KEN SARO WIWA, HIS LESSON WAS LOST IN THE NIGER DELTA STRUGGLE?

When on November 10, 1995 the then Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi was confronted by a journalist in far away Asia, demanding to know why his government hurried the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa, his mouth dropped in awe as he was totally sidelined and left in the lurch over the execution? But did he resign in protest for the embarrassment of being informed of such a high profile execution in far away Asia? No; such an idea is an aberration and a very strange option for Nigerians and anyone who shares in their DNA!

It was the midget of Kano, Sani Abacha who ordered Ken Saro Wiwa hanged for daring to raise his voice against the oppressive Hausa-Fulani controlled central government of Nigeria which has been pillaging resources from his people of the Niger Delta ever since 1958 when oil was discovered at Oloibiri Rivers State? A trumped up charges of murder were levelled against him and eight others, tried before a kangaroo military tribunal, convicted as scripted and summarily executed in the middle of the night; without regard to his right to appeals or overall fair trial in deference to due process? However those are but historical facts and nothing can bring him back to life; the world that remembers him can only have him immortalized in their memory. Ken Saro Wiwa is long dead, his body allegedly dissolved in sulphuric acid and dumped in an unmarked grave; but on this occasion of the 14 anniversary of his gruesome state murder, Icheoku joins the millions world over in remembering a man who stood up for what he believed in and in defence of his peoples' right to their resources and paid the supreme price for it! Today, November 10, 2009 marks the 14th anniversary of that November 10, 1995 ugly incident.

Should Icheoku be mad at this guy for his atrocities against the Igbo people of Biafra during the civil war and continuing immediately thereafter, when he championed with a fury from hell, the abandoned property saga on behalf of the Nigerian federal government to get at the Igbo nation? No, because it is a waste of time fighting with a dead man who cannot rebut or defend himself. Moreso his pettiness then and supposed romance with the feudalistic north did not pay him any meaningful dividend, as he who rode tigers over the whole place against the Igbo was eventually, himself eaten up by the tiger. Ken Saro Wiwa, for instigating and taking sides with the Nigerian government during the Biafra struggle, against his rightful people have earned him a not too favorable place in the hearts and minds of so many Nigerians of the South East as well as the South South. He was a renegade and a traitor whose sins against Biafra is now forgiven since a dead man should be left alone? In this tribute to his memory, we shall try to foray into his trials and tribulations, examine his life and times; querying if the present lacklustre, disjointed and uncoordinated activism in the Niger Delta as presently championed by the motley of militants, truly represents what a living Ken Saro Wiwa would have identified himself with? Would Ken have approached the struggle differently or accepted amnesty and turned tail against his people?

Are they doing the memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Adaka Baro any good with the way they are bargaining with the Hausa-Fulanis over the resources underneath their land? Icheoku says, no; and reiterates that it is a sign of weakness to negotiate with a stranger over what belongs to you. It was an American general who once said, give me liberty or give me death but this guys chose to mortgage their freedom and they still are visited with deaths. In other words, their cowardice emboldens their oppressors who have now denied them a say on how their resource would be allocated and appropriated. So on this day, November 10, 2009 we urge the people of the Niger Delta to unite and be more organised for the future of the Niger Delta and for the sake of their children and children's children. It is for the future and no amount of militants camps and fractious militias without a central political authority will be able to bring about the type of change desired in that neck of the wood in Nigeria. Should Ken Saro Wiwa be allowed to die in vein by not continuing his fight for equitable participation by his people of the Niger Delta in the distribution of what belongs to Niger Delta?

He founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1990 which brought the Shell’s destruction of the Niger Delta environment to international audience. A year later the Ogoni nine were arrested on what were widely regarded to have been trumped-up charges. The men were tortured, beaten and then put on trial in front of a military tribunal and without recourse to regular courts or legal representation. They were sentenced to death and executed in the middle of the night. Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others were hanged for what is generally agreed to be trumped-up murder charges by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. His real crime was leading a group that was protesting the devastation of the Ogoni people's lands by Shell Oil and the oppression and marginalization of the Ogoni people themselves by the military government who profited from Shell's oil business. Peradventure, Ken Saro Wiwa lives on , taller in death than the midget of Kano who killed him and whose own death, no one remembers now. But is there no one to hold accountable for the sins of that ignominious government? Icheoku says, Jeremaih 'Jerry-Boy' Useni is still alive, the governor of Rivers State then, Oladipo Diya as well as Abdulsalam Abubakar, are all alive and these are people who served and partook of the evil that was Sani Abacha! They should all be taken in for questioning and purposes of holding accountable for the madness of November 10, 1995? May Nigerians hold these guys accountable on behalf of their master, Sani Abacha for their sins of omission to stop the extra-judicial murder of Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 8!

With over 90 oil fields across the country, Shell which have been in Nigeria since 1958 impacts the local environment adversely through their unfair oil exploration and exploitation practices which is decimating a people who depend on fishing and farming for sustenance. Also affected by their activities is the world's third-largest mangrove forest which they clear indiscriminately just to make way for their pipelines without regard to the suffering of the indigenous wildlife and a gravely endangered ecosystem as a result? There were frequent oil spills and oil flares which devastated the countryside and made it barren? But conversely Icheoku does not entirely blame Dutch oil company, Shell, for their role in precipitating the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa and co? The culprit here is the Nigerian gestapo military junta regime of Sani Abacha who had to kill his people just because a foreign oil company said so. How can a sane head of a people kill his citizens because it fits the desire of foreign oil mercenaries who have no interest of the country at heart and would rather kill off the citizens just for what lies beneath their lands? It is as absurd as it is abominable and should be condemned by all men of good conscience. The problem with African leaders is that they do not care about the people they govern as they do not love them, otherwise why not tell the instigating oil company to take a hike or go to hell or even revoke their license for musing that idea?

Finally as we end this tribute to a freedom fighter and a man who died defending his peoples right to a meaningful existence in Nigeria; a people wallowing in poverty amidst their God-given natural resources which is denied them by the feudalistic cabals up north, may we share with you two of his statements. One was made in pursuit of his fight to stop the ecological disaster which is Niger Delta of Nigeria and the other as closing statement before a dead-set tribunal which formalized his conviction and eventual hanging. According to Ken Saro-Wiwa, "Whether I live or die is immaterial. It is enough to know that there are people who commit time, money and energy to fight this one evil among so many others predominating worldwide. If they do not succeed today, they will succeed tomorrow. We must keep on striving to make the world a better place for all of mankind - each one contributing his bit, in his or her own way."

Before the tribunal that sent him to the gallows, thus read his closing statement:- "We all stand before history. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory. With the preceding Ken Saro Wiwa registered as a man of letters, brave even to the point of death, and ridiculing his traducers in the process. Icheoku therefore says, sleep on brave one and may what you lived and died for not be in vain; hopefully the Niger Delta activism will take on a new lease of life someday with a clearly defined set of uniform objective, direction and means of achieving same, under one unified central political authority. So long KSW!