Tinubu’s First Year In Office: International Groups, NUOS, CDHRAC, MOSOP Demand Better Treatment For Ogoniland

United States-based organisations, including the National Union of Ogoni Students International (NUOS INT’L USA), the Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Anti-Corruption International (CDHRAC INTL USA), and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), have reiterated their call for better treatments of the people of Ogoniland in Rivers State by the Federal Government.

The groups said that the people of Ogoniland have suffered years of environmental degradation over the years despite the fact that they produce oil, the wealth of the nation.

The group, who used the opportunity to congratulate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his forthcoming first anniversary in office, said that it is not right to kill the chicken that lays the golden egg, adding that they could not continue to suffer in silence and amidst plenty.

They emphasised that almost all the previous administrations in the country have done little or nothing to develop Ogoniland, which they said has been suffering deprivation owing to oil spillage and total neglect.

The groups maintained that the people of Ogoniland have suffered the devastation of their ecosystems and land.

They recalled that several oil companies, including Shell Oil, set up operations in the 1950s in Ogoniland and since then, their land, water, and air have been polluted to such a great extent that the Ogoni people’s livelihood is threatened.

“Between 1976 and 1991, over two million barrels of oil polluted Ogoniland in 2,976 separate oil spills. While oil production has ceased, pipelines operated by Shell Oil still traverse the land, creeks and waterways,” they said.

The group added in a statement jointly signed by the President of NOUS Int’l USA, Pius Barikpoa Nwinee, it’s Secretary General, Sampson B Npimnee, Coordinator, CDHRAC Int’l, USA, Cornelius Dumerenee, and its Secretary General, Toate Ganago dated Tuesday April 16, 2024 and made available to journalists, that the Federal Government and the Niger Delta Development Ministry must rise to the occasion and bring the long-awaited development to Ogoniland.

“NUOS INTL, CDHRAC AND MOSOP wish to call on the Ministry of Niger Delta Development to ensure a total clean-up of Ogoniland and compensate the people of the area for the loss they have suffered over the years.

“Our people have been deprived of their means of livelihood and they have been left to suffer in a nation, where they have contributed a lot to through their natural resources.

They then set an agenda for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as he marks his first anniversary in office and extend hands of fellowship to the people of Ogoniland.

The first, they said, is the need to call stakeholders meeting that will involve all the various groups, opinion leaders and elders in Ogoniland, who they said could be invited to an enlarged meeting in Abuja with all expenses paid by the Federal Government.

According to them, issues affecting Ogoniland and how to resolve them would be discussed at the meeting.

They suggested that their groups and others should be informed ahead of the meeting so that they could also send representatives from the Diaspora.

The second suggestion is that the Federal Government should set up a committee to look into the issues affecting the Niger Delta, especially Ogoniland.

The committee, they said, should comprise elders of the land, key stakeholders, representatives of the Federal Government and the youths of Ogoniland.

The third, according to them, is for the government to fully implement the recommendations of the United Nations on how to treat the people of an oil producing area like Ogoniland.

They maintained that the government should not just depend on the Ministry of the Niger Delta and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to bring development to Ogoniland, but that they should see the area as special and give it the treatment it deserves.

The groups also suggested an increase in the number of local governments in the area with a view to ensuring more development in the land.

It was also suggested that more people from Ogoniland should be given federal appointments and that this should be done in consultation with the groups in the area, both home and abroad, who they said know the right people that would champion their cause and promote their interest.

They stated that Shell Oil company should be made to pay huge sums of money over the damages done to Ogoniland over the years.

“Our position is that Shell Oil cannot continue to pollute our land without accepting responsibilities for what they ought to do.

“Six, we are also asking the Federal Government to discard or reject Shell’s purported onshore oil sale or transfer because it is daylight robbery. Hence Shell’s attempt and attempted purported sale in the disguise of globalisation is anti property right and anti legal fact that has no place in law,” they said.

The groups had, in a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, last year, recommended that an international remediation firm reputed with complex knowledge best practices in deforestation, coastal erosion and ecosystem remediation should “take over the ongoing cleaning of the Royal Dutch Shell decades of oil pollution and ecological war as well as end the HYPREP cutting corner policies in the area.”

They urged the “United Nations to make the declaration in part, to protect Ogoniland and Ogoni people from the Royal Dutch Shell’s decades of environmental misery and in whole, to stop Nigerian government and the Royal Dutch Shell from further subjecting Ogoni, Ogoniland and Ogoni people to the Royal Dutch Shell’s ongoing occupational pandemic.”

The groups urged the United Nations “to declare a state of climate and health emergency in Ogoniland or impress it upon the Nigeria government and the Royal Dutch Shell to immediately contract international remediation firms with professional experience and technical know-how capacity to stop this man-made outbreak misery.”

According to the groups, time has come for the government to “correct the anomaly of the past rather than looking for an escape route over what should be their responsibility as a government that is benefitting from the same land.

The groups suggested that the Nigerian government should “impress it upon UNEP to re-cost the project to cushion the long delay, inflation and recent or ongoing pollution to find lasting solutions to the issues of corruption confronting the entire clean up in the area.”

They added that “The devastation of Ogoniland should not be allowed to continue unabated so that the situation will not get out of hand.”

“We are calling on the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make life better for our people. There is no way life would continue the way it is in the area at the moment.

“Our people deserve the best at this material time and we will not allow the degradation in the land to continue unending.

“We demand an end to the suffering of our people so that they can live a normal life like other Nigerians, especially at this period that Nigerians are battling with serious economic crisis.

“We are calling on the FG to declare a state of climate and health emergency in Ogoniland in conjunction with the United Nations so as to give adequate attention to the radioactive outbreak as well as hire international firms with professional experience and technical know-how to contain this misery,” the statement read.

The groups stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should write his name in gold and do what other administrations have not been able to do for them over the years.

They insisted that the time to do it is now and that President Bola Tinubu has nothing to lose if he dances to the tune of the people of Ogoniland, who he said believe that President Bola Tinubu is a sincere leader, who wants the best for the people.

“We have watched with keen interest some of the radical economic policies of the incumbent government, which we know were tough initially, but are paying off at the end of the day.

“Nigerians can now see the impacts of the policies of the current administration in the country. They can see the way the issues affecting the exchange rate was handled. We also see the efforts of the government on recapitalising the banks in the country, and eliminating the fraud in fuel subsidy regime amongst other numerous policies.

“We also note the efforts of the government on handling insecurity and the movement towards the creation of state police. Very soon, Nigerians will know that a Daniel has come to judgment.

“In view of this, we don’t want to be left behind in the Niger Delta. We want to make hays while the sun shines and we also want to have something to celebrate on May 29, 2024, when this government would have run a full circle of one year.

“We don’t want to lament, while others are celebrating and we promise to reciprocate this gesture by supporting the government in whatever way we can and ensure that the government succeeds on all fronts in our own little way,” the groups said in the statement.