ELVIRA’S PEN

by Erabanabari Theophilus   The designation of the Kporghor Community in Tai Local Government Area as a site for emergency detonations by oilfield servicing companies suggests a troubling trend. This marks the second time the community has been used as a demolition site for degraded logistics; in 2024, the blasts were carried out by Baker Hughes Company Limited, and currently, in 2026, by Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited. This disturbing cycle raises a critical question: which corporate giant is next in line to clear its hazardous waste on Ogoni soil? This hazardous process of open-air detonation only becomes an "emergency" because oilfield servicing companies store volatile inventories until they pass their safe shelf life. Once these materials degrade, multinational firms are forced to trigger urgent, highly regulated disposal protocols to avert catastrophic accidental detonations or toxic chemical leakages of commercial explosives, such as perforating charges an...

A GOOD TIME TO START - Elvira Jordan For over a week now I have been lying in a hospital bed.  (If you’re tempted to stop this message and check up on me, no need. I am very much okay. 😁) It’s not really funny being confined to a place, especially for a wakaholic like me. It has indeed been a humbling experience for me. It has given me the opportunity to appreciate good health, life, and our everyday abilities even more. It is so funny how many lessons I have learnt just by sitting still for a while. This past week has taught me a lot and has helped me to go through some thoughts that I have been putting off. It has also forced me to review some parts of my life I may have ignored; to rethink some of my decisions, to restrategise, to replan and to restructure my cards.  Once in a while, my world tends to experience these kinds of pause; giving me a moment to do some self reflection and see some aspects of my life that my usual busy routine will not let me see.  A good ex...

Before Nigeria became known as Africa's oil giant... before pipelines stretched across the Niger Delta... before oil money shaped politics, cities, and the economy... the land told a very different story. For generations, communities across the Niger Delta lived by farming, fishing, and trading along winding creeks. Life moved with the rhythm of the rivers. Beneath their feet lay a treasure so valuable that no one could have imagined the future it would create. The search for that treasure began long before Nigeria gained independence. In the early 1900s, foreign companies arrived, convinced that the country's soil held vast petroleum reserves. But finding oil was anything but easy. They battled dense forests, endless swamps, tropical diseases, floods, and the disruption of two World Wars. Expedition after expedition ended in disappointment. Wells were drilled... only to come up dry. Years turned into decades, and many began to believe Nigeria simply wasn't meant to become ...

ONE MAN COURT, JUDGE AND JURY - Elvira Jordan (Revised) Good Morning Beloved!!! Have you heard of the best court in the world? A court that needs no judge or master.  A court that follows you wherever you go, and sometimes passes judgement even before the deed is committed. Strange but it does exist. Not in any state, country or region but within the consciousness of every RATIONAL HUMAN BEING that exists on this earth. At the core of every rational thinking man, there is an inner voice that always whispers within us. A voice that can clearly differentiate good from bad; right or wrong; evil or just. It is an inner knowing that presents us with the best options, and also holds us accountable for our decisions and actions, whether good or bad.  It is called CONSCIENCE. This court is the most efficient because it is a one-man-court that plays the role of a defendant, a witness, a judge and a jury. Even when you think no man sees, you see yourself and so does your inner conscious...