Ken Saro-Wiwa: Still a darkling plain
By
The story of oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is a story of injustice, oppression, marginalisation, dehumanisation, deprivation and environmental degradation. It is a story of a callous assault on human dignity. It is the story of neglected ethnic minorities struggling against insurmountable odds for survival in an environment rendered inhospitable by irresponsible activities of multinational oil companies working hand-in-hand with the grossly corrupt and unjust ruling class in Nigeria.
The felonious misappropriation and inequitable distribution of wealth from the exploitation of crude oil could only create a yawning void between the excessively rich ruling class and the grossly impoverished masses within and outside the oil-bearing regions of the Niger Delta. Given that the ruling class, through the instrumentality of the military, had sought to disempower the people and to bamboozle them into suffering in silence, ethnic minorities of the Niger Delta had found themselves without democratic avenues necessary for effective articulation of their predicaments. As a result, the formation of ethnic-regional organisations became an acceptable option and many of them sprung up not only in the Niger Delta, but also throughout the country.
Ogoni, one of the most impoverished and marginalised groups of people in the oil-bearing areas, had come up with the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP). This organisation, eventually, became a very effective avenue in the mobilisation of Ogoni people for the collective expression of their dissatisfaction with the corrupt ruling class that was responsible for their alienation and with the oil companies (especially Shell Petroleum Development Company) for the irresponsible nature of oil harvesting and its disastrous impact on the environment.
Such organisation would not survive without a charismatic, dynamic, sagacious and courageous leader who is strong enough to stand up with anti-people forces and defeat them. Ken Saro-Wiwa had all these qualities. That was why his desire to lead the organisation was widely accepted by his people. He was considered the most qualified of all prominent sons of Ogoni. He was known and respected everywhere as an ingenious intellectual, an essayist, a novelist, an environmentalist, a minority rights activist, etc. His “Bassey and Company” was one of the most popular TV shows. His works were everywhere including: On a Darkling Plain, Forest of Flowers, A Month and a Day, Prisoners of Jebs, and myriads of others which were very popular within and outside Nigeria. Then there was his column in the Sunday Times (“SIMILIA”?), which carried his passport photograph with a long black smoking pipe protruding from his mouth. (He had adopted the smoking pipe as a symbol of his struggle for the emancipation of his people). All these account for MOSOP’s unprecedented popularity sequel to Ken Saro Wiwa’s assumption of office as its president.
His leadership of MOSOP further projected him to the whole world. It made him more popular and drew the attention of international environmental and human rights organisations towards him. His popularity attracted international sympathy to the predicament of Ogoni people and helped immensely in exposing the callous and anti-people disposition of the Nigerian ruling class. Courageously, unmoved by unnecessary criticism and undaunted by threats and intimidation, Saro Wiwa fought on with the barrel of his pen. For the first time the criminal alliance between the Nigerian ruling class and the multinational oil companies was shaken to its foundation by the pen of Ken who was accurately informed of their evil machinations and was sufficiently equipped for his revolutionary struggle. It was a case of revolting with the pen.
Ken Saro Wiwa demanded explanation on why oil companies were degrading the environment with impunity, why government should always look the other way whenever oil companies err, why dogs belonging to managers of oil companies were treated better than human beings from the oil bearing areas. Why Ogoni people should continue to drink guinea worm infested water. He pointed out that oil spillage, gas flaring, labyrinth of high-powered oil pipelines were destroying the floras and faunas of the mangrove swamp forest, destroying their farmlands and fishing ponds thus robbing his people of their means of livelihood.
Unfortunately, rather than alleviating the suffering of this people, the beast-hearted ruling class created dissention within Ogoniland as a way of weakening the strength of their revolutionary struggle. The tyrants succeeded in securing the surrender and compromise of some Ogoni leaders popularly known as “Ogoni Four” under the leadership of Mohamed Kobani.
Then soldiers were sent to Ogoniland to rape women and children, loot their homes, abduct and kill their men, drive them out of their homes to wander as refugees. Now, many years after the incident, the people who were responsible for that genocide in Ogoniland are still walking about as free men. If in killing Ken Saro Wiwa, the Nigerian ruling class had intended to cover up their oppression and alienation of the minorities of the oil- bearing areas, they have failed. Ken had always believed that this naked oppression and injustice shall come to an end some day.
Feb 2004