Oil Resumption: Chief Nwielaghi Praises President Tinubu’s Commitment To Ogoni Development, Assures President Tinubu Of Ogoni People’s Support

Chief Dr. Mike Nwielaghi, the former Rivers State chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) an ally of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, first class law graduate of Rivers State University Port Harcourt, Community Leader, Ogoni Leader, a Knight of St. Mulumba of Roman Catholic Church   and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Trust Fund, Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, etc, granted an exclusive interview to National Network Correspondent,  Dormene Mbea. In the interview, Chief Dr. Nwielaghi shared his insights on the contentious issue of oil resumption in Ogoniland, HYPREP’s progress, and his relationship with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who founded the Alliance for Democracy (AD) during his tenure as Lagos State governor. Chief Dr. Nwielaghi promised to galvanize support for the president while shedding light on the complexities surrounding oil exploration and environmental remediation in Ogoniland.

Sir today Ogonis met in a bid to dialogue on the move by the federal government to resume oil exploration in Ogoniland, what is your take on it and are you satisfied with the outcome.

 Yes, I’m fully satisfied. They were only carrying out the later instructions of Mr. President given on the 25th of January this year that they should go back home and speak to their people, and all of us were there today to speak to our people, and they have communicated the decision of Mr. President, and everybody is satisfied.

Sir, there are misconceptions in the public about the deliberate decision of the federal government to resume oil exploration in Ogoniland?

 Well, as I know, there are no deliberate plans by the federal government to take Ogoni oil, because according to the Land Use Act, the federal government owns the total land in this country, and also the state government owns land too, but every mineral resource belongs to the federal government of Nigeria according to the constitution that is the ground norm, so if the federal government said yes, we should bury the hatchet and begin oil resumption; yes it is good; let us try it; after all, we have been feeding on the resources of the federal government and then locking up our own. The federal government is not deliberately saying they want to take oil; they have also given us some considerations, saying that those low-hanging fruits that they can immediately do now, and what are those things that they can do to pacify the people? First enough, the president was magnanimous enough to say, Bury the hatchet, let the past be the past, and let us forge a way forward, and that’s how a father speaks. And from the report from those that went to see Mr. President, list the low-hanging fruits. You talk about the University of Environment, which has come to fruition today, the Eleme sections of the East-West road that funds have been realised and accelerated work on the span of that road, a state for the Ogoni people is also in the offing, and if a state is to be created today, Ogoni will have it because of the love Mr. Questions: Sir, why are you so sure that Mr. President will do all that he has praised the Ogoni people and not a mere promise? The president has a special love for the Ogoni people; don’t forget that Mr. President was in the trenches with our leaders, and he was on the run with our leaders, so he knows the story and will be able to tackle the issues. When I was the chairman of AD when the President was the governor of Lagos State, I was the chairman of his Party here and I was going to Alahausa, I have always been with Mr. President, people may be plackating you now and don’t want you to see Mr. President, but I know that it is fine, I’ll see Mr. President and the president and I have been in this struggle and as chairman of AD here in Rivers State then, we have that same modus and political ideology on how to make this country great again and I tell people, including Ogoni people that we must support this president, because President Bola Ahmed Tinubu thinks we’ll of us and will make Nigeria great, there could be some little challenges on the road, but I’m quite sure that he is leading Nigerians to the part of greatness.

 Sir, as a man who shares the same political ideology, thoughts, and thinking with Mr. President, are you sure his approaches to governance will meet the yearnings and expectations of Ogoni people?

 I have said it before, that the whole Ogoni uprising Mr. President was part of it, he was chased and hunted alongside with Ogoni leaders, so and when the President calls you to say let’s talk, he means well for the Ogonis because he is an insider and knows where the shoes pinches and so I have confidence  that this President will transform Ogoniland, just as he is working to make Nigeria great, and so I called on Ogonis to bury the hatchet, everyone cannot be in the state house at the same time, after those who went there were carefully selected as representative and they have come to tell us the position of the federal government and we have accepted, and I’ll like to advice the committee, let it trickle down and let’s be moving from kingdoms to kingdom, to sensitize and inform our people about this good plans of Mr. President towards the Ogoni people and also engaged opinion leaders, clergy and people of thoughts who can deliver, they should co-opt them to make sure these things work for our good.

 Sir, are you willing to play any role in this peace process initiated by Mr. President, even if you are not a member of the committee saddled with the responsibility to dialogue with the people?

The whole of the Khana local government area, for instance, the area where I stand here today, is the Yola oilfield, and that is the only oilfield in the whole of the Khana local government area, my home, where I’m seated is surrounded by oil wells, and if you look around me, you will see a lot of oil wells here, and it’s the only oil well in Khana, and when the people come here now, I know how they feel, so I’ll swing into action and invite the chiefs and community leaders and put our own proposals and submissions to the committee seamlessly because I want them to succeed; everyone cannot be in the committee at the same time and we trust somebody like Prof. Don Baridam, Lenu Kpaghi, and our representatives because they are representing us, so when they talk, we believe that they have captured the views of our people, but still there will be input, and people will be making further suggestions for them to harmonise and then will call us back again to say this is our final position, do we agree?

As the dialogue commences in Ogoniland, what about the Ogonis who are refugees in other countries of the world; are there plans to reunite, integrate, and rehabilitate them back to Nigeria, or can there be oil resumption without them?

 You see where we were today was like a rainbow coalition, every section of Ogoni people and groups were there and I don’t think that they were precluded from coming there, but at it may be, even when the committee will go in to their details, they can send in their positions and submission because we may not know what they want, so they should be able to make their own submission and state their position clear, because like I have said before, he who wears the shoes knows exactly where it pinched, they should be able to make recommendations to say that those in diaspora should be co-opted, because any aspects or deals that is vital will be captured and nobody should worry because everyone will be adequately taken care. Like my wife will always say, Why do you trust this president? and I’ll keep telling her that I trust this president so much because we were together in the AD, and I can tell you that he is one of the presidents that love Ogoni people more than any other president, and the only person that can be close to him is former president Mohammed Buhari, who started the implementation of HYPREP in Ogoniland.

 Is there any role HYPREP can play in this whole thing?

Yes, I was also to tell them that part of the low-hanging fruits, which they should have suggested to Mr. President at the peace meeting at the State House, could have been that there’s a silent revolution going on today in Ogoni, HYPREP was supposed to be given one billion dollars (1 billion) for the remediation and cleanup of Ogoniland, and there were also other sources that were opened, for instance, budgeting, grants, and donations. They were supposed to suggest to Mr. President to allow for budgeting for HYPREP so that it can be sustained.

There are speculations in the public domain that the federal government is yet to release its own part of the counterpart funding as stipulated by the recommendation of the UNEP report. Is it true?

Technically speaking, it is not true because the polluter paid the principle. What the UNEP report says was that the joint venture should fund the one billion dollars. Now NNPCL and JD partners are the federal government, and they are the highest percentage of the total money, so if you say that the federal government has not put a dime, that will be misinformation because if they own NNPCL and NNPCL is the greatest contributor to the project and you turn that around to say they haven’t contributed, then you are misinforming the public. In the joint venture we have SHELL, AGIP,  TOTAL and NNPCL and they are the one funding HYPREP operations, but I’m saying beyond that, that it was opened that HYPREP should be funded through budget process, budget process means that federal government can now allocate funds captured in their yearly budgets throught the ministry of environment or as a grant, because the UNEP report allows that and I felt it should have been one of the low hanging fruits because of HYPREP is doing about one hundred and thirty projects in Ogoniland like center of excellence, power, specialist hospitals in Kpite, Cottage  Hospital in Buan, livihood, recticulation water supply, shoreline, mangroves planting, scholarship grants and others How do HYPREP sustain these projects? Because we have gone beyond the recommendation of the UNEP report, the federal government should have given us a grant or put us in the budget to sustain the project because when the one billion dollars finishes, how do we sustain these plethora of projects? I’ll suggest further that the federal government should give additional grants apart from what NNPCL is doing or put us in the budget so that we can sustain these projects. Imagine when we pull out, what will happen to the hospitals in Kpite Tai and the cottage hospital in Buan? How will they go on?

Can you say a word to Mr. President?

 We thank the federal government; we thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because they are not coming with the force of power and the force of government, and they are discussing with the people in a democratic manner, and as you could see today, the whole Ogoni turns up; everybody is happy and enthusiastic, and everybody wants to be part of this process and wants resumption of oil in Ogoniland so that things can be better for our people. I want to assure Mr. President that he should leverage what we have done today; he shouldn’t slack in any way; he should be hopeful that Ogoni people are going to make him proud, and Ogoni people are going to continue in their support for Mr. President. We have been supporting him, and there will be no crisis in Ogoniland, and he will see that once the committee presents their report, though I won’t want to preempt the report, but I can assure him that he will see the enthusiasm of our people for his person and government, and if the president comes to Ogoniland today, he will see the joy and love that the Ogoni people have for him.

Finally, sir, can you advise Ogoni people?

So far I’m impressed about their massive turnout and impressed about the support they have given to Mr. President and to this idea of oil resumption in our place. My advice is that they should bury the hatchet, forgive one another, and give full cooperation to the committee that is going about trying to harmonise views about what we are doing now; they should be peaceful and remain calm and harmonious and should create no problems within this period in Ogoniland, because, like I have said, Prof. Don Baridam is one of our best and will do the right thing.