In Nigeria then and now, fighting multinational oil companies is like fighting government and oil drunk corrupt ruling elites. On November 10 1995, Ken & other Ogoni 9 were judicially murdered.
This was the title of the article by Justice Akinola Aguda published by the Guardian many years ago during Saint Abacha regime of terror and looting .The late eminent jurist wrote the reflective piece after returning from the civilized world where he met other eminent judges, law practitioners at a conference.
Ken Saro-Wiwa & other members of Ogoni 9 environmental activists had just been judicially murdered by an Abacha court in one of the fastest trials, fastest executions of judgment via a most gruesome murder. Ken was killed by guillotine and his corpse dried with concentrated acid. The despotic Abacha junta tried the Ogoni 9 for allegedly killing their fellow Ogoni leaders through a mob action.
The judgement literally came on Ken & other 9 ever before the alleged offence was committed. It's oddly understandable, Ken was mobilizing the mass of Ogoni patriots against Shell Oil Corporation's despoliation of Ogoni ecosystem through pollution and economic exploitation of his people. In Nigeria then and now, fighting multinational oil companies is like fighting government and oil drunk corrupt ruling elites. On November 10 1995, Ken & other Ogoni 9 were judicially murdered.
The whole country divided along ideological class and moral basis. Abacha junta, it's AGF, government lawyers & many "serekode bolekaja anyhow" lawyers and the regime's automated Abobakus defended the killings as "no big deal". The civil society groups, the old radical NANS, NLC, human rights & pro-democracy activists led by Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Kuti, Femi Falana, Segun Sango, Olisa Agbakoba, Omotoye Olorode, Dipo Fashina, Lanre Arogundade, Femi Aborisade, Soyinka etc cried blue murder against the obviously premeditated judicial murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the main target, a playwright, poet, dramatist and the creator of Basi & Company, the now rested popular satarical TV program on NTA Network.
Abacha rolled out tanks to kill more people so as to prevent any protests but we defied their bullets. The most shocking thing was the declaration by Abacha junta that the killing of Saro Wiwa & Co was an internal affair of Nigeria so "sobolation" & "Amebo" foreign countries should shut up their dirty but civilized mouth. "We own our citizens, we can do and undo anything with them".
I remember one unrepentant sobolation foreign minister, reminding Abacha that in as much as Nigeria is a member of UN, they wouldn't allow Abacha junta to go mad at will or be allowed to enjoy their madness always because Nigeria is a member of the international community guided by basic human right decorum. It's like saying, we can't allow a madman to bury his mother the way he wants because he may decide to roast his mother's corpse and eat it for dinner..
It was during this image crisis of Nigeria in the eyes of the civilized world that Justice Akinola Aguda traveled out for a global conference. Aguda noted that almost everyone at the conference wanted to know about the oddity that just happened in his country. At every corner he turned to, tea time, , dinner time, group discussion, even while strolling, the curious oyinbo people wanted to know why, why the justice sector was so lawless, why he and other world renowned jurists and legal practitioners couldn't do anything about it. Those who came to ask him were even better than many who just looked at him curiously as a man from a strange country.
I read Aguda's article twice that day and I managed to picture how he would feel in such a global gathering . A renowned jurist with towering height now being embarrassed and reduced in status because rogues had taken over his beloved country, captured the judiciary, captured the people, intimidated or bribed the media into silence, changed the narrative to suit their purpose.
With the recent arraignment of many underage walking human skeletons called suspects in court turned to a sickbay, for treason charge for their alleged violent participation in August EndBadGovernance protests, I hope President Tinubu, his AGF, ministers of foreign affairs, the nation's ambassadors in the civilized world and the regime's Abobaku, psychophantic judges and lawyers, are very ready to answer the questions they can never answer correctly before the international community. Why children from 13 years of age, who ordinarily should be in school, can be arrested and detained for 90 days, famished, tortured and later marched to the court like walking corpses in the same country where those criminals who destroyed and looted their country dry are in power or are still walking arrogantly with impunity because the law and the court are in their inner pockets.
Adeola Soetan
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