By Kennedy Emetulu
It seems true that President Muhammadu Buhari
is not visiting Ogoniland for that much-publicised flag-off of the
implementation of the UNEP Report on the cleaning up of Ogoniland and the Niger
Delta. Honestly, this is a shocking and depressing development and it calls to
question again the kind of advice President Buhari is receiving in Aso Rock. He
may have the best of reasons or excuses for not going, but perception is
reality in politics! Cancelling that visit is the last thing he should have
contemplated today. Here are 10 reasons why it’s bad:
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| *Buhari |
(1) The Niger Delta Avengers have threatened that he shouldn’t come; not going
there, despite the whole show of military force by the Nigerian Armed Forces
for the visit of the Commander-in-Chief, hands the initiative to the Niger
Delta Avengers. They have showed they control the agenda of his government and
his own movement within the nation. Of course, the truth is nothing would have
happened to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Ogoniland; but,
again, perception is reality.
(2)
The Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed talked up Buhari’s impending visit
thus: “Buhari would return to Ogoniland where he inaugurated a fish pond in
1984 where the once flourishing pond regrettably had been destroyed by oil
pollution. The Federal Government is coming back to restore the ecosystem to
what it used to be and as such restore the peoples’ source of livelihood”.
Obviously, mentioning that the president was going to Ogoniland again after his
1984 visit as a military Head of State in the circumstances of both visits was
a way of making the case that between then and now life has been snuffed out of
the environment there and Buhari is now returning life to the people and that
environment with his visit. The symbolism would have been nice. But what have
we now? The president is after all not coming!
(3)
Buhari’s visit would have been the most significant thing in Ogoniland since
the judicial murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and for Buhari, it would have been a
personal victory and a personal exorcism of some sort as well. Remember that
Buhari was General Sani Abacha’s head of the PTF that was spending the oil
money at the time Saro-Wiwa was killed. Buhari supported that killing as part
of that government and Nigerians and the world condemned it strongly. As the
world knows, Saro-Wiwa’s main message was not the political aspect of the Ogoni
case, but the environmental aspect. Saro-Wiwa was essentially killed because he
drew attention to the environmental destruction oil exploration brought to the
Niger Delta. As president, Buhari would have used this opportunity to show with
his presence his genuine commitment to cleaning up Ogoniland particularly and
the Niger Delta generally. With that he would have come a full circle from his
Abacha days. He would have used his presence to call for the unity of the Ogoni
and the Niger-Delta with the rest of Nigeria
