After Jethro’s dad lost his lucrative city job, the entire family returned to farming in their village in the Niger Delta. Due to the oil spills, the harvests were hardly enough to feed them once a day. At the age of 15, He relocated to Lagos in search of work to support his family, and his journey into digital marketing began. Now, Jethro advocates for an oil spill-free environment through tech.
The Wounds of Niger Delta
by Jethro Christopher – founder of Tech4Rural
“Jethro wake up, wake up, we need to leave.” I heard my grandmother’s shaking voice, as she held my hands and led my siblings and I to the nearest forest. I was just about 5 years old when this happened in 2005. This was one of similar occurrences that we the residents of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria faced around the early 2000s. This was a result of ongoing conflict between the youths and the companies exploiting crude oil. Leaving the region polluted and unproductive.
My dad later got a job in Port Harcourt and life was good. We had our own rooms, a vehicle to take us anywhere, and we were living our best life…or so we thought. One morning in July 2015, my dad sat us down and said, “I lost my job, and I have no savings.” We had to return to the village with nothing.
Today, I am a digital marketer with international clients. Even with Nigeria’s economy currently in a free fall and the increase in cost of living, my work has its advantages to weather such crises.
How did I get from penniless in the village to digital marketing? Let’s go back again to the village.
From eating three meals a day, we considered ourselves lucky if we ate just once. From having running water at home, I now had to push over 100L of water for about 1km, daily. Every day after coming back from school, I’d see my mum sitting on the couch, holding her jaw thinking. Her eyes red as though she’d been crying, with a very soft voice she’d say “Jethro, there’s no food for you, what are we going to do? I think it’s time I start selling some of my beautiful wrappers (traditional garments).” Seeing my mum in that state completely broke my heart.
So, I dropped out of the school at that time, carried my backpack and went to Lagos with one purpose of getting a job!
On arriving at Lagos, I hand-wrote my CV with very terrible handwriting and enthusiastically started applying to companies. I got no calls back.
I had almost given up, until I stumbled upon my cousin Victor’s perfectly written CV, he was more qualified and experienced. With this CV, I submitted one more application for a marketing position, and I got the job as Victor! While not so ethical, this move was life changing.
On my first week in the company my employer said to me “Victor, I remembered, you stated on your CV that you are computer literate, right? There’s a task I want you to perform” I froze. I had never operated a computer in my life. My manager discovered the lie afterwards but was impressed by my passion and decided to support me and thus began my journey with computers.
I taught myself digital marketing by binge watching YouTube videos, enrolling for digital marketing courses on Coursera and a year later I got my very first job as a digital marketer for an NGO focusing on community development and vocational training. I truly enjoyed making a difference through my skills.
6 years later, I came back to visit the village and witnessed shocking realities. One of my secondary schoolmates, Ayibatari was now a single mum, she resorted to prostitution to sustain herself. My other friend Bishop was a POS attendant earning about $10/month. During one of our interactions he said, “I am not one of the militants… how else do you expect me to survive, especially in a state like Bayelsa?” Ayibatari and Bishop represent thousands of youths who have been subjected to a life of hardship.
Along with these experiences, I witnessed my father’s bitter disappointment at breaking his back at the farm for just a tiny bag of cassava, worrying how he will make it till the next harvest. Farm yields and the fish population have been equally devastated due to the oil spills, destroying livelihoods.
This led me to begin my social venture “Tech4Rural” to empower the young people who have been victimized because of the oil exploration going on in the Niger delta region.
Did you know that the Niger Delta region of Nigeria generates about 80% of the government’s revenue, yet 7 out of 10 people live below the poverty line?
The ongoing oil spillage since 1958 is the major cause of this poverty. Estimations show that over 240,000 barrels of oil are being spilt into the environment annually. Since most of the population (over 30 million) rely on fishing and farming for livelihood, the contamination caused by oil spills has led to unemployment and extreme poverty, especially among the youths in these villages. Since there are very little opportunities and the majority of youths cannot afford tertiary education, they resort to petty theft or begging on roadsides.
Oil spills leading to environmental pollution and poverty can also be seen in other places like the Ecuadorian Amazon, Venezuela and the Gulf of Mexico where even after years, the environmental destruction and loss of livelihood continues.
Unfortunately, cleaning up the land in the Niger Delta is not something achievable by a single individual or NGO as The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has estimated that over $1 billion is needed for the cleanup.
Gift, a 25-year-old from Bayelsa forfeited her dreams of tertiary education and took up the responsibility of fending for her family with a salary of $9.7/month as a gas station attendant after they lost their primary source of livelihood – agriculture. Her story represents that of millions of youths in the Niger Delta.
The Niger Delta Development Commission was established to upskill youth, but the training has failed in translating to employment. Also, there are environmental NGOs like Justice for Bayelsa, but their awareness campaigns have not resulted in any action from the oil companies or government.
At Tech4Rural, we envision a world where the oil spilled environment in the Niger Delta of Nigeria is restored, and the youths equipped with skills to become environmental advocates.
Hence, we created our “Skills to Advocacy Project” which is a 3-months project located in Gbarantoru, Bayelsa state. Every year, we equip 50 youths aged 20-30 from villages in the Niger Delta with digital skills to become environmental advocates.
From this project, we will:
Create our own media channel to spotlight the issues locals go through due to oil spillage.
Create a professional documentary film that will be spotlighted during international environmental conferences and other media outlets.
We plan to achieve this through three phases called the “Pipeline of Change.”
Phase 1: The Leak:
Participants are introduced to the environmental and societal impacts of oil spills here, they will realize the issue of oil spillage is far bigger than their village. They’ll develop the foundational knowledge and digital literacy needed to advocate for change.
Phase 2: Containment:
Here, we will refine their understanding of oil spillage and passion for advocacy into actionable skills. In this phase, participants are equipped with the tools to “contain” their emotions and focus them into strategic advocacy. Through storytelling, public speaking practices, exposure visits to oil spilled villages, and training on video filming and editing, participants will learn how to transform their experiences into powerful advocacy. Here, will kick-start the “Niger Delta Aproko” which will be a participant-led digital media platform created to tell the stories of oil spillage victims.
Phase 3: The Spread
Just as oil spreads uncontrollably, this phase represents the intentional spread of participants’ advocacy. They will learn to create impactful content and campaigns, learning to engage wider audiences and amplify their message through digital marketing, campaigns, and visual storytelling. In this final phase, participants bring everything together by producing a full-length documentary.
In the next 5 years, we aim for the responsible companies to have started oil cleanups with 250 youths equipped with skills to speak up and become environmental advocates.
