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Tuesday 13 November 2018

THE COMMON ENEMY AND THE COMMEMORATION OF KENULE SARO WIWA

THE COMMON ENEMY AND THE COMMEMORATION OF KENULE SARO WIWA


The gruesome state-execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and other eight prominent leaders of Ogoni extraction is annually comemorated on 10th of November. These slain Ogoni leaders earnestly fought to give a measure of semblance of dignity to Ogoni people in the midst of Nigeria sponsored acts of pauperization and enslavement occasioned by years of destructive oil exploration and exploitation. This season affords every Ogoni indigene, clan and community, the opportunity to converge at Birabi Memorial Grammar School (BMGS) in Bori, to reflectively and comprehensively take stock of their losses while hopefully looking forward yet, to what the future holds.

WHAT PROMPTED THE KILLING OF KEN SARO WIWA AND EIGHT OTHERS?

Oil exploration in Ogoniland actually commenced in the year 1958 and according to the records, between 1958 and 1993, the land of Ogoni single-handedly yielded revenue of about forty billion US dollars ($40billion) to Nigeria. Despite this colossal proceeds into the coffers, Ogoni people remained subjected to poverty and threats of extermination due to environmental degradation arising from the effects of hazardous materials like benzine and hydrocarbon chemicals that were indiscriminately discharged in the environment. This resulted in adverse pollution of the air, land and waters.

Consequently, the Ogonis were daily and prematurely killed by reason of this, coupled with dictatorial enterprises of successive military regimes. Ogoni married women and single ladies were randomly raped by the Nigerian soldiers with reckless abandon. It was really an unbearable, demeaning and provocative situation. To worsen the situation, dates for the burial of the victims of this evil visited upon our people, were given by the soldiers. As the spate of this maladious treatment prevailed, Ken Saro Wiwa, a highly enlightened, dogged and courageous Ogoni leader, could no longer give it tolerance, thereby taking it upon himself to mobilize the people against Shell Petroleum Development Company and the despotic/occupational Nigerian army in essentially non-violent agitations. But instead of listening to the genuine cries and demands of the people, the Nigerian government in connivance with Britain, opted to drastically eliminate the initiators of such laudable approach.

The intelligent and civilised methodology adopted by Ken Saro Wiwa in exposing the ills of Shell and Nigeria against the Ogonis, are there for the records. His approach crippled Shell operations in the entire land of Ogoni. He effortlessly proceeded to mobilize the Ogonis to boycott the then scheduled presidential election of 1993, thereby precipitating what the Nigerian military junta regarded as a threat to the so-called national unity. This action from an unassumed personality from a regarded "conquered territory" triggered off "sought ways" to get the initiators and drivers, summarily eliminated.

Moreover, the then government of Nigeria, came up with the subtle employment of "divide and rule" intrigues as always, to set brethren against one another, thereby creating discordant tunes amongst the people on the election boycott question. Financial inducements were applied to mortgage the conscience of the gullible. The Nigerian government in the bid to dissuade further agitations, criminally sponsored an uprising which led to angry Ogoni youths into attacking and killing some suspected treacherous elders of the land, in the process. This was the covert plot floated by the agents of the Nigerian government to get at the agitation leaders.

With the assistance of the Yoruba Lagos/Ibadan expressway junk media outlets and compromised Judiciary, the Nigerian military government headed by a despot, General Sani Abacha, sentenced Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogoni intellectuals, to death despite pleas for leniency. These men of rare academic prowess and believed to be the light of Ogoni people, were all gruesomely executed for trumped up crimes they never committed. It is pertinent to state here that they were killed not because of any act of criminality but because they dared to courageously demand for the freedom of their people from slavery and injustice. This is completely opposed to the array of lies being peddled by the Yoruba sponsored media that Ken Saro Wiwa was killed because he despatched his people to attack his opposers.

WHO REALLY KILLED KEN SARO WIWA?

The people of the old Eastern region otherwise known as Biafrans which today are partitioned into South-East and South-South regions of Nigeria, have tremendously suffered varying degrees of horrendous tragedies both in the past and present dispensations. Precious lives and some of the best brains from these divided people, have consistently been sacrificed on the altar of delusional One-Nigeria based on sheer hatred, religion and nepotistic tendencies. The case of Ken Saro Wiwa and his colleagues serves as one of the most catastrophic
incidents that could befall a people in this part of the world created by the British for their crass egocentric interests. It is important however, to unmask the common enemy which has persistently encroached into our vineyards while deceptively pointing to us, a fictitious adversary in our brethren.

The Provincial Ruling Council (PRC) which served as the highest decision-making body of the then military administration, which orchestrated and confirmed the death sentence passed on Ken Saro Wiwa, consisted of the principal dictator himself and Nigeria Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Muhammadu Buhari (Chairman, Petroleum Trust Fund), Major-General Patrick Aziza (Minister of Communications), Major-General Tajudeen Olarenwaju (General Officer Commanding), General Abdulsalami Abubakar (Chief of Defense Staff), Lieutenant-General Oladipo Diya (Chief of General Staff), Major-General Victor Malu (General Officer Commanding), Ibrahim Coomasie (Inspector-General of Police), Mike Akhigbe (Chief of Naval Staff), Major-General Ishaya Bamaiyi (Chief of Army Staff), Nsikak Ediok (Chief of Air Staff) and Lieutenant-General Jeremiah Useni (Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja).

The kangaroo tribunal set up by the military junta for the trial of Ken Saro Wiwa and the other eight Ogonis was headed by Justice Ibrahim Auta. Other members included Justice Etowa Eyo Arikpo, Lieutenant-Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Incumbent Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs under Buhari/APC government), while the prosecuting counsel was Mr. Biodun Dauda (Senior Advocate of Nigeria). As Britain may want to pretentiously claim not to be part of the plot, it is common knowledge that Mr. Breayhan Anderson, who then was the Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), in agreement with the British government which expressly mandated Sani Abacha to carry out the dastardly act, sent a message to Ken Saro Wiwa while in prison custody, requesting that he showed some goodwill. This was aimed at persuading him to stem the tide of international protests then ongoing in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. But the response of Ken remained that it was Shell that ought to show some measure of goodwill to the Ogonis and not the converse, with an axiom that "you do not beat up a child and yet ask him not to cry".

Based on this uncompromising stance, the Hausa-Fulanis and their British slavemasters callously sentenced him and eight other noble Ogoni courageous elites, to death. The above narratives very vividly portray the British, the Hausa-Fulanis and their Yoruba fellow accomplices, as the reasons why Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogonis were killed, which have no iota of any involvement of our Igbo brothers as some people were made to believe. It was in fact Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the then Secretary-General of Commonwealth, an Igbo Biafran, that vigorously campaigned against the execution of these men but such was played down by the involvement of Britain in the agenda. He however succeeded in galvanizing sanctions amongst the Commonwealth Nations against Nigeria at that material time. Unfortunately today, some grossly misinformed Ogonis look at their Igbo brethren as their enemy. What a pitiable situation! For the late Kenule Saro Wiwa and the other slain eight, I pledge to fight on, to enliven their labor of liberation for the Ogoni nation.

I at this juncture, use this platform to call on all sons and daughters of Ogoni to arise and brace up to the challenges ahead, by joining forces with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) globally, for the unfettered restoration of the sovereign nation of Biafra. We must all committedly synergize to drive the ongoing freedom struggle to it's logical conclusion, the prize notwithstanding. Doing it isolatedly or alone could be suicidal. The destruction of our people and inheritances by the British enterprise called Nigeria, can no longer be condoned. This is the set time to reclaim our dignity and all that was stolen from us.

#God bless the soul of the departed legend, Ken Saro Wiwa
#God bless Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
#God bless IPOB Ogoni Province
#God bless the sovereign nation of Biafra

Written by Godswill Leeleebari Gabriel

Edited by Peter Oshagwu
For Family Writers Press

1 comment

  1. WE HAVE HAD ENEMY IN SARO WOES BUT TODAY A FRIEND IN LEELEEBARI FROM THE GREAT LAND OF OGONI BIAFRALAND. OUR FREEDOM IS NON NEGOTIABLE WITH EVIL EMPIRE CALLED BRITISH AND ISLAMISTS SOKOTO CALLIPHATE.

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