Ogoni Women Reject Resumption of Oil Production in Ogoniland
By Ekemini Simon
Women from Ogoni ethnic nationality have strongly rejected the federal government’s planned resumption of oil exploration and production in their land noting that their decades of grievances are not addressed.
The Women under the coalition of 17 Ogoni women groups said the federal government should rather concentrate on redeeming the ecological disaster in the area, decommissioning aged oil infrastructure, replacing the lost livelihood of the people and securing justice for the countless Ogonis waiting for closure.
The federal government had recently announced its intention to increase the nation’s oil production to over two million barrels per day. This led to President Bola Tinubu to meet with Ogoni leaders to discuss the resumption of oil operations suspended since 1993 due to widespread unrest following the killing of prominent Ogoni sons who protested environmental pollution caused by oil production in their land.
In a press statement issued by the group on Thursday in Rivers State said it was unprecedented level of neglect and ecological destruction such as the 2,976 recorded oil spills in 15-year period between 1976 and 1991 that led to the Ogoni Bill of Rights, a landmark document demanding the right of the Ogoni people to protect their environment and ecology from further degradation. The Coalition noted that the Bill describes the Ogoni case as a ‘genocide being committed in the dying years of the twentieth century by multi-national oil companies under the supervision of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The group recalled that in 1993, Shell was forced out of Ogoniland where it had extracted crude oil non-stop for decades with unbelievable ecological consequences. This they said led the Ogoni people to mobilise under the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), called the attention of the world to the poverty, neglect and environmental destruction which decades of oil exploitation had bequeathed on the Ogoni people.
They pointed out that MOSOP demanded fairer benefits to the Ogoni people from oil wealth, as well as remediation and compensation for the ecological damage caused by the reckless activities of oil companies but Nigerian military government responded to the demands and non-violent protests of the people with vicious repression.
The statement added “A military operation was initiated in Ogoniland, a move that resulted in mass killings, arson and the eventual execution of environmental rights activists Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, in 1995 after the recommendations of a stage-managed trial.
“It is disconcerting that in the ongoing frenzy to resume oil extraction in Ogoniland, the concerns raised in the Bill of Rights which led to the termination of oil extraction and the repression of the people, have not been addressed. Similarly, there has been no attempt to secure justice for the countless families that lost lives, livelihoods and properties in what is still the worst attack on a peaceful indigenous population by Nigerian security forces. Persons who committed acts of genocide and abuses against unarmed populations, and boasted publicly about it, have still not been brought to justice. For the majority of Ogonis, the events of the 1990s remains an open and sour wound, begging for the healing of truth and justice.
“Critical to this is the fact that the moves to resume the extraction of oil in Ogoniland is happening against the backdrop of the clean-up of polluted sites in Ogoni. In 2012, Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) was setup to lead and co-ordinate the activities needed to implement the recommendations of the UNEP report on oil contamination in Ogoniland, including cleanup activities. It is worrying why the government will decide to resume oil extraction in Ogoniland when the pollution of the last decades is yet to be cleaned and the recommendations of UNEP are yet to be fully complied with. How does one explain the fact that a site supposedly being cleaned up will resume full oil extraction activities with all the pollution that comes with it?”
The Ogoni women Coalition explained that they are deeply concerned about the neglect of key issues around ecological and social justice in Ogoniland adding that the world recognizes that the people of Ogoni have suffered unprecedented pains and loses on account of oil extraction.
They expressed displeasure over the fact that no apology has been rendered for the destruction of their environment, the killing of their people, the loss of their livelihoods, the destruction of their villages, the forced exile of their people and the murder of their leaders rather the attention of government is primarily on resumption of oil.
“To assume that the extraction of oil can commence whilst these issues remain on the front burner, is to be naïve at best and cruel at worse”, the women group insisted.
The coalition included Mba Okase Initiative, Eleme, Eedee Ladies of Tai, De Voice of Eleme Women Association, League of Queens Intl., Gbogbia Feefeelo Women, Lekeh Foundation, We The People, Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre, Glocal Concern Women and Youth Development Initiative, Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative, Concern Ogoni Daughter, Peoples Advancement Centre, Ogoni Women Coalition for Sustainable Environment, OWERDI, Yerebaneko Women Group of Tai, Ogoni Women Development Initiative and Society for Women and Youths Affairs (SWAYA).