Former President of Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mitee, is currently not having the best of times in the Ogoni axis of Rivers State.
Since the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his other kinsmen on November 10, 1995, Mitee dominated the affairs of Ogoni for years.
Now, a MOSOP activist, Sunday Abel Gbarabugbe, is saying that their former leader has no solution to the current factional crisis rocking the mass movement and Ogoni.
For Gbaranugbe who is MOSOP’s Secretary in Eleme kingdom, Mitee is part of the generation that failed the Ogoni people, alleging that their ex-leader is a disappointment and only standing in the way of progress for the Ogoni people.
‘’Mitee after 16 years as MOSOP President has no idea on how to address the Ogoni problem, rather, it was an era of wasted opportunities which failed to provide a clear path to Ogoni development despite the enormous resources and advantages that were available to MOSOP at the time’’, Gbaranugbe said, observing that Mitee’s recent actions were an attempt to halt the development program initiated by MOSOP under a younger leadership led by Fegalo Nsuke.
He claimed that the Ogoni people and MOSOP have already considered and approved Nsuke’s development proposals for the implementation of the Ogoni Development Authority as a clear and acceptable pathway to development and the resolution of all conflicts including the mistrust between the people and the Nigerian Government and the oil industry on the other hand.
Continuing, he said “Ledum Mitee was president of MOSOP at the peak of global sympathy for the Ogoni struggle and could not do anything with the opportunities”.
He alleged that Mitee failed to take advantage of the advantages he had as president of MOSOP. After 16 years, he abandoned MOSOP and was appointed by President Jonathan to chair a federal government department.
“He abandoned us and when we saw moves by Pyagbara to illegally extend his tenure in 2018, I personally called Mitee and he told me that he has grown beyond Ogoni,” Gbaranugbe said.
Gbaranugbe also alleged that “after Jonathan lost the 2015 election, Mitee eventually became jobless and returned home and in his desperation for relevance, he formed “Gbo Kabari Ogoni”. Unfortunately for him, “Gbo Kabari” could not make the expected impact. Mitee has now redirected his focus to the same MOSOP he abandoned ten years ago. Gbaranugbe described Mitee’s conduct as disappointing and advised Mitee to understand that the members of MOSOP can no longer trust him.”
Sunday Gbaranugbe insisted that the failed generation which Mr Mitee belonged to cannot be allowed to waste the opportunities of the Ogoni people this time.
He advised “Mitee to look elsewhere to make up for his failures as Ogoni has already accepted the implementation of the Ogoni Development Authority as the way to peace and resolution of the lingering Ogoni crisis.
“Mitee is desperate for relevance having wasted all the opportunities he had to move the Ogoni society forward. Gbaranugbe stated that Ogoni can no longer wait for Mitee and have moved on.
“The failure of Ledum Mitee is even more obvious by the condition of the Secretariat of MOSOP which was undertaken supervised by Mitee while he still served as president of the movement. Gbaranugbe said the secretariat was less than 10 percent completed despite being funded by the federal government of Nigeria and Ledum Mitee owes the Ogoni people an explanation for the condition of the MOSOP Secretariat amongst others”, Gbaranugbe alleged.
He charged Ogoni people to stand by the truth, join hands to defend the progressive leadership of MOSOP under Fegalo Nsuke so as to preserve the integrity of MOSOP and drive a brilliant development initiative already put forward by Nsuke to actualise the Ogoni dreams..
He underlined that the recent actions of Mitee were founded on falsehood and a justice campaign movement like MOSOP cannot build its foundation on falsehood.
