By Sunny Awhefeada
Humanity is ever susceptible to the changing patterns of reality and existence so that what was once inconceivable could become the norm.
The ineluctability of change has continued to push boundaries beyond human imagination. In the course of time, novel phenomena emerge to engender new realities which soon evolve to become a way of life.
This new “way of life” will also run its course and get subverted or replaced by another “new way of life” and humanity continues in its ever forward movement.
And life goes on! Human beings adjust, adapt and cope! The manifestation of the idea of change is in every sphere and it can be abrasive and disruptive for good or bad.
So, whether we like it or not or even if we resist it, change will negotiate its course albeit modified if decisively resisted for good. A lot of what happen to humanity is socially conditioned by the vagaries of emotion. Nearly if not all of humanity’s problems are self-inflicted.
Advantages and opportunities abound for humanity that should make life more meaningful and abundant. But more often than not different factors ranging from greed, insecurity, fear, hate and other such negative emotions fuel the motives of people who make awful choices that threaten the very fabric and essence of existence.
If all of humanity were to be altruistic and chose to imbibe the creed of “love your neighbor as yourself” the world would have been a haven for all. A common ideal or motif runs through religions and ideologies.
That motif is embedded in the quest for an ideal humanity which speaks to goodness. Were all of humanity intent on upholding the ideals there would have been no strife in our world. Ours would have been a world of good and bliss. Before the advent of colonialism, my Urhobo ancestors had attained great heights about how to live and ways of life. They had reasoned, articulated and constructed a full world that catered for their basic needs of shelter, clothing and food.
What we have today and elegantly christened as Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) defined and sustained the lives of my sires many generations ago. Deploying their creative, innovative and determined minds they configured architectural models that took care of their shelter and housing needs. They built houses with the natural resources around them. The combined resources of clay (red earth), wood, palm fronds and ropes were among the raw materials that gave them their homesteads.
The structures which we later called mud and thatch houses were works of geniuses which privileged comforts in all ramifications. The houses were warm when it rained and during the harmattan. The temperature turned cool and friendly when the weather was hot. The houses offered protection from the elements and every able bodied man took pride in building one. And it is apt to add that the houses came in different styles to validate the aesthetic sublimity of my forebears.
Those houses were not built with white sand. Neither were there nails, ceiling, zinc, asbestos or paints among the building materials. These items came with the Whiteman’s building technology. The transition from the indigenous to the modern has often thrown up new tendencies which have been fraught with challenges.
The passage of time and entrenchment of modernity and expansion of towns saw the need for the construction of houses. As population grew, our housing need galloped. A central item in this sector especially in my part of the world is the white sand. Sand among our people meant nothing until modern times. Even while growing up in the 1980s, sand was hardly an item to which anybody ascribed any significance. It was just there to be taken either free or for a little token. But this changed with time. People began selling sand. As the need for housing became urgent and compelling sand which is a major item in housing construction became an article of mercantilism and sand merchants emerged and grew the trade.
At first the trade was neither a booming phenomenon nor highly profitable. But the need for more housing and the thought that it was a sustainable business venture saw that the trade grew and from it evolved a sand economy. People in these parts take pride in owning their own homes and as they got means of income, small or big, they soon or later resolve to build “a house of their own”.
Hence the business of building as well as sand grew in varying degrees.
The watershed of the white sand trade in Ughelli began as from the first half of the first decade of the present century. The inauguration of civilian rule and the doubling of revenue accruing to Delta State engendered a boom in the construction and housing sector.
The robustness of this experience gave birth to a white sand economy. As more and more people got access to political offices, as government at all levels increased salaries of public and civil servants more people saw the need to build their own homes and the sand trade boomed. But the trigger for the real boom to burst phenomenon was the activities of the building firm, Setraco, which won the contract for the construction of the East-West road.
The firm relied so much on white sand in its work and the section of the road from Warri through Ughelli to Bayelsa State witnessed a lot of sand mining activities. Dredging sites sprang up with heavy duty dredgers dominating the terrain. On both sides of the road for long stretches are sand pyramids waiting to be evacuated for road construction work.
The dredging has been pervasive, but nobody has given a thought to the assault on the ecosystem and how sand dredging will affect the community in future.
The idea of white sand as oil took roots around that time and millionaires were made among the sand merchants of Ughelli. That experience shattered the eye of innocence with which we viewed white sand.
A tipper-truck load of white sand sold for five thousand naira in 2008. The price rose to forty-five thousand naira by 2024! Words filtered out in the last days of 2024 that the union of the white sand merchants was contemplating increasing the price to sixty-five thousand naira.
And the move was made in the very early days of the New Year. The announcement of the new price regime of sixty-five thousand was greeted with anger and condemnation.
The issue took a front burner position in the social media and the Legislative arm of the Ughelli North Local Government Council waded in by suspending the increase.
The Legislative arm also raised technical and brilliant questions regarding the propriety and dangers of sand dredging in the area. They specifically mentioned Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Opposition to the increase was widespread and it took place in different spaces and sites. It reflects how a people can shape things and policies through public opinion to make life better.
An old man was heard lamenting how white sand had become gold in modern times and lambasted those he called “ineki ekpe” which meant merchants of sand.
The recurring factor of greed and Shylock syndrome has become a bane to our socio-economic wellbeing. The rabid inflationary disaster afflicting Nigeria, aside government’s failed policies, can be attributed to the twin factor. We like to rip-off people through exploitation and subterfuge in every sector.
This is what is unfolding in the white sand economy of Ughelli. It is understandable that cost of maintaining the trucks and equipment is high, but the astronomical increase from forty-five to sixty-five thousand lacks a human face. The people have spoken and the Legislative arm has also demonstrated its solidarity with the later. We should embrace a moral code that should be devoid of exploitation, the kind of which will only deepen our affliction. Let the white sand economy embrace a human face.
The white sand merchants should know that they are our people and we are their people! Let the spirit of Shylock remained banished!