The Nigeria Oil Industry is Seeking to Return Ogoni to 1995

In the past six years, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has pursued a peaceful and more generally acceptable path to resolve the Ogoni problem. This commitment led to a resolution on September 27, 2020, outlining a set of steps which, if pursued, can serve as a roadmap to resolve the Ogoni conflicts with the oil industry.

Several congresses followed including one which held on November 30, 2024, to endorse the proposed development program for Ogoni through a deliberate commitment on the part of the oil industry, to drive development in Ogoni by allocating a fraction of the proceeds from oil to build a future for the people.

The first steps sought the cooperation of MOSOP grassroots leaders, youths, religious leaders, students, professionals and all heads of MOSOP affiliates to commence a sensitization program to win support for the initiative. At the same time, MOSOP vigorously pursued avenues to engage the government and has shown frantically, a commitment to discuss and reach the necessary compromise with all parties.

Though this strategy achieved its goals at galvanizing support from the grassroots, not much success was made on the side of the government. Rather, what we have seen is a sudden state capture of our efforts.

The immediate consequence of this distortion is a desperation to downplay the core issues raised by the Ogoni people and vehemently push the goal of government to resume oil production, not minding the environmental impacts and attendant consequences on human and mental health of the Ogoni people.

Consequently, we are significantly eroding the trust built in the people, through MOSOP's initial campaigns, and now witnessing growing discontent from those who labored, paid unquantifiable sacrifices, bore and are still bearing the pains and stigma of the repressive years.  The discontent is trickling down to an undeniable reality about the Ogoni neglect and most certainly, accounts for the recent protests witnessed in the land. These protests risk escalation as the government pushes further, and as long as the people's confidence in the process is less than overwhelming.

The oil industry, as usual, is always comfortable with government backing and never hesitant to deploy the instruments of state violence against the people and rights advocates who question its modus operandi and seek better attention to the needs of the people.

In 2025, we should do all we can not to return to the awful and globally condemned persecution of the Abacha years - returning Ogoni back to 1995 will be a strategic error and could further dampen the hopes of a permanent resolution of the conflicts which every reasonable leader seek. While we understand the government's need for oil revenue, it cannot be far more important than the lives of the people.

There is still much to be done to avoid a conflict with local Ogoni residents whose determination and resistance do not waiver for a cause they believe in and are committed to. The crimes against the Ogoni people are not, and will never be so hurriedly forgotten nor overlooked and we must be united, never to allow a repeat of such debacle.

The Ogoni people demand justice over their dehumanization, torture and murders due to protests against Shell's unethical business practices. This case of Shell's extreme brutality in Ogoni over a simple demand for fairness cannot be resolved with an offer to construct roads that lead to government facilities including their seaports and oil refineries.

We cannot so callously underestimate the people's determination to seek justice for the deaths and torture in state-backed cruelty that senselessly executed an entire leadership of Ogoni and killed an estimated 4,000 people. Ogoni deserves better and requires a thorough review, a public inquiry into these atrocities, punish the oppressors on the one hand, and protect and compensate the victims on the other hand.

That protection and compensation requires upholding the rights of the Ogoni people to self determination. This demand is central in the list of demands presented in the Ogoni Bill of Rights and allows the Ogoni people to manage their own affairs as a distinct ethnic nationality within the federal republic of Nigeria.

The fact remains that the Ogoni people demand justice and no one can claim that current discussions, whose key goal is basically to resume the production of oil in the land, is actually tilted towards the justice the Ogoni people seek.

We all admit the injustices of the murders of the 1990s. But can we really say we have sufficiently acted to repudiate these injustices and to heal the pains from the minds of the victims, or at least, fairly help the victims and affected families to move on? These issues are important because they remain legitimate grounds for the people to question the recent push towards resuming oil production in the area.

Nigeria cannot continue to present itself as a country whose strengths can only be seen against the Ogoni people. While at the same time, the same strength cannot be seen in the fight against insurgents like Boko Haram, and herders who are constantly ravaging our communities and villages. The show of strength against harmless and non-violent Ogoni civil rights actors cannot be something we should be proud of.

The current approach of the oil industry is therefore a miscalculation and could amount to a strategic error, an unnecessary and shameful act of returning Ogoni back to 1995 - an era of senseless brutality which remains a permanent stain on our global image.

Any sincere assessment of the situation in Ogoni will acknowledge that we still need to broaden the dialogue, encourage healing through positive action and build in more transparency, and inclusivity to achieve a win-win situation. Averting further physical and psychological pain on the Ogoni people will depend on how we respond to the Ogoni demands for fair treatment. The starting point of confidence building should be the creation of a Bori State.  That is central to the Ogoni people and reasonably fulfils our desire to function within Nigeria as a distinct ethnic nationality - a core demand of the Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR),

By: Fegalo Nsuke

Fegalo Nsuke, is president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). He writes from Lagos, Nigeria

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