My Dear Comrade Ken,
May I quickly apologize for disturbing your eternal rest in perfect peace in the bosom of your Lord, and in the midst of the agonized Ogoni spirits. It is exactly eight harrowing and regretful years when those mindless hangmen of Port Harcourt city prisons, in the Southeastern oil-rich Nigeria tightened the inelastic nooses around your neck and others. What a painful way to die!
Kenule, your judicial murder on November 10, 1995 is still fresh in our memory which incidentally sent shocking waves down the spines of the globe despite the international outcry against the barbaric verdict of that black day in our history.
Late former Head of State, Maximum ruler Sani Abacha once rumoured to be one of your good old friends upheld the programmed ‘guilty as charged’ verdict of Ibrahim Auta ‘kangaroo’ military tribunal that unlawfully tried you and others on murder charges.
According to the foremost Kenyan writer and self-exiled prolific novelist, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o who once said..’our pen must be used to increase the anxieties of the oppressive regimes, by constantly reminding them of their various crimes against humanity. Pen might not be mightier than the sword, except when used in the pursuit of truth, justice and freedom of the oppressed’.
You professionally deployed your material and intellectual resources by exposing the miseries, agonies and environmental ‘slavery’ of your people to the international community in order to defend their basic inalienable rights.
In Lemona’s tale, the novel that was published posthumously few months after your gruesome execution; you graphically predicted your death in a satirical manner..similar to your natural style?
Lemona, the heroine of the classic read happened to be the pretty teenage girl invited from a village to live and earn a living as an housemaid in Port Harcourt city, many events occurred in the life of this innocent girl which later transformed her life, and by the stroke of fate, Lemona was also convicted of grade A murder, after series of sexual abuse by top-rated public servant, and she was eventually dispatched to meet her ‘waterloo’ in the hands of blood-thirsty and neck-breaking hangmen for ‘disciplinary action’. What an irony of history!!
To die, and to still create indelible marks in the minds of those left behind is never to die; you and others were not executed in vain…you all have moral victory to rejoice..as you often said: ‘Dance..dance..dance my dear Ogoni people..and dance the booming guns into silence’.
Eight years after your final trip to the land of ‘Ogoni spirits’, nothing progressive appeared to have happened in your fatherland, the homeland that betrayed you, and even unpatriotically denied you the comfort of six feet mother earth, instead your remains and that of others were acidified to cover the hellish tracks, and consequently buried in unmarked graves!
Where do I start to inform you of the news from Nigeria and the rest of the world? Can I start by telling you that, despite the new democratic government in Nigeria, ordinary citizens on the streets of Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ilorin, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Aba, Lokoja, Maiduguri, Kano, Sokoto, Benin and even Abuja are still patiently waiting to savour the so-called ‘dividends of democracy’?
Kenule, have you seen my good friend and dear brother Gbenga Adeboye, that humour merchant and prominent radio broadcaster in the Southwestern Nigeria.? He kicked the bucket few months ago. I am still nursing the wound of his sudden disappearance from this sinful world. Please extend my greetings to Jengbentiele. You must have come across Uncle Bola Ige, Cicero of Esa-Oke, the former justice minister..or you have not seen him recently? He was gunned down by ‘unknown assassins’ on that fateful day-December 21,2001 at his Ibadan residence before the very eyes of his family. Chief Iyiola Omisore (senator-elect from prison??)is the prime suspect in this dastardly act, one Baba Fryo and many others! The case is still in the ‘impartial’ court of law in Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria.
Dr. Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo, the former ‘controversial’ senate president is over there as well..he recently joined you after unfortunate ‘teargas attack’ on his intellectual personality. Can we regard that as ‘death by air pollution’ or ‘accident by tragic history’??
Please do not regard this as old news, the prices of our petroleum products have been unjustifiably increased several times without any logical reasons from the federal government of Nigeria(even during your lifetime?) and to rub insult on our injuries, the ‘most supreme’ Aso Rock family headed by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo recently promised a further increase early next year 2004..as a ‘new year gift ‘to the suffering masses or to curb smuggling to neighbouring countries..(regular excuse since 1999?)
Nigeria, the most populous Black nation in the world was recently crowned as the most ‘Happiest people on planet Earth’ in an international (unbiased?) survey held in England! Can you believe that Kenule? Are your Ogoni people in happy mood all the time since your barbaric execution?? Remember that you also taught the whole country ‘best way’ to laugh with your TV comedy series called BASI and Company in the mid 80s!We are always happy in Nigeria(oil-rich nation indeed?) despite the chronic poverty ‘manufactured’ by our self-centered leaders and politicians as a result of high profile corruption and mismanagement! This apparent corrupt practices have forced most of our ‘best brains’ to be exiling abroad till God knows when..Brain drain..you will call that Kenule?
Nigeria, under the democratic government of Iyabo’s father is now being regarded as the ‘Big Brother’ in Africa. We are now pace-setter in peace-keeping processes all over the continent, even if we continue to enjoy ‘peace of the graveyard’ in our dear homeland. I do not need to tell you the Nigerian style of population control since 1999 senseless ethnic/religious and political carnages?? Killing innocent souls!!
Few months ago, when local terrorists (sorry, I mean power-drunk soldiers?) invaded the tiny Island of Sao Tome while the president was ‘holidaying’ in Abuja with President Obasanjo. They forcefully seized power, and warned the president never to return to the country, but Obasanjo dialogued diplomatically with those soldiers and POWER was restored within few days, and funny enough, the whole world clapped for us!
Let me tell you more about Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president who once escaped from prison in Uncle Sam’s country many years ago. He is now residing in Nigeria on political asylum in Calabar, Cross River state! As an international fugitive who reduced his homeland to rubbles due to mindless civil war, and unlawful persecution of his opponents which gave birth to many rebel factions in Liberia. He is wanted by the US government to answer several charges leveled against him.
He was allegedly accused of ‘mischief’ in the Sierra Leonean political crisis that plunged the neighbouring country to monumental chaos and civil war! Unfortunately, the Big Brother Africa-Nigeria is shielding Taylor from proper trial before the UN-backed war crimes panel.. what a sad story?? The ‘anti-terrorist’ President George Bush of America recently announced a ‘mouth-watering’ ransom of $2 million for Taylor’s capture for him to face justice, since no evil deed done shall go unpunished! Taylor can only hide, he can not run!
General Theophilus Danjuma, can you still remember this tall ex-soldier, the erstwhile defence minister in Nigeria? He was recently quoted as describing his good friend’s government as the system of the ‘powerful cartel’ hell bent in frustrating all government efforts in reducing the man-made hardship of the land? Voice of reason from a man often regarded as OBJ’s loyal friend and confidant!! Can you really picture the scenario in Nigeria,8 years after your transition from the Oil-rich nation?
Danjuma was a civil war veteran and military tactician (an experienced coup plotter??) when you served on the Nigerian side as an administrator of Bonny region at the age of 26 during the Biafran civil war. Your sad experience during this bloody civil war propelled you to write that best-selling novel, Sozaboy, (Soldier boy) a satirical account of the war, written in rotten English! It is indeed a masterpiece where you exhibited to the fullest your God-given creative writing skills!
As we are now preparing for the forth-coming Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM) taking place in Abuja in the first week in December2003, your name shall be honourably mentioned at the Summit due to the fact that your unlawful execution transformed the country into a pariah state which later earned us suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations under the military regime of General Sani Abacha in 1995.The evils that men do,must surely live after them!
Permit me to end this long letter by quoting Rev (Dr) Martin Luther King jnr, the assassinated American civil rights leader/Baptist preacher who said: “If you are cut down in a movement that is designed to save the soul of a nation, then no other death could be more redemptive”.
Our dear Crusader for Better Environment (CBE),continue to rest in perfect peace with other eight hanged activists while the collective struggles to checkmate all the ‘Vultures’ of this world shall continue till thy Kingdom come. You died an heroic death and your memory lingers on forever in our mind!! Goodnight Ken!
Sincerely yours in struggle
Dare Lasisi.
