as NDDC marks Int’l Women’s Day with a stage play

By Benjamin Njoku

AT the command performance of “ Little Drops”, a play written by Professor Ahmed Yerima, last Sunday, in commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day, the Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari did not mince words when she declared that ‘she’s using the play as a campaign to bring once more, to national conscience, the anguish and travails of the women, children and people of the oil rich region.’

“Little Drops” is a play about the unrest in the Niger Delta with a focus on the anguish of women and children. It re-echoed the long years of neglect, underdevelopment and aftermath of ill-conceived agitation. Particularly, the play takes a critical look at the Niger Delta from the perspective of women- the neglected innocent victims of the war of contradictions in the region. They bear the burdens and live with the collateral damages of the war caused and fought by men. Yet they are neither considered nor consulted in the scheme of things in the region.

At the end of the performance, held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, feelings of lost, regrets and sympathy for the women of Niger Delta filled the air.

With cast including Joke Silva(Bonuwo), Tosan Edremoda-Ugbeye(Memekize), Najite Dede(Mukume), Zara Udofia-Ejoh(Azue), Toritseju Akiya Ejoh(Kuru) and Sbiodun Kassim(Ovievie), the performance raised a lot of unanswered questions bothering on the challenges of underdevelopment bordering the oil-rich region.

• The plight of women as captured in the play Little Drops

According to Sementari, the challenges besetting the Niger Delta region, even today, continue to be a national tragedy, just as the challenges facing the North-East region are. She said, the oil rich region is too important to be neglected.

She said, the play shows the environmental, social, economic and political challenges of women in the Niger Delta. “Women and children have suffered, for too long, the consequences of the conflicts in the region, one that is scarcely highlighted in all intervention strategies to address regional challenges and the attendant agitation for resolution,” she said.

The NDDC, according to her, will work with women in the region to facilitate overall regional development.

Sementari hailed the playwright, Professor Ahmed Yerima “for demonstrating an uncommon sensitivity to women issues.    As we rebuild every facet of our national life, especially the Niger Delta, and the North-East regions, as we set Nigeria on the path to change, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, the marginalization of women, too must change. Women, all over Nigeria, have shown great capacity to drive the course of development. In more and more homes of the Niger Delta, they have assumed roles of bread winners, holding society by the scruff of neck and demanding to be taken  seriously.”                                                               The play was performed in Port-Harcourt, last Thursday, from where it moves to Benin and Calabar later this month.

Prominent Nigerians who graced the event were Dame Pauline Tallen, the former deputy governor of Plateau state, who represented the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari; Hajiya Aisha Buhari, wives of the governors of Bauchi, Taraba and Bauchi states, wives of the Chief of defence, army and naval staff and many  others include the chairman of the presidential amnesty programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (rtd), wife of the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mrs John Odigie-Oyegun, veteran actor, Olu Jacobs and members of the diplomatic community.