The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has expressed strong support for the on-going dialogue between the Ogoni people and the Federal Government, saying, they cannot continue to grapple with poverty, unemployment when our land can generate over $50million daily,

In addition, it described that its support was overwhelming and irrevocable, adding, the organisation’s commitment is aimed at having a permanent resolution to the Ogoni problem, which is firm, strong and intense.

MOSOP President, Fegalo Nsuke, stated this during interview with journalists in Abuja, explaining, the collective interest of the Ogoni people far outweigh personal interests and urged the public to reject manipulative and misleading information designed to frustrate the goodwill of the Government.

Nsuke also explained that they are focusing on getting the government to make necessary compromises that will allow the people to design and structure an Ogoni-centric system that provides environment to deal with critical issues affecting the future of Ogoniland.

According to him, they include job creation, security, health, infrastructure, education, electricity, social security and so on, emphasizing that the expectation of MOSOP is not to get the federal, state governments to solve all Ogoni problems immediately.

“We do not need to be asking the government for jobs, we need a system that creates the jobs and that is the goal of the ongoing dialogue. We need a system that addresses our social problems including job creation, health, and so on and not running to the government with all our problems in search of solutions.”

On the ongoing dialogue, he argued that it will try to get the necessary concessions that would allow the development of Ogoni resources in a mutually beneficial manner, stressing that external influences were misinforming the public in order to frustrate the efforts of the people to achieve a better life.

He therefore stated unequivocally that MOSOP is fully mobilized to support the national dialogue process and urged the Ogoni extraction not to forget yesterday and how self-seeking disagreements hurted the collective efforts of the people to make progress.

“We cannot continue to grapple with poverty, unemployment when the land we walk on everyday has the capacity to generate over $50million daily. Anyone deceiving us into protesting against current dialogue does not mean well.”

“We can tell you categorically that the government has not shown any signs of mistrust and the dialogue process is currently going well. The dialogue committee has submitted a fine report and the next phase is to see how best we can negotiate a good deal for the people.”

“We must remain focused on the common good and not fall for cheap blackmail and manipulations. What is most important for our people at this time is to guide the on-going dialogue process and ensure that we make the best use of it.”

“Let us not forget that it has taken us over 33 years to come this far. Being deceived to fight the process will be the most unpatriotic thing to do at this time especially because it has not been easy to initiate the ongoing dialogue process”

“We call on everyone to give the Ogoni the chance to resolve their problems themselves. We’re disappointed that people who have not questioned oil drilling in their locality are discouraging us from dialoguing with the Federal Government. This is an act of betrayal and Ogoni people must resist such deception.”

“No one should deceive you to think that there is a better alternative to dialogue. The dialogue is a good opportunity and people who have benefitted from our sufferings and deprivations should not deceive us into an endless resistance. We must continue to engage and protect current dialogue because it is one good opportunity before us” Nsuke concluded.