Just as the last car in the Governor’s convey turned right to the East/West road, and the siren roared to clear the traffic ahead, so also the air of expectation, doubts, and wishes came to an end.
Days ago, news was rife in every household in Ogoni land, that Mr. President had accented to the commencement of what will be known as Federal University of Environment and Technology, Ogoni land.
What was not certain is when and how that will materialize, as the information came with an early morning sickness of double location, Sakpenwa and Koroma. How come a new University came with two campuses, when older Universities with only one campus can barely breathe in Nigeria.
Predictably, many Ogonis went to town with permutations, and suspicion that maybe, government has come again, with what late Music Maestro Fela called “instruments of Magic”
Some openly accused the Senator who sponsored the Bill of bias, as Ogoni leaders in the past, like late Chief Albert Badey, who brought the Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, selflessly located it in Bori not in Bodo, his home town. The Bill earlier sent by a former Senator Magnus Abe, did not also propose his home town, Bera as location for the university.
But with one visit, one inspection, one decision, Governor Sim Fubara showed wisdom, by handing over the facility, built by the Amaechi administration, at Kira-Tai, known as the “New Model Secondary School. For administrative convenience, government documents had
labelled it as Sakpenwa, like the Refinery, and the Airport, whose place of location was swallowed by ‘Port Harcourt’, a more convenient name.
Kira is a confluence town in Ogoni, and serves as an important historical junction leading to Bori on one flank, to Gokana via another artery, to Okirika, to Akwa Ibom, to Port Harcourt, and to Tai communities. Even the entrance into the new University is designed to veer conveniently from the old Kira road.
In the colonial era, the first Court house in Ogoni was at a location called Maawoo, before it was rebuilt at the place mapped out from the land given by Kira and Boten communities and called Sakpenwa, by the colonial masters.
On April 20th 1968, late Ken Saro-Wiwa wrote in the book. The Ogoni Nationality, Today and Tomorrow, that on the ruins of the old a greater story be told, adding “we can no longer be excluded from the Blessings which modern education showers on most of our country men……….. to this end the secondary schools at present in the Divisions must be converted to comprehensive schools”.
As if by divine promptings and in agreement with the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, led by Prof Don Baridam, the Rivers State Governor accompanied by members of the Committee drove to Kira-Tai, and handed-over all that facility, as the Take-off Campus for the new University of Environment and Technology, Ogoni.
This gesture would mean that the Matriculation Day for the new University would be faster, quicker and sooner than Ogonis imagine.
In the words of a former Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, “those who make history, never realize that they are making history.
An educational facility, via the University of Environment, may have added to softening the ground for the successes recorded in the oil resumption consultations by the Dialogue Committee.
As usual, the stakeholder meetings in the communities and Local Government Areas, though largely successful, had some minor hiccups, as some Ogoni leaders still displayed entitlement mentality. Some felt left out in the composition of the committee, and decided to sponsor contrary narratives about the dialogue.
For instance, at the main congress in Bori, after event pictures, and video clips were cropped, copied and posted on their walls, purporting that the event was marred by violence.
Also, some notable politicians from Ogoni loyal to a particular bloc tried to subvert the process by shunning the stakeholder meetings in their Local Government Areas, noticeably, in Gokona. These politicians stayed away from the Local Government Council headquarters venue of the meeting, an idea that “it would amount to supporting the Chairman”.
Some of these persons, had also shunned the first meeting between Governor Sim Fubara and the committee barely 24 hours after their inauguration in Abuja by President Tinubu.
But Arch-Bishop Ignatius Kattey, the alternate Chairman of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, repeats at every venue, that the Committee’s work is strictly for an all inclusive dialogue and consultation with every Ogoni citizen. “This is not a political exercise”, Bishop Kattey said.
Barrister Tom Orage, the secretary of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee would re-echo that persons who are not present physically, to publicly submit via the email: ogonidialoguecommittee@gmail.com.
The Ledum Mitee Example
In a demonstration of the committee’s openness and Trust, former, MOSOP President, Ledum Mitee pointed the way forward at the Bori Congress meeting. While he was addressing the crowd, some sponsored persons emerged with placards bearing “Mitee and Ribadu leave Ogoni Oil alone” etc.
But rather than stop his speech, or get angry, Ledum Mitee continued his speech without stopping, a pointer that the Committee will not allow any distraction to affect the process.
This approach may have guided the Committee to adopt their all inclusive stance at all meeting venues, as everyone was given access to the Microphone, every document received, and every group contented.
As the Committee wraps up their consultations, one prayer in the heart of Ogonis will be that Mr. President shows further sincerity by honoring the demands and concerns of Ogoni people as collated and presented by the Ogoni Dialogue Committee for a smooth resumption of oil activities.
