Date Published: 05/06/09
MOSOP: WHERE TWO ELEPHANTS ARE FIGHTING
BY ANAYO ONUKWUGHA
On April 16, 2009, the people of Ogoni in Rivers State under the umbrella
of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) held an election
to choose new leaders. At that said election, held at the Secretariat
Complex of Khana local government area, Bori, the people of Ogoni were
said to have unanimously elected a United States-based environmental
rights activist, Comrade Goodluck Diigbo as President.
The irony of the April 16 event was that in December 2008, the same people
of Ogoni were said to have gathered at the Birabi Memorial Grammar School,
also in Bori to conduct an election that saw the return of Barrister Ledum
Mitee as President. It is on record that Barrister Mitee assumed
leadership of MOSOP after the hanging of the then President Kenule
Saro-Wiwa by late Head of State, Genewral Sani Abacha in November 10,
1995. That was 13 years ago.
Today, both Comrade Diigbo and Barrister Mitee, respectively are laying
claims to the position of the President of MOSOP.
Both Diigbo and Mitee have one thing in common; both of them served
Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni nation in various capacities during the dark days
of the struggle.
Diigbo was a member, Steering Committee of MOSOP as well as the National
President of the National Youth Council of Ogoni People (NYCOP), the youth
wing of MOSOP which fought both federal government and oil giant, Shell
and ensured that Shell was forced out of Ogoniland. Diigbo is the current
President of Partnership for Indigenous Peoples Environment (PIPE), a
United States-based organization that advocates the environmental and
fundamental human rights. He was said to have gone into exile in the US
immediately after the arrest of Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni leaders in 1995.
On his part, Barrister Mitee was the Vice-President of MOSOP when late
Saro-Wiwa was the President. He was among the Ogoni leaders that were
arrested, detained and tried by a Kangaroo tribunal in Port Harcourt.
Mitee, however, was lucky that he escaped hangman’s rope when the Ogoni
nine were hanged in 1995. He automatically the leadership of MOSOP after
Saro-Wiwa and have continued in that capacity since then. In 2007, Mitee
was elected President of the Unrepresented Indigenous Peoples Organization
(UNIPO). In 2008, President Umaru Musa Yar’adua appointed him the
Chairman of the Presidential Technical Committee on the Niger Delta.
In as much as no people will like to be identified with a sit-tight
leadership, there is need to have a change of leadership in a most
organized situation that will be acceptable to all.
The Ogoni Election Committee (ELC) mandated to conduct fee and fair
election into MOSOP, KAGOTE and the Ogoni Youth Council (OYC) should wake
up to its responsibilities and ensure that the right things are done.
The affiliate bodies to MOSOP, including MOSOP-USA, MOSOP-UK and the
National Union of Ogoni Students (NOUS), International should step in to
avoid factionalization of their cherished apex-pan Ogoni group.
Religious leaders in Ogoni, especially the retired Methodist Bishop of
Bori, Rt. Reverend Solomon Poromon, the Anglican Bishop of Ogoni
Missionary Diocese, Rt. Rev. Solomon Gberegbara, the current Methodist
Bishop of Bori, Rt. Rev. Theophilus Yobe as well as the Vice Chancellors
of the University of Port Harcourt, Profesor Don. Baridam and that of the
Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt,
Professor Barinua Fakae should also step in to salvage the situation.
Every right thinking human being should know that when two elephants are
fighting, the grasses are always at the receiving end. Today, as the
battle for the soul of MOSOP has narrowed down to Comrade Diigbo and
Barrister Mitee, the truth remains that those who will suffer it are the
down-trodden people of Ogoni.
The people of Ogoni have suffered a lot in the hands of successive
governments in Nigeria, both civilian and military, who always collaborate
with Royal Dutch oil giant, Shell to suppress them for daring to demand
for what rightly belong to them.The farmlands, their aqua-culture and the
environment in general have been destroyed as a result of oil exploration
and exploitation in their area. The ought not to be dragged back to the
dark ages when it was a taboo for an Ogoni to demand for his rights from
government.
The leadership crisis rocking MOSOP is most unwelcome. Let us resolve it
now before it gets out of hand.
Onukwugha is a journalist based in Port Harcourt.
