| The people of Ogoni have given better explanation to their resolute decision on their quest to occupy the Rivers State Government House as a executive governor in 2015. |
The Ogoni people last Friday, August 9, 2013, during a peaceful protest march in Bori, organized under the aegis of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, reiterated their resolve to produce the next Governor of Rivers State, but dispelled the rumour of their adoption and preference for an aspirant, saying they have not endorsed any particular aspirant as the people’s candidate for the 2015 governorship election in Rivers State.
Addressing the over ten thousand Ogonis, including MOSOP activists who took part in the mass protest, marking this year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous People at the Ogoni Peace, Freedom Centre, in Bori, the MOSOP President, Legborsi Saro-Pyagbara noted that 47 years after the creation of Rivers State, Ogoni, which is a majority tribe and had also contributed huge financial and mineral resources to the wealth and development of the state, is yet to produce a Governor, Deputy Governor, Chief Judge or Speaker of the State House of Assembly.
The MOSOP leader said, as part of the issues which the peaceful protest seeks to address, the denial of Ogoni people to occupy any of the aforementioned offices will no longer be tolerated in 2015, as the Movement has set sail her “Project 2015”, which is an initiative aimed at putting an end to the peoples political marginalization in their own land.
MOSOP however cleared that their quest to take up the Governorship seat does not forbid any ethnic nationality in the state from aspiring for any of the elective positions, but it is an appeal to the conscience of other sister ethnic nationalities that have been so lucky to have been either elected or appointed into such offices.
According to Mr Saro-Pyagbara, “MOSOP is embarking on this campaign conscious of the fact that as at 1998, two issues had confronted the Nigerian State; the issue of the cancellation of June 12 elections and the Ogoni issue. On return to democracy in 1999, the political elites of Nigerian state agreed concensusly to provide the platforms of their political parties to only Yoruba candidates to assuage their feelings over the cancellation of June 12 elections believed to have been won by a Yoruba. Nothing was and has been done to the Ogoni people. We are saying, it is time to remember the Ogoni people”.
On Ogoni autonomy, MOSOP stressed her commitment to the request by the Ogoni people to be granted political autonomy within the Federal Republic of Nigeria as contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights.
The Ogoni Movement again called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to initiate the process of the creation of a Bori State without preconditions, stressing that it is time to reassure the Ogoni people that they are still part of the Nigeria project, adding that the state arrangement is a political autonomy that empowers the people to deal with issues affecting all aspects of their lives.
Meanwhile, regretting that more than two years after the UNEP reports was released, the Federal Government is yet to implement any aspect of the report’s recommendations, the people disagreed with the government’s setting of the Hydro-carbon Pollution Restoration Project, HYPREP, which MOSOP observes that more than one year after, the body still does not have any framework of intervention in Ogoni, while the Ogoni Genocide continues.
In the light of the foregoing, MOSOP gave a 90 day ultimatum to the federal government of Nigeria to set in motion the process for the full and effective implementation of the UNEP report, beginning with the scrapping of HYPREP, setting up the Ogoni Environmental Restoration Authority and the establishment of the Ogoni Restoration Fund as recommended.
By MOSOP position, following government’s failure to implement the report, the scenario in 1993 may still be replayed as the Ogoni people have vowed to boycott the 2015 general elections in case their requests are not heeded to by the government.
In his words, the MOSOP leader said “implementations of the UNEP report will define Ogoni response to the federal elections in 2015”.
In like manner, MOSOP viewed with condemnation the alleged recent incursions of Shell into some Ogoni communities under the pretext of carrying out clean up activities, which they said left some of the affected communities in crisis.
“As far as MOSOP is concerned, any clean up process in Ogoniland based on the UNEP report which is carried out without a clear framework of intervention and a coordinated entity outside Shell is suspicious and doubtful. MOSOP already has credible evidences of shoddy cleanup practices being carried out currently by Shell”, he said.
MOSOP therefore called on Shell to stop forthwith its current incursions into some Ogoni communities in the name of UNEP report.
MOSOP said this year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples was being celebrated under the theme of “Indigenous People Building Alliances: Honouring Treaties, Agreements and other constructive arrangements”. They noted that considering the urgency of the action needed at the moment to deal with some pressing issues, the central role of alliance-building cannot be over emphasized.
MOSOP stressed the need for solidarity embodied in alliances amongst their people and non Ogonis and with friends in order to safeguard Ogoni dignity and promote their unique identity, their language, culture, health and environment.
The Ogoni people had in the morning hours of the day converged at the Birabi Memorial Grammar School premises from where the peaceful march commenced through the major road leading to the Ogoni Peace and Freedom Centre, Bori.
The people who carried green leaves and placards bearing various inscriptions, demanding for the emancipation of Ogoni, the implementation of UNEP report and the stopping of Shell’s incursion into the communities, also called on the government to be sensitive to Ogoni issues.
It would be recalled that by resolution 49/214 of 23 December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 9th August as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous peoples to be observed yearly.
The intervention was to draw global attention to the issues of indigenous peoples and engender collective actions aimed at enhancing their dignity as emphasized in the theme of the second international decade for the world’s indigenous peoples entitled “A Decade For Action and Dignity.###
Source: NationalNetwork