A frontline Ogoni activist and former federal lawmaker, Senator Benneth Birabi on Tuesday recounted the frantic attempts he made to save the slain environmentalist, Kenule Saro-Wiwa from being killed by the General Sani Abacha military junta in 1995, though he insisted that the renowned poet and author instigated the killing of the Ogoni 4.
Birabi, who expressed his displeasure at the national honours and pardon of the Ogoni 9, by President Bola Tinubu in commemoration of the June 12 Democracy Day, arguing that the president was “misled and misadvised” by the “recognition of killers”.
The brain behind the formation of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People”, MOSOP, also weighed in on the proposed return of multinational oil giant, Shell, to Ogoni after 32 years of its exit, however with a proviso that it would not be business as usual.
Newsmata.com.ng recalls that Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged November 10, 1995, along with eight others after they were found guilty by a special military tribunal for allegedly masterminding the murder of four Ogoni chiefs at a pro-government meeting on May 21, 1994.
Senator Birabi, who was guest on Arise TV Morning Show, gave a detailed account of what led to the Ogoni crisis, heaping most of the blame on Saro-Wiwa, whom he accused of launching himself into the limelight through propaganda.
He debunked the claim that Ken Saro-Wiwa was killed because of his environmental activism but because he was about to lose election to represent Ogoni at the 1995 constitutional conference following his frosty relationship with the elders with whom he was not on talking terms,
Taking exception to the Ogoni 9 being referred to as martyrs and victims of persecution, he said their killing was justified because “they were properly accused because they were seen and known”. He claimed that he himself escaped death by the whiskers because he arrived 30 minutes late to the meeting where the four elders were killed.
According to him, “The only person that I tried to bargain for, and I did my best, but it didn’t work, was Saro-Wiwa himself because I said he was not physically present at the scene of murder. So, at best, he could be charged with manslaughter for instigating the murder.
“But even despite that, I reached out to the Emir of Kano to try and see whether he can prevail on Abacha to at least exclude him, and it didn’t work. Reason for that is a story for another day. So, the people who were accused, there may be some one or two innocent people because most of the people who actually did the killing, some of them ran away.
“Some of the people who supervised the killing are the ones who are receiving national award today”.
Giving the genesis of what went down, Senator Birabi said “it was purely an ego war”. According to him, “because I was an insider, I know. In 1967, when Rivers State was created, Saro-Wiwa was appointed Commissioner for Education, and by virtue of the Rivers State policy at the time because manpower was a major problem, Rivers State gave scholarships to all Rivers citizens, and because he was the commissioner for education, he oversaw that scholarship scheme and a lot of Ogoni people, young men, got scholarships to go abroad, except one, yours truly. Everybody travelled abroad.
“So, he was a very popular person, by happenstance that he happened to be the commissioner for Education and all of us accepted it. Even me, I was more or less like his ward because I spent all my holidays in his house. Now, he quarreled with all the Ogoni elders to the extent that not one of them will greet him.
“In 1977 when they were doing the National Conference, he now came out and wanted to go to constitutional conference and the elders voted against him. He lost the election to some peripheral Ogoni person from Eleme and that got him in a very bad mood. Of course, then he had left the government, and he just went on his own business. He succeeded very much as a businessman.
“In fact, he’s an erudite scholar. He was a writer, an author and playwright. We all know that. And then he went on. 199, I was elected as president of KAGOTE; he was not a member of KAGOTE, but because of my personal relationship with him, I insisted unless they allowed him to join KAGOTE, I will not accept the presidency. And I brought him into KAGOTE because we already discussed what to do about Ogoni oil. I remember the last interview I had with you people; I told you that MOSOP thing was founded on the situation in Oloibiri. That we did not want Ogoni to look like Oloibiri when our oil dried up. So, we had insisted that unless they industrialised Ogoni with our raw material, oil should stop. That was the basic understanding.
“And because of that, I invited him to KAGOTE and then use my position as President to now form MOSOP which the coinage was by him. But I formed the MOSOP and got everybody else to buy into it. His position was publicity secretary. But somehow, he convinced me that publicity secretary would not give him enough clout to be able to discuss and talk Ogoni; that I should rename his position as spokesman.
“I took it up. I called a meeting of KAGOTE, and we passed that resolution. No sooner that he became spokesman, trouble broke out again. I went to the Senate. I was in the senate as the minority leader in the senate when the June 12 election came. He on his own unilaterally decided Ogoni was not going to go into election.
“I didn’t even know that he had already formed a gang of youths, and so on, whom he indoctrinated; he called them Nikon. And on June 12, I was nearly stabbed in my house. That my pajamas was still carrying the blood till today; I still have it in my house here.
“And then, from that June 12th and that crisis that broke out, Ogoni was no longer the same. We now had a group of elders of Ogoni who brought him in and who gave him that position. He labeled all of us vultures.
“In my own case, he came out and collected the youths in my village and told them what I said – that so long as I’m still around, nobody will hear their names in this village. That it’s only me that they will be worshiping. And he did that all over the place. And the coup happened. Abacha took over.
“In that state of discord that we were, he came around and said he wanted to go and represent Ogoni at the constitutional conference in 1995. And that’s where the trouble started. We said you cannot represent Ogoni when you are not in talking terms with the elders in Ogoni. What are you going there to say?
“So, being the political leader of the place at the time, I decided he was not going to represent us at the constitutional conference. That was the cause of the killing. Not anything to do with oil. Because he lost election in 1977, and now that he was internationally acclaimed as Ogoni spokesman and leader, he was about to lose an election.
“That was the cause of the killing. He instigated the boys to the extent that they were preparing for whatever it was that was going to happen. I got the information…”
While therefore stating that he cared less about the presidential pardon, Birabi said what is important is “how do we move forward?”. He however insisted that “But we cannot move forward by denigrating innocent people who were murdered out of sheer propaganda and malice. We cannot do that. We cannot create peace in Ogoni by urinating on the graves of our elites and our elders. And then you now claim that the people who were convicted for their murders are martyrs. ..Does it mean that the people that died that led to their conviction were not human beings? How unfair can anybody be? Nobody is asking that question?”
On return of Shell to the area, the MOSOP leader said in as much as the company was welcome, the expectation of the people is that “You cannot return to Ogoni and operate the same way you operated since 1958”.
Complaining about the approach of government to the proposed resumption of oil production, Birabi accused the National Security Adviser, Nuru Ribadu of leading “the whole façade”, by dealing with people not conversant with the history of MOSOP struggles,
He said “The reason that there has been this problem is that the government assumes that there are no people in Ogoni and so they can use who they like in Ogoni to secure Ogoni by him. So, they hand-pick who they like and expect whoever they pick to be able get the people to welcome government.
“Ogonis are very independent-minded people, but they’re very fearless too. And what has happened the last time, two years or so should let everybody know that Ogonis are not afraid of anybody. But they’re not also easy to railroad. They are not slaves…Ogoni has a history. If we were not organised, we won’t be where we are today”.
According to him, “It’s about tradition. It’s about pedigree. It’s about where you come from. It is the refusal of government to recognise that every institution, every community has got its roots and foundation. That’s what’s keeping us where we are till today.
“So, they pick who they want and expect him to do what they want him to do even when the person cannot sleep in his village without government security. So, that’s the problem.
We are ready for oil resumption. We need it. But it cannot be done exactly the same way they were doing it 60 years ago or since 1958 till today. It’s not possible”.
Criticizing the team that was selected to see President Tinubu, he said “I wasn’t even a member of the team. Because I had some previous relationship with Nuhu Ribadu, he was the one who put my name there. And I came.
“And the team that they put together … not a single one of these fellows there in that group was present when we formed MOSOP, not one of them. So, they don’t even know why we formed MOSOP. So, how do you solve a problem you don’t understand?”