“When I was contemplating the struggle, I knew it was going to require a lot of energy, patience and money,” Ken writes in his prison memoirs A Month and A Day (which I am paraphrasing here since somebody has permanently borrowed my copy). Of those three things, Ken said he knew he had a lot of energy, that if he did not have patience he could cultivate it. But concerning the last one, money, he knew he had no money anywhere in the world. So, instead of waiting to win a lottery, Ken became a business man. But because his foray into business was for a higher purpose, it could only be a transitory phase. He knew when his trading career had served its purpose and then, even though he had become a very successful business man, had to call it quits in order to devote his energy to the Ogoni struggle. He did not succumb to the joys of money making and its attendant greed and glories.
But the rudiments of the struggle were already stirring in Ken even as he served in different portfolios as a commissioner to the government of Rivers state. Indeed, much earlier than that, he had already started to question why the oil companies operating in his native village should be flaring so much gas and filling the whole place with obnoxious seethe. At that time he memorably wrote that “The flames of Shell are the flames of Hell.” This, admittedly was only innocuously lodged at the back of his mind at the time for he reportedly sought employment at Shell at a point. But as he grew in maturity the question began to haunt him. So it was no surprise that as a member of the Rivers state government he was becoming increasing vocal in his criticism of the shabby way oil producing communities were being treated. This led to his being unceremoniously sacked from that government. From that point on he knew that his work was cut out for him. But he had to do his homework thoroughly. That was when he realized that he needed mostly the three things I just mentioned above.
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I was already an admirer of Ken long before I read about those three things, but that kind of thinking reinforced my respect for the man. One of the most outstanding traits of a leader is the ability to contemplate the future realistically. This characteristic is usually called having a vision. No one can be a leader without knowing exactly where s/he wants to lead others. And most importantly, how to get there with them, or how to put them on the road so they could continue the journey if when the inevitable happens.
To acquire the last of those three things, Ken started off in the grocery business. Yes, he started off selling things like milk and bread. This profile does not fit that of a typical Nigerian politician. He could easily have gone into taking contracts from governments, or cultivating the ‘friendship’ of some ‘big’ men and women in order to get back into government, or something like that. But no, he started by selling grocery. But because his aim was quite high, despite his humble means, he knew how to ‘save the pennies and reinvest’ as he said in one of the stories in his A Forest of Flowers. Ken was very fiscally responsible. One piece of advice he gave his son, reported in In the Shadow of a Saint was that ‘if Jesus saves’ so must he! One of his lawyers, Sam Amadi, reported that Ken would scrutinize all the expenditure his family was making while he was in prison with a death sentence hanging over his head. One day Ken was unhappy that bottled water was boughtmfor him. The lawyer was surprised that a man of Ken’s worth would bother about the cost of bottled water. Ken gave him a classic answer: ‘Why buy water when you can boil it?’ Isn’t Nigeria crying out for that kind of fiscal responsibility? (For instance, why buy generators while we can generate our own electricity? Or why import fuel when we can refine it? The list can go on). Ken’s initial hard work as a business man paid off for soon he started supplying grocery to big customers; and that was when the big bucks started rolling in (apologies to Eddy Murphy in his classic ‘Coming to America’). This kind of knowledge about where one wants to go and how to get there reminds one of Barack Obama choosing to work as a community organizer, and refusing to be seduced by the glories of Wall Street. As Friedrich Nietzsche, the great German philosopher put it, “He who does not know how to find the way to his ideal lives more frivolously and impudently than the man without an ideal.”
Once Ken felt that his bank account was healthy enough for him not to have what we have come to know today in Nigeria as a godfather, he began to organize his people. That was how MOSOP was born. He had effectively cultivated patience as well for despite serious temptations, he refused to let the struggle turn violent. No wonder he was nominated for the Noble Prize for Peace but was murdered before that glory could come his way. As the struggle took off, he authored The Ogoni Bill of Rights, a document that I will advice everybody to read carefully for it contains a blueprint of how to make not just the Niger Delta but the whole country great.
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When Abuja began to feel the heat coming from this sweet little man and his equally tiny part of the country, they knew it was time to talk. The dark-goggled General, whom Ken had known when the former was serving in PH, thought he could buy Ken off. An offer of any ministerial post was put on the table for Ken to take his pick. But Ken instead asked the hedonist General to sign the The Ogoni Bill of Rights. The dark-goggled one felt slighted. What type of Nigerian would refuse such a blank check? If he doesn’t want to be a minister, what else could he possibly want to be? Confusion. A scheme for a sweet revenge was already in the works from that point on. Of course there were other interested groups who were feeling the heat as well. They found a very valuable ally in the dumb General. The recent out-of-court settlement by Shell is a case in point. Ken may be in the grave but his ideas are very much alive.
I think it is this aspect of Ken’s astute leadership that progressives in Nigeria should emulate. Before Ken started his struggle there was no OMPADEC, no NDDC, the pittance the oil producing states were receiving from the federal government was an abject insult. The ND (for Niger Delta), was one desolate, depressing sight. The people and the land were being treated with unmitigated disdain. Now more money is deservedly pouring into the area, even though it is breeding corruption, but that is another story altogether. Serious talks about meaningful development are actually going on currently. It is becoming increasingly clear to the oppressors that short cuts are no longer going to work. In short, the plight of the people of the ND is now one of the burning issues in the country. Ken told his oppressors that whether the struggle will remain as peaceful as he wants it will depend on the tactics they want to use. What is happening in the ND today has shown that he is absolutely right. Ask the head that lies at Aso Rock what its biggest headache is and it will tell you it is the ND.
With this type of stellar result, is it any wonder that Ken and his ideas are and will remain at the centre of the Ogoni and the ND narrative for a long time to come? Ken is still leading his people from the grave, just like one other Nigerian I admire, Awo, has been doing for his own people. Now one may argue that these are regional leaders. But all politics, as one wit quipped, is local. That is, even though it does not have to be all local, it usually must have a robust local foundation. And in all likelihood, the kind of local foundation that Awo and Ken cultivated would ensure a strong national showing when the occasion calls for it.
And so, as we commemorate the 14th anniversary of the judicial murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa, I cannot help asking, as a Nigerian: When are we going to get a good leader to lead us on the national level? As I ask this question, I am aware that a great leader does not need to be officially in power to lead. So let me reframe the question: When are we going to get a leader who, like Ken, can lead us with great ideas? And even if s/he does not eventually get into official power, would forever make it impossible for mediocrity to thrive as leadership in Nigeria? For what have we been having on the national scene if not unadulterated mediocrity?
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