MOSOP Flays FG Over UNEP Report

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has decried the delay by the Federal Government in the implementation of the major recommendations of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) for the clean up of the devastated Ogoni environment through decades of oil exploration in the area.

Outgoing President of MOSOP, Prof Ben Naanen raised the concern during the 2013 edition of the Ogoni Day celebration at Bori last Thursday.

Prof Naanen noted that the formulation of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Programme (HYPREP) was a deliberate distraction from the internationally recommended process and standard in the clean up and restoration of the Ogoni natural environment.

The MOSOP leader said all Ogonis had to show for decades of oil exploration in the area, was abysmal poverty and stigmatisation by successive governments in the country.

According to the professor, “the Ogonis have been yoked under denigrating poverty and subhuman standards despite the abundance of vast natural resources in the area.

He recommended that the federal government should urgently institute an intervention programme that will address the issues of poverty in the area because “the Ogonis largely depend on their natural environment for their survival.”

He noted that the Federal Government’s lack of will to restore the Ogoni natural environment was also demonstrated in its lack of implementation of United Nations Secretary General’s fact finding mission to Nigeria, and by the UN Special Surveillance and Rapperteur on Nigeria in 1997.

Naanen said the Ogonis were yet to receive a reasonable response despite its delegation to the federal government last year to press home its legitimate demands.

The Ogoni day is yearly celebrated by the people in conformity with the United Nations declaration of world indigenous peoples struggle in the world.

President Goodluck Jonathan (right) with the Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, during the 30th Episcopal Ordination Anniversary and celebration of the elevation of the former Archbishop to a cardinal of the Catholic Church, at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral, Abuja, yesterday.

Taneh Beemene