Ogoni youths task FG on oil exploration resumption in Ogoniland

National Youth Council of the Ogoni People (NYCORP), the apex youth body in Ogoni, has called on the Federal Government to initiate the process for the utilisation of the oil wealth in the area to boost its economy, that of Rivers and the country at large.
President of NYCORP, Theophilus Mbagha, who made the call at a youths event hosted by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in Bori, in Khana Local Government Area, Rivers State, said there was already a developmental blueprint in place to guide the oil and its uses.
He urged the Federal Government to take measures to develop Ogoniland, in order to prevent a situation where oil is drilled without the people benefitting from the wealth of their land.
Mbagha said Ogoni youths fully back MOSOP’s development blueprint through its Ogoni Development Authority (ODA), adding that the idea would speed up development in Ogoniland.
He said: “The idea of ODA is not strange to NYCOP, it is hoped and believed to be a pathway to solving the long lasting issue rocking not only the Ogoni people but the national economy.
“If the Federal Government wants to be objective in their approach to the Ogoni case, they should endorse the ODA. I can boldly state unequivocally that it should be time to resume oil exploration.
“We, at NYCOP, are watching events as they unfold. Any plan of oil exploration return in Ogoniland must be properly negotiated and the ODA is our benchmark. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Also speaking, the MOSOP President, Fegalo Nsuke, called on Ogoni youths to reject their present conditions of living where graduates cannot find jobs and Ogoni youths are becoming less competitive.
He said Ogoni has opposed the Federal Government for along time, noting that the time has come for work to commence in Ogoniland and for the youths and Ogoni generally to benefit from the wealth of their land.
“We need to understand, young people, that we cannot to continue to have an Ogoni where you go to school and wake up in morning and cannot find one company where you can seek a job.
“I am here to tell you today that what we have been pursuing is to address underdevelopment. We must reject the exploitation of the past so we can address underdevelopment. The only way out is that the resources of Ogoni must be committed to Ogoni development. That is where the future lies.
“Anybody who tells you that the Ogoni struggle was all about resisting and fighting the government misses it. Our future, as Nigerians, depend on the decisions the government make and so we need to dialogue with the system,” he said.