By: Felix Ikpotor
The Movement For The Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has frowned at the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, for excluding them in the ongoing Niger Delta Summit in Port Harcourt.
Publicity Secretary of MOSOP, Comrade Imeabe Saviour Oscar while reacting to the excuse given by the Managing Director of NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku as reason for the exclusion, said the MD is bereft of knowledge of those who stood their grounds to fight for what the region now enjoys today.
He said: “The attention of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People MOSOP has been drawn to a comment credited to the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku in the ongoing Niger Delta Summit, wherein the NDDC boss was quoted as saying the reason for not including MOSOP and relevant stakeholders from Ogoni was simply because Ogonis have denied the Federal and State governments access to the untapped crude.
“Assuming without conceding that the comment was made in his right frame of mind, then it means Niger Delta has successfully handed over NDDC to someone who don’t know the antecedents of the past Niger Delta leaders who stood their grounds against military dictatorship and some eventually lost their lives in protecting the common patrimony of our people”, he said.
Recalling the mission and vision of the NDDC which is ‘To offer a lasting solution to the socio-economic difficulties in the Niger Delta region’, ‘To facilitate the rapid and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and and politically peaceful,’ the MOSOP Publicity Secretary said the reverse seems to be the order of the day under the current leadership.
“If you were indeed honest that you are there to truly represent the people of Niger Delta and of course if you’ve read through the mission and vision statements of NDDC, then you would have been abreast and inundated with the fact that the reason you are there in NDDC was to ensure the devastated ecological system of the Niger Delta which Ogoniland is among is regenerated to sustain the people, but the reverse seems to be the order of the day under your watch,” he said.
Oscar said the statement was an affront to the Ogoni people and an indication that Ogbuku doesn’t mean well for the Ogonis.
“The statement to say the least, is an affront to the sensibility of MOSOP and the Ogoni nation and the NDDC boss should be conscience-stricken. This is more like killing the goose that laid the golden egg because for over decades that the federal government through Shell has exploited us, Ogoniland has been ecologically devastated and has lost all her major sources of livelihoods.
“We are aware that he is there to make a fortune and feather his own nest as against the norms and he feels that inviting the Ogonis will expose certain untold stories about his activities since his assumption of office.
“It would have been nice if he had cast his mind back and acknowledged the fact that ab initio, the federal government through Shell has had its own fair share in Ogoniland and Ogoniland has been used, re-sued and over used hence the implementation of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which gave rise to Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).
“The unfounded and naive comment points to the fact that he (Dr. Samuel Ogbuku) don’t mean well for us. He claimed the crude has been untapped and for that singular reason, MOSOP shouldn’t be invited to a submit that has to do with Niger Delta which Ogoni people are critical stakeholders in the region; he should also note that most states in the nation that has not a single drop of crude are the chief beneficiaries of the nation’s crude,” he said.
The MOSOP spokesperson insisted that whether Ogoni oil is tapped or not, “the terms and conditions listed must be followed all through before resumption of oil exploration in Ogoniland.”
