LAST weekend, Ogoni people residing in Lagos State gathered at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja under the auspices Of Ogoni Welfare Association (OWA) for the 16th memorial anniversary of the late human right and environmentalist activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and other Ogoni martyrs killed by the regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha in 1995.In her speech, chairperson of the event and the president of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said Ken Saro-Wiwa's struggle must not be in vain and the attention he drew to Ogoniland must be sustained, so that the people can get its fair share.'It was the criminal neglect of Ogoniland that made Saro-Wiwa and other martyrs to mobilise a non-violent resistance under the aegis of Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP)'With his education, wealth and contact, Saro-Wiwa was able to build an international campaign that showcased the Nigerian government and oil companies as bandits raiding the poor community.'Unable to buy Saro-Wiwa out of the struggle, the late Abacha's regime arraigned him and his colleagues on trump-up charges to eliminate the messengers, ignoring the message,' Okei-Odumakin said.Also speaking at the event, Vice Chairman of (OWA), Mr. Moses Gaawa, who stood in for the chairman, stressed that the political autonomy (Ogoni State) demanded by Ogoni people as a means of addressing the issue of political, environment and economic deprivation, was yet to be achieved.He enjoined all other ethnic groups across the country to support their quest for a Bori State.He also thanked the federal and Rivers State governments for carrying out the study on the impact of oil extraction on Ogoniland and called on the government to quickly implement the recommendations of the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Project) report, and pay compensation, in line with international practice.Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, who was one of the Guest Speakers, disclosed that Ogoniland, despite being the hen that lays the golden eggs, had never witnessed any environmental impact assessment over the years.But in his speech, titled, 'Spring In The African Sun,' president of MOSOP, Mr. Ledum Mitee, complained that even some of the people from Niger Delta, for whom the Ogoni struggle was a metaphor, are yet to fully come to grips with the reality.Mitee said: 'Over the years, even after many may have redeemed themselves by taking up the Niger Delta struggle for justice, they still fail to grasp the symbolism of the Ogoni tragedy and instead exhume the memory of their own past local heroes, whose heroics are not easily grasped by the present generation.'As we remember the sacrifices of our heroes today, I urge Nigerians to see beyond our comfort zones and see in the sacrifices of others, not opportunities for us to exploit, but to hold hands and build needed bridges in the struggle for justice.'He added: 'For from the creeks of Niger Delta to hills of Jos, down to the plains of Maiduguri, amidst the clang of arms and avoidable bloodshed, one can decipher an underlying shrill cry for justice that is often ignored at the beginning until it is befouled and crowded out by violence.'It is time for us to accept, as Martin Luther King (Jnr) once said, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
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