Jerry Needam
Thirty years after the historic Ogoni struggle for justice, the Ogoni Peoples Assembly (OPA) has called for a rebirth — urging the Ogoni people to move beyond mere survival and embrace transformation, unity, and purposeful nationhood.
In a press statement signed by OPA Leader, Reverend Probel Williams, and Secretary, Dr Evidence Ep-aabari Enoch (Multichartered), and made available to National Network Newspaper, the group described the last three decades as years of struggle, advocacy, and painful deprivation, but also of resilience and divine preservation.
“It is time to transform from tribe to a people, from survival to sustainability, from a movement to a destination, from Ogoni people to Ogoni nation,” OPA declared.
“We must move from agitation to realization, and from spontaneity to intentionality.”
OPA noted that despite surviving regimes of repression, dictatorship, and disguised democratic impunity, the Ogoni people must now chart a new path anchored on unity, dialogue, and strategic engagement.
Drawing lessons from South Africa’s post-Apartheid transformation, the statement urged Ogonis to evolve from agitation to political participation, from protest to policy, and from movement to meaningful governance.
“Our language is threatened, our unity at crossroads, our pride of place compromised, our heritage continuously raped, and our resources unharnessed,” the statement lamented. “The time to act is now.”
OPA also called for a national fast till 12 noon across Ogoniland to mark the 30th anniversary of the Ogoni martyrs, after which all Ogonis are to proclaim:
“Jubilee! Jubilee!! Jubilee!!!” —symbolizing freedom, restoration, and renewal. The foremost Ogoni group further urged all stakeholders to engage in genuine dialogue on oil resumption, environmental restoration, political recovery, and economic emancipation, insisting that only through such intentional efforts would “the deaths of our heroes past not be in vain.”
