By Daniel Abia
Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has called on the federal government to set aside a minimum of 20 per cent of the profit made from extractive resources for the infrastructural development of the Ogoni Kingdom in Rivers State.
MOSOP alerts the ongoing peace talks led by the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, describing it as “dishonest” because MOSOP is not represented in the composition.
Addressing the press weekend in Beera, Gokana local government area of the state weekend, leader of the Forum of Kingdom Coordinators and Chapters of MOSOP, Celestine Viura, said. At the same time, he approved the proposal for the operationalization of an Ogoni Development Authority (ODA); he demanded that 20 per cent of profits made from natural resource extraction by any oil operator who is to operate in Ogoni be set aside for Ogoni development.
“The Forum of Kingdom Coordinators and Chapter Leaders of MOSOP, FKCCL MOSOP, endorsed the ODA proposal as an acceptable pathway to a permanent resolution of the Ogoni problem and maintain that the said proposal captures the demands of the Ogoni people as expressed in the Ogoni Bill of Rights and have had an overwhelming support from the Ogoni people as expressed at the Ogoni National Congress of November 30, 2024”.
On the ongoing peace talks, Viura said, “We want to register our very strong disapproval of ongoing talks, led by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), to resume oil production in Ogoni. Our position is that the entire exercise is dishonest, as it excluded the MOSOP leadership, which is a critical voice to which the Ogoni people pay allegiance and is simply an attempt by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to cajole our people and create the wrong impression that the Ogoni people have never made their demands known nor do they really know what they want.”
The FKCCL MOSOP completely rejects ONSA’s attempt “to misrepresent our people and our demands in desperation to validate a parochial and dishonest report that they have already written.”
“It should be very clear that as a people, our struggle led by MOSOP has been sustained for over three decades, and our demands for a just and fair treatment have been very clear. ONSA does not need to redefine our needs nor tell us what we want.”
He called for an investigation into the controversial murder of four prominent Ogoni leaders on May 21, 1994, namely Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Samuel Orage, Mr Albert Badey and Chief Theophilus Orage, to determine the immediate and remote causes of their deaths. We also insist on the decriminalization of nine Ogonis who were unjustly executed by the Nigerian Government under General Sanni Abacha on November 10, 1995 — as part of the fundamental issues to be resolved going forward.
“We strongly reject all forms of abuses, use of state force against the Ogoni people, forceful resumption of oil extraction in Ogoni, divide and conquer tactics and manipulations as currently conducted by the Office of the National Security Adviser in desperate attempts to trample upon the demands for basic rights to fair treatment and justice for the Ogoni people.”
The kingdom coordinator, however, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to halt all current moves by the Office of the National Security Adviser to ignite fresh crises in Ogoni and wants every attempt to forcefully commence oil extraction in Ogoni without addressing the critical demands of the Ogoni people as represented in the ODA, to be halted to avoid social unrests.
”We urge fairness, mutuality and justice in a collective approach in the search for a solution to the Ogoni problem and note that, in good conscience, considering the huge costs of the Ogoni struggle, the loss of over 4,000 Ogoni people to state-backed persecution by the Nigerian Government, it is unfair and unjust for the Nigerian authorities to contemplate a resumption of oil production in Ogoni in the midst of current dissent without considering the safety and demands of the Ogoni people for fairness.
“We therefore urge the government to explore available windows for a genuine and peaceful engagement with MOSOP and pledge to cooperate with such outcomes as much as it is transparent, honest and genuinely driven to address the developmental concerns of the Ogoni people”, Viura demanded.
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