03/12/2020
From Mercy Bassey...
THE LAST STATEMENT OF KEN SARO WIWA AT THE
MILITARY TRIBUNAL IN 1995(11)
My lord, since my arrest on the 21st of May, 1994 I have
been subjected to physical and mental torture, held
incommunicado and denied food for weeks and medical
attention for months. My seventy-four year old mother has
been whipped and arrested, my
wife beaten and threatened with detention, the three
telephone lines to my office and residence cut and the they
remain cut to this day, my office and home have been
ransacked on three different occasions and personal and
family property, official files and documents taken away
without documentation. I have been calumniated in the
press and on satellite television before the whole world by
a Rivers State government anxious to prejudice the mind of
the public and to convince that public of my guilt even
before trial. Only recently, before the United Nations
Committee for the Eradication of Racism and Discrimination
in Geneva, an official delegation of the Federal Government
which included the Special Adviser on Legal Affairs to the
Head of State, Professor Yazudu, declared me responsible
for the murders which are the subject of this Tribunal, even
before Tribunal has found against me or anyone else.
The fact that a case of homicide is being charged before a
Tribunal set up under Decree No. 2 of 1987 speaks for
itself. I am aware of the many strictures laid against the
decree and this Tribunal by local and international
observers. All the same, I
have followed the proceedings here with keen and detailed
interest, not only because I am charged before this
Tribunal, but also because, as a writer, I am a custodian of
the conscience of society. I regret that the legal counsel I
freely chose, Gani Fawhimi, the human rights hero and pride
of this country, was forced to withdraw. His withdrawal has
denied credibility to this
trial.
With the permission of the Tribunal, I would now like to
make a filmic representation which will graphically
demonstrate all that I have said here and amplify the details
thereof.
My lord, we all stand before history. I am a man of peace,
of ideas. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people
who live on a richly-endowed land, distressed by their
political marginalization and economic strangulation,
angered by the
devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to
preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and
determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and
just democratic system which protects everyone and every
ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human
civilization, I have
devoted all my intellectual and material resources, my very
life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I
cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all
about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials
and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may
encounter
on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our
ultimate victory.
I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my
colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on
trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said
to be holding a watching brief. The company has, indeed,
ducked this particular
trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learnt
here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt in my mind
that the ecological war the company has waged in the delta
will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes
of that war duly punished. The crime of the company's dirty
wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.
On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and all
those who assist them. Any nation which can do to the
weak and disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done
to the Ogoni, loses a claim to independence and to freedom
from outside
influence. I am not one of those who shy away from
protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are
expected from a military regime. The military do not act
alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians,
lawyers, judges, academics and
businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they
are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to
wash their pants of their urine. We all stand on trial, my
lord, for by our actions we have denigrated our country and
jeopardized the future of our children. As we subscribe to
the sub-normal and accept double standards, as we lie and
cheat openly, as we protect injustice and oppression, we
empty our classrooms, degrade our hospitals, fill our
stomachs with hunger and elect to make ourselves the
slaves of those who subscribe to higher standards, pursue
the truth, and honour justice, freedom and hard work.
I predict that the scene here will be played and replayed by
generations yet unborn. Some have already cast themselves
in the role of villains, some are tragic victims, some still
have a chance to redeem themselves. The choice is for
each individual.
I predict that a denouement of the riddle of the Niger delta
will soon come. The agenda is being set at this trial.
Whether the peaceful ways I have favoured will prevail
depends on what the oppressor decides, what signals it
sends out to the waiting
public.
In my innocence of the false charges I face here, in my utter
conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the
Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria
to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their
rights. History is on their side, God is on their side. For the
Holy Quran says in Sura 42, verse 41: "All those who fight,
when oppressed incur no guilt, but Allah shall punish the
oppressor." Come the day.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Port Harcourt
21st September, 1995.
