Ogoni clean-up must be supported to succeed – MOSOP
The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People has emphasised that the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project is vital for the well-being of Ogoni women, youths, children, and the environment.
This is as the group urged all Ogoni people to remain constructively engaged in the project’s implementation, recognising the direct and indirect benefits it brings to the community.
The group, in a statement on Saturday signed by its spokesman, Imeabe Saviour, also rejected the call for the removal of the project coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, Nenibarini Zabbey.
According to the group, the HYPREP Project is a work in progress and deserves the support of all true sons and daughters of the Ogoni kingdom.
“While we disown and condemn such an unpatriotic and self-serving gesture in the strongest terms, we insist that the HYPREP Project is a work in progress and deserves the support of all true sons and daughters of Ogoni, both here and in the diaspora, to succeed.
“The Project holds enormous benefits for the aggregate mass of Ogoni women, youths, children, and the environment, and we should be constructively engaged to implement the project effectively. We are all beneficiaries of the Project, whether directly or indirectly, and should not be quick to throw away the baby and the bath water when it appears things do not align with our personal interests.
“MOSOP frowns at perceived pecuniary and self-serving moves that can derail the course of the Clean-up programme, especially the call for the change of the Project Coordinator. Professor Zabbey is the third substantive Project Coordinator of HYPREP. So far, he is making good progress in implementing the thematic areas of the Ogoni Clean-up programme and should be encouraged to stay focused on this mandate. It is a fundamental concern that the constant change of the Project Coordinator is at the base of the slack in the project pace, and we would not be a party to reinforcing this anomaly.”
The group asked Ogoni youths to continue to support the clean-up programme of the area and resist attempts to be used to frustrate the project.
“In any case, we have it on good account that the Ogoni youths are the most beneficiaries of the HYPREP Project, evidenced by the number of jobs created, capacity development, and other benefits. We, therefore, urge our youths to continue to give their maximum support to the clean-up programme and resist attempts to be used by detractors and naysayers as ready tools to truncate the project.
To this end, MOSOP wishes to commend the Federal Government for its commitment to the clean-up of Ogoniland and urges HYPREP to be mindful of the enormous responsibility with which it is saddled, which is to remediate hydrocarbon-impacted communities and restore the people’s livelihoods.
“Premium, therefore, must be placed in the speedy and timely completion of these key mandates, especially in the provision of potable water to more communities, access to quality health care, and livelihood programmes in Ogoniland,” the group added.
