Tribute to Saro-Wiwa

SIR: Ken, you dedicated your life whole-heartedly to the fight against

All the perpetrators of domination, repression, and injustice on the

downtrodden masses.

As an intellectual, author, social critic, human rights activist,

environmentalist and campaigner against human slavery, you spread the

spirit of mass awareness, equity, liberation and freedom.

You gave courage to those who are victims of state brutality and

terrorism.

To those who suffer in silence against the heavy load of oppression

Under powerful enemies who are prepared to go to any length to liquidate

their opponents, you were a fountain of hope and love.

You assured us that if the downtrodden can unite, they are in majority

and that the perpetrators of domination are societal parasites who cannot

survive on their own.

You organised your own people, the Ogoni people, the great militant

Ethnic minority group with a population of 500,000 to understand that a cause

worth living for, is worth fighting for, and a cause worth fighting for, is

worth dying for.

In your international advocacy, regional strengthening and networking,

you carried the Ogoni minority ethnic struggle for freedom, peace and

justice to the world audience. All the unjust rulers of Nigeria were placed before

the large world opinion.

You minced no words, as a man of vision, you prophesised that when you

have finished with Nigeria, the country will be ashamed of itself.

"You can kill the messenger, but you cannot kill the message," were

your words.

The ethnic minority people of the Niger Delta of Nigeria for their

Nature endeared crude oil resources, have been driven along the road of hurt

And bitterness.

Ken, you used Ogoni as a window and permitted the world to look into

the unspeakable hurt and sadness of a victimised people.

In your words: "It is not necessary to think of forgiveness and

reconciliation in the murderous wilderness of violence, unless there is

justice and the perpetrators of injustice and domination ask for

forgiveness.

Ken, you paid the supreme sacrifice that your people may live. It may

Not be sunshine in Ogoni yet, but the cloud is getting clearer that the days

of deeply rooted hostility where state and the multinationals can tap the

Ogoni resources without compensation and without their consent are over.

When the history of the black man's struggle against the repression of

the co-dominion of indigenous colonialism and the agents of transnational

capital shall be told, Ken, your name will be written in Letters of

Gold.

Sleep well, my great compatriot, your ideas keep marching on.

Good night!

Alfred Ilenre, Lagos

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