There were genuine human rights activists whose major concerns were to make a difference and stood against injustice at the detriment of their lives and that of their family members.
What we often read is the story of the great Martin Luther King Jr and the host of others foreign activists who paid the ultimate prize to make a change. Our own genuine human right activists like Ken Saro Wiwa of the blessed memory is rarely mentioned.
Ken Saro Wiwa was a successful man, commissioner, and literary icon, but chose to be the voice of the voiceless ogoni people, he laid his life bare for the sake of his people and gruesomely murdered along the line.
Born Kenule Beeson Tsaro-Wiwa, on October 10, 1941, he was a successful writer whose works were celebrated outside Nigeria. He was also a television producer and award-winning human rights activist.
The award-winning human rights activist was killed in his prime during Abacha’s military junta while fighting against the environmental degradation and the survival of his Ogoni people.
He was a literary icon with popular works like; On a Darkling Plain, documentation on the Civil war and Africa Kills Her Sun, a book widely believed to be a prediction of his death.
Late Ken Saro-Wiwa also produced the best television series of his era, Basi & Company as well as Transistor Radio. He also served as the Commissioner for Education in the old Rivers State.
Ken Saro Wiwa, started his campaign against the environmental degradation in Ogoniland through the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) during the military junta of General Sani Abacha. He started as a spokesperson of the movement and later emerged as its president.
Despite several warnings about the risk involved in his struggle, Saro-Wiwa continued and led several nonviolent campaigns against the environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland.
He accused the Royal Dutch Shell company, a multinational petroleum industry of being responsible for environmental crime and want them to take responsibility for environmental degradation in Ogoni land.
Saro Wiwa was never disturbed about the fact that his life was in danger and continued fighting for the people of Ogoni.
He was arrested by the military government of General Sani Abacha at the peak of his non-violent campaign. After his arrest, Saro-Wiwa was tried by a special tribunal set up by the military government of Abacha.
He was accused by the military government of masterminding the killing of Ogoni chiefs at a pro-government meeting.
At the greatest trial of his life, Ken Saro-Wiwa stood his ground in court, he refused to be broken even at the last moment of his life. As he was given the last chance to defend himself, he said, “there is no possibility whatsoever that I or MOSOP would have planned such action and I would forever vow it
Whatever any forum decides upon.
“I appeal to you my Lord, for only one thing, the Ogoni people have suffered tremendously in this country, they have made tremendous contributions to this country. Niger Delta itself is in serious trouble, we need every assistance we can get.”
At his last moment, Ken Saro-Wiwa wasn’t pleading the military junta not to do their worse, he only pleaded for his people to be helped out of the environmental degradation that made life difficult and miserable for them.
On November 10th, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni human rights activists were taken to Port Harcourt prison to be hanged to death. His last words were, “I never destroyed my people, but my people are killed, if it be that I can die to free my people please my God, allow me to die.”
In less than two hours, all Ogoni nine were dead, acid was poured over them to remove any trace of their existence.
His controversial killing sparked outrage in Nigeria and other countries, and international communities. As a result of his gruesome murder, the Commonwealth of Nations suspended Nigeria for three years for human rights violations.
I do not know if his kind of human rights activist still exist in this country but I do know his kind is rare if not impossible to find. Most of the people who parade themselves this day as human rights activists are just fraudsters looking for relevance and what to eat.
Isah Bala…