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
these 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.
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