Save Unyenge Community: An Oil-Rich Land Suffering in Silence While Akwa Ibom Prospers

 

I am Patrick Atte, a passionate advocate for Unyenge and Mbo Local Government Area development and a son of Unyenge. I write with a heavy heart — not just for myself, but for my people. I hold no public office but I'm pained to see my people suffer everyday when our land birth wealth to Akwa Ibom State.

 

Unyenge and Effiat are the only oil-producing communities in Mbo LGA and the entire Oro Nation of Akwa Ibom State, with Unyenge holding the largest and most productive oil assets. We host Universal Energy Resources Ltd (rumored to have transitioned to Savannah Energy) and recently welcomed Shimao Mining Investment Nigeria Ltd, who signed a deal with our community on July 17, 2025. These companies represent wealth and potential — not only for us, but for Akwa Ibom State at large.

 

But despite this, we are dying in poverty.

 

Our roads are bush tracks — completely unfit for human access. Our only hospital has been abandoned and decaying. Our only secondary school is dilapidated and in debt to teachers. We have no light. No jobs. No markets. No infrastructure — just suffering, silence, and shame.

 

Your Excellency, Governor Umo Eno, we thank you for previously visiting Unyenge and promising to work on our road. Work began briefly, but the workers left after a few months, and we do not know why. We are begging you: please revisit your promise to us.

 

It’s heartbreaking that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) reportedly supplied road lights to every Niger Delta community, but Unyenge has not received even one. We don’t know if it was sold, diverted, or hidden by corrupt leaders. We humbly ask you to investigate this.

 

Even worse, the so-called leaders in our community — those who should speak for us — are instead sharpening swords among the youth, dividing us with crumbs, and destroying our unity. They’ve painted Unyenge as chaotic, when all we want is peace, fairness, and dignity.

 

As someone who once served as a school prefect in Unyenge Community Secondary School, I witnessed firsthand how brilliant and ambitious our students are. But after secondary school, their dreams die — not because they are not intelligent, but because their parents are poor and our community leaders are unconcerned.

 

Is this the kind of treatment we deserve as an oil-producing community in Akwa Ibom State? The world celebrates Akwa Ibom for its oil wealth — but the very communities where the oil flows are forgotten and left to suffer.

 

We cry out now to you: Come to Unyenge again. See our condition. Don’t rely on filtered reports from corrupt leaders. Summon our elders, chiefs, and stakeholders to give account.

 

We are not enemies of progress — we are victims of neglect.

 

Sign this petition and help us demand:

 

Roads

 

School rehabilitation

 

A functioning hospital

 

Power supply

 

Local employment from companies operating on our land

 

Government presence and direct intervention

 

Investigation into NDDC light distribution and oil-related benefits

 

 

Our people are suffering. Our children are suffering. Our land gives wealth — but our lives know poverty.

 

Please, Your Excellency and the government of Akwa Ibom State, do not turn a deaf ear to this cry. Come and tour Unyenge land yourself. See us. Hear us. Save us.

 

I Am Patrick Atte

A Passionate Advocate for Unyenge and Mbo Development

 

📞 +2349031456720

📧 attepatrick657@gmail.com