The Ogoni people of Rivers State have submitted a demand to the Presidency, asking for a State or they would invoke the ‘Act of Independence’, allegedly contained in an agreement with the British Government.
The demand was submitted to President Bola Tinubu, copying other organs of Government by the United States of America (USA) chapter of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP-USA).
The memorandum was signed by many Ogoni leaders in the USA led by the President of MOSOP-USA, Augustine DineBari Kpuinen, on July 25, 2024.
Part of the lengthy memo stated thus: “MOSOP-USA would like the Nigerian Government to realize that there is a standing agreement between the British Government and the leaders of Nigeria before the Independence, and before crude oil was extracted from Ogoni and the Niger Delta area.
“That agreement demanded that the oil-producing ethnic minorities should be fully developed. If not fully developed after thirty years of oil production from the area, they should be allowed to become an independent nation.
“Such an Act will be invoked against Nigeria if Ogoni is left out of the ongoing restructuring in Nigeria.”
The agitators gave a notice, “Finally, MOSOP-USA would like to respectfully inform the President of Nigeria, the Senate and House of Representatives, the Armed Forces, and the people of Nigeria that the refusal to grant Ogoni a politically- autonomous State in Nigeria during this restructuring is the Government’s declaration that Ogoni is no longer part of Nigeria.
“Ogoni will, therefore, seek help from friends outside Nigeria.”
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MOSOP-USA said the Ogoni demands political autonomy within the Nigeria State to enable her to participate in the affairs of the Republic as a separate unit, and that this autonomy guarantees the following: Political control of Ogoni affairs by the Ogoni People; the right to the control and use of a fair proportion of Ogoni’s economic resources for Ogoni’s development; adequate and direct representation as of right in all Nigerian national institutions; the use and development of Ogoni languages in the territory; the full development of Ogoni culture; the right to religious freedom; and the right to protect the Ogoni environment and ecology from further degradation.
Additionally, MOSOP-USA used the opportunity to advise the Nigeria’s President, the Senate President and the House of Representatives that granting politically autonomous States to every ethnicity is the only solution to Nigeria’s multiple problems and keeping it together as one nation.
“If not, the nation will soon collapse unless its leaders listen to the voice of wisdom”, they added.
MOSOP-USA lectured the presidency on the structure of the Ogoni of five parts or kingdoms now found in five local council areas. They took the presidency through the history of the Ogoni struggle for autonomy since 1947.
“In 1947, Ogoni, under the leadership of the late Timothy Naakuu Paul Birabi, fought hard and made representations to the colonial British Government during the colonial era to regain Ogoni’s self-governance, which led to the establishment of the Ogoni State Representative Assembly (OSRA)”, they added.
