Below is an article published by the Nigerian Daily Times:

You can de­stroy the message, but you can’t destroy the messenger.” Those were the im­mortal words of Kenule Saro Wiwa, a true defender of his native Ogoni people before the High Court that tried him over charges of murder of the Ogoni-4.

He has been more than vindicated because not only does the message live on, the activist’s name lives on too.

It is 19 years since Saro- Wiwa and his compatriots began to preach the message of environmental restoration, equal political representation, an end to land and air pollution from emissions from oil compa­nies among many others.

In November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were condemned to death by hanging at the Port Harcourt Prisons. Not only were they hanged, their bodies were doused with acid. The Common­wealth responded swiftly by suspending Nigeria from the organization.

Due to the suffering inflicted on the Ogonis by oil multinationals in col­laboration with the federal government, people of the area have been clamouring for a state of their own. They have made several propositions for the cre­ation of Ogoni or Bori state. But nobody seems to take them serious.

KAGOTE, a group drawn from the four local government areas of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme that make up the Ogoni kingdom, is of the opinion that being one of the oldest surviving provinces, Ogoni deserves autonomy.

President of KAGOTE, Dr Peter Medee, said the agitation for the creation of Ogoni State was as necessary as having a gover­nor of Ogoni extraction in the forthcoming general election.

He declared: “We cannot lose it in this generation, we must grab it now or we have to wait for another 24 years. Those saying no more zoning are enemies of Ogoni. They are those conspiring against the people of Ogoni. Whether it is APC (All Progressives Congress) or PDP (Peoples Democratic Party), we must unite to get the governorship position.”

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), has not been re­lenting in this crusade. Its President, Legborsy Pyagbara, has been speaking loud at different fora that the only way to appease the Ogonis after years of suppression is to allow the area produce the next Governor of Rivers State in 2015.

Pyagbara reiterated that, “The time for an Ogoni governor has come. Let’s cap our struggle for justice, liberation and against environmental degrada­tion with the election of a governor in 2015 from Ogoniland.

“Our position is clear; any party that is interested in our votes should field an Ogoni as its governorship flag bearer in the 2015 gubernatorial election. We assure an Ogoni governor­ship candidate and the party he represents of our collective votes.”

Both MOSOP and KAGOTE, the two major sociocultural groups in Ogoni, believe that the achievement of the content of the Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR), would be a herculean task and so the best alternative is to vie vehemently for the governor­ship slot of the state in the next election.

On November 10 at the Atlantic Hall of Hotel Pres­idential in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, prominent people from Ogoni and across Nigeria gathered in remembrance of the 19 years since the murder of the Ogoni-9.

A youth activist in the area, Lekia Christian, of the Niger Delta Coali­tion Against Violence (NDCAV) blamed Shell for what the Ogonis are going through today [17 December 2014].

“I am from Khana Local Government Area of Ogoni. I live here and I grew up here. I know the danger of oil spill to my local people and its consequences on their lives and economy. Shell is a very insensitive organization though other companies look up to it as the biggest oil operating company in the world.

What surprises me most is why the oil giant should comply with the laws of other countries but violate that of Nigeria.

“What Shell does, these other companies replicate. If Shell has been forthcoming in cleaning up the environment whenever spill occurs, others would definitely follow suit. Again, because the government of Nigeria is subservient to Shell and because the system is so corrupt, everybody in the Niger Delta region is living at the mercy of Shell,” he said.

On how his organization has been assisting in bringing the plight of the Ogoni to the front burner for national and international discourse, he said the condition of the people of Ogoni was synonymous to the unfortunate invasion of Gbaramatu community of Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State by federal troops in 2008 in search of a mili­tant General, Government Oweizidi Ekpemupolo, a.k.a Tompolo.

Lekia recounted that over 40 women who were forced to flee from the community to avoid a cross-fire between the federal troops and the militants gave birth in an inhuman condition. It is the same sad situation that the Ogoni people, especially women, are going through today as oil spill has devastated a large chunk of their envi­ronment.

“No government in Nigeria has ever shown much concern about the plight of the Ogoni people. Politics in Nigerian is an opportu­nity for people to steal and after that nothing more. Nobody cares whether people are dying. Nobody cares to know what Shell is doing. Here in ogoni, people are dying almost every day.

“The Niger Delta people have suffered for too long. The multinational oil companies do not have respect for human life. They see us as animals, otherwise, they would not allow their facilities to spill oil onto people’s farms without cleaning it up the next immediately and restore the texture of the soil.”

The activist alleged that Shell has been sustained in Nigeria by the “blood of the Ogonis and by extension, Niger Delta people. I have never seen a day Nigerian government has called any of the oil companies to address them on the issue of their attitude towards the people and their prop­erties.”

He called on President Goodluck Jonathan to use his present position as a son of the Niger Delta to improve on the lives of the people of the area. This is the first time somebody from the mi­nority Niger Delta area would be a President of Nigeria since independent in 1960.

“The time has come for the world to globalise the ill-treat­ment by Shell of its host communities and people. The world should condemn Shell and other multi-nationals because we are losing our people to untimely death occasioned by the toxic substances that come from its spills,” Lekia lamented.

On his part, the lawyer handling the spill disaster case in some of the communities along the oil coastal belt, Eugene Odey, said Ogoni people must be adequately compensated by the oil companies to atone for all the devastations caused by spills.

“We have a joint investigation report to which Shell themselves are signatory. The Police, Ministry of Environment and all the people that were involved signed it. Shell admitted that it was as a result of natural corrosion and equipment failure and the spill we are talking about is not just one spill. These are multiple series spills that occurred in various locations within the same time frame and this spills were allowed to run concurrently, letting out large volumes of crude oil into the environment.

“We know Shell and their Di­vide and Rules antics, even at Bodo, as it is now, has been fragmented. While Shell is talking about Bodo, I am talking about beyond Bodo, I am talking about Bomu, KeDere, Tai, khana Local Government, Opobo/Nkoro, Ikoro Abasi in Akwa Ibom. These are not small communities, I am talking about numbers of Corpo­rative Societies that came to me.”

The lawyer said that between 2009 to date, so many people have died in these communities as a result of oil spillages. “They have been poisoned by high concentration of hydrocarbons. The air that they breathe is highly polluted. Fauna and flora have been destroyed. This is a calculated attempt by Shell to annihilate our people,” he alleged.

On the extent of damage done by the spill on the environment and how it could be calculated in monetary terms, odey said scientists and experts were brought in to Ogoni to ascertain the extent of damage done to the land and its costing as well.

“No matter what you do, there is no way you can restore the original nature of the environment considering the extent of damage done by the spills. It will take over 40 years of constant cleaning to get the environment back. This is based on the assumption that no further spills occur. But you know that there is the likelihood that spills will still occur.”

He believes this is predicated on the fact that Shell’s facilities have been there for the past 60 years and they are outrightly obsolete. He believes that considering the hazards the Ogoni people have been made to undergo, the court must compel Shell or any other company for that matter to adequately compensate the victims of the oil spills.

According to him, over one million victims have been sub­jected to the hazard of spills by the oil companies and as a result, “we are asking for a moderate compensation of US$3billion as a way of ameliorating their pains.”

Pyagbara, gave a stern warn­ing to Shell and other oil companies operating in Ogoniland not to attempt to venture into the area for any oil business, declaring that the status quo must remain the way it is now.

“We want to declare here that Shell and Ogoni is in dispute and the issues surrounding those disputes have not been settled. It is on record that in 2008, President Musa Yar’Adua had announced the removal of licence over Ogoni from Shell.

“MOSOP vehemently condemns the present attempt to divest Ogoni oil blocks without clear and focused discussions with the Ogoni People. We are also seizing this opportunity to warn all would-be investors to stay clear of Ogoni until matters around this divestment had been properly discussed with Ogoni people. Ogoni is not prepared to follow the fate of the Amazon communities in Ecuador,” warned Pyagbara.

He added: “We are also warning members of Ogoni communi­ties not to allow themselves to be deceived by any investor. It is our duty to learn from our past and find a united platform which will protect our interests collectively.”

MOSOP demanded that Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni 9 should be cleared of the allega­tions they were falsely accused of.

On the gruesome murder of the Ogoni 9 about wo decades ago, Pyagbara said, a fact-finding team from the United Nations which examined the process of their trial according to both a local and international standards returned a verdict that the trial of the Ogoni 9 did not follow any known local or international standard.

Yet the greatest disservice to the memory of these men of valour continues as successive Nigeria administrations have failed to do the needful by clearing the names of these men who were unjustly tried, condemned and then murdered.

“On this remembrance day, we are sending a strong request to the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan-led administration to immedi­ately set in motion the process for clearing the names of the Ogoni nine. Jonathan has gone to sleep for too long on this issue and it is now time to act, “Pyagbara demanded

On the 2015 Rivers State gu­bernatorial race, Pyagbara explained that MOSOP has been involved in a campaign for political equality and representation in the state and this campaign is anchored on the third demand in the Ogoni Bill of Rights which stressed that the Ogoni people need adequate and direct representation as a right in all the country’s national institutions.

“Ogoni is making a bold statement that we are no longer prepared to play second fiddle in the political life of Rivers State after 47 years. To this end, we are calling on political parties to choose Ogoni candidates as their flag bearers. The failure to do so automatically means that Ogoni people will not participate in the 2015 general elections.”

The remembrance celebration also featured a lecture with the theme “Minorities at Crossroads: Confronting Political Inequality in Nigeria”.

In his lecture at the anniversary, a former Secretary General of MOSOP and Professor of Humanities, Professor Ben Naane, described the current political situation in the world as a clash of civilisations.

Naane noted that what took place in Ogoniland was a revolution as Ogoniland is not the same as before the struggle.

He explained that though the structural transformation has not taken place, the intellectual transformation has taken place and that is why the Ogoni struggle can be described as a revolution.

Naane, who spoke on the topic, “Sustaining Non-Violence Struggle in an era of Global Turbulence” maintained that violence would have eroded the international support for the Ogonis. Rather, he said, the persecution of the peaceful Ogonis by the Nigerian State has given the people an image of oppressed and hunted people.