“It is one regrettable accident of history that has left a very painful lasting wound on the sanity of the whole of Ogoni ever since” – Rt. Hon. Dekor
30yrs ago, precisely 21st May, 1994, calamity befell our land of birth, the great Ogoni ethnic Nationality which claimed with it a generation of first class intellectuals of our time namely: Mr. Albert Badey, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Samuel Orage and Chief Theophilus Orage.
It is one regrettable accident of history that has left a very painful lasting wound on the sanity of the whole of Ogoni ever since.
How true it relives in our minds that the blood of the innocent is the seed of democracy.
Today, we remember these four great Ogonis and others who paid the supreme sacrifice for their love and firm belief in the progress, peaceful development and one united indivisible Ogoni ethnic nationality.
I feel personally pained remembering that episode and circumstances that led to this ugly side of our history.
As we mark the 30 years of the demise of these great Ogoni leaders, I urge our dear people rather than continue to mourn and apportion blames to be more forward looking and united as a people.
The best that could be done to ensure that the sacrifice of these great Ogoni leaders is not in vain is to sustain their legendary legacy of one united Ogoni.
Painful and sorrowful though it is, but as Christians, we must not mourn like those without hope. Our departed fathers have played their part and gone, leaving the stage for ‘we the living today’ until we meet to part no more. The big question is “What will history remember you for while you lived”.
It’s against this backdrop that I make bold to say that the best ‘Thank you’ to the great Ogoni 4 for all that they mean to us and represent for the Ogoni nation, is to hold tenaciously and protect that which they labored for, and laid their lives for love – development and peace in Ogoni.
May I also use this opportunities to appeal to all Ogoni leaders, elders, chiefs, youths and women irrespective of their political leanings, to mend fences with one another, close ranks and work in unison for the common good of all of us.
May we also be consoled by the great counsel that good men die, but death cannot kill their names. No doubt, our Heroes: Mr. Albert Badey, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Samuel Orage and Chief Theophilus Orage live on and will forever do.
May the Almighty God continually grant their immediate families, their loved ones and the entire Ogoni the fortitude to bear this irreplaceable loss, and the souls of the departed, peaceful rest.
Signed:
Rt. Hon. Dumnamene Robinson Dekor, KJW, DSSRS
Member Representing Khana/Gokana Federal Constituency,
Chairman House Committee on Host Communities
