President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday conferred national honours of the Commander of the Order of the Niger posthumously on four late Ogoni leaders.

They are Albert Badey, Edward Kobani, Theophilus Orage, and Samuel Orage, popularly remembered as the Ogoni Four.

Tinubu announced the conferment when he received the report of the Ogoni Consultations Committee at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday.

He urged the people of Ogoniland to embrace reconciliation and unity after decades of division.

“May their memories continue to inspire unity, courage and purpose among us.

“I urge the Ogoni people across classes, communities and generations to close ranks, put this dark chapter behind us and move forward as a united community with one voice,” Tinubu said.

Wednesday’s meeting comes 16 months after the President, in May 2024, promised to “pursue diligently and honourably” the Ogoni cleanup and increase the number of its indigenes benefitting from its empowerment programmes.

Tinubu also pledged his commitment to unlocking the human and natural resource potential of Ogoniland while ensuring the environmental and economic security of Nigerian communities.

At the meeting, the President assured stakeholders that his administration would support the journey of Ogoniland towards peace, environmental remediation, and economic revival, while also facilitating the return of oil exploration to the area.

He stated, “I am encouraged by the overwhelming consensus of the Ogoni communities to welcome the resumption of oil production.

“The government will deploy every resource to support your people in this march towards shared prosperity.”

Tinubu cited developments in 2022 when the Buhari administration transferred the operations of the Ogoni oil field to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and its joint venture partners.

He argued that his government would honour and build on Buhari’s decision.

In his closing remarks, Tinubu called on the people to seize the moment, saying, “Let us together turn pain into purpose, conflict into cooperation, and transform the wealth beneath Ogoni soil into a blessing for the people and for Nigeria.”

Consequently, he directed the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to commence engagement between the Ogoni people, NNPCL, its partners, and all relevant stakeholders to finalise modalities for restarting operations.

“A dead asset is not valuable to the community, the country or the people.

“The longer we procrastinate, the worse it is for everyone,” the President said.

He also directed the Minister of Environment to integrate pollution remediation and environmental recovery into the broader framework of dialogue with the people.

The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, who presented the report, said the consultations included all four Ogoni zones, with input from local communities, traditional leaders, and the diaspora.

Ribadu said, “In all aspects of our national life, Ogoni is one, thirty-something years of very unfortunate history rewrite the wrong now,

“To us was instruction, then we carry out this dialogue, community engagement, talking with the people and getting to understand how to move forward. It has succeeded like what you have seen today.

“He gave directives to all government agencies and institutions and also directly to our office that we must implement everything that have been agreed and we have taken it.”

Ribadu affirmed that his office, alongside all relevant agencies, is committed to restoring peace in Ogoniland.

“We will make sure that we follow his own directives and his instructions.

“We are going to make sure that peace is restored already, it is, and hopefully you will see the benefit of it not just in Ogoni land but the entire Niger Delta and by extension Nigeria,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Dialogue Committee, Prof. Don Baridam, noted that the committee ensured all stakeholders were carried along in the process, noting that the report reflects the collective will of the Ogoni people.

Baridam said the report captured the people’s demands for structured participation in oil production, renewed environmental cleanup, and a framework for sustainable development.

Oil was first commercially discovered in Oloibiri, Ogoniland, in 1958. However, exploration stopped in 1993 following sustained protests against environmental degradation and injustice.

The Ogoni Four refers to four traditional chiefs from the Ogoni community in Rivers State who were murdered on May 21, 1994, in the village of Giokoo.

The killings took place against the backdrop of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People campaign, led by writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, which had been mobilising the Ogoni against oil companies, particularly Shell, and the Nigerian state.

The subsequent struggles of Ogoni leaders to protect their environment from harmful oil exploration were met with severe repression, culminating in the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and nine other leaders by the Abacha regime in 1995.

The Punch