MOSOP Tackles Amaechi on Ogoni’s Self-Autonomy

KINSMEN of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni environmentalist who was executed by a military
dictatorship in Nigeria, have taken on the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, for
describing the Ogoni quest for autonomy as a ''treasonable felony''.
President of the Ogoni mass organisation,
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
(MOSOP), Dr. Goodluck Diigbo, says the
governor of one of the richest oil and gas
producing states in Southern Nigeria, does not
appear to be properly informed on what the
Ogoni people are doing.
Governor Amaechi was quoted by a Lagos-
based newspaper as intimidating Diigbo by
suggesting that he was committing
"treasonable felony", which is punishable by
hanging in the same way Saro-Wiwa was
murdered.
''On Ogoni autonomy, I wish them well. Ogoni
autonomy is not achievable. The man (Diigbo)
who declared Ogoni autonomy will run into the
bush tomorrow morning. What Diigbo is doing
is treasonable felony. You do not declare
autonomy on the pages of newspapers and
magazines or on radio and television'', said
Amaechi.
But Diigbo is insisting that Article 20 (1) of the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples is very clear. The Article
however, states: ''Indigenous peoples have the
right to maintain and develop their political,
economic and social systems or institutions, to
be secure in the enjoyment of their own means
of subsistence and development, and to
engage freely in all their traditional and other
economic activities''.
The MOSOP spokesman also pointed out that in Article 34, ''indigenous peoples have the
right to promote, develop and maintain their institutional structures and their distinctive
customs, spirituality, traditions, procedures, practices and, in the cases where they exist,
juridical systems or customs, in accordance with international human rights standards''.
The Ogoni people explained that by implication, ''issues pertaining to indigenous rights
cannot be dabbled into by local or regional authorities that may be in conflict with
indigenous rights, but rests with consultation with a nation state as Nigeria. We think
Amaechi is ill-informed and trying to create security problems where they do not exist. It is
this type of politician that account for the violent bloodshed and lack of effective
governance in Nigeria''.
Continuing, ''we think Amaechi needs proper advice on international matters. It is also
because of international instruments that citizens who want to livein organized society are
able to aspire to self-government, freedom and to organize and subordinate their rights.
You cannot pick and chose certain aspects of civilization and corruptly opt for primitivity as
you deem fit''.
A nd added that ''to improve the quality of political leadership in Nigeria, will require well
informed political elites and actors, and not those who rule with their entire trust rested on
the misuse of security forces''.
In the meantime, the President of Ogoni Council of Churches, Sir Mike Ibira, has said that
Sunday, is a holy day and that the Ogoni people do not want to run into the bush, as they
prefer to go to church as Christians, not to the bush.