In what turned out to be an emotional speech, the new president of the
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) Fegalo Nsuke has
rekindled hope for a free Ogoni in Nigeria. Nsuke in an address this
morning to the Ogoni people said freedom for the Ogoni people in
Nigeria must be pursued vigorously. The speech followed his assumption
of office as the new MOSOP president at the expiration of the tenure
of the previous executives yesterday December 31, 2018.
In a new year message to the Ogoni people this morning, Nsuke said:
"Today, the Ogoni struggle is reborn, our hope for a better tomorrow
is rekindled and we must all be prepared and determined to change our
history and let the Ogoni star shine" Nsuke told a massive crowd in
Yeghe, Gokana local government area yesterday.
"When in 1990, our progenitors launched the Ogoni struggle with the
publication of the Ogoni Bill of Rights, it was a collective move to
re-write our history and give us hope. Tonight, that hope is rekindled
as we turn a new page and together decide to match on so we can win
together" he said.
Nsuke said MOSOP will focus strongly on fighting for the political
rights of the Ogoni people to self determination, the protection of
human rights especially the rights of women rights, development of our
educational standards, development of our culture and monitoring the
implementation of the cleanup exercise amongst others.
Nsuke said MOSOP will continue to challenge the discrimination against
the Ogoni people in Nigeria. He said Ogoni generates 185000 barrels of
oil daily and everything is shared by the rest of Nigeria and Ogoni
gets nothing.That is the basis of our struggle, the reason we are
aggrieved and we won't stop until our political rights to self
determination is respected and freedom is won for our people.
"Ogoni contributes more to the Nigerian economy than 20 Nigerian
states put together yet are the poorest in this country. Our huge
natural endowments are exploited for the benefit of other Nigerian
nationalities and nothing is left for us. Over $100billion dollars
have been taken out of our land leaving us with a wreaked environment,
poisoned and unable to support reasonable livelihoods. Currently, over
200 persons die weekly from the coastal communities alone and that is
a sign that if nothing is done now, the entire Ogoni will eventually
die. These are the reasons we have to stand to tell the Nigerian
government we can no longer tolerate this injustices" Nsuke said
yesterday.
Nsuke takes over as president of MOSOP following the expiration of the
tenure of the past executive yesterday, December 31, 2018. The new
leadership was elected on December 19 in Bori. Nsuke had been a known
and outstanding critic of Shell and advocate of self determination for
Ogoni. He served as publicity secretary in the last executive.