Recent enthusiasms that oil resumption in Ogoni is at hand seems to suffer setback Sunday, June 1, 2025, when a faction of the dreaded Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) showed anger over recent statements.
The faction led by Fegalo Nsuke, which has begun partnership with a fiercer group, the Ogoni Liberation Initiative (OLI), has accused the FG of provoking the Ogoni people.
This is at a time most Ogoni elites, youths, and political groups have expressed delight over negotiations with the FG toward resumption of operations.
Various group after the negotiations initiated by the presidency, said time for peace and resumption has come. Some said their youth now go to other ethnic groups to beg for slots in oil operations and allegedly get shunned.
They said Ogoni areas cannot continue to suffer neglect while all other oil locations continue to allow oil and continue to get their rights and shares under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) that allows 3% to host communities.
Despite hopeful opinions, the Nsuke-led MOSOP with OLI criticized the federal government over alleged recent remarks made by Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, noting that the statement was insensitive and damaging to a healing process undertaken by MOSOP over the past five years.
The groups further noted that the Ogoni people were yet to recover from the pains of the past and do not need to be reminded of the evils done to them by previous Nigerian regimes neither do they need to be subjected to renewed state repression.
Nsuke, who spoke on behalf of the two groups, was responding to Ribadu’s comments during a question and answer session with Ogoni youths in Ebubu, Eleme local government area of Rivers State. He said Ribadu’s comments did not reflect the realities in Ogoni neither did it align with the position of the Ogoni people taken at the last Ogoni congress of November 30, 2024 and the Ogoni National Assembly of January 4, 2025.
They recalled that the Congress of November 30, 2024 had mandated the MOSOP to engage the government in the negotiation of Ogoni interests in oil and gas resources of Ogoni and the Ogoni Day resolutions of January 4, 2024 rejected all forms of forceful resumption of oil production in Ogoni.
Nsuke said: “I think the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, is getting the wrong advice on the true position of things in Ogoni. I will advise that the issue of resuming oil production in Ogoni, being very sensitive, needs to be handled with deeper consultations to address the underlying problems first, before we proceed”
“It is regrettable that the recent actions taken by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) is fast destroying the gains of earlier community sensitization done by MOSOP and our genuine efforts to persuade the Ogoni people to accept the idea.”
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“And the fear now is that we are fast being driven back to 1993 by the new move because the drivers are desperate and failing to listen” Nsuke said.
On the NSA’s comments, Nsuke further said:
“To say the least, the NSA’s comments were unfortunate and had elements of provocation. I think it would have been better to expand the scope of consultations, find ways to address the Ogoni demands and use persuasion to achieve the goal” Nsuke said.
MOSOP has continued to demand numerous things including rehabilitating the image of the Ogoni martyrs, state for Ogoni, autonomy for Ogoni, and many more.
MOSOP also insists it is the only body to negotiate the resumption, but the body is fractioned and always in court. A recent court order nullified election that produced the leadership of the other faction led by Wai Ogosu, and ordered fresh filings. It has been so for years.
Yet, Nsuke urged the National Security Adviser to be a bit more humane. “I think the NSA should be a bit more objective and humane. The Ogoni people have lost unquantifiable assets in human and material resources, By 1999, at least 30 Ogoni villages were destroyed and some 4,000 Ogonis had lost their lives in the struggle”
“What MOSOP and the OLI are asking for are basic rights and justice for the living and for the dead and it is only natural to resist every move made by government to resume oil production in the land without corresponding actions to address these injustices which ignited the crises and have prolonged it thus far”.
He went on: “The Ogoni issue is about justice and not just revenue generation for the Nigerian government. Ribadu forgot that the Ogoni environment is still polluted with people struggling to have access to clean water, he forgot that four Ogonis were killed on May 21, 1994, another nine were executed by the state on November 10, 1995, some 30 villages were destroyed in state-backed repression and an estimated 4,000 people have lost their lives in the struggle for justice.”
According to a statement signed by Alex Akori, Secretary-General of their faction, “All these people, dead and alive. need justice” he concluded and the government should not run away from these realities if we are to address the problem permanently.”
