KEN SARO-WIWA WAS AT THE OGONI LAND CLEAN-UP, FLAG-OFF CEREMONY!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 147. 5th June, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

KEN SARO-WIWA WAS AT THE OGONI LAND CLEAN-UP, FLAG-OFF CEREMONY!

Ken Saro-Wiwa, President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), was executed along with eight of his members, globally acclaimed as the "Ogoni Nine", by the Military Government of General Sani Abacha, over 20 years ago for allegedly inciting murder of five prominent chiefs of the land, but his agitation for a clean and unpolluted environment of his birth place, Ogoniland did not die with him but miraculously resurrected through President Muhammadu Buhari, who eventually flagged off the clean-up exercise at Gokhana Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday, 2nd June, 2016!
Represented by the Vice President, Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, to execute the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report, submitted to the Federal Government of Nigeria since 2011, and which recommended urgent rehabilitation and clean-up of over 200 locations in which were found that impacts of the 50 years of oil production in the region, extended than previously thought because of oil spills, oil flaring and waste discharge! Presently the alluvial soil of the Ogoniland is no longer viable for agriculture or fishing due to both surface and ground water contamination with high levels of hydrocarbon and several toxic-related chemicals.
In 1990, under the leadership of Saro Wiwa, MOSOP, a non-violent group and member of the United Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), petitioned the Federal Military Government and requested that international oil companies should stop further land exploitation and degradation through a document titled, "The Ogoni Bill of Rights", which was submitted to the authorities for implementation according to the World Health Organisation(WHO), guidelines but he and some of his organisation, were instead arrested and incarcerated for several months for charges of unlawful protests and assemblies!
The Ogoni people have been victims of human rights violation since 1956, when Royal Dutch/Shell in collaboration with Britain, Nigeria's Colonial Masters, began commercial production two years later in 1958. Traditionally, the Ogonis were agriculturists who also traded in animal husbandry of livestock, herding, fishing and palm oil cultivation but between 1976 and 1991, a period of 15 years, the Oil Company reportedly recorded 2,976 oil spills of about 2.1 million barrels in Ogoniland, the worst in any part of the world which had now destroyed the entire land scape with all soil and earth nutrients! According to UNEP estimates, it could take up to 30 years to rehabilitate Ogoniland to its full potential at an enormous cost of $ 1billion US dollars per every 5years totaling $6 billion or more in all!
Previous and present Nigerian Constitutions are replete with government’s commitments to the citizens and also the citizens' fundamental rights and civic responsibilities to government but military administrations suspended such rights and treated the people with so much brutality as it turned out for MOSOP whose members were imprisoned at random for months on end!
President Buhari in his testimony at the occasion recalled that as a Military Head of State, he commissioned a large fish pond and also planted a tree to commemorate the occasion, and a sign of the Government's commitment to the Niger Delta but unfortunately the degradation of the land, water and air has done huge damage to the fragile ecosystem of the Niger Delta - especially Ogoniland. "Oil exploration has been going in Nigeria for about six decades and Nigeria has benefitted immensely from it.....but the great damage to the region, to the ecosystem is either due to lack of will or willful rules non-compliance with environmental rules, acts, enactments, laws and guidelines given to operators of the oil industry".

President Buhari in this statement did not only confirm a lawful agitation by Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP, but also stated as follows:
"The environment was put in jeopardy", he said, noting that the various communities - noting the negative impact of oil production and the lack of consideration for best practices quite rightly commenced the struggle for justice and fair play in the conduct of business by the oil industry operators.
"This process unfortunately led to loss of lives and properties. International concern was raised whilst past governments were urged to take decisive steps in addressing the damage", he noted. Imagine if Ken Saro Wiwa, the non-violent Vice President of UNPO and an internationally acclaimed environmentalist, writer and government critic was accorded the legitimate request that the expatriate oil companies must be compelled to not only clean every oil spill but also adhere to corporate responsibility statutes of regularly rehabilitating host communities by providing all adequate facilities of clinics, hospitals, shelter, schools, and ensure local contents through job employments that guaranteed living wages, the Niger Delta Region would have been an Eldorado - these 56 years of Nigeria's independence and not a WAR ZONE where drop-outs and miscreants of the society now hold sway as mushroom militants who even have the audacity to threaten President Buhari's life! Military aberration of 30 years robbed all citizens all fundamental rights to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty; right to fair hearing, private and family life, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; right to freedom of expression and the press, to peaceful assembly and associations, right to freedom of movement and from discriminations, as enacted in the various Constitutions which were usually abrogated while the Parliament remained suspended!
And this was why a peaceful MOSOP agitation in respect of the fundamental rights of association, expression and movement was misconstrued by the Abacha administration as confrontation against government!

Ken Saro-Wiwa led a non-violent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multi-national petroleum industry - especially the Royal Dutch Shell Company and was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian Government which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area. At the peak of his non-violent campaign he was tried by a special military tribunal by allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of Ogoni Chiefs at a pro-government meeting which he vehemently denied! He was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty of incitement and hanged in 1995 with eight others by a specially convened tribunal of the military junta of Sanni Abacha all because of the enormous wealth which accrued to his government through oil exploitation of Ogoni land by Royal Dutch Shell!
The execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years but did not matter to Abacha who turned out to be the worst military ruler of Nigeria because he brazenly carted away into foreign countries all of the commonwealth in the coffers of the Central Bank in TRAILERS, AIRCRAFTS, BOATS, SHIPS, FRIGATES and all manner of articulated vehicles and left the nation high and dry at death!
In November 2015, the Federal Government disclosed that the total amount recovered from the Abacha loot was $26.4 million dollars and £19 million British pounds respectively apart from those already recovered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governments of 16 years and also looted by the predators of those era because they were not accounted for! According to reports in respect of Saro Wiwa's execution on 10th November, 1995, it was said that he did not give up the ghost until the fifth time of the hanging process which was carried out by muscular and masculine ARMY PERSONNEL, and at each time they changed the ROPE, he asked his assailants, "What have I done to deserve death....I have committed no crime."
Royal Dutch Shell denied any form of collaboration with the Abacha junta in the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, but paid $15.5million dollars to his family as compensation on the eve of litigation with company! It is true that both Saro-Wiwa and Abacha are dead, but it is certain that the present generation of Nigerians now know who the real murderer was among the duo in view of revelations of Abacha's greed and of man's inhumanity to man because of avarice!
We strongly believe that the biblical story of Lazarus and the Rich Man in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 15:19-31; has come to play because; all of the unfolding events have proved the innocence of Saro-Wiwa since the 1995 hanging of the Ogoni Nine and definitely all those who participated in the Kangaroo Court of jungle justice of an illustrious son of Nigeria whose struggle for the emancipation of his people will remain in the annals of Nigerian and international history for ever, will face divine punishment sooner than later!

The good news however is that, Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro-Wiwa's agitation for the cleanup of Ogoniland has taken off in earnest in memory of this illustrious son of Nigeria who gave his life that others might have a healthier and prosperous agrarian life which had been their inalienable right from ancestral occupation and settlement! We believe that President Buhari who has exhibited much passion in the project would ensure that funding by the Nigerian Government and other counter-part funds from international communities and especially Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company would not fail!
THIRTY YEARS IS JUST AROUND THE CONNER! THE FIRST STEP WHICH IS THE FLAG-OFF CEREMONY HAS BEEN TAKEN!

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, b.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.