•Why had been they convicted? What in regards to the folks murdered?
•Ogoni folks react
By Omeiza Ajayi, ABUJA
Senator Ben Birabi is the founding President of the Motion for the Survival of Ogoni Folks MOSOP and a former President of the strain
group, KAGOTE – an acronym for Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme native authorities areas of Rivers state. Birabi who was a Signatory to the Ogoni Invoice of Rights instructed Come up Information Morning Present anchors that the Ogoni 9 just lately honoured by President Bola Tinubu didn’t deserve the award. Excerpts:
Two issues. One, Shell returning to Ogoni land after 32 years, if you happen to can take us by way of all of that, how we obtained up to now, the compensation, the oil spillage, the position of Shell in Ogoni land, and is there any assure that there shall be peace and higher group relations this time round? The second query should do with the popularity and pardon for the Ogoni 9 by President Tinubu, after which together with the Ogoni 9 within the Nationwide Honours Record. How is the group receiving that?
The final time we went to see the President, I raised some points in regards to the conduct of the committee, and I reiterated the truth that Ogonis need oil manufacturing to renew for financial and political causes. However the issue has been the strategy of the federal government, and I wish to put it very clearly. The explanation that there was this drawback is that the federal government assumes that there aren’t any folks in Ogoni, and to allow them to use who they like in Ogoni to safe Ogoni buy-in. In order that they handpick who they like and anticipate whoever they decide to have the ability to get the folks to welcome the federal government.
Ogonis are very independent-minded folks and are very fearless, too, and what has occurred within the final 32 years or so ought to let all people know that Ogonis are usually not afraid of anyone. However they’re additionally not simple to railroad. They aren’t slaves.
So each succeeding authorities has tried to, you realize, take for instance, you simply come, you decide anyone who was your driver a while again, and you then ask him to go and name a gathering of the chiefs in his village, you realize, as a result of that’s the individual you realize. No, Ogoni has a historical past. Our place has been very organized. If we weren’t organized, we wouldn’t be the place we’re right this moment.
I used to be the chairman of KAGOTE, and MOSOP was shaped in my home, and I made a decision, I carried out the elections.
The individual (Ken Serawiwa) who took over MOSOP as a propaganda machine was solely appointed or elected publicity secretary for the truth that he was a media guru, very clever man. He’s older than me, little doubt about that, however, you realize, this isn’t about age, it’s about custom, it’s about pedigree, it’s about the place you come from. It’s the refusal of the federal government to recognise that each establishment, each group has obtained its roots and basis.
That’s what is retaining us the place we’re right this moment. In order that they decide who they need and anticipate him to do what they need him to do, even when the individual can’t sleep in his village with out authorities safety. So that’s the drawback.
We’re prepared for oil resumption. We’d like it however it can’t be achieved precisely the identical approach they had been doing it, you realize, 60 years in the past or since 1958. It isn’t doable. Over time, Ogoni has grown, and I stated it earlier than, by the point Shell got here into Ogoni, there was just one college graduate from Ogoni. In the present day, each Ogoni household has a lawyer.
We can’t depend the variety of engineers and petroleum engineers or chemical engineers in Ogoni. So that you don’t anticipate the identical approach you handled us six, seven or eight years in the past to carry right this moment. It isn’t doable.
The staff that was chosen to go and see the president, I wasn’t even a member. However as a result of I had had some earlier relationship with Nuhu Ribadu, he was the one who put my title there. And I got here, and the staff that they put collectively wouldn’t even wish to hear, not a single one among these fellows there in that group was current after we shaped MOSOP. Not one among them. In order that they don’t even know why we shaped MOSOP. So how do you remedy an issue you don’t perceive? However as a result of I’m not that slavish to simply comply with no matter is claimed with out asking questions, then they made certain that each dialogue about Ogoni, I’m excluded.
Sadly, I’m not apprehensive about that, I can’t cry greater than the bereaved. , I’m an Ogoni son, so was my father and my grandfather. But when that is what they need, so be it. One factor I can say for certain is that oil resumption can occur in Ogoni.
How in regards to the recognition of the Ogoni 9 by President Tinubu?
I believe that the President was being misled and misadvised. What Ogoni wants just isn’t recognition of killers.
No, not recognition of killers. Recognition of martyrs. Ken Saro-Wiwa was not a killer.
The one who killed the elders is a martyr? No, it relies upon.
Are you saying Ken Saro-Wiwa was a killer?
It relies on the place you’re coming from. , the occasion that led to this disaster, I simply occurred to be right here right this moment as a result of God wished me to be right here. , I merely didn’t get there in time.
I used to be like half-hour late. That was why I’m nonetheless right here and this occurred in our homeland at 12 midday. And the individuals who did the killing, the mob, didn’t put on masks. So, they had been all identified and seen by our folks they usually weren’t strangers. So, so that you can get up and say they’re martyrs just isn’t proper. Martyrs are individuals who fought for the folks and died for his or her trigger. What was the trigger they fought and died for? That’s the query. The identical trigger that we established MOSOP for, was the identical trigger that these folks had been preventing for, however just because anyone wished to be the emperor. He had discovered some public acclaim by way of propaganda.
I do know there are constructive and detrimental propaganda. Propaganda is simply elevating consciousness for a selected trigger. On this case, what was the trigger? The individuals who had been killed, what had been they doing towards the Ogoni folks? What did they do towards the Ogoni folks? You simply level a finger and also you capitalize on the poverty of the folks and inform them that each one the cash that had been going to Ogoni, that might have come to Ogoni, have been taken by these folks. So, except, for me significantly, he referred to as a gathering in my village and obtained all of the youth, younger males in my village and stated, ‘except and till the Birabi is not there, no person on this village could make progress. Within the 50s, we had been dancing, we had been singing Birabi. Within the 60s, we had been singing Birabi. Within the 70s, if a minister is talked about it’s Birabi’s son, a Home of Reps is Birabi’s son, a Senator is Birabi’s son. In the event that they name your personal father’s title someday, what’s going to occur?’ What do you anticipate the younger males to do? He didn’t inform them to kill me, however that was sufficient.
Senator Birabi, are you saying that the persecution and the killing of the Ogoni 9 was justified? Is that what you’re saying?
Is that what I’m saying? You name it persecution? That was not persecution. They had been correctly accused as a result of they had been seen and identified. The one individual that I attempted to discount for, and I did my finest, however it didn’t work, was Saro Wiwa himself, as a result of I stated, he was not bodily current on the scene of homicide.
So, at finest, he could possibly be charged for manslaughter or for instigating the homicide. However regardless of that, I reached out to the Emir of Kano to try to see whether or not he might prevail on Abacha to no less than exclude him however it didn’t work. Purpose behind that could be a element for one more day. So, the individuals who had been accused, there may be some one or two harmless folks, as a result of most people who truly did the killing, a few of them ran away. A few of the individuals who supervised the killing are those who’re receiving nationwide awards right this moment. So, propaganda could possibly be constructive or detrimental. When it really works positively, it’s growth.
When it’s detrimental, it ruins a spot. 33 years in the past, it has achieved nothing, we have now degenerated.
They obtained a presidential pardon. So, they’ve been pardoned for any allegations you make now towards them. Allow us to underline the pardon.
Secondly, inform your personal facet of the story on what you declare led to the killing of these elders.
Unbelievable. Can I let you know? It was purely an ego struggle and since I used to be an insider, I do know. When Rivers state was created, Saro Wiwa was appointed Commissioner for Training and by advantage of the Rivers state coverage on the time, as a result of manpower was a significant drawback in Rivers state, Rivers state gave free scholarship to all Rivers residents.
And since he was Commissioner for Training, he oversaw that scholarship scheme and numerous Ogoni folks, younger males, obtained scholarships to go overseas, besides one, yours really. Everyone traveled overseas. So he was a very fashionable individual, by happenstance, that he occurred to have been the Commissioner for Training. All of us accepted it. Even me was roughly like, you realize, his ward as a result of I spent my holidays, all my holidays in his home.
Now, he quarreled with all of the Ogoni elders, to the extent that not one among them would greet him. In 1977, once they had been doing the Constitutional Convention, he now got here out, he wished to go to the Constitutional Convention and the elders voted towards him. He misplaced the election to some peripheral Ogoni individual from Eleme and that obtained him in a really dangerous temper.
After all, then he had left the federal government and he simply went on his personal enterprise. Succeeded very a lot as a businessman. He was a author, creator and playwright. Everyone knows that after which he went on. In 1991, I used to be elected as President of KAGOTE. He was not a member of KAGOTE however due to my private relationship with him, I insisted, except they allowed him to hitch KAGOTE, I’d not settle for the presidency. And I introduced him into KAGOTE.
As a result of I had already mentioned, you realize, speaking about what to do about Ogoni oil, MOSOP was based on the state of affairs in Oloibiri, that we didn’t need Ogoni to appear to be Oloibiri when our oil dries up. So we had insisted that except they industrialised Ogoni with our uncooked materials, oil ought to cease.
That was the fundamental understanding and due to that, I invited him to KAGOTE. I then used the KAGOTE, my place as President of KAGOTE, to now type MOSOP, which the coinage was by him. However I shaped the MOSOP and obtained all people else to purchase into it. His place was Publicity Secretary however someway he satisfied me that Publicity Secretary didn’t give him sufficient clout tobe capable of talk about and discuss Ogoni. That he ought to stay in his place as spokesman.
I took it up and referred to as a gathering of KAGOTE, and we handed that decision. No prior to he grew to become spokesman, when hassle broke out once more. I went to the Senate. I used to be within the Senate as Minority Chief when the June 12 election got here. He on his personal unilaterally determined Ogoni was not going to enter election. I didn’t know that he had already shaped a gang of youths and so forth, whom he indoctrinated. They referred to as them NYCOP. And on June 12, I used to be practically stabbed in my home. My pyjamas nonetheless carry the blood right this moment. I’ve it in my home right here.
Then from that June 12 and that disaster that broke out, Ogoni was not the identical. We now had a bunch of the elders who had been the elders of Ogoni who introduced him in and who gave him that place. He labeled all of us vultures. In my very own case, he got here out and picked up the youths in my village and instructed them what I stated, that as long as I’m nonetheless round, no person will hear their names on this village, that it is just Birabi they are going to be worshipping. And he did that all over. Then the coup occurred.
Abacha took over. In that state of discord that we had been, he got here round and stated he wished to go and symbolize Ogoni on the Constitutional Convention in 1995 and that was the place the difficulty began.
We stated you can not symbolize Ogoni if you find yourself not in speaking phrases with the elders in Ogoni. What are you going there to say? So being the political chief of the place on the time, I made a decision he was not going to symbolize us on the constitutional convention. That was the reason for the killing, it had nothing to do with oil. As a result of he misplaced the election in 1977, and now that he has change into internationally acclaimed as Ogoni spokesman and chief, he was about to lose one other election. That was the reason for the killing. He instigated the boys to the extent that they had been making ready for no matter was going to occur, and I obtained the knowledge.
Okay, Senator Birabi, hope you might have your info and your evidences, as a result of we are going to name upon you to deliver these info some day, some day quickly.
I’m speaking to you because it occurred. I’m speaking to you about what occurred and what’s actual. Anyone who has a counter can come and confront me.
Senator Birabi, I see that the persona conflicts of previous haven’t disappeared. It was in Could 1994 that the 4 elders had been killed. It was on November 10, 1995, that the Abacha authorities executed Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others. It is extremely surprising that in 2025 the matter remains to be as contemporary in your thoughts because it was in 1995. Nevertheless, there may be one other group, they name themselves Conscience of Ogoni Folks, who’ve gone to the Federal Excessive Court docket. From the Federal Excessive Court docket now, they’ve gone to the Supreme Court docket to say that the Ogoni 9, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others, must be exonerated by the Supreme Court docket and that’s along with the pardon that has been granted by President Tinubu. Nevertheless, Shell, that could be a huge situation, is coming again to renew exploration actions. Are you able to inform us, now that you just say Ogoni Folks have graduates, they’ve petroleum engineers, in particular phrases, what are the expectations of the Ogoni Folks?
I’m not apprehensive about pardon granted to those folks, as a result of it doesn’t change the info. And in any case, the individuals who have been killed can’t rise, we will’t increase them up. So what’s essential is how will we transfer ahead? However we can’t transfer ahead by denigrating harmless individuals who had been murdered out of sheer propaganda and malice. We can’t do this. We can’t create peace in Ogoni by urinating on the graves of our elite and our elders. And you then now declare that the individuals who had been convicted for his or her murders are martyrs. Will we perceive the that means of martyr? So it’s a propaganda recreation that has gone on for too far, however the propaganda doesn’t change the truth.
Propaganda can solely succeed for now, however the actuality stays, and the truth is what we’re seeing. The President has a proper to grant pardon. Sure. However in the entire of his speech and the pardon, what’s the reference? Why had been they convicted within the first occasion? Does it imply that the individuals who died that led to their conviction weren’t human beings? Had been they not human beings? How unfair can anyone be? No one is asking that query in regards to the victims.
I wish to ask you about Shell’s return. What are the expectations of the Ogoni folks?
The expectation of Ogoni folks is easy. You can not function, you can not return to Ogoni and function the identical approach you operated since 1958. There are issues that you are able to do. And actually, the person who’s main this complete facade, the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, he is aware of as a result of I’ve had a dialog with him. He is aware of what to do. He is aware of the expectation of Ogoni folks, however he doesn’t wish to go there as a result of he’s listening to his group of buddies who’re working with him and I don’t have an issue with it. They’ll do no matter they like. I’ve lived my good life in Ogoni and the one factor is that my kids don’t have a house to return to anymore, if this goes on like this.
Okay, however you’ll anticipate Shell to pay extra consideration to group relations, to patronize elders, to handle the youths?
In no way. It isn’t a person factor or any Elder. What’s driving the method now could be how a lot Elders can get? They’re capitalizing on the poverty charge of Ogoni folks. It isn’t an Elder factor. There are holistic issues that must be achieved and if they aren’t achieved, they’ll go forward. I imply, authorities has absolute powers. The federal government may even determine to wipe out a race and nothing will occur, as a result of we have now seen this all around the world. They’ll go forward, however undoubtedly a few of us are usually not offered on to this garbage, as a result of we aren’t afraid to say the reality.
Ogoni folks react
By Daniel Abia, P/Harcourt
Roughly 32 years after the state execution of the world acclaimed environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his compatriots by the then army junta of late Common Sani Abacha , contemporary argument has surfaced over the circumstances surrounding the dying of the 9 Ogoni sons.
This contemporary debate was stirred by a no imply individual than the foremost Senator from the Ogoni axis, Bennet Birabi, the founding father of the motion for the survival of Ogoni folks, MOSOP and pioneer President of KAGOTE, which stands for the 5 council areas that make up Ogoni kingdom (Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme).
Birabi spoke on the deliberate resumption of crude oil manufacturing in Ogoni, recalling the circumstances that led to the execution of the Ogoni 9, saying that that they had nothing to do with oil manufacturing within the space.
Recall that on June 12, Nigerian Democracy Day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his deal with to the joint session of the Nationwide Meeting, NASS, had granted a presidential pardon to the late Ogoni-9 .
Although President Tinubu’s “magnanimity” was obtained with blended reactions some Nigerians, significantly the Ogonis expressed optimism that the President’s resolution was one which might proffer a veritable platform for additional dialogue on the Ogoni matter. “We had a south-south son as a President (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan) who didn’t dare to take motion about this matter. However right this moment, a President from the Yoruba talking a part of the nation has introduced up the Ogoni situation and determined to look into it. It’s a good begin”, stated Franklin Ntekim, a Port Harcourt based mostly activist.
There are additionally some teams which have argued that the President’s motion was a misstep. This group believes that the only real demand of the Ogoni folks is an outright exoneration of the Ogoni 9 as a result of they had been wrongly accused and dastardly executed for against the law they didn’t commit.
However Senator Bennet Birabi, a progenitor of MOSOP and Ogoni political consciousness in a latest no-hold-barred interview submitted that President Tinubu was miss-led in regards to the Ogini-9 debacle. “I believe that the President was misled and miss-advised”. He went on to postulate that “What Ogonis want just isn’t a recognition of killers (apparently referring to the Ogoni-9).
“The individuals who did the killing didn’t put on masks. They had been all identified and seen by our folks. They weren’t strangers”, he stated. Senator Birabi questioned the offence that was dedicated by the Ogoni chiefs who had been killed in the reason for the disaster, and dismissed that Ken and eight others weren’t martyrs as being touted in some quarters.
Responding to Birabi’s place, a outstanding son of Ogoni who is not going to need his title in print for safety causes recalled that “Ken Saro Wiwa’s innocence can by no means be debunked. He stated “the Nigerian Bar Affiliation acknowledged Ken Saro Wiwa’s innocence. The Commonwealth did, and went so far as suspending Nigeria as a result of executions, ECOWAS acknowledged his innocence, the European Union did, The United Nations did. So, let anybody say what she or he needs, the reality is nicely established”.
In addition to Ken Saro Wiwa, others who had been executed in Port Harcourt by the Abacha authorities included Dr. Nubari Kiobel, Nordu Eawo, Saturday DoobeJohn Kpuinen, Paul Levura, Daniel Gbokoo, Felix Nuate and Baribor Bera.
Senator Birabi made additional revelations to the very fact the Ogoni-9 “had been correctly accused” of the crime they had been charged and executed. However his effort to get Ken excluded from the listing of the offenders didn’t yield any end result as his enchantment to the then Emir of Kano to prevail over Abacha didn’t succeed.
However President Tinubu in his deal with to the NASS acknowledged that “right this moment, we appropriate the report and honour their braveness within the face of tyranny”. The conviction was deeply flawed and and a politically motivated course of that ought to by no means have occurred.
In a latest assertion signed by its President, Fegalo Nsuke, MOSOP urged President Tinubu to pursue a proper exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists. “Such an exoneration can be a stronger ethical and authorized correction, guaranteeing that their names are not burdened by the stain of injustice”.
Additionally, the President of Ogoni middle for indigenous authority, OCIA, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo in his interview with Vanguard on the presidential pardon, equally harped on the necessity to fully exonerate the Ogoni-9 from the enigmatic judgment that wrongfully condemned the activists occasioned by “a flawed judicial course of”.
“I didn’t reject President Tinubu’s pardon and award out of cynicism…….I feared that with out exoneration, the presidential good intention, even well-meaning may collapse underneath authorized scrutiny, leaving us with a pardon stripped of its ethical and historic weight”, Diigbo stated.
Senator Birabi additionally argued that Ken Sara-Wiwa and others didn’t die because of oil exploration by Shell in Ogoni. “It was purely an ego struggle”, he stated. He revealed that the disaster began when Ken was denied the chance of representing the Ogoni within the Abacha-mooted 1995 constitutional convention. Causes? As a result of Ken “quarreled with all of the Ogoni elders”.
He stated whereas the Ogonis need oil resumption for the needs of the economic system and political causes, “we can’t function the identical approach we did prior to now”.
The publish Saro-Wiwa not martyr, Ogooni 9 undeserving of national honour — Senator Birabi appeared first on Vanguard News.
