In the face of raging expectation disputes arising out of the UNEP Report (United Nations Environment Programme Report) and the mandated $1 billion for the clean-up of Ogoni areas, Magnus Abe, senator gunning for a return, has said carrying out expectation management campaigns in Ogoni would be a crucial step.
This is in view of some Ogoni communities rejecting actual clean up in demand of the cash equivalent. The federal executive council is said to be set to discuss the $1 billion UNEP Report implementation on Wednesday, February 17, 2016.
Abe, former minority leader in the Senate, former information commissioner, secretary to the state government, etc, who has been senator for four years before the 2015 elections, said misunderstanding some programmes was normal anywhere in the world.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Rivers South East Senatorial District re-run elections explained thus: “I stand here today to support this effort to educate, enlighten and prepare our people.
“Let me say that there is nowhere in the world where people will not have misunderstanding of issues and this clean up is one of such issues that is bound to bring some misunderstanding but by continuous dialogue, educating one another and sharing what we know, we will be able to arrive at the position where Ogoni can make progress.”
The candidate who very much wanted to be governor after Chibuike Amaechi but lost out in the caucus politics commended the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) for embarking on the enlightenment programme on the expected clean up of Ogoni land.
Speaking at the sensitisation rally held at Secondary School 1 field, Mogho in Gokana Local Government Area, Abe said that educating the people on what was expected of them in the clean up was important. He said that such enlightenment would help checkmate misunderstanding, which could arise from the implementation.
The former SSG urged the people to work in unity adding that the unity of the Ogoni was more than ever needed now in the implementation of the UNEP report. “This forthcoming clean up should not be an excuse to set Ogoni land on fire. If we do, then the expectation of our people would have been cut short. We all need to work together. We are not some major ethnic groups that have their people everywhere. We are Ogoni, we are very few. We must help one another.”
Abe appealed for every voice to be heard and every group to be represented in the implementation. “I offer my hand of support to every Ogoni man or woman that will try to do something to move our land forward.”
Earlier, in his own speech, Legborsi Pyagbara, MOSOP president, said that the need for the enlightenment arose from reported cases of misinformation.
He said that the perception of some Ogoni people was that the implementation of the UNEP report was about sharing money and some fraudsters had gone ahead to extort money from the uninformed people. “This clean up is not about sharing money. Our fathers did not die for us to share money. They died because they want our environment to be cleaned and restored to the extent that our women and men can still go back to farming and fishing. We have not at any time asked anybody to pay any money for them to do contract, register or buy forms. That is the work of fraudsters. When we were doing the negotiation in this project, we knew that there is what is called local content and we knew that our people have the opportunity to do small contract/supply and our youths would get jobs but not the criminal thing they are telling you now”.
Pyagbara noted that the federal government has completed the inspection of the sites and that the matter would be deliberated upon at the federal executive council meeting on Wednesday, February 17, 2016.
He added that the discussion from the meeting would constitute a detailed road map for the implementation. “We are hopeful that by this next, government would be coming out with a clear statement on how they have to go about it after the federal executive meeting on Wednesday”.
Ignatius Chukwu
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
