The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People(MOSOP) has criticised a State House meeting held last Wednesday, May 15, 2024 between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and some Ogoni leaders.
Fegalo Nsuke, President of MOSOP, said in a statement that the meeting was “facilitated by a key player in the oiland gas industry in collaborationwith some government-paid chiefs of Ogoni extraction is a slight on the Ogonipeople in particular, and a denigration of the struggles of the entire NigerDelta people. MOSOP strongly condemns the misrepresentation of the Ogoni peopleat the meeting and unequivocally dissociates itself from the meeting.”
Text of the statement reads: “The meeting which was motivatedby greed aimed at misrepresenting the situation on ground to President BolaAhmed Tinubu, a listening president who has shown remarkable commitment infinding a lasting solution to the critical national issues and is counted uponfor a fair and just solution to the Ogoni problem.
“MOSOP wants to emphatically state that these are people without any knowledge abouthow Shell left Ogoni; or what drives the Ogoni struggle. Also, they arecompletely ignorant of the painstaking efforts made by MOSOP at the village andcommunity levels to sensitize our people on the need to revisit the oilproduction issue after decades of battling with selfish and divisive forces.
“The audacity to misrepresent facts on a sensitive issue like oil resumption inOgoni is an act of economic sabotage, considering the progress so far made inresolving the Ogoni issue once and for all. That is why MOSOP sees the meetingas a failed attempt to make the Federal Government lose the Ogoni People’sconfidence.
“Even though the said meeting was intended to frustrate the gains of MOSOP’scampaigns and community sensitization to permanently address the problems inOgoni, MOSOP remains committed to its development goals and will continue towork with relevant stakeholders, especially the Federal Government to achievethem.
“MOSOP’s main objective is to achieve a peaceful settlement of this protracted conflictand to bring Ogoni on the path of growth and development. But we insist on agenuine, broad-based and transparent negotiation process that considers theinterest of all parties for a mutually beneficial compromise.
“The progress recorded so far in convincing the Ogoni people to embrace the idea ofdevelopment through the resumption of oil production in our area had been wellthought of and anchored on mutual benefits.
“It is our wish that the gains of our community sensitization and reorientationefforts should not be destroyed by pecuniary interests of private businesseswho think that 4,000 lives lost in the Ogoni struggle can be for their ownbenefits. God forbid.
“We therefore emphatically state as follows:
1.The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) led the struggle ofthe Ogoni people against the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nig. Ltd(SPDC) and eventually forced Shell’s exit from Ogoni. As a critical interestgroup, we note that the position of MOSOP should be taken into consideration onissues of Ogoni oil to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement in the interestof all parties.
2.MOSOP dissociates itself from the misrepresentation at the said meeting with MrPresident on Wednesday, 15th May, 2024 as the chiefs did not have our mandateto engage.
3.MOSOP remains committed to pursuing its goals as the only mandated voice of theOgoni people as expressed in the Ogoni Bill of Rights wherein it states:”Now therefore, we mandate the Movement for the Survival of the OgoniPeople (MOSOP) to make representations on behalf of the nationality…”
4.MOSOP demands a fair and just treatment of the Ogoni people through theoperationalization of the Ogoni Development Authority (ODA) proposed to thegovernment as an acceptable pathway to the resolution of the Ogoni problem.
5.The Ogoni people (MOSOP) lost an estimated 4,000 lives in our struggle againstShell and Abacha. We maintain that those sacrifices made the Ogoni oilavailable for which people are scrambling today. We therefore insist that ascritical stakeholders, our position as a matter of necessity be considered inany decisions relating to the resumption of oil production in Ogoni.
6.MOSOP notes that it has taken us over five years of community sensitization andreorientation towards our proposed development programme to win the support ofthe Ogoni people. We will urge the Nigerian authorities not to allow a fewselfish business people to flagrantly jettison our collective gains.
“We therefore urge the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu to initiate abroad-based genuine process of negotiations to facilitate a peaceful settlementand reach an acceptable compromise.
“To this end, MOSOP calls on Mr President to appoint a negotiator with credibilityand national clout to promote a broad-based engagement with the Ogoni peopleand facilitate a peaceful resolution.
“MOSOP further pledges to cooperate with the process and hopes to see a speedyresolution of all issues affecting the Ogoni people.
“We pledge our allegiance to our country and our president.”
