MOSOP has alleged that after 35 years of oil extractions, Shell carted away about $30billion oil operational profits leaving Ogoni in the most horrible environmental disaster without leaving anything for the development of its host community. In a statement issued on Thursday, MOSOP President, Fegalo Nsuke said, “within 35 years of active oil mining in Ogoni, Shell has exploited discriminatory and unjust Nigerian petroleum laws and taken away an estimated $30 Billion worth of oil without putting anything back to give hope to the Ogoni people. “On the flip side, the response of the Ogoni people hasn’t been friendly. Shell was forced out of Ogoni with a pledge never to let them come back. This pledge has been kept faithfully in the past 31 years and no oil company has been able to break the resolve of the Ogoni people to protect their lands and environment from further degradation, reckless and irresponsible oil exploration”.
Nsuke reiterated that the Ogoni people will never accept Shell back in the land, because, “apart from the environmental devastation, Shell had been responsible for an appalling brutality leading to the killing of some 4,000 Ogonis between 1990 and 1999 and these are frightening behaviours the Ogoni will never want to be repeated”, he alleged. He said that the Ogoni people have only been left with the disastrous consequences of natural resource extraction. Nigeria’s 36 states share the revenues generated from Ogoni and nothing is left for the Ogoni people. That explains the problem in very simple terms. The MOSOP President suggested that the only solution to the lingering crisis between the Ogoni people, IOCs on one hand and the Federal Government is for all the parties to accept a compromise that allows the Ogoni people to receive a fair share of their resources to be set aside for Ogoni development.
“The desire to address these terrible living conditions is the driving force behind the call for the operationalisation of the Ogoni Development Authority, ODA, a proposal approved by the Central Committee of MOSOP to address the concerns of the Ogoni people and also support the growth of the Nigerian economy. ODA is a people based initiative which demands that 25 percent of the resources generated from Ogoni be set aside for Ogoni development. It does not call for leaders of MOSOP, chiefs or some elites to think that the struggles of the Ogoni people will end in their pockets. It does not demand that chiefs and some few individuals should arrogate the benefits of the Ogoni struggles into their private companies with a false claim that they represent the people. ODA is a simple and very clear path to resolve the Ogoni issue. Operationalising the Ogoni Development Authority gives hope and security for every Ogoni and guarantees the future of the Ogoni people in Nigeria. MOSOP having championed the Ogoni cause pledges to commit to any process that upholds the ideals of the Ogoni Development Authority and will guarantee that it is the way out and permanent solution to the three-decade Ogoni problem”, he said.
