By Kolawole Ojebisi
Former Nigerian Senator, Ben Birabi, has accused the Tinubu administration of what he described as “historical revisionism” by its gesture of awarding posthumous National Awards to the late Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight other Ogoni brethen.
Birabi alleged that Saro-Wiwa and his co-travellers are not martyrs but murderers justly convicted for their action.
According to the former lawmaker, the original conflict within MOSOP and the subsequent killings stemmed not from oil resistance, but from ego and political rivalry.
Birabi, who is a veteran of the Ogoni struggle and one of the founding voices behind the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), spoke on Arise TV news on Tuesday.
He said, “I’m not worried about the pardon because it doesn’t change the facts. But what I will not accept is the insult to Ogoni by claiming that the people convicted for murder are martyrs.
“Martyrs fight and die for a cause. What was the cause here? People were killed in broad daylight. The killers were known. It wasn’t persecution; it was murder. The mob did not wear masks.”
Birabi continued: “The killing had nothing to do with oil. It was about personal power and bitterness. Ken Saro-Wiwa lost an election in 1977 and feared losing again. He instigated young people and created chaos,”
He further alleged. “He gathered youths and told them that unless they lock down Birabi, nobody in the village would succeed.”
He recalled narrowly escaping death himself during the crisis.
“On June 12, I was stabbed in my house. My pyjamas still carry the blood. Since then, Ogoni has never been the same.
.“Some of those who supervised the killing are receiving national awards today. That’s what propaganda does. It doesn’t change reality. And the reality is that innocent people were murdered.” he added.
The Ogoni veteran called on the Federal Government to revisit the case of those murdered as a means of ensuring justice and not mockery.
Birabi stated, “We cannot move forward by urinating on the graves of our murdered elites and calling it peace.
“The president can pardon anyone, but those who were killed were human beings. They deserve justice, not mockery.”
