Suspicion that oil activities have already resumed in Ogoni and that a company has already won the bid may be true after all. This has already attracted a strident appeal against such approach from right inside the ‘Dialogue Committee’.
The voice belongs to Pius Kii, a top catholic cleric and a monsignor, who is a longstanding campaigner for peace in Ogoni from the days of Father Hassan Kukah, and member of the ‘Ogoni Dialogue Committee’ that emerged after the high level meeting by top Ogoni leaders with the Presidency in Aso Rock two years ago.
Kii is a man highly trusted by the ordinary Ogoni people in the struggle and that seems to give him huge premium in Ogoni matters as recognized by the government and oil multinationals.
He has come out to say he not comfortable that oil activities seemed to have resumed whereas the basic issues were yet to be resolved.
He has thus addressed a ‘world press conference’ in Port Harcourt to share his concerns, though insisting he was not against the FG, the people, nor against oil resumption. His only concern, as he stated, was that if the fundamentals were not treated, Nigeria could repeat the same mistakes of the past. Ogoni issues led to killings and hanging of nine Ogoni activists led by Ken Saro Wiwa and eventually led to suspension of all oil activities in the area (OML-11).
Kii has come to insist that resumption of oil activities must not precede the resolution of the fundamental questions before Ogoni.
He said: I consider it necessary, at this critical juncture, to draw the attention of the Federal Government, the leadership of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee (ODC), the people of Ogoni and the Nigerian public to matters of urgent concern regarding the ongoing process for the resumption of oil activities in Ogoniland.
‘I do so not in opposition to the Federal Government’s initiative, not in opposition to the resumption of oil production in Ogoniland, and certainly not in opposition to the leadership being provided to the process by the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.’
Kii said: ‘My concern has become even more urgent because negotiations are still underway while oil-related activities have already commenced in some parts of Ogoniland, and licenses have reportedly been issued to certain companies before the negotiating process has been concluded.
‘When I questioned this approach, I was told, in substance, that after the negotiations were concluded, the companies would subsequently be invited to negotiate equity participation with the Ogoni people.’
His concern, he said, is whether the dialogue is sufficiently transparent, and properly sequenced to produce an outcome that the Ogoni people can genuinely own.
He said from the outset, there has been a disturbing tendency to conduct matters of profound public consequence in a manner that appears deliberately ‘sub secreto’.
He said: ‘The issues under consideration do not belong to a few individuals sitting around a negotiating table. They concern the land, resources, rights, environment, political future and economic destiny of an entire people.
‘The people of Ogoni therefore have a legitimate right to know what is being negotiated in their name and the principles upon which decisions affecting their future are being reached.
I remain deeply unconvinced by that approach.
‘If equity participation, community ownership, host-community benefits and other fundamental protections are intended to form part of the final arrangement, they ought to be established before the principal decisions are taken and not after the fact.
‘There is a fundamental principle at stake here.
You cannot conclude a deal today and expect a law enacted tomorrow to retrospectively confer rights or obligations upon an agreement that has already been concluded.
Laws are generally prospective, not retroactive.’
‘The sequence matters.
If the Ogoni people are to have meaningful participation in the economic benefits arising from the return of oil activities, such participation must be negotiated and secured as part of the process itself.
‘Otherwise, there is a real danger that Ogoni will eventually be confronted with a fait accompli.’
In the past few days, anxiety has grown in Ogoni over allegations that oil equipment were sighted in the area and that oil resumption has begun. Now, a member of the committee and one that should know has come out publicly to say such fears and anxieties were real.
Kii thus said: ‘This is therefore an urgent appeal-not to stop the process, but to get it right. Ogoni deserves justice. Ogoni deserves transparency. Ogoni deserves a voice in decisions about its future. And Ogoni deserves an agreement that will stand the test of history.’