On the road to oil resumption in Ogoniland…

Just as the last car in the governor’s convey turned right onto the East/West road, and the siren roared to clear traffic from the road ahead, so also the air of expectation, doubts, and wishes came to an end. Days earlier, various news media outlets had filled every household in Ogoni land and beyond the news that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had accented to the take-off of what will be known as Federal University of Environment Technology in Ogoni. 

However, what was not certain is when and how that will materialise as the information came with an early morning sickness of double location—Sakpenwa and Koroma. How come a new university came with two campuses when older universities with only one campus can barely breathe in Nigeria? Predictably, Ogonis went to town with permutations and suspicion that perhaps, the government had come again with what late Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo, called “instruments of Magic.”

Some stakeholders openly accused the senator who sponsored the bill to have the university, of bias as Ogoni leaders in the past, like the late Chief Albert Badey who brought the Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, selflessly located it in Bori and not in Bado his home town. The bill earlier sent by a former senator, Magnus Abe, did not also propose his hometown, Bera, as location for the university.

But with one visit, one inspection, one decision, Governor Sim Fubara showed wisdom by handing over a facility built by the Amaechi administration at Kira-Tai, known as the “New Model Secondary School, for administrative convenience. Government documents had labeled it as Sakpenwa, unlike the refinery and the airport whose places of location were swallowed by Port Harcourt, the convenient town name.

Kira is a confluence town in Ogoni, and it serves as an important historical junction leading to Bori on one flank, to Gokana via another artery, to Okirika, to Akwa Ibom, to Port Harcourt, and to Tai communities. Even the entrance into the new university is designed to veer conveniently form the old Kira roadside. In the colonial era, the first courthouse in Ogoni was at a location called Maawoo, before it was rebuilt at the place mapped out on a parcel of land given by Kira and Boten communities and called Sakpenwa, by the colonialists.

On April 20th 1968, late Ken Saro-Wiwa wrote in the book The Ogoni Nationality, Today and Tomorrow, that “on the ruins of the old a greater story be told” adding “we can no longer be excluded from the blessings which modern education showers on most of our country man… To this end the secondary schools at present in the divisions must be converted to comprehensive schools.”

As if by divine promptings and in agreement with the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, led by Professor Dan Baridum, the Rivers State governor, accompanied by members of the committee went to Kira-Tai and handed over all the facilities as the take-off campus of the new University of Environment Technology, Ogoni. This gesture would mean that the first matriculation of the new university would be sooner than Ogonis had imagined.

In the words of a former governor of Rivers State, Dr, Peter Odili, “Those who make history never realize that they are making history. An educational facility, via the University of Environment, may have added to softening the ground for the successes recorded in the resumption consultations on oil exploration by the government’s Dialogue Committee.”

As usual, the stakeholders’ meeting in the communities and local government areas, though largely successful, had some minor hiccups, as some Ogoni leaders still displayed entitlement mentality. Some felt left out in the composition of the committee and decided to sponsor contrary narratives about the dialogue. For instance, at its main congress in Bori, people had pushed the false narrative that the event was marred by violence. After the event and pictures taken, video clips from the event were manipulated and posted on social media platforms purporting that the event was marred by violence.

In addition, some notable politicians from Ogoni who are loyal to a particular political bloc tried to subvert the process by shunning the stakeholders’ meetings in their local government areas. Noticeably, in Gokona, these politicians stayed away from the Local Government Council headquarters venue of the meeting, on the idea that “it would amount to supporting the Chairman.” Some of these persons had also shunned the first meeting between Governor Fubara and the committee barely 24 hours after their inauguration by President Tinubu in Abuja.

But Archbishop Ignatius Kattey, the alternate chairman of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, repeats at every venue that the committee’s work is strictly for an all-inclusive dialogue and consultation with every Ogoni citizen. “This is not a political exercise” Bishop Kattey reiterates. Tom Orage, the secretary of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, would re-echo that persons who are not present physically to publicly submit their views via the email: [email protected]

In a demonstration of the committee’s openness and trust, a former President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mittee, pointed the way forward at the Bori Congress. While he was addressing the crowd, some sponsored persons emerged with placards bearing “Mitee and Ribadu leave Ogoni Oil alone,” etc. But rather than stop his speech or get angry, Ledum Mittee continued his speech without stopping, a pointer to the fact that the committee will not allow any distraction to affect the process. 

This approach had obviously guided the committee to adopt their all-inclusive stance at all meeting venues, as everyone was given access to the microphone, every document received, and every group contented. As the committee rounds off its consultations, one prayer in the heart of Ogonis will be that Mr. President shows further sincerity by honouring the demands and concerns of Ogoni people as collated and presented by the Ogoni Dialogue Committee for a smooth resumption of oil activities.

• Blessing Wikina, a public affairs commentator and Ogoni stakeholder, sent this piece from Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

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