Begin Process Of National Healing And Reconciliation, MOSOP Urges Buhari

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to begin the process of national healing and reconciliation.

MOSOP gave this charge in a letter addressed to the president on Thursday, lamenting that the issue of national reconciliation had not taken off after his second stint as leader of the country.

In the letter titled ‘Before Ogoni is Forgotten Again’, the movement noted that Nigeria was currently divided along regional and ethnic lines, noting that only the process of a national reconciliation could remove such division.

The letter signed by the MOSOP President, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara, and seven others, maintained that such step would heal the wounds and bitterness created by election campaigns and gross violation of human and environmental rights of abused and dispossessed communities.

MOSOP added, “The country is still deeply divided along regional and ethnic lines exacerbated by the ongoing crisis in the National Assembly and the issue of insecurity appears to be worsening by the day.

“It is on this note that we urge the President to immediately embark on a process of national healing and reconciliation, particularly to heal the wounds and bitterness occasioned by bitter electioneering campaigns, long years of neglect of some vulnerable groups and successive failure of past governments to provide adequate remedy for gross violations of the human and environmental rights of abused and dispossessed communities.

“The initiation of this process of national healing and reconciliation at this point in our history is very necessary before you will be bogged down by the politics of governance and this golden opportunity will be sorely lost again.

“MOSOP is deeply concerned that the process of national healing and reconciliation, which we had believed would herald your second coming, is still being delayed and had not taken off effectively”.

It, however, congratulated President Buhari on his victory at the poll, adding that his success after three failed attempts, underscored his spirit of tenacity, resilience, doggedness and truth.

MOSOP furthermore appealed to him to save the people of Ogoni and the Niger Delta region in general from political marginalisation, economic strangulation and environmental degradation.