By Abdulfatah Babatunde
Lagos, Feb. 9, ’25 (TNZ) The Democratic Front (TDF) has described the approval of a university in Ogoniland as the federal government’s intention to heal the people’s long-standing grievances.
The group’s Chairman Mallam, Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo said this in a statement emailed to TheNewsZenith on Sunday in Lagos.
The group noted that the Federal University of Environmental Technology in Ogoni would serve as a reminder of efforts to solve environmental issues in the place.
“We recall that the Ogoni people have, for years, had to go through the agony of environmental pollution.
“The pollution resulted from degradation caused by oil spillage and other activities of oil prospecting companies in the region.
“Years of neglect had also enabled a degeneration of the Ogoni environmental issues into an ethno-political crisis.
“The crisis is still lingering since the execution of the late Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1995.
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“On this, we commend President Bola Tinubu for the wisdom in institutionalising a permanent solution through meeting key Ogoni stakeholders.
“Like many Nigerians, we were pleasantly surprised to learn about the establishment of Nigeria’s first University of Environmental Technology in Ogoniland.
“We believe that the University will serve as a symbolic monument to the tragic environmental history of the Ogoni people.
“It will also serve as a precursor for deterrence against the misgovernance that triggered it. We commend the President for his depth of knowledge of history and his thoughtful decision.
“We also called on the people of the Ogoni community and all oil-producing communities to see this gesture as an opportunity to pursue academic excellence.
“This should be with particular emphasis on the protection of their economic environment,” TheNewsZenith quotes TDF as stating. (TNZ)
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