Some Ogoni community leaders in the Niger Delta are asking that the $1 billion ear-marked for the clean-up of the oil devastated region be shared amongst, fearing that the funds will be diverted by dubious characters.
Their demands comes as the federal executive council prepares to discuss on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on implementation.
Decades of grand deception by politicians who frequently diverted clean-up funds and caused conflicts among the indigenes have left the people suspicious of every new initiative involving huge amount of monies. One community leader told G&BJournal that he is not certain the money will be properly deployed if left in the hands of the politicians.
“Nobody has invited us to the table to discuss any implementation programme, so how can we trust them again?” he said.
Legborsi Pyagbara, MOSOP president confirmed to newsmen last week that the perception of some Ogoni people was that the implementation of the UNEP report was about sharing money and some fraudsters had gone ahead to extort money from the uninformed people.
Pyagbara and a host of other leaders in the area are working to change the perception however, with outlined campaign of education and enlightenment. Many analysts describe their efforts as a ‘hard sale’.
“This clean up is not about sharing money. Our fathers did not die for us to share money. They died because they want our environment to be cleaned and restored to the extent that our women and men can still go back to farming and fishing. We have not at any time asked anybody to pay any money for them to do contract, register or buy forms. That is the work of fraudsters”.
Magnus Abe, The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Rivers South East Senatorial District Re-run, is also actively involved in the expectation management programme which he describes as crucial to re-invigorating the area.
Against the backdrop of disputes arising out of the UNEP Report (United Nations Environment Programme Report) and the mandated $1Bn for the clean-up of Ogoni areas, Magnus Abe, senator gunning for a return, said that carrying out expectation management campaigns in Ogoni would be a crucial step.
“I stand here today to support this effort to educate, enlighten and prepare our people. Let me say that there is nowhere in the world where people will not have misunderstanding of issues and this clean up is one of such issues that is bound to bring some misunderstanding but by continuous dialogue, educating one another and sharing what we know, we will be able to arrive at the position where Ogoni can make progress”.
Abe said that educating the people on what was expected of them in the clean up was important. He said that such enlightenment would help checkmate misunderstanding, which could arise from the implementation.
“This forthcoming clean up should not be an excuse to set Ogoni land on fire. If we do, then the expectation of our people would have been cut short. We all need to work together. We are not some major ethnic groups that have their people everywhere. We are Ogoni, we are very few. We must help one another”.
Pyagbara noted that the discussion from the FEC meeting would constitute a detailed road map for the implementation. “We are hopeful that the government would be coming out with a clear statement on how they have to go about it after the federal executive meeting on Wednesday”.
