From Douglas Blessing
An activist and President of the Ogoni Liberation Initiative(OLI), Dr Douglas Fabeke has urged multinationals operating in Ogoniland, Rivers State, to engage the oil bearing communities in their exploration activities for peace in the area.
Dr Fabeke stated this in his address at the launch of a book titled “The Ogoni People Crisis and Solutions”, held in Port Harcourt.
He noted the years of sufferings of the people and devastation of the environment as a result of exploration and exploitation of crude oil in the area.
Douglas regretted the experiences the Ogoni people have passed through in the course of agitating for a better environment and a fair share in the revenue accruing from the resources exploited from their land.
The OLI president added that to end the agitations the bearing and affected communities should be involved in exploration of oil in the area.
“It is not a hidden fact that the Ogoni people have gone through severe pains resulting from the devastation of our environment, unpleasant exploitation of our resources without any corresponding development of our land, displacement of our love ones from their homes, unlawful execution of our leaders and many more.
“The Ogoni people and their land have actually passed through indelible agony, problems and crises orchestrated by the oil and gas giant, Shell.
“The ‘Divide and Rule’ strategy adopted by the SPDC further aggravated the pains of our people as our people were lured to fighting ourselves with the sole aim of enabling the SPDC continue to drill and mine our resources even in the face of protest and non-acceptance of our people.
“Despite the abundance of oil and gas resources in Ogoniand, Ogoni people have continued to live in abject poverty and economic slavery.
“We have been marginalized, cheated and oppressed through mismanagement of oil revenue and obnoxious policies by the oil multinationals and the past Nigerian government.
“Our deep research revealed that the major cause of the Ogoni crises is the failure of the oil multinationals to carry along the oil bearing communities in the scheme of operation. Where this is lacking, crises will ensue as the people will continue to be in logger head with the oil companies operating on their land.
“This is particularly so because some people are forced to relinquish their ancestral homes, farmlands and fishing settlements for the installation of oil facilities without a corresponding compensation and resettlement plan for the displaced people”.
Fabeke stressed that the solutions identified in the launched book if adopted and implemented by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Oil Multinationals Stakeholders and Policy makers will help to ameliorate the challenges faced by the Ogoni people.
