Few days after the swearing in of Mr. Legborsi Saro Pyagbara as MOSOP President, The Newswriter made a visit to him in his office where our reporter, Mene Gbarabe had an exclusive interview with him. Here are excerpts from the interaction.
Legborsi was mentored by the founder of MOSOP himself, Mr. Ken Saro Wiwa and groomed by Ledum Mitee, immediate past President of the movement and now he has been given the mantle of leadership by the people of Ogoni as they spoke through their ballot.
Quest: May we know you Sir?
Ans: My name is Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, I am the newly elected President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)
Quest: What are your priorities or plans for the struggle and how are you going to achieve them?
Ans: My vision for Ogoni is to see how we can use MOSOP as a platform to bring all our people together, to unite all our people, promote peace and harmony among all the groups in Ogoni. Secondly, to use that peace to advance the cause of which our heroes died which is elaborated in Ogoni Bill of Rights. That is my vision.
Quest: Ogoni politicians are trying to control MOSOP. How are you going to handle this situation?
Ans: Well, I don’t see where the control is coming from, but I am quite convinced that my leadership of MOSOP at this point in time is to reach out to everybody and the only area I think we may have some problem is the area where people don’t agree with what the Ogoni people want. As far as I am concerned, the issue which the Ogoni raised over the years, that is well elaborated in Ogoni Bill of Rights and is an issue which I think, every politician with a right standard needs to promote.
We always said that MOSOP is an umbrella for every Ogoni man or person, so as a politician you also have your own role in advancing Ogoni cause as it is rightly stated in Ogoni Bill of Rights, so I don’t see any reason why politicians want to take control of MOSOP, for if what they do fall in line with what is in Ogoni Bill of Right, I think they have a role to promote the agenda, so we will do our best to reach out to everybody on board of MOSOP ship and I also want everybody to know that MOSOP is open.
MOSOP is not a clique thing, MOSOP is a collective platform for all the Ogoni people and that is why we say all of us came together under the IQ of the Ogoni Bill of Rights to tell the federal government of Nigeria, all that is invested in our area and all that.
Quest: As a MOSOP President do you think you have the pedigree and contact or good exposure; within and outside Nigeria?
Ans: Well, I’ve grown from the MOSOP to the level of a young undergraduate in those days as a young Ogoni student, as a member of MOSOP Steering Committee if not the longest member of MOSOP Steering Committee, I was in MOSOP office where I rose to MOSOP staff. I have held several positions in several organizations in the country. I interface between MOSOP and so many organizations within the country, ranging from Ohanaeze Ndigbo to Yoruba social cultural organization and also within the period helped to give voice to other minority groups both here in Niger Delta and outside the Niger Delta where we have been able to foster partnership with them on human rights or indigenous issues.
Across Africa, I have also built enough alliance because I happened to be the Deputy Representative of Africa, what is called Committee of Africa Representative Committee, in Africa, I represented West Africa in the body.
I’ve been MOSOP International Advocacy Representative that gave me outstanding position which related me to all the United Nations Agencies, United Nations Bodies dealing with Human Rights and environment issues. I am currently board member representing Africa on the United Nations Voluntary Fund on population. I have a name within the environment sector; I am the global facilitator in Africa. Last week of December, I was also elected a board member representing Africa on Economic and Social Rights. I am linking home and abroad which I think we are going to use intensively to pursue our agenda.
Quest: How will you describe the UNEP report and what are you going to do making sure that government implements the report?
Ans: Well, we are still studying the United Nations Environmental Project (UNEP) report. I was very much involved in the negotiation of the UNEP about the study of the environmental report of Ogoniland as the link between MOSOP and UNEP. I did the negotiation in Geneva, Switzerland, Germany and Kenya, I also helped to facilitate MOSOP stand before the Executive Director of UNEP. Now that we have just studied the report that had been released by UNEP, I think our focus is about how to implement that report, so we have been so dissatisfied with the federal government because of the way the government is approaching the issues, is not in conformity with what the report is saying, I think in the coming days, we are going to raise the issues in the arena that it should be raised. For now the government is not throwing in political will and encouragement.
The report has ended up passing a death sentence on the Ogonis, the report is a death sentence because it went as far as telling, sounding alarm on what the government has not done, infact there is no situation as bad as benzene that is a death sentence and I think with that sound of damage it should have alarmed the government across the country horizontal and vertically, the institutions of government across the parastals and ministries to see what they can do, in fact they should have declared Ogoni as an emergency area of which all area should know we have not seen that and we feel the government should act fast.
Quest: What is your Advice to Ogoni people?
Ans: My advice to Ogoni people is that they should be patient and law abiding and remain committed to MOSOP activities.
We of MOSOP are here to serve and chart every direction we are to go. We are also open to suggestions and contributions.
As I said, MOSOP is not a clique thing, MOSOP is open to everybody. So I am advising that while we remain patient and peaceful, if there are issues, there are contribution that you think you can bring forward for us about Ogoni agenda, we are bound to have those agenda and suggestion.
