Major Ogoni groups, including the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), have rejected the Federal Government’s latest push to resume oil production in Ogoniland, demanding comprehensive engagement and the resolution of long-standing injustices.
The rejection comes one day after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu publicly directed the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, to begin immediate, final-stage engagement with Ogoni communities, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and other stakeholders to finalise modalities for restarting oil exploration.
President Tinubu gave the directive on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa after receiving the report of the Ogoni Consultations Committee.
He also used the occasion to confer posthumous national honours on four late Ogoni leaders, urging the community to embrace reconciliation and unity to unlock the area’s economic potential.
However, in a statement issued on Thursday, MOSOP President Fegalo Nsuke expressed deep concern about the implications of restarting production without first addressing critical grievances and ensuring the welfare of the people.
“While we remain committed to a permanent resolution of the Ogoni crises, we express dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Federal Government, which has proceeded without sufficient input from the local people whose farmlands and fishing waters have been affected by past oil activities,” Nsuke stated.
He was emphatic that MOSOP was not involved in the process that produced the latest consultation report, insisting that the organisation and the Ogoni people dissociate themselves from its findings.
Nsuke also reiterated the group’s decades-old demand for justice, including the exoneration of the nine Ogoni activists executed in 1995, and called for “transparent and unbiased negotiations” on civil and economic rights.
Corroborating this stance, Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, Executive Director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), recalled that oil production in Ogoni was suspended in 1993 after Shell was declared persona non grata.
He stressed that the demands of the people as contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights, as well as issues arising from the 1995 killings, must first be addressed before oil can resume.
Similarly, the Convener of the Ogoni Development Drive (ODD), Comrade Solomon Lenu, acknowledged President Tinubu’s interest in resolving the stalemate but cautioned that the government’s current approach risks repeating mistakes of the past.
He urged the government to demonstrate real commitment by unbundling the OML-11 oil block, which covers over 11,000 square kilometres, into smaller blocks and concessioning at least one to an Ogoni consortium.
Lenu stressed that the resumption of oil production should not be seen as an end in itself but must be accompanied by a clear pathway for improving the welfare of the people.