Ordinary people have been murmuring for months and the topmost elites of the area have joined in the demand for more benefits and engagements.
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The latest is the former representative of the Rivers South-East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Magnus Ngei Abe, who has said that Ogoni must benefit from the ongoing clean-up exercise of oil impacted sites in the area.
Abe, who disclosed this in a statement he signed and posted on his Facebook account, stated that it would amount to wasted efforts if the exercise has no lasting impact on the lives of the Ogoni people.
The senator, who was reacting to a television interview granted by the coordinator of The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Marvin Dekil, said: “I am a bit worried and would like to request Dekil to give us some more information.
“My greatest fear has always been that the one billion Dollars Ogoni Trust Fund will fall victim to the Nigerian factor. The money will be spent in the name of Ogoni with no lasting impact on the lives of the Ogoni people”.
“That was why we came up with the idea of converting the Centre of Excellence to a university that will become a lasting legacy from the Trust Fund that will endure the passage of time.”
However, according to the former lawmaker, Dekil’s explanation during the programme that each contract would provide a minimum of 35 local job opportunities raised more questions than answers.
“What is the nature of these thirty-five jobs Dekil talked about? Are they permanent placements? What level of employees are we talking about, and how long will they last, Abe questioned.
“While we must thank HYPREP for these opportunities, I think the most important question for the Ogoni people should be who are these contractors and what number of these contractors are local?
“If the contracts require skills that are not locally available what deliberate policy is HYPREP adopting to grow local participation and expand lasting opportunities for the Ogoni people and businesses in the land?
“To argue the way Dekil did that HYPREP has no obligation to develop Ogoni because the development of Ogoni is not part of its core mandate is to accept the unacceptable.
“It is unacceptable that HYPREP can superintend over the disbursement of one billion Dollars named Ogoni Trust Fund and it will not matter if the Ogoni people benefitted from it or not, as long as there is remediation of impacted sites, because that is not the purpose of HYPREP. I reject that argument however sound the logic behind it”.
Late last year during the Correspondents Week, HYPREP’s failure to make representation at the forum to understand what the FG has so far done infuriated stakeholders. The MOSOP leadership had advised HYPREP to seek to engage the people more so that journalists and community people together with the public would know what is being done.
