In the oil-rich community, an over three decades-long oil exploration by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has caused serious environmental problem. Protestations against the degradation led to the execution of writer and environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other chiefs in November 1995.
The Federal Government, under General Sanni Abacha accused the activists of having a hand in the murder of some prominent Ogonis who were not in support of their struggle against environmental degradation, and consequently carried out a trial that was globally described as “hasty and unfair.” Seventeen years after, the once powerful MOSOP, whose nonviolent agitation won it sympathy across the globe is today divided.
A faction of it is led by Diigbo, whose supporters’ claim he contested and won an election in 2009. That was two years before Leduum Mitee, who led MOSOP for almost 17 years, finally handed over to a caretaker committee led by Prof. Ben Naanen, a highly respected lecturer in the History and Diplomatic Studies department of the University of Port Harcourt.
With the global condemnation that greeted the execution of Saro Wiwa and others, MOSOP grew stronger, and further went beyond trie reach of the state government. Observers say that successive state governments strategically courted MOSOP due to its mass appeal among the Ogoni people, who had proven their commitment to the group’s cause, especially the way they cooperated in the boycott of the 1993 elections in Ogoniland. That situation widened MOSOP’s sphere of influence so much that major state appointments from Ogoniland had the seal of MOSOP, which has not known any other president apart from Mitee after the execution of Wiwa.
Diigbo, a one-time practising journalist in the old Rivers State, had a stint at the Tide Newspaper, the state’s official newspaper, which is still on the newsstands and a few other media houses before he fled the country to Ghana in the wake of the military authorities clampdown on MOSOP members. Those who are familiar with the build-up to the killing of some prominent Ogoni accused of being planted by the government to scuttle the Ogoni cause, finger Diigbo as among those who assembled the mob.
He worked closely with Saro Wiwa, who devoted a whole chapter in one of his books commending Diigbo for his commitment to the MOSOP cause. He is said to have narrowly missed death by taking flight to Ghana where he stayed with some Ogonis who had taken the West African country as a base before departing to Europe.
Once Diigbo, who strongly believes in the Ogoni struggle landeain the Netherlands, he mixed up with other activists, especially Europeans who further opened his eyes in activism, and consequently worked his way up to the United States where he found a heaven at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where he became the chairman of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
Diigbo, who also carries a Dutch passport as a result of his marriage to a Dutch woman, who is also an activist, lives in the Netherlands with his family. For many years, he has been the voice of MOSOP outside Nigeria due to his understanding of the inner working of the UN.
When Mike Cowing, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) coordinator in Ogoniland first arrived in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital in 2009 to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment of some of the oil spill sites in Ogoniland, the first resistance he met was from Diigbo, who as factionalpresident of MOSOP had dragged UNEP and the Federal Government to the UN in a petition decrying the absence of the Ogonis in the clean-up exercise, as well as some other points which he noted run contrary to other clean-up operations.
At tne Government House, Port Harcourt, where Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi had invited Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, the presidency s point man on the Ogoni, some prominent Ogoni traditional rulers, and politicians on the environment impact assessment of Ogoniland, Mike Cowing, who was making a chart presentation complained of the pressure being mounted on him by both Mitee, and Diigbo through MOSOP, noting that he didn’t know who to deal with between the two.
Those who know Diigbo very well describe him as a go-getter, who feels he alone knows the right steps to further project the Ogoni cause, and oring Shell to account. A source who did not wish to disclose his name, noted that “Diigbo means well for the Ogonis and is uncomfortable with the leadership of MOSOP since the death of Saro Wiwa, but he is an autocrat who will not carry the Ogonis along.”
Before he visited the country in 2009, his community, Teyork had been attacked by their neighbours. A few lives were lost, while property worth millions of Naira was damaged.
Diigbo did the declaration that is generating controversy across the country through an audio tape he had recorded in his Dutch base, by ensuring it was played in the midst of a crowd of mainly supporters at Bori, the headquarters of the Ogonis.
There was no symbolic lowering of the national flag for that of the Ogoni Republic he hacf in mind when the recording was played.
This has made some observers to dismiss the declaration as a move that was not well thought out, which cannot in any way contribute meaningfully to the Ogoni cause, especially their quest to be respected and treated fairly in the Nigerian federation.
But the move has caused a little tension in Bori, and further brought to the fore the crisis that has rocked MOSOP in the past few years. It has also ignited a chain of reactions within and outside the countiy.
Diigbo contested the last governorship election under the Hope Democratic Party, and concentrated his campaign within his native Ogoniland, where he repeatedly challenged the Governor to a political debate that was never held.
In a reaction following the condemnation that has greeted the declaration, Diigbo said: “Going by international law, it is only the Ogoni people that have the right to freely determine our own political status, which we did since August 26, 1990 through the Ogoni Bill of Rights. Then, we waited for 22 years.
To let the government of Nigeria or another ethnic group in Nigeria declare self-government for the Ogoni, would mean that the Ogoni have abdicated their own responsibility. We have acted non-violently and lawfully for self-government within Nigeria, and we have never made any U-turn,” Diigbo reaffirmed.
Source: OgoniNews
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