A very important townhall meeting was held in Ogoni area of Rivers State last weekend to discuss freely whether oil should resume in Ogoni or not.
Ogoni barred oil operations since 1994 during the bloody rebellions that took over 2000 lives including the lives of their frontline fighters, Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 9.
The shut down of OML-11 rubbed Nigeria about 250,000 barrels per day and causes disruption along the Trans National Pipeline which delivers crude from various upland wells through Ogoni to Bonny Island then to oversees.
Ever since, several steps have been initiated by both the oil major involved and the FG to pacify the Ogoni people and resume oil operations. None has worked.
The FG under Olusegun Obasanjo floated what could have been the most robust activity, the UNEP Report that fetched $1bn for cleanup exercise, but this has not been able to achieve the object since 2011 when it was submitted and 2016 when it actually started.
Now, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rose to take the bull by the horns by hosting a meeting of who is who in Ogoni few weeks back to see opinion on way forward. Despite admittance by most Ogoni progressives that the representation was large and genuine, and that talks were frank and passionate, there are threats to any resumption of oil in Ogoni.
It was gathered that some top elites including professors and former vice chancellors were included in the team to Aso Rock and that they were mandated to summon on neutral congress of Ogoni to Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoni, to air unimpeded views from the heart.
When this was done, reports that came out seemed to suggest that it ended in fracas as if nothing was discussed. Probably the decision of the Egg Heads to keep it away from the media may have turned to the negative as social media influencers used the opportunity to tell their story, not the story.
Blessing Wikina, an Ogoni son, a retired government information strategist and manager, grandson of the first interpreter to the whiteman, was there on a quiet observatory. He resolved to break the façade and veil on top of what happened to let the world know the truth.
His verbatim report says: “I had read a lot of ‘content creation’ reports on the Ogoni Congress, which are false, slanted, and bad-bellyish. As early as 6.30am, Ogonis had started arriving and milling around the venue. The air of expectation wasn’t predictable, as the Ogoni Dialogue Committee had taken a detour, by directly inviting the Ogonis openly.
“In the process they boycotted established cleavages, loyalty blocks, and groups of people with entitlement blood. Every Ogoni was to attend as an individual, not as a boy to anybody, or a member of a camp.
“This approach meant no one would claim success or failure of the exercise. And we may yet thank the Professor Don Baridam-led Committee, which included the Revered Bishop Ignatius Katey, and the versatile Lawyer, Tom Orage, who is the Secretary of the Facilitators.”
He went on: “These committee members, chosen by Mr President, don’t belong to any trending camps that had polarised the Ogoni environment.
“It is therefore, safe to say a good dance begins with the first step. Deliberations or the outcome of their meetings do not filter out, or get gossiping attention.
“Local Government chairmen may have felt that the Committee wasn’t taking them along, but looks like the Committee, in their wisdom, wants to achieve unmediated access to a larger percentage of Ogonis without passing through any source, after all the members are all Ogoni.
“The hall was arranged, but even when Committee members couldn’t find space, seats, or a place to stand inside the Hall, unanimously, the meeting was shifted to the field.”
Wikina went on: “And in the spirit of listening to all shades of voice, presentations, and even protests, every message in form of printed banners was freely allowed to float around, unrestricted.
“The meeting started and ended properly, with Opening Prayers, Chairman’s speech, and Reading of Resolution; and it closed with a Closing Prayer.
“During departures, however, the overzealous aides surrounding politicians and their principals, in their eyeservice hustling routine, started pulling away empty chairs that people had vacated, to clear way for their Ógàs to move out in majestic fashion.
“In the process, chairs were pushed off, kicked away, scattered, and hauled, etc. And that’s what some persons snapped, videoed, filmed, and are distributing as contents for their skits, and narrative; purporting that the Congress was disrupted.”
The expert emphatically stated: “I was there, stood, and watched how some persons earn their daily bread, tied to this level of hustle, and saw it all.
“Before I turned to join Tom Orage in whose car I rode in, I silently prayed that may this Oil Resumption come sooner, so that our people will participate in productive ventures around our oil economy, and get benefits like our brothers in Orashi area, in the Bonny axis, etc.
“Soon, very soon, the Bodo-Bonny Road will be opened; shall we wait, watch, as vehicles drive through here to where lucrative oil businesses are happening…without our involvement?”
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