Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has decried the gross mismanagement of Ogoni’s 100 oil wells by multinationals, leading to the destruction of agricultural resources and resulting in massive poverty in the area.
The group also described the communities as most naturally endowed in the country, with oil production capacity exceeding one million barrels per day, although official sources put it at 350,000 barrels.
Its President, Fegalo Nsuke, in a statement made available to The Guardian in Abuja, stressed that the figure exemplifies the fraud and corruption that has rocked the oil industry, where refineries will never work, while companies pollute and destroy people’s environment and livelihoods.
Nsuke explained that challenge has been a political campaign strategy for decades, where politicians would promise better schools, roads, security, electricity, jobs and much more without fulfilling the promises.
He declared: “Every civil society group that can be compromised is bribed to provide an endorsement as a tool to cover the wicked acts of funding armed gangs, which are deployed during the elections. With the hope of a better life, the jobless youths will be exploited and armed for political violence.
“The situation of neglect in Ogoni makes it really deplorable; this is not far from the experiences nationwide. Youth unemployment in Nigeria was projected to hit 73 million in 2022; a150 per cent increase from the 2014 average, which stood at 14.2 per cent, suggesting that 33 per cent of our population would have been unemployed by the end of 2022.”
According to the MOSOP President, there is simply a lack of basic infrastructure to support any reasonable economic growth and the possibility of stimulating such a process is simply nonexistent as the environment lacks basic amenities for boosting desired economic growth.
