By Louis Odion, FNGE
The proclivity of the Nigerian state to deny and
dehumanize the minority ethnic nationalities is again playing out in oil-rich
Ogoniland, Rivers State. Following decades of environmental degradation
occasioned by relentless oil exploration, Nigeria had acquiesced to a
recommendation by the United Nation for a holistic rehabilitation, if only to
preserve the humanity there.
So, amid song and dance in 2016, the Federal Government
flagged off the implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme
(UNEP). Then, a high-powered panel was named, though not empowered to
work.
Twenty-one months later, Ogoni people have become
restive on account of the inaction. Life has continued to be miserable and
aquatic vocation unthinkable.
With an eye now obviously on the next election and the
other on the vast oil still buried in Ogoni soil (the exploitation of which the
oil majors are just too eager to resume), Abuja thought up a way out. Without
evincing the slightest pang of conscience, Abuja now wants to give the people
prison and cemetery instead.
It sounds like a crude plagiarism of OBJ’s own playbook
at a time. In response to repeated lamentations of “federal neglect” by Imo
leaders at a town-hall meeting while on official visit to Owerri sometime in
2002, then President Obasanjo cynically punctured such claims, citing Owerri
prisons for instance as “federal presence”.
With a straight face, he reckoned that the only federal
amenity his own native Ogun State could perhaps be said to enjoy above Imo was
- wait for it - Aro Psychiatric Home. He therefore asked the now dazed audience
that day (including Governor Achike Udenwa) whether they would fancy a replica
in Owerri, in the spirit of equity.
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| ODION |
Today, the symbolism of the offer of prison and
cemetery as substitute for more economically impactful amenities should not be
lost on Ogoni people. It is perhaps to remind them of two stark options
available. One, Abuja’s commitment to, at least, provide ample store for the
remains of those broken by the scorched earth policy underlining the mindless
oil exploitation. Second is the assurance of a holding facility for resident
“trouble-makers” who might wish to lend themselves to temptation to disrupt the
operation of the prevailing architecture of state plunder.
Abuja’s lip service to the Ogoni clean-up has, in turn,
provided a perfect excuse for the conniving Shell and other joint-venture
partners to withhold the agreed $1b counterpart fund for UNEP implementation.
Expectedly, Abuja would blame the inertial on cash crunch, even though oil
receipt mined from Ogoniland and other blighted provinces in the Niger Delta
accounts for more than 80 percent of the nation’s gross earning. But, of
course, there is money to build a fancy rail that stretches from Katsina into
Niger Republic and co-fund the construction of a new refinery in same Niger
Republic.
Truly, equity has a new meaning.
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