Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Nigeria has lost over 6.4 billion barrels of crude oil and a revenue of over $328 billion due to the wrong approaches deployed in addressing the crisis in Ogoniland since the exit of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited from the area in 1993, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has said.
According to MOSOP, Ogoniland has a capacity to produce a minimum of 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and at a conservative estimated crude oil price of $50 per barrel, the country has lost huge revenue as well as investments, economic growth and expansion in the last 30 years of Shell pulling out of Ogoni.
President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke, in his speech to mark the 28th memorial of the Ogoni 9 executed by the military government under the Late General Sani Abacha-led regime, said Shell extracted over $30 million worth of crude oil in Ogoniland before leaving in 1993.
Nsuke, in his address titled, “28 Years After November 10, 1995: Refocusing the Ogoni Struggle on the Development Goals of the Founding Fathers”, mourned the execution of erudite playwright and environmentalist, Ken Saro will along with eight others, John Kpuinen, Dr Nubari Kiobel, Paul Levura, Baribor Bera, Nordu Eawo, Saturday Doobee, Daniel Gbokoo and Felix Nuate.
“It is an unfortunate paradox that since 1958 when crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantities in Ogoni, and 1993 when the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited was compelled to shut down operations in the area due to mounting civil protests, an estimated $30billion worth of oil was thought to have been extracted from Ogoni lands.
“But the unbelievable reality is that given the current technology for crude oil extraction, the soil upon which the Ogoni people walk has a proven capacity to produce 500,000 barrels of oil daily, estimated at $40 million per day. It then follows that in the past 30 years of Shell’s exit from Ogoni, at least 6,475,000,000 barrels of oil conservatively estimated at $328,500,000,000 have been lost to wrong approaches deployed to address the Ogoni problem. This figure is derived at a conservative estimated base price of $50 per barrel during the period.
“The soil upon which an estimated One Million Ogoni people walk daily in misery, without jobs, security, physical infrastructure such as electricity, schools, hospitals, roads and more. The Ogoni story is the pathetic narrative of a national shame, and we all have a responsibility to rewrite this story for the better and reset the future and destiny of Ogonis living and yet unborn,” he said.
The MOSOP leader maintained that the establishment of the Ogoni Development Authority remains an acceptable pathway and framework to permanently resolve the three-decade oil conflicts in Ogoni.
He urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to exonerate the “unjust sentencing and execution of the nine Ogoni” as well as resolve the Ogoni problem a top priority in his administration.
“That the input and voice of the Ogoni people is a prerequisite to paving the way for an acceptable solution which MOSOP will drive within the stakeholder’s engagement meetings.
“That an order be made for a judicial review of the unjust sentencing and execution of nine Ogoni rights campaigners namely Ken Saro-Wiwa, John Kpuinen, Dr Nubari Kiobel, Nordu Eawo, Baribor Bera, Saturday Doobee, Felix Nuate, Paul Levura and Daniel Gbokoo.
“That an order be made to stop further harassment, killings, or intimation of the Ogoni people by any entity or group while the suggested cause of action is diligently and genuinely pursued,” Nsuke further stated.
