Human Rights Activist, Celestine Akpobare is the president of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum (OSF), an affiliate of MOSOP. He is also a member of Port Harcourt based Social Action, a right group. He speaks with EMMANUEL MASHA on the recent declaration by Diigbo.
YOU know Goodluck Diigbo very well, and you once supported his faction in MOSOP. A few days ago, he declared autonomy for the Ogoni people. How do you see the eclaration?
I am not against the declaration; but to declare political autonomy is not all about spoken words. There are things that are usually backed up by action. In this case, what action has been put in place? Where are the administrative structures that should be in place to back up such declaration? He is talking about autonomy on behalf of an indigenous ethnic nationality of up to one million people, without consulting the people. You cannot stay anywhere and make pronouncements.
That is not the way things should be. When the Ogonis boycotted the 1993 elections, Saro Wiwa went round the six kingdoms in Ogoniland, interacted with the people, and there was a general boycott. Diigbo made the declaration without holding discussions with the people. Making such declaration without consulting the people is a mockery of our struggle.
The faction in MOSOP is threatening its relevance in the affairs of the Ogonis; what really led to this faction in a group that has attracted support across tne world?
There is nowhere you don’t find factions, even in heaven there was a faction; and so wherever you find human beings, there are factions. In the case of MOSOP, there was a faction because of Ledum Mitee’s refusal to quit after being on the saddle for 17 years.
He overstayed his welcome. Eventually when he left, there was a vacuum, because he did not hand over to an elected executive. Before then, Mitee was the president of a faction, while Diigbo was the president of another faction. They were running parallel governments. But since our main agitation was that Mitee should go, and he has gone, I strongly feel that this is the best time for Ogonis to come together and put up a united front, and that is what I am working towards now.
But some observers praise Mitee for pushing forward the vision of the late Ken Saro Wiwa.
What Mitee did as MOSOP president was deliberate; he was there to destroy Ogoni unity. Throughout the 17 years he stayed I cannot point to one thing he did in promoting MOSOP. How could he have spent 17 years, and when he was leaving, he didn’t prepare for people to take over from him? It is an indictment on his person.
So, Mitee failed MOSOP and the Ogoni people. Mitee only took decisions when he felt excluded. I have had cause to disagree with him at different points. I was in a meeting, an Ogoni Congress in July last year, where Mitee, Prof. Ben Naanen, and other
Erominent Ogoni were discussing on ow Shell can resume oil production in Ogoniland, and I stood u|) to raise my voice against the move. That scuttled the plan. Mitee chaired that meeting, and I know that if they had consulted him, the outcome would have been different.
He nominated his younger brother, Batom Mitee as a caretaker committee chairman of Gokana local government area, which he served under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and also as a commissioner nominee in the Amaechi government, although he was not appointed. But as we speak the same Batom Mitee, who was very active in MOSOP has been a special adviser to Amaechi since he took over from Celestine Omehia five years ago.
You have just painted the picture of a very influential Mitee; but there was the crisis that usually led to bloodletting between his community, B-Deere and K-Deere, a neighbouring community. If he was that influential why couldn’t he stop the crisis?
Mitee could not stop that crisis while it raged because he had lost steam and the support of the Ogoni people, because he decided to engage in partisan politics. Under such situation, it was very difficult for him to speak on behalf of Ogoni people or influence things outside his community.
Its now more than a year since you kicked against Shell’s resumption of operations in Ogoniland. Has anything changed that should make them to resume operations?
Nothing has changed since then. There’s no reason they should resume operations, because nobody has responded to the needs of the Ogoni people as enshrined in the Ogoni Bill of Rights. After decades of oil theft, nobody has paid back anything to the Ogonis.
How can the crisis in MOSOP be resolved?
It can only be resolved through the conduct of a free and fair, election after which the winners are sworn-in as the executive.
So, you want a fresh election? If Diigbo, whom you strongly backed in the past, contests, do you see him winning? Do you have any regret being instrumental in the emergence of two factions of MOSOP, a development that is threatening MOSOP?
I am not regretting that we brought in Diigbo. When Mitee left, he didn’t leave an elected executive behind, and we all know that nature abhors vacuum. What is happening now is what you see when there is a vacuum.
I personally swore-in Goodluck Diigbo as the factional president of MOSOP. We started this thing because somebody refused to leave. If the baby you came to carry has died, then you should go. Mitee has gone, now is the time to rebuild our house. It was Mitee who overstayed his welcome, but now, we want to move forward.
Why has the Ogoni Solidarity Forum has been silent of late?
OGF was not created to foment trouble in Ogoniland. We came as a child of circumstance in 2007 when we discovered that Mitee was not toeing the right path. We came in to continue the struggle from where Ken Saro Wiwa stopped.
So, we brought in Goodluck Diigbo to head the other faction of MOSOP, so that if there are two parallel factions, Mitee will know that the time is up. We felt that since Mitee has been forced out, there won’t be need to compound issues, but to gradually rebuild MOSOP, and work towards Ogoni unity. And that’s exactly what we are doing.
Source: OgoniNews
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