OGONI: A land’s relentless search for liberation

As you make your way into Ogoniland, one of Nigeria’s oldest kingdoms, dozens of queries run through your mind. By road from Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, it is not more than 45 minutes. But that is if the roads were good. Sadly, you are condemned to navigate through the bumpy roads leading into this ancient community in a frustrating and unpleasant ride that could last almost two hours, depending on where your final destination is, anyway.

It could be longer if you are heading for Babbe, hometown of late the playwright and environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was hanged by the Sani Abacha military regime in 1995 alongside eight others for raising their voices against perceived injustice on their land. The terrible condition of roads leading into this ancient community, is one of the biggest issues troubling every Ogoni mind. But sadly, successive administrations have done only little to address the nagging problem.

However, on August 2, 2012, Goodluck Diigbo, factional leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) drew the attention of the world to Ogoniland once more. Diigbo declared Ogoni political autonomy, independent from Nigeria, claiming he and his people were tired of belonging to an entity that has failed to address their worries. Making the declaration, Diigbo announced: “In accordance with the wishes of the Ogoni people contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights of August 26, 1990, as revised on August 26, 1991;

expressing the collective will of the good people of Ogoni in the referendum of 2010 and the second referendum of 2011, obeying the command by the Ogoni people and their elected representatives from 33 district councils, comprising over 272 village councils, living in the six kingdoms of Ogoni, namely: Babbe, Eleme, Gokana, Kenkhana, Nyokhana and Tai and two administrative units: Ban Goi and the Bori National Territory; conducting this solemn affair in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 13, 2007, guided by the purposes and principles of international law in accordance with the United Nations Charter, I, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo, hereby make this historic statement, to announce the proclamation of this General Assembly Declaration of Political Autonomy for the self-determination or self-government of the Ogoni people within Nigeria, today, August 2, 2012. So declared, and so be it; for the advancement of liberty in freedom and the preservation of the ancestral heritage of the Ogoni people.

“The urgency behind the declaration is that self-government for Ogoni is overdue in view of many important issues bordering on indigenous rights of the Ogoni people being tampered with. The non-implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Ogoni report is one out of many. “By this declaration of political autonomy, we, the Ogoni people, are determined to enforce the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, without fear or retreat. In taking these measures, we are quite aware of the discomfort of about 56 local politicians that control local government politics in Ogoni. However, we care more about the 1.2 million people that have for too long been excluded.” The days that followed that declaration brought diverse reactions with them.

They came from far and near – and are still pouring in by the day. While some highlighted the dangers and implications of that move for the Ogoni people and Nigeria as a state, others simply labelled it a “mere internet declaration”, insisting that it was a treasonable move by Diigbo, who has suddenly been shot into global prominence in recent weeks. Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers State, fired the first salvo. “Ogoni autonomy is not achievable,” he declared. “The man who declared Ogoni autonomy will run into the bush tomorrow morning. What Diigbo is doing is treasonable felony. You do not declare autonomy on the pages of newspapers and magazines or on radio and television.” Amaechi has the rock-solid support of Joseph Bodurin Daudu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, who insists that it is illegal for any section of the country, including the Ogonis, to seek autonomy in any form as the constitution frowns at such.

“It is unconstitutional for any part to seek to breakaway or to do any acts that amount to that,” the NBA boss declares. “Government should take steps to denounce it. No constitutional provision for state flag. The constitution does not allow it. Government should come out to denounce it. No right to self-determination under the constitution.” There were images of Diigbo with hundreds of Ogoni people displaying the flag of their ‘new nation’ hours after that declaration. It was sights of a people dancing and jamming to sounds of freedom. But on a visit to Ogoniland, last week, this reporter did not see any significant changes to match the surfeit of media reports on the declaration.

There were no border posts, signs posts, strategically positioned flags and a new currency to signal the birth of a ‘new nation’ or political entity. Many of the locals feigned ignorance of the matter and the few who had a fair knowledge, distanced themselves from it, preferring, instead, for an Ogoni State to be carved out of the present day Rivers State. “I don’t understand what you are saying about Ogoni being a country,” says Meshack Kanebe, a commercial motorcyclist operating around Bori Local Government, the administrative headquarters of Ogoniland. “I have been in this village since and have not heard any of such. The only thing that I know is that we want government to give us our own state.

We are very many in Ogoniland and if they give us our state, it would help us a lot.” Dozens of indigenes in several other communities shared the same sentiments. But Bari-ara Kpalap, Administrator of the Ogoni Civil Society Platform (OCSP), stands on a different ground. Though Kpalap favours a system where the Ogonis would pursue their own interests independent of the federal government, he, however, points that the recent declaration by Diigbo is not a representation of their position at the moment. “The point is that some people can be overzealous,” he begins. “In MOSOP, we believe that we have a leadership, and the leadership, for now, is headed by Professor Ben Naanen. Goodluck Diigbo is an erstwhile leader of a youth wing of MOSOP called National Youth Council of the Ogoni People (NYCOP).

He is also not rooted at home; he is in Europe and made the declaration over there. When that happened, we didn’t see it that he did that kind of a thing, so we took it that it was just an overzealous person who just did that. But the issue, the truth about it is that the issue of autonomy within the Nigerian state is in the context of what we have been asking for and it’s enunciated in the Ogoni Bill of Rights. “The Ogoni Bill of Rights clearly stated it. It talked about self-determination, autonomy, within the Nigerian federation. That Goodluck Diigbo came to say so, merely re-echoed what has been there.

The only thing we have spoken about that he has done which is not in tandem with what was supposed to have been done is that no consultations were made. And probably the language used did not reflect a consensus, it was not managed properly. But in terms of the issue of self-determination, issue of autonomy, issue of using a fair share of the resources that come from here for our own development, those are issues that are already enunciated in the Ogoni Bill of Rights. So, they are not new. Goodluck merely re-echoed them. He merely brought them up again.” President of MOSOP, Professor Ben Naanen, a former head of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, UNPO, also disagrees with Diigbo to a large extent. He says the declaration of autonomy was far from what the Ogoni people wanted. “The Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR) is clear on the aspiration of Ogoni people in Nigeria,” he declares pointedly, alongside Dr. Meshach Karanwi, another member of the group’s Provisional Council.

“The Ogoni, according to OBR, want adequate representation in all the institutions of the Nigerian state as a matter of right. They want their economic, social and political rights to be protected in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A people aspiring to sovereignty cannot also be asking for representation at the same time. “Ogoni people are dissatisfied with their condition in our country, Nigeria. But they do not believe the sovereign option is the answer. They are convinced that their non-violent struggle and the support of the international community will eventually make the Nigerian government respond positively to Ogoni’s legitimate demands. One of these key demands is the creation of Bori State.

Another is the effective implementation of the UNEP report on Ogoni.” Eric Nasi, secretary, K-Dere Town Governing Council under Gokana Local Government, says the declaration should not be taken as the wish of the entire Ogoni people. He, instead, wants government and other relevant authorities to bring badly needed development to the area. “To the best of my knowledge even though Mr. Diigbo is talking concerning pollution in Ogoniland, his position does not represent the wishes of the entire Ogoni people. At no time has he been made leader of MOSOP. The leader of MOSOP, as far as I know, is Professor Ben Naanen; and he is also pushing the course of the Ogonis concerning the issue of pollution in the area.” Keragbon B-Tombari, a prominent activitist in the area supports the creation of Ogoni state but not the type Diigbo is championing. B-Tombari believes it would help speed up development in the towns and villages that make up this vast kingdom. “Ogoni cannot become a nation on its own,’ says B-Tombari.

“We are in a country already and we are under the constitution of the country. We cannot agitate for a nation; rather, we are just praying if government would help us and give us a state. We are still agitating for a state because we find it better if government would help us to give us Ogoni state. Most of the mineral resources are from Ogoni and these are part of reasons for such agitations.” When asked about what his position on the latest news rocking Ogoni, former president of MOSOP, Ledum Mitee, threw a poser at the reporter. “When you visited the community, did you see anything change? Was there any sign that it is now a country on its own? Were the people acting differently? So, what is the whole issue about secession? Since I stepped down as MOSOP president, I have allowed those who are running the organization speak for us. But my personal view is that government has to do something about the whole Ogoni issue.

They need to discuss with the people and find out whether they have ideas on how these things are going to be done.” The struggle for proper attention and justice by the Ogoni people did not start today. In 1990, they presented the Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR) to the federal government, asking for their indigenous rights to be protected. They demanded political autonomy that would allow them participate in the affairs of the country as a separate native unit with the assurance of the political control of Ogoni dealings by Ogoni people. From that time, the battle had assumed different dimensions, the highlight being the hanging of Saro-Wiwa, 17 years ago. But more than the issue of declaration of political autonomy by Diigbo, and the reactions it has elicited, there are equally several topical matters that have crawled into the centre of many important discourses in recent days, especially across Ogoniland.

The non-implementation of the UNEP report one year after it was released and the continued neglect of many parts of the kingdom, also add up to the list of worries here. Oil spills, gas flaring and other environmental disasters have combined to wreck untold pains on the kingdom and its largely impoverished people. The United Nations, after launching investigations into the matter last year, found evidences of serious degradation and massive destruction caused by spills from oil following decades of exploration and ‘exploitation’. Scores of farmlands have been ravaged in the process while countless numbers of rivers and waters have been contaminated and, in some cases, dried up. This has led to serious loses for the people whose major sources of income and economic mainstay is fishing and farming. The UNEP report indicted multinational oil companies, especially Shell, and the Nigerian government for the massive pollution that have soaked this part of the Niger Delta and destroyed its fragile wetlands environment.

The report said it would take about 25 years and billions of dollars to clean up the mess caused in the area, making it, by far, the record holder among environmental disaster zones of the world. Even though Shell and the government have agreed to act on the report and take corrective measures, the people of Ogoni say none of those pledges have been fulfilled more than one year since that report came out. In some communities like K-Dere where the first oil well in the entire Ogoniland is located, Tai and Kenkhana, the reporter saw hectares of farmlands that have been destroyed by oil spills.

The waterways haven’t escaped the onslaught, too. Creeks like Kidaro where locals made livelihoods, catching fish and picking periwinkles, have been severely damaged by the leaking oil. This has contributed greatly to the economic tumbling in many parts of Ogoniland, forcing many young men who were into fishing to turn to operating commercial motorcycles (known as okada in local parlance) for survival. Gory images, official lies There have been many cases of deaths and health complications in many of the villages visited. The contaminated nature of drinking water and the prevalence of chemicals in the atmosphere, are some contributing factors to this scourge. In some villages, community leaders told the paper that many homes are forced to drink the chemical-ridden water because the supplies in the few water tankers in those places are barely enough to address the demands on ground. In Oghali community, for example, the UNEP report found the contamination in water to contain benzene, a carcinogen, 900 times the acceptable level. But because of the unavailability of adequate alternatives, people are forced to turn to the deadly liquid for succor. Many have died in the process while several others have continued to battle all sorts of sicknesses.

This situation is not peculiar to Oghali; there are several villages with similar levels of contamination where the people have been badly hit as well. “The Minister of Environment, Hadiza Mailafiya, was on air recently when they held a press briefing at the Presidential Villa,” Kpalap says, “and she claimed that they have commenced implementation of the UNEP report and said that, in collaboration with the Rivers State government, they have been dealing with alternative drinking water for a community called Isisiokem in Oghali in Eleme Local Government Area. “That is provocative. It is annoying because she is talking from a point where they appear not to know what is happening there.

Yes, Isisiokem in the UNEP report was found to be 900 times more than the World Health Organization has approved for contaminated water that people can consume, I mean benzene-contaminated water. So, part of the recommendations in the UNEP report is what we call emergency recommendation to provide alternative sources of drinking water for these places that the contamination is so high, to also mark the highly impacted sites, to warn people of the dangers. All these things they have not done. K-Dere alone has over 15 sites, and not even one has been marked. Now, at Isisiokem, they delivered three small, rickety and rusty water tankers to a community of about 15, 000 people.

Because the water supply is insufficient, because the water they supplied has also been reported to be contaminated, the people are forced to go back to their benzene-ridden water to drink, which means they are suffering double tragedy. “So, why would a federal minister come on air and say they have started implementing the UNEP report because they supplied contaminated water, compounding the problems of the people? It’s a shame! The minister has never attempted to leave Abuja and come to Isisiokem to know what is happening. Well, the UNEP report is unambiguous in relation to its findings and recommendations. The report said from its findings, all the people, all of us here, we are just ‘living dead’ people. We are ‘living dead’ people. So, this is the situation at the moment.” Until the UNEP report was released last year, there have been spirited efforts by top multinationals to hide the truth from the world. America, which ships about one-fifth of Nigeria’s oil with its companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil, raking in billions of dollars in profits each year, has sent only a fraction of that in environmental aids to affected communities. The Dutch government, which reaps massively from taxes paid by Shell, its indigenous company, gives nothing tangible to places like Ogoni in the Niger Delta. Even the British government, which increased bilateral aid to Nigeria, recently, plans to reduce its contributions to the affected areas in the next few years. In 2010, Britain gave almost 10 million pounds to “improve transparency and accountability in oil sector governance”, with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, promising to “help reduce the theft of oil on the Delta.” But critics say such move is only aimed at protecting the oil companies and the government, but not the ordinary indigenes whose communities have been decimated by years of pollution. Shell says it is committed to cleaning up Ogoniland but wants government to do its part by curbing oil theft and illegal hacking of its pipelines by locals. One year has passed and the people are growing impatient. “We have maintained measures that we know best about managing crises,” reveals Eric Nasi, a human rights activist and secretary, K-Dere Town Governing Council. “We started by reporting our case to the world, how we have been marginalized by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) even though we have a number of oil wells in the community. Even though we have been inflicted with untold hardship caused by series of pollution as a result of exploration activities by some of these oil companies, we don’t come out with guns and machetes, we just report our problems to the world. The magnitude of the devastation is much because aquatic life has been damaged overtime, farms have been damaged as well. The entire area is polluted. Generally, the environment has been damaged by spills from pipelines, trunk lines all belonging to Shell. “The major problem in this our struggle, as far as I am concerned, is the failure of those in government to see things with the Ogoni people. Most times they feel if they develop Ogoni, other ethnic nationalities too would also demand same. But we are talking of a situation where the place has been supporting government in oil production over the years. But there is nothing to show for this long-term support to the government. “What I think they can do, if they don’t believe what we are saying, is for them to come in here and do some verification for themselves. Look at the numbers of oil wells, numbers of trunk lines, security facilities that are in place. By the time they know that we are not just demanding money from them, they would know we are fighting for the right thing. “We are only exercising patience because I know the UNEP report has been out for some time. We learnt that the federal government is making some moves and that they have set up a committee to look into the report. I believe that by the time that committee would finish its work; we would have some benefits from it. However, we are not quite happy with the way this entire process is. It’s so slow. We are not happy at this.” B-Tombari is also not satisfied with the way some of these issues have been handled, particularly the non-implementation of the UNEP report. He flayed the parties involved for deliberately inflicting pains on the Ogoni people in spite all the exploitation of their resources. “In fact, we are very much in distress about this matter,” he says. “I particularly, as I speak with you, I am one of the contact men to the UNEP when they came to this place. They did their work very fine and their recommendations were also good. They told us in confidence that as they were leaving, they were taking the matter up. But to our surprise, the report has not been implemented. Rather, what we are hearing is that they have set up another panel to enquire into it. So, we are not happy over it. In fact, the people of Ogoni feel cheated by the federal government of Nigeria, because if there had been something serious, they would have taken it up. By now, government would have taken it as a point of duty and as an important issue to move into it. But nothing has been done whatsoever. “They should get us out of this condition because our children are suffering in terms of qualitative education. In relation to degradation, our source of water is polluted; we cannot get fish where we normally get them so as to feed ourselves. Nobody goes to fishing again. Even ordinary periwinkle that the poorest woman in this entire area picked for her to survive is no longer there. There is now economic crumbling and, in fact, we are totally down in every area of our life as a people. But if government can take it as a point of duty and come out and implement the UNEP report perfectly, I feel we would praise the government. And they should also give us our state because they know we are due for it.” Trickling palliatives Earlier this month, the federal government gave the nod for the establishment of a Hydro-Carbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) to help oversee the clean up in fulfillment of its pledge to act on the UNEP report. Mrs. Denziani Alison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources, made the decision public. But there are already doubts across Ogoniland about how effective this latest move would be or how far it can go in healing the wounds endured by people of the area. MOSOP, in a statement recently, lauded this development but feared it could be another political gimmick to continue to deceive Ogoni people. “Considering the tradition of poor project implementation in Nigeria,” the statement read in part, “the Ogoni people are deeply concerned that HYPREP may join the graveyard of failed projects in the country.” Kpalap, like MOSOP, believes the formation of HYPREP was not in the genuine interest of the people but is a mere tactical move by the federal government to take pressure of it. “When we heard the announcement that they have established HYPREP, which coincided with the first anniversary of the release of the UNEP report, we weren’t excited,” he says. “Also, we were not surprised because, looking at the pressure the campaign that the UNEP report generated, government has refused to implement its recommendations. Knowing that the first anniversary of the report would have generated an avalanche of popular protests relating to their non-implementation of the report, they tactically went and announced certain things to upstage these protests. “Now, if you look at HYPREP, they have no structure, it has no implementation plan, it does not have any term of reference, it does not have any source of funding, particularly when it is not accommodated in the national appropriation act. So, is government really serious when all these things are not there? The meaning of it is that it is unlikely that any serious work relating to HYPREP would commence before the end of this year. As you know, every activity of government is accommodated in that year’s budget but as far as the 2012 budget of the federal government of Nigeria is concerned, there is nothing that covers HYPREP. Therefore, it is unlikely that they are going to do anything between now and the end of the year. “What may happen is that the Federal Ministry of Environment may accommodate it in their own budget for 2013. So, why all these media noise they are doing about HYPREP when they are unprepared? The main idea, the main agenda of announcing HYPREP has been to upstage what would have been popular protests as we mark the first anniversary of the release of the UNEP report. That is what we have seen so far. So, we are not amused by the announcement of the formation of HYPREP. We are not amused because we don’t see anything on ground to show that government is serious. “The Ogoni people have now put the so-called HYPREP to test. If they are serious, they must start consultations. They must publish their implementation plan showing time frame, monitoring arrangements and evaluation. They must also tell us their source or sources of funding. Then, in telling us the sources, they must also tell the Ogoni people the amount of votes for the implementation of the UNEP report on Ogoni. Then, the amount of vote for the added mandate given to HYPREP, because HYPREP have an over-bloated mandate. They are to implement the UNEP report on Ogoni, they are to investigate, evaluate and make recommendations on their findings on other sites that are polluted. “Again, the report had said, and that is one of the areas we quarrel with, that set up a restoration authority for Ogoni, set up a restoration fund for Ogoni, set up a centre of excellence for Ogoni, all these ones appear to have been jettisoned. Because if government had followed the recommendation of UNEP, there wouldn’t have been any need for HYPREP. They would have set up that authority for Ogoni and then deal with it that way. In this case, they set up a gigantic thing with a very big and broad mandate. Those are the things we are talking about. For now, even people that would head HYPREP have not been appointed. Nobody has been appointed. There is nothing on ground.” In four of the six kingdoms visited by the reporter, there were no sign of HYPREP or structures or equipment, nor was there any indication that clean-up exercises are going to start anytime soon. A high ranking traditional chief at the palace of the Gberemene of Gokana told ICON that they were unhappy with the way government is handling their issue and that they have not seen a single evidence from the authorities that they are committed to the UNEP report. This is almost one month after the Minister of Petroleum Resources announced the setting up of the new body. A land and its many troubles Stretching across 404 square miles divided into six kingdoms along the coastal plains of the Niger Delta, Ogoniland and its people have seen more than enough troubles over the last few decades. Though the five major languages spoken in the area sometimes portray dissimilarities in the people’s ideology and belief, the injustice done them and the collective resolve to fight back appears the most evident testimony of a united land, most times. In 1993, following protests to stop contractors from burying new pipelines for Shell, mobile policemen pounced on the area to burst the unrest. In the ensuing chaos and commotion, about 27 villages were allegedly torched, causing some 2,000 deaths and the displacement of around 80,000 Ogoni indigenes. That incident marked the end of Shell’s operation in the area and the climax of a 15-year resistance to their exploitation by the locals. Shell had 98 oil wells in about seven oilfields in the area, including five flow stations in Bodo West, Bomu, Yorla, Korokoro and Ebubu, before it was driven out. Daily output from that region, according to the company’s data, was around 28, 000 barrels. It was an operation carried out alongside France’s Total/Elf, Italy’s Agip and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Though, the NNPC, through the federal government’s intervention was supposed to have commenced drilling operations using Shell’s abandoned oil wells, MOSOP rallied its people to resist that move. The group vowed last year to apply what it described as “justifiable stiffer resistance,” against attempts by the Federal Government, through the NNPC or any oil company, to resume oil production in Ogoniland. It has kept that promise and successfully stopped multi-national companies from pumping their oil till date. Indeed, the latest struggle by the people of this ancient kingdom brings many things to mind. Apart from the evident deprivation and underdevelopment visible in the area, the whole issue reminds many indigenes the ideals that some of their heroes, like Ken Saro-Wiwa, fought and died for. “Most of the things that have happened is a vindication of the things Ken and all the leaders of Ogoni have been saying,” Mitee offers. “They have been crying about environmental devastation and how our entire land has been destroyed. It is a vindication to some of the things that the late Ken and other leaders have been saying from the very beginning: that the environment is destroyed, that we are threatened and if possible could be extinct. But it’s a vindication of all the things that we have been saying and we hope those responsible can act fast to correct the injustice done to the Ogoni people.” Kpalap agrees perfectly with Mitee. He, however, reveals that the late activist rightly predicted all that have been were happening before his sad killing. “Well, the most important thing about this is that Ken championed the struggle for justice for the Ogonis,” says Kpalap. “He also made some predictions: he said the Nigerian state was on trial; he said Shell was also on trial; he said the way they respond to the situation would generate how others would also respond to the situation. In other words, if they refuse peaceful advocacy to succeed, then, they are asking for a violent response. Not too long after he said all these, he was hanged. Others, who also agitated, adopted a non-violent means in their own crusade. And we saw what happened- militancy and all that. “Ken also said, ‘Shell, you’ll be punished for all those things you’ve been doing against the Ogoni people.’ You’ve heard of the things that have been happening, Shell is in court in many countries; people are raining curses on them; they are on trial. UNEP has come now to crown it, to indict Shell, to strengthen, to give a scientific backing to what we have been saying, that Shell has ruined our environment. “Today, government is coming back to say, look, we agree that your environment has been ruined, we want to clean it up. Environmental protection and defense has been the core area of the agitation of the Ogoni people, which Ken championed. I think Ken, even in death, is vindicated. And we shall keep remembering him for that. There may be other things that this is going to bring up which will also make us to realize that Ken stood for what was right. And we were not stupid to give him the support; we were not stupid to have taken up the challenge.” That challenge has, indeed, been a huge one for the Ogoni people who have vowed to make all those responsible for the destruction of their environment bear the cost. Though, they have championed their course in a non-violent manner, making it hard for oil firms to create divisions among them, some of the leaders told the paper they could explore other means if the occasion arises. Many of the people here say they are not asking for too much. All they want is a comprehensive compensation for the years of abuse on their land and attack on their sources of livelihood, plus infrastructural development across the area. In spite of over $40 billion raked in from oil drilled from Ogoniland by Shell and the government in the last five decades, there is no visible federal presence in the area. Only the Polytechnic, Bori, owned by the Rivers State government, is the most notable institution across the kingdom. The Ogoni leaders want this to be urgently addressed alongside any planned clean up. The coming days and weeks would certainly provide plenty of defining moments for this land and thousands of its people – many of whom live in squalor in the midst of plenty wealth.

Source: The Sun

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