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Ogoni: Bound to agony

ONCE again, sad things are happening in the Ogoni area of Rivers State. Last Tuesday, rival factions of the Ogoni engaged in a violent clash in which some died and others were injured. The feud is said to be a result of the disagreement over a road project being undertaken by the Shell Petroleum Development Company whose activities in the area were halted in 1993 on account of Ogoni agitation for amenities, a fair deal and safety of their environment. Reports of last week\\\'s fracas indicate that tension is still palpable in the troubled district, a fact confirmed by the detention and subsequent release of Mr. Ledum Mitee, the President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). The developments are disturbing.

The current spate of communal unrest is not unconnected with the planned return of Shell to Ogoniland after seven years. The construction of the road is apparently part of the understanding between the people and the oil multinational as a precondition for resumption of oil business. Some sections support the deal while others are opposed, alleging that it is a sell-out to Shell. Without prejudice to the merits of these positions, mature and patient conflict management should have prevailed over the resort to violence. The immediate background to the present intra-community feuding is the leadership crisis which has rocked MOSOP for some time. There is nothing unusual about this in view of the destabilising effect of the intensity of state terrorism unleashed on the Ogoni by the Gen. Sani Abacha dictatorship. But nothing can excuse the fractious extremism which the leadership tussle has assumed.

Even a touchy issue such as according a befitting burial for the murdered Ogoni nationalists, including the martyred Ken Saro-Wiwa, is being profaned by unabating wranglings and mudslinging on the internet and other global mass media channels. There is very little in all these personality clashes and vituperation to suggest that the Ogoni are about to overcome their agony and begin the urgent task of recovery and self-rehabilitation. Many of their friends and sympathisers in Nigeria and abroad are likely to be forgiven if they begin to lose patience with this brand of self-determination struggle which tends to record more casualties amongst the victims of exploitation and oppression.

Those Ogoni indigenes who are getting media limelight from the imbroglio ought to be able to separate their individual egos and partisan ambitions from the fundamental interests of the broad masses of the Ogoni. It behoves them to remember that the Ogoni self-actualisation effort and the ordeal it generated have become a symbol of the country-wide agitation for a fairer and kinder federalism. The bestial mechanisms the Nigerian authorities employed to suppress the Ogoni struggle did not only provoke national outrage and solidarity, the democratic and human rights community of the world was drawn into sympathy and critical engagement. The unfortunate death in 1994 of four eminent citizens - Chiefs Edward Kobani, Albert Badey and Samuel and Theophilus Orage - and the subsequent controversial trial and hanging of Saro-Wiwa with eight of his compatriots pitted Abacha\\\'s Nigeria against the civilised nations of the world. The eventual demise of Abacha and the transition to an elected civilian regime last year are, vicariously, the gains of the Ogoni odyssey. Even now, many analysts think that the survival of Ledum Mitee and his rise to the presidency of MOSOP represent continuity and a triumph of sorts for the organisation. We think it will be less than an honour for those who paid the supreme sacrifice for all this profound experience in community mobilisation and conflict management to be wasted in the name of a dispute over whether or not a road project is a wise choice.

In the face of the disquieting news from Ogoni, Governor Peter Odili and the Rivers State legislators do not appear to have risen to the challenge of the crisis. We are appalled by the attitude of the state police command to the recent unrest. From the statements credited to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Keiran Dudari on the rumpus, observers are inclined to fear that the police do not yet appreciate that Nigeria is no longer under the jackboots of the likes of Col. Dauda Komo whose internal security task force terrorised the Ogoni and other innocent people in ways reminiscent of the hated apartheid regime in South Africa. The Rivers State government should take urgent measures to stem the communal disturbance. Already, similar conflicts in Okrika, Eleme, Choba and Bonny are giving the unfortunate impression that some parts of the state are yet to feel the beneficent effect of a civilian dispensation. A deterioration in the Ogoni flare-up will not help the image of the state.

The Guardian Online from 17th April 2000