The unfortunate story of the Ogoni repression has too many instances of avoidable mistakes. The first was the failure of the Nigerian government to take advantage of Ken Saro-Wiwa. The most recent is an attempt to foist Sahara Energy on Ogoni ignoring an express rejection of the company by the communities.

This time, Nigeria could lose the benefits of tremendous efforts we have made in convincing the Ogoni people to accept the idea of resuming oil production in the area.Nigeria should not turn deaf ears to our rejection of a Nicodemously concocted deal between Sahara Energy and the NNPC which we outrightly rejected following the collapse of our dialogue initiatives. Like the mistake with Saro-Wiwa, rather than opt for a genuine dialogue to reach a compromise with MOSOP, there are ongoing buying of signatures from the streets in search of some Ogoni endorsement claims.

Unfortunately, the strategy of Sahara Energy and the NNPC isn’t different from that of Shell and General Sani Abacha who had the impression that state repression and mass killing of Ogonis will force Shell back to resume oil production in the area.

Sadly, the Ogoni people are today faced with a possible extinction – a crushing economy without employment opportunities, a devastated environment and an increasingly less educated and non-competitive youth population. These are conditions that would have been reversed to set Ogoni on a path of sustainable development had the government acceded to our proposals for peace and development.

Nigeria has rather been more concerned with the prospects for natural resource extraction, seeking the quickest means possible ro that goal and definitely, less concerned about the welfare of the people. The consequences had been a predominantly angry and frustrated Ogoni population that became more resistant to their tactics.

Nigeria’s mistakes in the handling of the Ogoni issue especially the resort to kill anyone who speaks the language of Ogoni liberation, a language that has become associated with Ken Saro-Wiwa, have only made things worse, not just for the oppressed Ogoni people but also for the Nigerian state.

In the past three decades, Nigeria has lost at least $452 Billion in oil revenues (excluding revenues from gas sales). The country has remained in a vicious circle, dissipating energy on people thought to have the keys to the Ogoni oil and not making any progress. The current strategy is a continuum of Shell’s divide and conquer strategy which sought to use some people against the population in search for an avenue to break the people’s will and desire for a better life.

Billions have been expended on public relations (which could be as crude as bribery) without any progress to persuade the Ogoni people to trust the oil industry Rather than accepting MOSOP’s peace building initiatives, the oil industry seems to prefer to take advantage of the hunger their policies have inflicted on the people, promoting division with hopes of a conquest.

The implication had been a deadlock. But the reality is that the Ogoni people, though not averse to development and genuine initiatives to resolve the issues, are continually faced with the threats of a desperate and manipulative Nigerian oil industry whose modus operandi is a divide and conquer strategy that deceptively persuade some few individuals to do their bidding.

Driven by desperation, greed and selfishness, successive attempts of the NNPC to re-enter Ogoni have ignored MOSOP’s development proposals and chosen paths that only frustrate MOSOP’s genuine peace plans for a mutually beneficial compromise that can pave the way for a resolution of all legacy issues. The unholy alliance between Sahara Energy and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is a glaring case in point.

The NNPC/Sahara deal reflects a sad side of how our country treats its own people. The entire contract is lacking in transparency. Why is a Financial and Technical Services Agreement, FTSA, between a dominant party, the NNPC, and a private entity, Sahara Energy, appearing to have roped the NNPC into an unbreakable marriage? What is so particular about Sahara Energy that, even with the people’s rejection, the NNPC appears bent on getting them through, a path that obviously will not work with Ogoni.

Sahara Energy has been unable to win the support of the Ogoni masses and never will, yet, the NNPC appears very desperate to stick to this company. Why is it so difficult to discuss a way forward given that Sahara Energy is obviously not acceptable to the Ogoni people? It is indeed very awkward that the interest of Sahara Energy, in this instance, appears to outweigh or supersede that of the NNPC and the Nigerian state.

In 2020, I, as president of MOSOP, filed a petition against Sahara Energy and the NNPC, to President Muhammadu Buhari who ordered an investigation. The former Inspector General of Police investigated the matter and in Sahara’s response, they claimed only to be financial partners and not the operator. I demanded they stay away if they are unwilling to enter into an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) that will accommodate the Ogoni interests. The case was rested.

Despite being fully aware of the position of the Ogoni People on the matter, Sahara Energy has pushed on for an operatorship contract with the NNPC over OML 11 and wants to assume operatorship of the oilfields while actively evading the concerns and demands of the Ogoni people.

It should be very clear that Ogoni rejects Sahara Energy at this time and the resistance against Sahara will be massive at home and overseas. We cannot tolerate an existential threat as posed by Sahara Energy’s backdoor moves to snatch away the sacrifices of some 4,000 Ogoni lives lost in the struggle to reclaim our heritage from Shell.

The Ogoni people have a legitimate right to peaceful living and Sahara Energy should not threaten that right.

Decisions that affect indigenous peoples must take the views of the people into consideration. This is a fundamental right in international law and we will expect our government to protect our rights to free, prior and informed consent in decisions that affect our lives.

The protection of our rights is a fundamental demand on our government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and we expect Mr President to halt the threat of another GENOCIDE in Ogoni posed by the unholy alliance between the NNPC and their smarthy Sahara Energy.

•Fegalo Nsuke is president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). He wrote from Bori, Ogoni, Nigeria.