November 10, 1995 will remain indelible in my heart. On that day few gave any thought to the Port Harcourt Prisons and the diabolical plans of General Abacha and his henchmen.The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) was holding her annual conference at the University of Lagos. One of the issues of critical concern was the a statement ANA was to issue concerning the death sentence passed by the kangaroo tribunal that tried Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine.The debate was over the tenor of the statement. Should ANA denounce the arrest, detention and sham trial/verdict passed on her past President, Ken Saro-Wiwa, or should the statement be a politely worded plea for leniency, with nothing said to ruffle the feathers of the dark-shaded despot, Abacha' It was while we were locked in this debate that the news filtered through that Saro-Wiwa and the eight Ogoni leaders had been executed. The execution was carried out days before the appeal period was to expire. This confirmed the rigged nature of the entire affair.Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was born to J. B. Saro-Wiwa and his wife, Widu, on October 10, 1941 in Bori, in Ogoni, Rivers State, Nigeria. He had his secondary school education at the Government College Umuahia and later studied English at the University of Ibadan. Before making forays into the political terrain, Saro-Wiwa lectured at the University of Lagos. During the Biafra-Nigeria Civil War, he was appointed an Administrator of the port city of Bonny, Rivers State. His tenure as Commissioner for Education in the Rivers State cabinet was truncated in 1973 because of his strong opinions about the need for the Ogoni to have greater autonomy.Saro-Wiwa was a man of peace. His struggles were built on the platform of non-violence and for that he relied on the mobilisation of the mass of Ogoni people using socio-cultural and educational tools. His disdain for violence can be seen in some of his writings, especially in the novel, Sozaboy.He was a prolific writer, and is said to have engaged in writing anonymous letters to editors of newspapers while he was in the secondary school. His book, 'On a Darkling Plain, focused on his civil war experiences while his detention diaries, A Month and a Day', was published in January 1996, a couple of months after his execution.Saro-Wiwa was a pioneer of the environmental justice movement in Nigeria and his work has inspired campaigners from around the world. He was an ethnic minorities rights advocat and served as the Vice Chair of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) General Assembly from 1993 to 1995.He was one of the earliest members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and rose from being its spokesperson to being its president. The Ogoni Bill of Rights (1990) produced by MOSOP and presented to the Federal Government remains the cardinal articulation of the demands for all encompassing justice for the Ogoni people. It also inspired the formulation of bills of rights by other ethnic nations in Nigeria including the Kaiama Declaration (1998), the Oron Bill of Rights (1999), The Aklaka Declaration (1999) of the Urhobo Economic Summit and others. While the Urhobos demanded complete resource control as a way out of continued marginalisation and deprivation, the Oron Bill of Rights stated among others, "Most agonising is the continued pollution of our coastal waters, rivers, creeks and streams through the dumping of poisonous substances in our deep ocean trenches. Without mincing words, such acts have placed our ocean's abundant wealth in jeopardy, causing gross impoverishment of many fishers and disrupting lives of coastal habitats and fish nursery grounds ' We live on the sea, die on the sea and as we have come to see it today, the prospects are dangerously grim and worsening by the day'.Saro-Wiwa's inspirational leadership met with brutal opposition from the military government which set up a special military task force to deal with the peaceful people. He was imprisoned without trial for several months in 1992. He was also detained for over a month in 1993. Four Ogoni chiefs were brutally murdered on May 21, 1994 and although Saro-Wiwa had been denied entry to Ogoniland on that day, he was arrested and accused of inciting the gruesome murders. A tribunal was set up to try him and nine other Ogoni leaders. Only one, Ledum Mitee, came out of the trial alive. The rest is history, as they say.We note that the MOSOP succeeded in modelling for Nigerians the non-violent path for mobilisations and agitations for justice. It meant brutal assaults on the Ogoni, manifesting in sackings of communities, murders, rapes and other forms of torture. Many Ogoni people went into exile and some are yet to return home.The high point of the struggle for the halt to the degradation of the Ogoni environment was reached in January 1993 where at a massive rally, the Ogoni people expelled Shell, the giant multinational oil company from its territory. Through his campaigns, Saro-Wiwa brought the plight of the Ogoni people and their environment to Nigerians and the entire world. Today, his stand that the Ogoni environment has been unacceptably degraded by the activities of Shell, the NNPC and their joint venture partners has been vindicated by the assessment carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The report of the assessment shows that pollution of the Ogoni environment is grave indeed and that it would take a lifetime to remediate and restore the lands and water there. As the world remembers Saro-Wiwa and the other martyrs of resistance to destructive extractive activities, we wonder why the Nigerian State is yet to respond to the environmental crimes that Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots decried, fought against and laid down his life.It is fitting to recall his last speech before the tribunal that condemned him. He did not beg He stood tall before history. He threw a challenge that was valid then, and valid now. Here is what he said:'On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and those who assist them. Any nation which can do to the weak and disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni, loses a claim to independence and to freedom from outside influence. I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected in a military regime. The military do not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants of urine'.'Bassey is an Environment Rights Activist
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