A New Deal for the Ogonis
By
PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjos recent visit to Ogoni in Rivers State is a welcome development. It illustrates that the Obasanjo administration is willing to correct mistakes of past military regimes. However, the president should have stopped short of recalling the gruesome experience he had by way of unnecessary incarceration during the Abacha regime. It is out of place for a President who is a self-professed Christian to use every available opportunity in discussing his plight in the hands of a dead man. The President's continuos haranguing on this incident shows that he still feels some hurt. Apparently, there is a personal feud between the president and the family of Abacha, the late head of state. It is unfortunate that Obasanjo is demanding for his pound of flesh from the Abachas even after the demise of his perceived enemy. It may not even be wrong to assume that the presidents posture is what has translated to the present ordeal the Abachas are going through.
The Ogoni issue which is greater in magnitude and dimension than the Abacha versus Obasanjo matter should not be reduced to a personal tool for revenge, afterall what befell the Ogonis was the collective decision of members of the defunct Provisional Ruling Council (PRC). Lets not out of bias forget the other Ogonis from the families of Kobani and Orages who also lost their sons and members of their families still feel the hurt. The president should not only think of the Ogonis within the context of Ken Saro-Wiwa just because he had decided to use every available opportunity to whip up sentiment against the dead Abacha.
The President should stop being unnecessarily sentimental about his past, after all it was this that earned him the Presidency. Nigerians need results and not stories. That really, is the only way he can establish a clear difference between the government of Abacha and his own.
Kekena Wokomola, Port Harcourt.