB, Bonny, Commander Gideon Daloeng, also donated life vests to fishermen in four fishing settlements: Lighthouse, Ajalamonigha, Ajaokolo 2 and River 7.
He said the exercise was on the directive of the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, saying it is part of the Nigerian Navy’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) to communities in its areas of responsibility.
He explained further that part of the success story of the ongoing ‘Operating Delta Sanity’ is etched on continuous engagement with communities in its various areas of responsibility with a view to leveraging local support to identify and neutralise security threats and ensure safety of lives and properties.
He explained: “We will just adopt the school. As long as the Base is concerned – you know that soldier goes, soldier comes. Tomorrow, I may not be here – for the period that the CNS keeps me here, I’ll try to make sure that we improve what we’re seeing.
“All I have said is in line with what the CNS has told us to do. You know the Navy is not a humanitarian service. It is one of the fighting arms of the country and our primary role is to go after bad people; identify them and neutralize them.
“But we have discovered that in the process of doing that we see people around too that are not bad people and we think we can help them. So, based on that, the CNS has directed that from time to time, we should assist the communities that we find around us. It’s either we do medical outreach or we do an outreach like this.
“This is resumption month; some people call it school fees month. Everybody’s effort is geared towards gathering school fees to send their children to school. We know that everywhere is tough now and parents will be struggling with one or two things. Based on this, on behalf of the CNS, we have decided to see where we can touch.”
At Lighthouse Fishing Settlement where the life vests donation took place, the Executive Officer, Cdr Gideon Daloeng, who represented the Commanding Officer, said the donations were still in furtherance of the community engagement efforts of the Nigerian Navy in line with the Chief of Naval Staff’s strategic guidance on non-kinetic approach to deliver of the Operation Delta Sanity.
He praised the communities represented for their cooperation so far with the security agencies, especially, the Nigerian Navy, saying such synergy has helped in no small measure to assist the Navy deliver on its statutory mandate of securing the nation’s maritime domain.
He appealed to them to sustain such cooperation, urging them as seafarers to show understanding when they are at sea engaged in their fishing activities by giving way for other marine vessels to also navigate safely without any incidents that would affect either their boats or fishing gear.
Responding, Caleb Richard, the principal of Community Secondary School, Burukiri, expressed appreciation on behalf of his colleagues, noting that the gesture by the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base was outstanding and deserving of accolades. He assured that the donated items would be properly utilized.
On her part, a student of the CSS Burukiri, Joy Adawari-Jumbo, also expressed profound gratitude to the NNFOB Commanding Officer as well as the Chief of the Naval Staff for what she described as a kind gesture to the suffering students of the school. She appealed to the Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, to come to the aid of the school by providing necessary facilities to aid learning.
At Lighthouse, the Chief-in-Charge of Lighthouse cluster of fishing settlements, Sodienye Alex-Brown, thanked the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base for the donation to the fishing community there, saying it would enhance their safety while chasing their livelihoods at sea. He urged other agencies and organizations to emulate the Navy.
Operation Delta Sanity is special purpose vehicle activated by the leadership of the Nigerian Navy under the incumbent Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, to reverse the downward spiral in Nigeria’s oil production by aggressively combating crude oil theft and illegal bunkering across the Niger Delta region.
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