Innocent Barikor | |
---|---|
MHA for Gokana | |
In office 2011–2015 | |
Succeeded by | Ngbulelo Israel |
Director General/CEO,National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency | |
Assumed office 26 April 2024 | |
President | Bola Tinubu |
Preceded by | Aliyu Jauro |
Personal details | |
Born | Rivers State |
Political party | All Progressives Congress |
Alma mater | University of Port Harcourt |
Occupation | politician |
Innocent Bariate Barikor is a Nigerian academic and politician of the All Progressives Congress. He represented the constituency of Gokana as a Member of the Rivers State House of Assembly from 2011 to 2015. [1] [2]
Barikor received his doctoral degree in Political Science with emphasis on development studies from the University of Port Harcourt,Nigeria. [3]
Barikor lectured at the Rivers State College of Education and served as a supervisor at the Gokana local government council from 1992 to 1995. [4] He moved to the University of Port Harcourt continuing his academic career until 2010 and achieved the rank of Senior Lecturer in Political Science. He has researched and published extensively on the Nigerian State and Minority Agitations,Poverty and Democratization,Debt and Debt Management,Human Rights,and Sustainable Development. He was chairman of the Ogoni academics. [5] In 2004,he was appointed Rivers State Coordinator of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) by the President of Nigeria. [6] During his tenure,he developed and supervised innovative poverty reduction programmes such as COPE,Village Economic Development Solutions,Promise Keeper programme and others which have impacted on the Nigeria's rural poor. In 2007,Barikor led the Grassroots Empowerment Network (GEN) delegation to the South Africa Investment Summit held in Durban. [3]
As a development consultant,he has worked for numerous organizations including the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA),where he consulted on the Agency's Cassava Project between 2007 and 2008. He also has served as Chairman of the Board of the Grassroots Empowerment Network. In 2011,he won the assembly election on People's Democratic Party ticket and represented Gokana until 2015. [3]
Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian writer,teacher,television producer,and environmental activist. Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people,an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland,Ogoniland,in the Niger Delta,has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and has suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping.
The Ogoni Nine were a group of nine activists from the Ogoni region of Nigeria who opposed the operating practices of the Royal Dutch Shell oil corporation in the Niger Delta region. The military government in Nigeria was threatened by their work and arrested them for murders of four Ogoni chiefs. Social activist and head of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP),Ken Saro-Wiwa,alongside eight of his fellow leaders—Saturday Dobee,Nordu Eawo,Daniel Gbooko,Paul Levera,Felix Nuate,Baribor Bera,Barinem Kiobel,and John Kpuine—were put on trial under the false pretext that the group had incited the murder of four Ogoni chiefs.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP),is a social movement organization representing the indigenous Ogoni people of Rivers State,Nigeria. The Ogoni contend that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC),along with other petroleum multinationals and the Nigerian government,have destroyed their environment,polluted their rivers,and provided no benefits in return for enormous oil revenues extracted from their lands.
Rivers State,also known as Rivers,is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. Formed on 27 May 1967,when it was split from the former Eastern Region,Rivers State borders include Imo and Anambra to the north,Abia and Akwa Ibom to the east,and Bayelsa and Delta to the west.The State capital,Port Harcourt,is a metropolis that is considered to be the commercial center of the Nigerian oil industry.
The Ogoni is an ethnic group located in Rivers South-East senatorial district of Rivers State,in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. They number just over 2 million and live in a 1,050-square-kilometre (404-square-mile) homeland which they also refer to as Ogoniland. They share common oil-related environmental problems with the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta.
The current conflict in the Niger Delta first arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a number of the Niger Delta's minority ethnic groups who feel they are being exploited,particularly the Ogoni and the Ijaw. Ethnic and political unrest continued throughout the 1990s despite the return to democracy and the election of the Obasanjo government in 1999. Struggle for oil wealth and environmental harm over its impacts has fueled violence between ethnic groups,causing the militarization of nearly the entire region by ethnic militia groups,Nigerian military and police forces,notably the Nigerian Mobile Police. The violence has contributed to Nigeria's ongoing energy supply crisis by discouraging foreign investment in new power generation plants in the region.
Monday Owens Wiwa is a medical doctor and human rights activist. He is the brother of executed Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa,and the son of Ogoni chief Jim Wiwa. Wiwa is an internationally renowned expert on the effects of globalisation,especially as it relates to the highly controversial business practices of Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta. Vice-chairman of the Toronto chapter of the Sierra Club Canada and an active member of Amnesty International,Wiwa is frequently called upon to advocate for development programs in Canada and abroad and to campaign for increased corporate responsibility. This work has taken him to Ireland,which he visits in support of the Shell to Sea campaign. Currently,he is the Global Vice President Human Resource for Health,Director for West Africa and Central Africa and Country Director,Nigeria for Clinton Health Access Initiative.
Rivers State House of Assembly is the legislative branch of the Government of Rivers State inaugurated in 1979. It is a unicameral body with 32 members elected into 32 state constituencies. The current Speaker of the State Assembly is Rt. Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule,DSSRS.
Gokana kingdom is among the six kingdoms of the Ogoni people in Ogoni in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Gokana kingdom has geographic,historic and ethno-linguistic elements with some 130,000 Gokana language speakers located in the Gokana Local Government Area in Rivers State. Gokana contains a tremendous number of villages,including Lewe,B.Dere (Barayowa-Dere),K. Dere (Kegbara-Dere),Nwe-biara Kpor,Mogho,Bomu,Bodo,Gio-koo,Nwe-ol,Bera,Biara,Deeyor,Gbe,Goi,Barako,Deken,and Yeghe.
Nigeria had one of the world's highest economic growth rates,averaging 7.4% according to the Nigeria economic report that was released in July 2019 by the World Bank. Following the oil price collapse in 2014–2016,combined with negative production shocks,the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate dropped to 2.7% in 2015. In 2016 during its first recession in 25 years,the economy contracted by 1.6%. Nationally,43 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line,while another 25 percent are vulnerable. For a country with massive wealth and a huge population to support commerce,a well-developed economy,and plenty of natural resources such as oil,the level of poverty remains unacceptable. However,poverty may have been overestimated due to the lack of information on the extremely huge informal sector of the economy,estimated at around 60% more,of the current GDP figures. As of 2018,the population growth rate is higher than the economic growth rate,leading to a slow rise in poverty. According to a 2018 report by the World Bank,almost half the population is living below the international poverty line,and unemployment peaked at 23.1%.
National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) is a 2001 program by the Nigerian government addressing poverty in Nigeria and related issues. It was designed to replace the Poverty Alleviation Program.
Khana (Kana),or Ogoni,is the prestige variety of the Ogoni languages of Rivers State,Nigeria. It is the lingua franca of speakers of the East Ogoni languages. It is the most dominant of the 5 Ogoni languages Khana,Tee,Gokana,Eleme,Baan spoken in southern part of Rivers State.
Magnus Lekara Kpakol is a Nigerian American educator who is the CEO,Chairman and Chief Strategist at the Economic and Business Strategies. He is the principal leadership,management and business coach/trainer at the Economic and Business Strategies Ltd. He was the principal consultant at VIJONS International in Dallas Texas and a visiting professor of economics at the University of Dallas,where he taught economic development and international economics before being appointed in 2001 as Chief economic adviser to the president of Nigeria by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Gokana Assembly constituency is a constituency of the Rivers State House of Assembly,Nigeria.
The Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency is an agency of the government of Rivers State set up under the Sustainable Development Agency Law No. 3 of 2007. It is an agency dedicated to promoting programmes and activities aimed at eradicating poverty,developing rural areas and empowering the youth. It succeeds the Rivers State Sustainable Development Program (RSSDP) originally introduced by the federal government to improve lives of ordinary people in the state. Its headquarters can be found at 1 Igbodo Street in Old GRA,Port Harcourt.
Elections in Rivers State are supervised and conducted by two major electoral bodies,Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). There are 23 local government areas,319 electoral wards and 4442 polling units in the state. Elections for Governor and the House of Assembly are held every four years,along with federal elections for President and the National Assembly.
Fred Barivure Kpakol is an accountant and politician. He served as Rivers State Finance Commissioner between 2015 and 2019.He also served as the Commissioner for Agriculture between 2019 and 2022. He is a native of B-Dere in Gokana. He studied accounting and finance at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology and graduated with a B.Sc. in Accounting and Finance. He went further to do his master's degree in Banking and Finance at Federal University of Technology Owerri and he later had his Ph.D. degree in Banking,Finance and Taxation from Rivers State University of Science and Technology. Kpakol is affiliated with the People's Democratic Party and has served as Chairman of Gokana local government area. He is also a former Secretary of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria Rivers State Branch.
Marvin Dekil,is a Nigerian environmental scientist,lawyer,businessman and politician. In 2017,President Mohammadu Buhari appointment of Dr. Dekil Pioneer Project Coordinator of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP),the agency responsible for the implementation of UNEP Environmental Assessment report and cleanup of oil polluted sites in Ogoniland and Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Rt. Hon. Sheriff Francis Orohwedor Oborevwori is a Nigerian politician who is the current Governor of Delta State. He is the immediate past Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly as a representative of the Okpe Constituency of Delta State under the People's Democratic Party (Nigeria). He was declared the governor elect of Delta state on 20 March 2023 after winning the gubernatorial elections that was conducted on 18 March 2023.
The 2023 Rivers State gubernatorial election will take place on 18 March 2023,to elect the Governor of Rivers State,concurrent with elections to the Rivers State House of Assembly as well as twenty-seven other gubernatorial elections and elections to all other state houses of assembly. The election—which was postponed from its original 11 March date—will be held three weeks after the presidential election and National Assembly elections. Incumbent PDP Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third term.