Okenyi Kenechi
The Senator representing Rivers South-East senatorial district in the national assembly, Magnus Abe, has urged the Federal Government to pay attention to issues behind the struggles of the Ogoni people.
Abe stated this during a lecture organized by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People in commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of the killing of the renowned environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa in Port Harcourt.
Wiwa and other Ogoni activists were found guilty by the Abacha’s military junta and hanged to death.
However, Abe, in his address said that every struggle must culminate into victory, adding that political representation of the Ogoni people will ease off their struggle and ensure justice.
According to him, “We are here for a memorial lecture and I know that our guest lecturers have put in a whole lot of efforts to prepare the main buffets for the day, intellectual feast that we will eat. So I will not like to waste your time, but I will say a few things.
“The first thing I will say is to congratulate MOSOP and to thank the Almighty God that I was given the privilege of being born an Ogoni man. A lot of things have happened to me in my life, and I have come to realize that one way or the other, your heritage matters and our heritage as Ogoni people does matter.
“The second thing I will like to say is that every struggle must culminate in victory and victory must end in celebration. And by the grace of the Almighty God, the Ogoni struggle will be no different. It will end in victory and our victory will end in celebration.
“The other thing I will say is that let us convert our tears into action. We cannot continue to cry indefinitely. At a certain point, we must be able to convert our tears into action. We must be able to recognize the things that plague us, that pull us down. And we must be able to struggle, even against the tide, so that we can rise. I think that is what the struggle is about.
“I will respectfully disagree with the chairman of the occasion. It is said that it’s the punishment of the wise who refuse to participate in politics that they shall be governed by fools.
“There is no organization in the world that can watch out for the interest of its people without watching out for the politics. Whether it’s Arewa Consultative Forum, whether it’s the children of Oduduwa, whether it’s Afenifere, everybody keeps one eye on the politics, because at the end of the day, all the things we gathered here to ask for, we are asking from the government. And it’s politics that form the government. So if you ignore the politics you will continue to ask. And who will answer you when you don’t know where the politics is going?
“The example, the name, the memory and the legacy of Ken Saro Wiwa and the fallen heroes of the Ogoni is a veritable foundation on which our future can be built. There is nowhere you will go to in the world today that people recognize you as an Ogoni man and they don’t remember something about Ogoni. Everybody remembers something about Ogoni because of the sacrifices of these leaders.
It’s, therefore, my pleasure, my joy, that I am able to stand here today and join MOSOP to remember these people, to remember their contributions because I know that they have not died in vain.
Finally, the Project Coordinator of HYPREP is here. I am thankful that we have made substantial progress on the clean up of Ogoni land. There is no need for us to stop talking. There is nothing that should make us not to complain where we are not satisfied. But where there is progress, we should say thank you. So I thank the Federal Government for the progress made, and I join MOSOP and others to say that we must be vigilant to watch this process so that at the end of the day our people can benefit from it.
“I seize this opportunity once more to repeat my earlier commitment that I, as a Senator representing the Rivers south-east senatorial district, I will not benefit from the clean up of Ogoni land. I will take no personal benefit nor will I do it by proxy but I will be vigilant to watch and join others to protect the interest of our people”
