President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, met with a delegation of Ogoni leadership at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with a pledge to prioritise peace, justice, and sustainable development in the area.
At the meeting, the President called for unity and reconciliation, urging the Ogoni people to set aside historical grievances and work together to achieve peace, development, and a clean environment.
Tinubu said: “We cannot in any way rewrite history, but we can correct some anomalies of the past going forward. We cannot heal the wounds if we continue to be angry,” he said. He directed the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to coordinate the negotiations as he called for inclusive consultation and mutual understanding.
The President commended the delegation for embracing the federal government-led dialogue and emphasised the need for collaboration, trust, and inclusiveness to resolve lingering issues in the region.
“We must work together with mutual trust. Go back home, do more consultations, and embrace others. We must make this trip worthwhile by bringing peace, development, and a clean environment back to Ogoniland,” Tinubu said. He also directed ministers, the NNPCL, and the Rivers State Government to cooperate with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to achieve this mandate.
It is a great honour for me to have this meeting, which is an opportunity to dialogue with the people of Ogoniland. It has been many years since your children and myself partnered to resist military dictatorship in this country. No one dreamt I would be in this chair as President, but we thank God.
“Many of your sons present here were my friends and co-travellers in the streets of Nigeria, Europe, and America. I know what to do in memory of our beloved ones so that their sacrifices will not be in vain,” the President said.
Leader of the delegation, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, thanked the President for his support of the Ogoni people and for welcoming an all-inclusive representation of the people to the Presidential Villa.
Fubara said the meeting was a follow-up to an assignment the President gave him through the National Security Adviser. Emphasising the importance of resuming oil operations in Ogoniland, the governor pledged the delegation’s commitment to adhering to the President’s instructions and providing the necessary support to achieve the government’s objectives.
“What we are doing here today is to concretise the love and respect we have for the President for being behind this meeting and for him to tell us to go back and continue the consultations with a timeline so that the resumption of oil production in Ogoniland will commence,” he said.
HOWEVER, in a swift reaction to the visit, no fewer than 16 civil society organisations in the Niger Delta flayed the federal government over the invitation extended by the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) to some Ogoni leaders and stakeholders “to discuss the resumption of oil production in Ogoniland”.
The groups, which comprise Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative, Ogoni Solidarity Forum-Nigeria, South South Youths Initiative, Peoples Advancement Centre, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Kebetkache Women Development Centre, Social Action, Lekeh Development Centre among others, in a statement released through the Chairman, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), Lanre Suraj, posited that it was insensitive for the Tinubu administration to open any form of discussion with handpicked group of Ogoni leaders for such talks.
They also recognised and condemned the country’s dependence on fossil fuel, noting that the overall will of the majority of Ogoni “is paramount in this matter.”
Rising after the meeting held at the Port Harcourt office of ERA/FoEN, the groups condemned the planned resumption of oil exploration and production activities in Ogoniland.
They said the decision disregarded the enduring environmental, social and economic injustices faced by Ogoni people and undermined efforts towards sustainable development, environmental justice, community empowerment and clean-up of the devastated environment.
The groups, therefore, made a 14-point demand from the government, including the need to halt all plans to resume oil extraction in Ogoniland until meaningful consultation with the people and full remediation of the damaged environment are achieved.
They also said not one more oil well should be drilled in the Niger Delta, and that government and the oil companies should commence immediate and total clean-up of the region.
According to them, $1 trillion should be earmarked for immediate clean up of the Niger Delta and compensation for loss of livelihoods, immediate review of the military trial and execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa with others and their exoneration, immediate and unconditional release of the confiscated Ken Saro-Memorial Bus sculpture held by Nigeria Customs since 2015, full implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report and prioritise the clean-up and restoration of Ogoniland. They also wanted more funding to be allocated to the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to hasten their actions on the clean-up.
