Day Saro-Wiwa’s Spirit Resurrected In Bori

Twenty five years after the Ogoni born environmentalist and minority rights activist, Ken Saro Wiwa and his fellow Ogoni compatriots were contemptuously murdered on trumped-up charges by the ill fated military junta of late General Sani Abacha, his spirit continues to resonate indomitably, questioning the very foundation of Nigeria as a true Federal State.
Using the instrument of mass mobilisation as the vehicle for the articulation of the ideas of his struggle, Saro Wiwa set on stage the full waves of the complexities that defined the Abacha era.
As a dramatist and consummate stylist, he deployed his fecund mind to confront a ruthless military junta in a most sacarstic, satirical and unnerving measure that deflated the vaunted mights of the powers that be and plunged the echelon of the then military regime and its tacit collaborator, shell, to consider his physical elimination as the only option of shelving the inflictions of his revolutionary agenda.
Last week, precisely on the 10th of November, in a pitch akin to a fiesta, thousands of ogonis and other fans and adherents of the late writer besieged the streets of Bori, the headquarters of Ogoni, and Port Harcourt to celebrate the exploits of Saro Wiwa.
The celebration of the 2020, Ogoni Matyrs day, started with candle night processions on the eve of November 10th, the day Saro Wiwa himself evidently described as a “black day for the black man”.
Apart from the litany of solidarity activities in virtually all ogoni communities, Aggrey road in old Port Harcourt Township, hosting Saro Wiwa’s house and other adjoining streets were inundated with processions of men and women paying tributes to the late ogoni hero.
A memorial church service was later held at the All Saints Anglican Church Bori, with one of Saro Wiwa’s associates, Inimoh Bassey, a renowned activist delivering one of the key sermons.
Bassey decried the fact that, 25 years after, not much attention was paid to the issues of environmental justice raised by Saro Wiwa.
As part of events to mark the 2020 Ogoni Matyrs Day, the Environmental Rights Action, and Friends of the Earth Nigeria in conjunction with other civil society organisations held a seminar at Visa Karena hotel, relayed through zoom to the entire world. Acting Executive Director of CERA/FOEN, Chima William disclosed that some of the resolution reached at the end of the seminar was for the Federal Government to exonerate Saro Wiwa of the accusations placed on him to justify his “judicial murder”, while Shell should be counted as accomplice to the murder of Saro Wiwa.
He said the gathering of key environmental stakeholders also recommended that the ongoing building of a correctional centre in Ogoni by the Federal Government should be halted while the full recommendations of the United Nations Environment Project (UNEP) reports should be implemented. Other key Ogoni stakeholders who spoke with The Tide metro, said Saro Wiwa though his non violent approach had proven that the rights of social liberties could be achieved without recourse to violence.
National coordinator, Ogoni Aborigenes Congress, world wide, High Chief Godae Beesor said, “Saro Wiwa’s death has provided the only niche for Ogoni to get positive development, environmental justice, unity and peace in the land.
Saro Wiwa’s daughter, Nor, on her facebook page said the only crime of her father was to “peacefully pursue human rights for the people of Ogoni and campaign against oil spills in the oil rich Niger Delta”.
The key to Saro Wiwa’s social activisim was his bold optimism to dust up the hitherto docile oil bearing communities to confront their formidable foes, the unconscientious oil companies, particularly Shell, and the military junta. The Saro Wiwa factor has also become an independent variable in the definition of the future of Nigeria.
Yet, the Federal Government still hold the name of Saro Wiwa in their book of felons. But Ken Saro Wiwa continues to sower in death, as he is among the few black men celebrated in the international mainstream of martyrdom.
For Saro Wiwa who remained undaunted, even in death, the price was worth it.

By: Taneh Beemene