Mkpoikana Udoma
04 July 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — A group known as Ogoni Development Initiative, ODI, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of playing politics with the clean up of oil polluted Ogoni environment, more than two years after it was flagged off.
President of the group, Dr. Nukabari Badey, speaking with newsmen in Bori, accused President Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress of deceiving Ogoni people by not keeping to its change agenda of cleaning the environment as widely announced.
Badey explained that the President on assumption of office in 2015 openly announced his readiness to implement the environmental impact assessment report carried out by the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, on Ogoniland.
He wondered why the government would embark on flagging off a project it was never ready to implement.
“After a study of the approach, loud pronouncements and long delays adopted by the Federal Government on the globally celebrated clean up, Ogoni people are not persuaded about the sincerity of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, whose earlier promises were designed to score cheap political points.
“Since the announcement by President Buhari of immediate action on the release of funds, the Federal Government has seemingly dosed off on the programme without regard to the health hazards and increased mortality rate resulting from the long-polluted environment.
“The silence by Buhari and his APC government has raised suspicion among the people of Ogoni that the Federal Government in collaboration with Shell has opted for their usual strategy of divide-and-rule to set the Ogoni leaders and the people against themselves.
“These they have done by employing gradual frustration of the clean-up programme to force the collective loyalty of the Ogoni ethnic nationality to join or support the ruling political party in the country.”