2019: Why OBJ, IBB should beg Nigerians for forgiveness —Medee

Dr Peter Medee is the president of KAGOTE, the apex elitist social-cultural group of the Ogoni people and a senior lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt. Medee, who is a Board of Trustees member for the Ogoni Trust Fund and HYPEF, speaks with KUNLE ODEREMI on the Ogoniland clean-up; the politics of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida and the political marginalisation of the Ogoni and why the leaders are angry with Minister of Transport and Aviation, Honourable Rotimi Amaechi. Excerpts:

 

THE Ogoniland is synonymous with years of environmental degradation, occasioned by oil exploitation by multinational oil firms. What is the state of Ogoni land today?

The state of Ogoniland today is associated with devastation of our environment; our environment is completely devastated as a result of oil-related activities and as a result, we have been on a campaign, which was part of our struggle from the early 1990s, which related into the United Nations programme to investigate claims that the environment is devastated. So, the UN people came, did their investigations from 2010 to 2011 and by 2011, the report was submitted, attesting to the claim of excessive damage to our ecological system. That report was submitted to the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who coincidentally, is from the Niger Delta because the situation in Ogoni is a clear case study of what the worst level of devastation in the entire Niger Delta. So, this report was submitted and the president did little or nothing to be able to clean the land as was recommended by the UN. Now, when President Muhammadu Buhari came for campaign in Rivers State, we voted him in Ogoni land and extracted a promise from that if he became president, he was going to implement that report and true to his word, he won the election and in his first 100 days, he commenced the process of implementing the report of the UN. And that fast-tracked action into the process of setting up the HYPEF, which the former president tried to set up but was not committed to it. Now, the body was set up, reviewed and put under the office of the Federal Ministry of Environment. HYPEF was expected to establish three organs: Board of Trustees, the Governing Council and the Project Coordination Office. The president personally inaugurated the members of this committee, which I am a member of the Board of Trustees and in the BoT, we have been able to put up a lot of programmes, which include incorporating the Ogoni Trust Fund and this was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and by that approval, it shows very serious commitment of government because the incorporation of the Ogoni Trust Fund which means that anything of government would not affect; it also assures us that we don’t need budgetary procedures to be able to get  through in whatever we are doing. So, this means that in a period of 30 years, where there would be a lot of transitions, changes in government would not affect the programme. We have committed, intelligent and serious-minded personalities in the BoT

Secondly, we secured a waiver from Mr President for N1 billion to also go into the account of the BoT of the Ogoni Trust Fund, and as I speak to you, we have concluded every procedure and signing of the escrow account of the Standard Chartered Bank of UK, meaning that the clean-up now is good to go. It is good to go because once we have the money, which we are receiving in a few weeks, and the HYPEF office is being coordinated by an Ogoni son that is qualified and appointed as the HYPEF coordinator, has done a lot in terms of other emergency measures in terms of provision of health services and other activities. In fact, a lot has been done by the office of the Project Coordinator. The Governing Council has also done a lot as it has approved a budget for the programme culminated into an advert for qualified people who will do the cleanup; it is the cleanup site that we are getting into now. But people don’t seem to see what we are doing because it all involves certain structures that we are putting up right. This is a programme that will take 30 years; there is the need to for the right structures to be in place. So, we have been working very hard to make sure that the structures are there because if we get it wrong now, it might create new challenges, knowing fully well that something similar has not been done anywhere in the world where we are borrowing it from. It is a new programme as a similar programme has not been in anywhere in the world. If we get it wrong, it means it is going to be wrong not just for Nigeria; not just for the Niger Delta; not just for the Ogoniland but the world as a whole. So, we are not replicating it; it is an entire new programme and we have to be meticulous and painstaking in taking decisions. That is why it is taking time to put the structures right. That’s what a few people are looking at and saying that there is a delay in the programme. But as I speak to you, the pre-qualification process for awarding the contract for work on the impacted sites is in high grade now and that would be concluded and those jobs awarded. What we are doing that people also do not understand is that we are doing the very best we can to be able to implementing all facets of the recommendations for the cleanup, and not just work on the impacted sites. That’s where we are for the cleanup of the Ogoniland.

• Beware of ploy to discredit Buhari before millions of Nigerians who love —Adesina

The Ogoni struggle during military regime generated so much global attention, and Rivers is still considered as one of the most volatile states in the country? How does it affect the Ogoniland, especially on party politics?

Well, many of us know that the political situation in Rivers State has equally not been fair to the Ogoni people. The situation necessitated our advertisement in Nigerian newspapers recently. We have a situation, whereby politically, Ogoni, which is one of the most populated ethnic groups in Rivers State, for 16 years, has not been able to produce a governor; a deputy governor and Speaker of the state House of Assembly. It has not been able to produce the Chief Judge of the state. This is a serious and worrisome development that has been bothering us. For now, we are very concerned to see what we can be able to put that back to the front-burner. This is situation that we cannot say that our leaders have not struggled for it; because the organisation, which I head, KAGOTE, was formed in 1947, when the Ogoni Division was created out of Opobo. Since then, our leaders, especially the elite came together and declared their intention on how to get the best for the Ogoni land; how do we get the best and what we deserve from the division that has just been created. The struggle has been on, though we had one or two change of name but the apex organisation has remained focused. In the early 1990s, we were able to form Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) to drive home and implement a lot of our recommendations of the Ogoni Bill of Rights of Determination and we submitted it to the government, and the struggle has been on till now.

Despite the struggle and agitation, however, we have not been able to get anything tangible in Rivers State in terms of all the tiers of government. So, we are not happy and that is why we had to place that advertisement containing our grievances and demands as the nation prepares for the 2019 elections. It was meant to draw attention to the major political parties, particularly, the All Progressives Congress (APC), where  if you had time to follow up the last general election in the country, you realise that it was only in Rivers State that in all the elected positions, the APC won in Ogoni land. Now, having given that massive support to the party by our people, I think it would have been fair that if an Ogoni man is aspiring to be governor on the platform of that party, attention should be given to it; it should be a priority because if you take the two main political parties: APC and the PDP in perspective, you would see that for the PDP, the governor is an incumbent and has the first right of refusal in terms of incumbency. It means that the chances in the PDP to get the ticket by an Ogoni man are slim. Now, the APC is open and in Rivers State at the moment, the only person who has come out and is working hard to get the ticket of the party is Senator Magnus Abe. He is not just our son but everybody can attest to the fact that he is eminently qualified in terms of his personality, in terms of his pedigree, in terms of his humility; in terms of his doggedness, and instead of the leadership of the party to give him the necessary support, it has decided to fight him, and we are not happy as a people because he is our son. Let me put the issue in a proper perspective, in 1983, Honourable Kingsley Kengiadon, who was the chairman of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) then, resigned from the party and joined the defunct Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP), just to be able to pave the way for the emergence of an Ogoni governor, and when he joined the NPP, he was given the ticket of the party. Ironically, the political powers then brought him down and since 1983 this is the first time we are getting closer to that kind of opportunity in the person of Senator Abe.

Currently, however, the leadership of the APC has started fighting him, in a desperate effort to pull and bring him down. Our fear is that if you bring him down now, it would take another person, an Ogoni son, just as it took us 30 years to raise Kengiadon. So, we are soliciting for support from the leadership of that party because we deserve it. Today, the four out of the six APC members in the state House of Assembly come from Ogoni land. The two House of Representatives members from Ogoni land won under the APC platform. We also got a senator on the ticket of the APC. So, a party that our people have given such a massive support, we expect it to reciprocate the gesture and set the direction. And our greatest fears is that if we are not supported now and the ticket goes to another ethnic nationality or area, it means that it will not come back to our senatorial district again, because the ticket has always been based on rotation among the three senatorial district. First it was Rufus Ada George, who was from Rivers East; the ticket went to Rivers West and produced Dr Peter Odili and later came back to Rivers East and produced first, Rotimi Amaechi and then, incumbent Nyesom Wike. So, it should come to the Rivers South Senatorial District, and if it does, Ogoni is the only ethnic group that has other ethnic nationalities. We also have our Opobo brothers who have produced a deputy governor in Gabriel Tobi that was deputy to Odili. We also have Andoni, who are our brothers and who produced a deputy governor to Amaechi. So it is only the Ogoni people that have not produced any of that, despite our population and political strength.  So, it will be wise if the APC wants to win election to support the current Ogoni’s political programme and agenda because if they do not, the people could reject the party.

 

Why have you not deployed the instrument of lobbying to sway all critical stakeholders, especially the Minister of Transportation and Aviation, Honourable Amaechi in favour of the Ogoni cause?

We have been lobbying and have indeed intensified efforts in that regard. We have paid a courtesy visit to the governor and we have also asked him to support our cause. Now, we wrote to the minister requesting to see him so that we can present our case and seek his support and cooperation.  We wrote the letter in September 2017 and he has refused to give us audience. So, we don’t know what to do again. What else does he want us to do? But we are holding serious consultations and discussions with other critical stakeholders, as well as engaging all necessary quarters on our demand. We have been able to reach out to other ethnic groups; we have been able to gather a lot of support. We went to the Kalabari people and other nationalities and a lot of them are supporting us. They agree that it was our turn to produce governor and that they were willing and ready to support the cause. We are worried that the minister, who is the leader of the party, remains inaccessible. But in spite of that, we are still trying to reach out to him through some of his friends and political associates.

 

Successive governments made promises to resolve the Ogoni issue, without any concrete action. Don’t you think your confidence in the present government to be different is misplaced, when you look at it from the issue of political will and capacity to address the nexus of problems in Ogoniland? 

If there is a promise that has result in action, then you have to consider that promise. Buhari made a promise to implement the UN report. He has set the ball rolling. That’s action and not promise and with the present Federal Government, we are confident that they would be able to support us the agitations and struggle of the Ogoni people. We are also saying those leaders at the state level should also support our cause. If you remember that before 1999, we had two prominent issues that were in the front-burner: the Yoruba issue, which was the death of Chief MKO Abiola and the mandate and the Ogoni issue, which was the execution of Dr Ken Saro-Wiwa. The Yoruba people were deliberately allowed to produce the president as a form of compensation. That was why we had an Olu Falae and an Olusegun Obasanjo contesting the presidential election. So, the Yoruba issue was addressed. The next issue that should have been resolved was the Ogoni people. But it was not attended to. So the execution of Saro-Wiwa culminated in the expulsion of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Ogoni issue has not been addressed politically. It is our concern, struggle, interest, doggedness and concern that the APC should concede the ticket to any Ogoni so that we can an equal opportunity to contest the election because after 1983 that had a similar opportunity. We can have it now.  People should set aside their personal interest and ego and allow justice, equity and fairness to prevail. All these are critical ingredients for peace, stability and progress and prosperity. If you go to the market with a good product, you don’t struggle; it will advertise itself.

 

The preponderant view is that the APC has fallen short of public expectations in terms taking the country out of the woods; hence Obasanjo and former military president Ibrahim Babangida think Buhari should not seek re-election next year? Don’t you see this as a wise counsel? 

The two names you have mentioned are the problem of Nigeria. They are the people who brought us to the crisis that has engulfed the country today. They should just go back home and beg to forgiveness from Nigerians. They should show remorse for wasting the veritable opportunity to lead the country well and lay a solid foundation for progress, stability and prosperity. They had the opportunity to write their names in gold but they failed abysmally to do so. Is it in the social vice called corruption. When Babangida was in government for nine years, what happened?  When Obasanjo was there, what happened? We all knew what happened. They refused to institute enduring and best structures in place. How many oil refineries did Babangida build? How many di dObasanjo build? If they had built one or two, would Nigeria still be importing refined petroleum products? They should be ashamed of themselves for putting us where we are today as a country. So, I believe that it is not who becomes president that matters; after all the position came to the South-South. How come we had Dr Goodluck Jonathan from the zone, what did the South-South gain from his presidency?  Nothing! What did we get as benefits? So, it is the doggedness of a leader to do the right thing.

People have also said we need young people; yes we need to blend the old with the young. But look at the states and the National Assembly where you have a lot of young people. What difference have they been able to make?  So, it is not where you come from or the age that is important. What is important is the doggedness of the individual to deliver and add value to Nigerians and their country. The situation could be worse than we have now with a young person in the saddle. You could see that some young people are actually lazy; go to the Niger Delta you would see a lot of people sitting down every day, waiting for N65, 000 to be paid to them doing nothing, adding no value to themselves and the society. Meanwhile, their colleagues elsewhere are busy doing a lot of positive things engaging in a lot of productive activities and ventures thinking outside the box. I know what I passed through to become what I am today. I sponsored myself to the university; I was doing security work overnight and then, I would go to school during the day time.