PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu on Tuesday, January 21, met with Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the leadership of Ogoniland at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Also present at the meeting, held behind closed doors, was the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesome Wike, King Festus Babari Bagia Gberesaako XIII, the Gberemene Gokana Kingdom, national security adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the chief of staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and group chief executive officer, Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, among others top government functionaries.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, minister of regional development, Abubakar Momoh, said the meeting focussed on how to achieve peace in the oil-rich region.
“It is essentially about how there can be peace in Ogoniland, working with all the stakeholders,” Momoh said.
Media reports earlier suggested the meeting was part of the ongoing efforts geared towards preparing the ground for the resumption of oil exploration in Ogoniland.
The Federal Government had expressed concern over the stoppage of oil exploration by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Ogoniland for many years.
This is coming on the heels of a recent call by a group, the Concerned Civil Society Organisations for restraint on the planned resumption of the exploration.
The group cited environmental degradation, social injustices, and a lack of meaningful community engagement as the reasons for the call for caution.
The group, representing various stakeholders across the Niger Delta, issued its statement after a meeting in Port Harcourt.
The statement was endorsed by several organisations, including Environmental Rights Action, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Ogoni Solidarity Forum-Nigeria, and others.
According to the group, the call for a restraint follows an invitation by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, for select Ogoni leaders to attend a private meeting in Abuja to discuss the resumption of oil extraction..
The group listed a series of demands aimed at ensuring justice, environmental restoration, and sustainable development in Ogoniland and the broader Niger Delta.
They asked for the allocation of $1 trillion for the cleanup of the land and compensation for lost livelihood.
They also urged the Federal Government to recognise Ken Saro-Wiwa, an Ogoni environmental activist executed in 1995, as a hero of the environment, similar to the national honour conferred on MKO Abiola for his role in democracy.
The meeting came amid the Ogoniland clean-up launched by former President Muhammadu Buhari. The initiative has since been stalled.
The Abuja meeting also coincided with the prolonged rivalry between Fubara and Wike, who were once political allies.
Fubara and his predecessor, Wike, have been at loggerheads over who controls the PDP structure in the state since 2023, with President Tinubu’s efforts to resolve the stalemate yielding no result.
Fubara has vehemently resisted Wike’s insistence on controlling the PDP’s structure in Rivers State. In addition to declaring the seats of 27 House of Assembly members loyal to the minister vacant, Fubara sacked all 23 local government chairmen elected under Wike and declared that their tenure had expired.
He followed his action with the conduct of a local government election on October 5, affirming his authority on the state’s politics.
The ICIR reported how Fubara won the election for the African Peoples Party (APP) even though he has yet to dump the PDP.
The political camps of Fubara and Wike will, on February 10, battle in five separate cases instituted against each other at the Supreme Court.
A reporter with the ICIR
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