President Tinubu Should Not Be Listed Amongst Ogoni Oppressors – MOSOP Cautions Over Oil Resumption Push
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has called on Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to be extremely cautious in the handling of the push for oil resumption in ogoni in order not to be listed amongst Nigeria’s leaders who oppressed and persecuted the Ogoni people. MOSOP says it is certain that it will mobilize a resistance against the move under the present circumstances.
President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke, who sounded the caution on Sunday in his Easter message in Bori, the traditional headquarters of the Ogoni people and headquarters of Khana local government area said the Ogoni people are not a conquered people in Nigeria and will not submit to schemes that are designed to shortchange their demands for basic rights, fundamental freedoms and fair treatment within the Nigerian state.
Nsuke cautioned President Tinubu’s against eroding his reputation following his role in NADECO’s fight against military dictatorships and for the reinstitution of democracy in Nigeria, He warned against a misleading conviction from some of Mr. President’s allies who think that that the Ogoni people will ignore their sufferings and submit to repression without concrete steps to address the fundamental issues leading to the crises.
“We were told the Ogoni struggle was about our rights and these rights were clearly defined in the Ogoni Bill of Rights. We stand on those demands and insist on those rights now.”
In a more optimistic view, Nsuke highlighted MOSOP’s efforts to resolve the problem through its proposed development plan. He noted that the plan had been adopted at various Ogoni congresses as the acceptable path to resolve the conflicts and urged the government to be open to a dialogue in order to have all issues discussed and resolved.
“The Ogoni people simply want fair treatment within Nigeria and not manipulated processes as we are seeing with the so-called dialogue committee of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).”
“Ogoni demand action on the unfortunate, painful and unjust murder by the Nigerian state, of 9 Ogonis on November 10, 1995, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, as well as an investigation into the controversial circumstances leading to the death of 4 Ogoni elites on .aye 21, 1994”.
The MOSOP leader condemned attempts by the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, to resume oil production in Ogoni without addressing the fundamental issues of the conflicts that has hindered the process for three decades describing the move as an attempt to escalate the problem and cause fresh Ogoni repression.
“What their so-called dialogue committee is doing is manipulated to validate an already written report. Their goal is to replace the Ogoni Bill of Rights with their doctored report. Let it however be clear that Ogoni is not confused and our demands are very clear. The Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR) had been a longstanding demand of the Ogoni people and the OBR mandates MOSOP to enter into discussions with the government to resolve all pending issues. We cannot be a victim of another injustice where we are made to fight, throw Shell out of Ogoni and some few individuals will want to take control of what we collectively fought for. Our voice must be heard, going forward because we fought and won the battle against Shell” Nsuke said.
Nsuke urged President Tinubu to disregard all persuasions to militarise Ogoni in desperate efforts to force oil production in the area noting that the move will not only fail but will seriously damage government relationship with the Niger Delta region, damage the country’s image and hamper direct investment in the country.
He urged Mr President to accept MOSOP’s proposals for a genuine dialogue with the Ogoni movement powered by the real actors of the Ogoni struggle. According to Nsuke, the common Ogoni men, women, and children led the struggles of the Ogoni people and their voice, which MOSOP represents, is fundamental in any process that can lead to an acceptable path to a resolution.
It is disheartening that while a very clear path to resolve the Ogoni problem had been proposed by MOSOP, the government continues to ignore this laudable path in desperation to shortchange the people’s interests and set aside the. That, according to Nsuke, is unjust and needs to be reversed.
