In the past 30 years, we have fought for our lives. Like a people pushed to the wall, our fight was for life or death. We recorded victories but we have most certainly been unable to celebrate our successes because they haven't come with the ultimate joy and freedom we seek.
Despite
its high costs in human lives and material resources, we defeated the
vicious war of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria
Limited (SPDC), significantly halting the rate at which our environment
was being polluted, established our identity as a distinct ethnic
nationality in Nigeria and brought the plight of our people to the front
burner..
These and other
milestones are commendable but more than that, we need to break free
and bring into reality the gains of the past three decades. No matter
our achievements, we, as a people, have been unable to celebrate our
gallantry because we are like brave and gallant soldiers trapped in the
scene described in the allegory of the cave.
The
allegory of the cave describes a people trapped in a dark cave and
unable to find their way. Suddenly a light entered the cave and cast
their shadows on the wall.
In excitement they
begin to chase the shadows thinking of them as the way to their freedom.
Oblivious of the real source of the light which should get them out of
the cave, they struggle in vain chasing shadows while the light and way
to their freedom is right behind them.
This is
the truth about the Ogoni situation today where after a 30 year battle
with Shell, we are failing to translate our gains into practical
benefits that can lead us to our development goals. Instead, we continue
to chase shadows that lead us nowhere but to perpetual enslavement in
the dark cave.
After Shell, What Next?
The
Ogoni struggle came with a set of demands outlined in the Ogoni Bill of
Rights (OBR). Published in 1990, during the military era, the OBR
recognized the ease of getting things done through military decrees.
Amongst others, the OBR demanded a fair and proportionate control of
Ogoni resources by the Ogoni people and summed up the demands in a
traditional Ogoni economic principle called "Mii Deekor".
Mathematically, "Mii Deekor" simply represents 20% of profits or
derivation which is paid to the owner of an estate by estate managers on
a weekly basis. This demand is summarized in the OBR as the desire of
the Ogoni people to control their own affairs.
The Present Realities
Today's
Nigeria is a constitutional democracy. Whether we are getting it right
or not, decisions about self determination for the Ogoni people,
resource control and several others are reserved for the Nigerian
parliament.
The question
is whether Ogoni has the capacity to sway parliament on their side. The
answer may sound pessimistic, but the reality is that out of Nigeria's
109 senators, Ogoni have just one (1) and out of 360 parliamentarians in
the Federal House of Representatives, Ogoni have just two (2).
Conclusively, we can say that Ogoni simply does not have the numbers to
make any impact in parliament.
Therefore,
in the simplest terms, pushing for the implementation of the OBR in
today's Nigeria is unattainable as our parliamentary representation
currently makes up less than 0.5 percent of parliamentary votes.
The Ogoni Development Authority - A Realistic Approach
The
limitations of enforcing the OBR had compelled a rethink. 30 years gone
and there had been clearly no end to the sufferings and our struggle
has been stalemated or diminished into a business only beneficial to
some few individuals. A former president of MOSOP captured this
frustration when he declared: "We should be grateful that we got the
cleanup out of our struggle". His frustrations and helplessness reflects
the stalemate we have experienced with our struggle which seems to have
been reduced to a mere one billion dollars cleanup program.
On
assuming office as president of MOSOP on January 1, 2019 and
understanding that leadership is about solving problems and not to
escalate them, I commenced consultations on the way forward with focus
on crafting an actionable framework that is enforceable within the
context of present Nigerian laws.
On September
27, 2020, after a process of reviews at the chapter, kingdom, and
national executive levels, the Central Committee of MOSOP agreed on a
proposal for the operationalization of the Ogoni Development Authority
as an acceptable path to permanently resolve the Ogoni problem.
Rather
than call for the creation of another agency, we sought to
operationalize the idea, achieve our development goals by getting a
reasonable proportion of Ogoni resources to be committed to Ogoni
development and to ensure that the flow of funds into the development
process is guaranteed, sustainable, and protected from every possibility
of failures.
MOSOP has consistently
committed to this process and I can guarantee that there will be no
going back in the pursuit of our objectives. This is our deal and we
will stand to defend it in the best ways possible.
We
solicit the support of the Nigerian state to get this done and to pave
the way for us all to celebrate an end to these three decades of
stagnation, build the future of Ogoni and boost the Nigerian economy
with an estimated $40Billion daily oil production revenue which has been
left stranded in the ground of our Ogoni lands for the past 30 years
due to a mismanagement of the oil conflicts between Shell and the Ogoni
people.
Our proposal is a win-win for all
parties. But it is important for the government and the oil industry to
generously make the required and expected compromises to drive the
sustainable development we envisage in the interest of our country and
the Ogoni people. We have paid the price and there can be no
justification to deny us the good life we seek.
On
the part of the Ogoni people, our travails are a compelling reason to
support this honest and genuine initiative to win a better future for
our people, our children and our children's children. Failing to achieve
these goals would mean we have chosen to disregard the sacrifices of
all those who committed their lives and resources to bring us to where
we are today.
We have fought a good, though
very costly fight, we also need to turn away from the shadows and face
the realities of today's Nigeria.
The reasons
for which we launched the Ogoni struggle and the development we seek
will only be attainable when we are able to get Ogoni resources to drive
the process. That has been our ultimate goal and it is time to bring
this dream into reality.
The
writer, Fegalo Nsuke is president of the Movement for the Survival of
the Ogoni People (MOSOP). He wrote from Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
