Ex-agitators and some critical stakeholders from Ogoni extraction in Rivers State have written to President Bola Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for alleged exclusion from the negotiation to resume oil production in Ogoniland.
The stakeholders led by an ex-militant leader and pioneer secretary of First Phase Ex-Agitators, Nature Dumale, vowed to resist their non-inclusion saying, excluding Ogoni ex-agitators from the technical committee on resumption of oil production was a recipe for crisis.
Nature wondered why someone like him, who hails from a major oil producing community in Ogoni, Kono, and leads ex-agitators and other non-violent people from the area, should not be considered on the negotiation table?
He said despite his contributions to preventing violence through peace building, not just in Ogoni but in Niger Delta region and Nigeria at large, he was excluded in the discussion for the oil resumption.
He lamented that persons involved in the interface deliberately kicked the ex-agitators out to create a lacuna for another round of unrest.
Nature, the coordinator of Eco Citizen Ogoni Initiative said any attempt to exclude the ex-militants from the negotiation table would be met with strong resistance and called on the Federal Government to split Ogoni oil fields into three blocks for economic justice.
He reminded the Federal Government that youth restiveness and violent extremism was a direct consequence of decades of environmental pollution, unemployment and exploitation by oil companies, who operated in the area without proper community engagement.
He said that the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) and the peace achieved so far were possible because ex-agitators chose dialogue over violent extremism, adding that ignoring their voices and suggestions was capable of reversing the gains of peace.
The ex-militant leader cautioned that excluding them while rewarding only the elite and political actors would send a dangerous signal that the system was rewarding self centered elements while sidelining peaceful former agitators.
He warned that such narratives could rekindle militancy among frustrated youths, who might feel betrayed by a system that only remembered them when it needed peace but forgot them when it was time to share the benefits.
Nature said he was part of a recent two-day validation workshop that was held at the office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) through the office of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) on a revised policy framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering violent extremism in Nigeria.
He said “Over 3000 young violent youths have gone through our process of rehabilitation; they were accommodated for six months; fed for six months and catered for six months. The government and IOCs has not supported this initiative for once.
“Many of this youths have been delivered from violent extremism. They have been delivered from drug abuse, cultism, kidnapping and oil theft. Many of them in Ogoniland know the efforts we have made, and yet they don’t want somebody who will bring about positive change and positive transformation in the life of the youths in the land of Ogoni to be part of the ongoing negotiations.
“All these responsibilities qualify us to be critical stakeholders not just in Ogoni but in the Niger Delta region. But we have taken time to observe that we have not been given the attention or the respect and honour we deserve as Ogoni sons.”
Nature called on President Tinubu and the NSA to quickly review the report submitted to them and ensure their inclusion in all activities relating to oil resumption in Ogoniland.
He said: “We want the President and the NSA to know that it is intentional. The people they have been interfacing with as Ogonis are not more Ogonis than others and they have decided not to tell the President the truth so that they will open loopholes that will result in crisis in the future because many of them strive majorly during crisis.
“They make money when people die and when people are disorganised. If there is any group in Ogoniland that should be recognised, it should be the ex-agitators, because of the roles we have played in Ogoni in sustaining the peace we enjoy today. That is why they are not telling the government the truth, that there is some critical stakeholders that must be brought into this master plan of oil resumption in Ogoniland.”
Nature said they would not resort to taking up arms against the government to buttress their points, but would continue to leverage on their intellectual property to draw the attention of the President, the NSA and the international community to their exclusion in the oil resumption process.
He said: “As much as we have surrendered our guns to the Yar’Adua-led government when he declared Amnesty, it doesn’t mean we have become weak. Intellectual property is the biggest property anybody can get. We have developed ourselves because we knew it will come to this point when they will dismiss us as militants and call us all manner of degrading names just to sideline us.
“We have been carrying out all this Peace building initiatives with the little resources that God provided for us. I personally worked with the former IG of Police, Mike Okiro and Defense Minister Major General Godwin Abbey (Rtd), DIG Azubuko Udah (Rtd), as a Peace and Conflict management consultant, to see that my brothers in the struggle lay down their arms.
“That is the kind of sacrifice I have made for this country, yet every time there is an opportunity for me to be recognized for the role I have played over the years, I will be sidelined and taken for granted”, he regretted.
Blessing Ibunge
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