By Godwin Chukwumaechi, Port Harcourt
The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People in the United States of America (MOSOP-USA), has declared that there would not be any resumption of oil exploration in Ogoniland until the Federal Government accepts the Ogoni Bill of Rights.
This is as the Federal Government and other stakeholders in Rivers State and Ogoniland intensify efforts and consolations to ensure that oil exploration resumes in ethnic nationality after MOSOP-led protest that resulted in chasing out Shell decades ago.
Mosop-USA stated that the oil in Ogoniland should not be a condition for the people of Ogoni ethnic nationality to be respected and treated as citizens of Nigeria.
In a statement made available to journalists in Port Harcourt, the group regretted that Ogoni people were being subjected to a slow yet steady death by the Nigerian government.
President of the group, Elder DineBari Augustine Kpuinen, Pastor Tombari Samuel Nweemuu (secretary) and seven other principal officials, who signed the statement, further regretted that Ogoni has been denied its right to political autonomy, yet the Federal Government of Nigeria prioritizes oil resumption in Ogoniland.
MOSOP-USA demanded that the Federal Government should publicly acknowledge and apologize for the historical and ongoing injustices it imposes on the Ogoni people, including environmental devastation, economic exploitation, and human rights abuses.
The statement reads in part: “We the Congress of Ogoni People, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People in the United States of America (USA), return a No Verdict on oil resumption in Ogoni.
“Since 1958, when Shell discovered and produced crude oil in Ogoni, it has generated huge earnings for Nigeria and the multinational oil corporations.
“Yet, Ogoni has received nothing but pollution, degradation, and death. We lack basic social development, such as public safety and healthcare. No functional public hospitals, schools, good roads, clean tap water, and electricity exist.
“The Ogoni people are subjected to a slow yet steady death by the Nigerian government. We watched our mangroves wither, our waters and air poisoned, our crops barren, and our children are deprived by the Nigerian State of their present and future before they have a chance to live. They are destroyed for being Ogoni.
“When we tried to bring this genocidal tendencies and actions to the attention of the Nigerian government, we were ignored. When we peacefully protested the genocide of our people, which included the destruction of our environment, our nonviolent actions were met with violence and terror; inhumanity meted out against us by the Nigerian government and Shell.
“The Land Use decree disproportionately affects the Ogoni and other Niger Delta communities’ resources while exempting solid mineral-rich regions. This is unfair, unjust and amounts to gross discrimination against Niger Delta oil bearing communities”.
Mosop-USA added that despite contributing over one hundred billion dollars in oil revenues ($100-billion), the Ogoni people stayed neglected and met with violence and oppression saying that successive Nigerian governments have ignored the people’s demands for environmental restoration and justice.
“Ogoni has been denied its right to political autonomy, yet the federal government of Nigeria prioritizes oil resumption in Ogoni. It values oil, money, and to further pollute and degrade Ogoni and its people rather than protecting the environment, respecting Ogonis and our cultural heritage”, the group regretted.
It resolved that based on the foregoing points: “We vehemently reject oil resumption and insist that if Nigeria wishes to change her acrimonious relationship with the Ogoni people it must do so out of honesty and respect for Ogoni, not for oil resumption. Nigeria has regions, states, or ethnicities that benefit from oil-based development, but have no oil.
“Ogoni, which has provided so much in oil revenue and its human resources that helped bring civil rule to Nigeria in the 1990s through the people’s sacrifice, deserves better treatment than the shabby treatment it receives. Ogoni deserves fair treatment. It deserves equal treatment as a partner and pertinent stakeholder in the nation’s scheme of things. Consequently, “Confidence building” would involve creating a state for the Ogoni people”.
“It would also have required Shell, NNPC, and others to pay the Ogoni people reparations and hold Shell, NNPC, and other operators accountable in Nigerian courts. “Confidence-building” would have involved bringing all oil companies that operated in Ogoni to task for failing to follow their own best practices in their operations in the Niger Delta, and for working with the military governments to repress dissent in Ogoni and other Niger Delta communities.
“And “confidence building” would have involved putting measures in place to ensure the heinous crimes of the past are not repeated by the Nigerian government and any other entity. We note that despite efforts to bring attention to the deplorable state of the Port Harcourt-Eleme Federal Road, popularly known as East-West Road, the government has failed to fix it despite the significant loss of life. Instead, it focuses on the resumption of oil.
“The Nigerian government or federation must implement the Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR). This begins with creating a state for the Ogonis to fulfill the Ogonis’ right to political autonomy in Nigeria. This demand is nonnegotiable and a prerequisite for any dialogue with the Federal Government”.
