Sunny Hemebrim Amadi

One  thing even his detractors will concede to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is that he is an adroit headhunter and knows how best to apply solutions to problems even in the most dire situations. Call it a Machiavellian approach or whatever you will, it delivers the best results.

Just like when he appointed Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as the National Security Adviser, many thought he was being political with the choice but those who cared to do a background check found out that he was following a global pattern, especially given the training and investigations his choice had been involved in. Time has always proved President Tinubu right just like his approach to the resolution of the Ogoni upland oil exploitation resumption

Ogoni has been a restive point in different regards; a resilient community with many towns and villages but tied to one fate of environmental degradation and lack of requisite development despite the vast natural endowments it is blessed with. The numerous creeks, which used to boast of vast aquatic resources with beautiful mangroves, flora and fauna, have today become a shadow of themselves, while pressures mounted by various communities and groups have moved the hands of the government to start talking of remediation that seems to take eternity to be delivered.

However, on coming to power by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he took practical steps to address the grievances of the Ogoni, which boast of upland oil and therefore are cheaper to exploit. He plotted ways to break the logjam which led to the suspension of oil exploration in the area in 1993 after civil resistance by the people over disagreements with International Oil Companies whose alleged below standard safety exploratory and exploitatory procedures pitched them against activists, both from the area and outside it.

Prior to the stoppage, different groups and interests were pitched against each other in a divide and rule style which soon led to the killing of some leaders of the area. The climax was the killing of Ogoni 9. The struggle through the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP was later to claim its biggest victim in the execution of playwright and academic, Ken Saro Wiwa with Saturday Dorbee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbookoo, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kibble and John Kpuinen. They were alleged to have had a hand in the killing of Ogoni chiefs in 1994. Those killed were Chiefs Edward Kobani, Albert Badey, Samuel Orage, and Theophilus Orage. The entire community was later to pass through spasms of repression using soldiers like General Paul Okuntimo to violate the rights of the people in an attempted forced resumption of exploratory activities in the region. The high profile loss of lives were parts of the reason re-entering Ogoni for oil exploration was a touchy issue only a dexterous maneuverer could handle

To assuage and change direction of peaceful re-entry into Ogoniland for exploration and revival of moribund facilities, the President directed the National Security Adviser, a super cop in retirement, Ribadu who is a lawyer by profession before joining the police from where he retired. His sterling qualities ensured that he was set apart by the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo to head the then newly created Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC as the First Chairman. A taciturn whose aversion for money and graft is legendry. He is said to be a good conflict resolution expert who would not compromise anything in the attainment of national goals.

It was therefore not a surprise to many that he was picked to break the logjam and ensure that liaising with the Nigeria National Petroleum Company, NNPC, which is the manager of the federal government interests in the oil and gas sector of the economy, to ensure that all sides were fairly treated in the move to return to the area for oil activities. This was to be done through ensuring agreements were transparently implemented with economic revitalisation of the area and balancing the same with environmental concerns.

After several attempts in the past to resolve the problem, even to the extent that the Ogonis were made to vent their concerns at the Oputa panel, where gory tales of repressions against them were brought to light which further hardened the issues yielded no tangible results, most administrations gave up trying even when a Niger Delta son superintended the democratic governance of the country.

Now entered Ribadu with the Presidential mandate to solve the knotty issue. In his characteristic style, he went grassroots and engaged all the communities to first air their grievances, then articulate their demands, some of which fell outside the general Ogoni Bill of Rights.

The engagement was so successful that advocates of peace and reconciliation think the issue has progressed from whether oil exploration in Ogoni should commence to how the resumption would benefit the people based on widespread consultation and compilation of community expectations.

Every community made a presentation to the Ogoni Dialogue committee headed by Don Baridon, a respected academic which were held in all the local governments, where each community would make their presentations. Bori hosted the four Local governments before consultations returned to local government by local government, before it broke into community by community to ensure no community of interest was left uncaptured in the effort. Each presentation was made by the Chiefs of the area. The position papers were thereafter endorsed by chosen leaders of each community and uploaded in the website of the committee, while hard copies were also submitted to be aggregated in the final report.

 In assessing if the method deployed by Ribadu to solve the Ogoni problem succeeded, there is a general agreement that it did since it has aggregated all the views, demands and concerns of each community and came out with a single report on the modalities and meeting the expectations of the communities so that any dissent would weigh next to nothing because each community brought their representatives which covered all professions especially those familiar with oil and gas exploration as well as the traditional institutions for a lasting solution.

As it stands, Ribadu has delivered leaving the next stage to be modalities for technical resuscitation of the aged facilities which out of wear and tear or progressive technology would have gone obsolete to be replaced and the companies to operate in the area to keep to global best practices on environmental and community related issues, then resumption in Ogoni is good to go. Giving opportunities to locals as is enshrined in the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA will ensure that everyone is carried along for the peaceful operations of companies.

According to one of the high-level participants in the Ogoni dialogue and resolutions, “For this singular exercise to progress from nominations without protesting to dialogue, to meetings and successfully present a report that is literarily accepted across board, I think it has been a success story. But it will not be complete unless Ogonis get ready to be involved in the direct processes of the oil sector and that is where the Ogonis in the hydrocarbon industry come in. All that is needed is that the report should not be put under the shelf as happened before, let the committee report be implemented whether after review or rejigging”.

Ribadu sure understudied the issues and came out with a total package that covered social, economic, spiritual and other concerns of the people and pushed for pardons of the likes of Saro Wiwa and his group as well as conferment of national hounours on those Chief that were killed thereby bringing closures to their issues. This is added to the establishment of the Federal University of Environment in Ogoniland so that most of the agitations have been met while some communities around Ogoni have had oil discovered and exploited so that the feeling now is that, assuming they wake up one day to the news that there was no more oil in their land, that they would have lost their bargaining tool.

His approach has given a sense of belonging to all Ogonis which has helped to build trust and dispel the notion that each time the government engages them, the result is never implemented but with Ribadu on the saddle, promised interventions by the government like the resumption of work on sections of the East-West road was immediately activated. At the same time, the university has received its approvals and is ready to roll.

The reinvigoration of the cleanup of the Ogoni environment through the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP was given oxygen and driven by Ribadu, which led to the reconstitution of the boards and concrete push for faster delivery of results so that the first phase of the mangrove remediation and expansion of clean water access to over 40 communities was reported last month to have hit 94 percent completion

Also added to the gains of heading the dialogue with Ogoni, Ribadu has given a new touch to the security in the area being within his purview which was one of the concerns. He put in place modalities that has stemmed oil theft and vandalism which also polluted the environment. Ribadu did that through innovative security approaches which has seen illegal refineries and bunkering taking a hit.

As has become the fate of anything entrusted to him, Ribadu has once more etched his name in gold by delivering where others failed and Ogoni people will forever remember him as the man who inspite of all odds, attended to and solved the decades long hiatus which will enable Ogonis to once enjoy the gains of their natural endowments, the only proof that the natural endowments in the bowels of their land no longer constituted a curse; all kudos to Ribadu.