The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has appealed to stakeholders in the Niger Delta region to shun crisis and embrace peace.
The group made the call on Thursday at the opening of a two-day retreat organised for MOSOP officers in Port Harcourt by Habitats Protection and Sustainable Development, in collaboration with the movement.
In a speech at the event, the Preident of the group, Mr Olu Andah, said that the retreat was to enhance the organisational and resource mobilisation capacity of MOSOP officers.
Andah said that the retreat would also enhance the capacity of the stakeholders to drive social movement and sustainable development.
He said that he did an assessment of the original structure and capacity inherited by his administration and saw that the group needed capacity building to succeed as a movement.
“The MOSOB that we inherited didn’t have any viable structure, which includes secretariat and funds.
“That’s why we need support from some other outlets, like the Habitats Sustainability and Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta (PIND), which have been in the vanguard of training organisations on how to resolve conflicts.
“PIND has touched so many areas of conflict management, how to utilise the resources available as communities or organisations.
“PIND and Habitats Sustainability gave us sufficient encouragement as the state and national executives, and the kingdom coordinators that oversee what is happening in each kingdom with the affiliates of youth wing and women wing,” Andah said.
He said that MOSOP would continue to train and retain the stakeholders on how to resolve and manage conflicts within their affiliates and kingdoms to ensure that their parttern of resolving conflicts enhances the growth of the organisation.
Andah said that there was a huge gap in the resolution of conflicts in the Niger Delta and Nigeria, urging government and stakeholders at all levels to utilise available resources effectively to sustain the economy.
He urged members of the movement to replicate all they learnt at the training, saying that unity and selfless sacrifice would sustain the group.
He appealed to members to work with sincerity of purpose, understanding the mission of MOSOP ab initio.
Andah called for support from the stakeholders, not necessarily finance but in terms of bringing ideas to actualise the main objectives of MOSOP.
The Peace Building Programme Manager, PIND Foundation in the Niger Delta Region, Mr David Udofia, trained the stakeholders on the theme, “Organisational and workplace conflict management”.
Udofia said that the training would help the group to understand that conflict was an integral part of human existence and inevitable.
Udofia said that nothing is wrong about conflict, but the management process that leads to the positive as well as the negative conflict referred to as the constructive and destructive measure of conflict.
“We have talked about considering the causes of conflict, looking at perception, poor communications, opinion, lack of compromise, tolerance, self interest, ignorance, lack of empathy, prejudice and assumptions,” he said.
Udofia also trained the members on another theme, “Resource mobilisation and group work”, saying that resource mobilisation was not all about money but could come in terms of human, materials, facilities and free services, among others.
He advised the stakeholders to see conflict as an integral part of organisational existence and not to dread conflict but continue to mobilise resources for their sustenance.
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