Dear Peoples of the Niger Delta,
“We must dare to invent the future…while revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas” -Thomas Sankara
When they finally convict former Liberian dictator, Charles Taylor [and they will] of his numerous crimes against humanity, we regret that he will not have been charged with one of his most dastardly of crimes…his engineering of the murder of Captain Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara, the charismatic, populist and revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso (formerly known as Upper Volta) from 1983 to 1987, who evoked the respect of millions of progressives worldwide, not least of whom was our own iconoclast and nobody’s fool, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who even immortalized Sankara in song.
Who was this young man, Sankara, whose philosophy of life could be summed up in the following words of his: “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. […] We must dare to invent the future”
Thomas Sankara was a popular figure in the nation’s capital, Ouagadougou, long before he became involved in Burkina Faso’s politics. The fact that he was a decent guitarist (he played in a band named “Tout-à-Coup Jazz”) and liked motorbikes may have contributed to his charisma.
In 1976 he became commander of the Commando Training Centre and in the same year he met Blaise Compaoré, a fellow Burkinabe, in Morocco. During the presidency of Colonel Saye Zerbo, a group of young officers formed a secret organisation “Communist Officers’ Group” (Regroupement des officiers communistes, or ROC) the best-known members being Henri Zongo, Compaoré and Sankara.
Sankara was appointed Secretary of State for Information in the military government in September 1981, journeying to his first cabinet meeting on a bicycle, but he resigned on April 1982, in opposition to what he saw as the regime’s anti-labour drift, declaring “Misfortune to those who gag the people!” (“Malheur à ceux qui baillonnent le peuple!”)
After another coup brought to power Major-Doctor Ouedraogo, Sankara became prime minister in January 1983, but he was dismissed five months later and placed under house arrest after a visit by the French president’s son and African affairs adviser Jean-Christophe Mitterrand. Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani were also placed under arrest. This caused a popular uprising.
A coup d’état organised by Blaise Compaoré made Sankara President on August 4, 1983 at the age of 33. Sankara saw himself as a revolutionary and was inspired by the examples of Cuba, and of Ghana’s military leader, Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings. As President, he promoted the “Democratic and Popular Revolution” (Révolution démocratique et populaire, or RDP). The ideology of the Revolution was defined by Sankara as anti-imperialist in a speech of October 2, 1983, the Discours d’orientation politique (DOP), written by his close associate Valere Some.
His policy was oriented toward fighting corruption, promoting reforestation, averting famine, making education and health real priorities; and promoting women’s rights.
The fact that Sankara, like Rawlings and Mandela before him (nearly even like Obasanjo!), was called names, reviled and declared an enemy-of-the-state, did not keep him from ending up a respected leader, loved by his people, dreaded by enemies of his nation, and globally admired as a role model whose resilience, love for humanity and futuristic vision are worthy of emulation even today, decades after he was killed by evil detractors.
Sankara lives on! How? You may well ask. Sankara lives on because, as he succinctly put it himself, “you cannot kill ideas”. Nor can you kill destiny.
Which is why many Niger Deltans are resolved to continue fighting for the rights of the peoples of the region….for justice….for equity….for freedom from being perpetually kept down by feudalistic oppressors (and collaborating corrupt sons and daughters of the region!) who treat them as chattel…as slaves that do not have ownership over their own land, waters, resources…not even ownership of their lives!
Which is why we find many citizens of the region rejecting amnesty in the form it is being offered by a probably-well-meaning, but ill-advised, President Yar’Adua who refuses to pull his head out of the ground and acknowledge that he is going downhill into a ravine as long as he refuses to admit that the Niger Delta crisis is an international one that needs a modicum of international mediation/arbitration/observation to expedite its resolution.
Which is why the unending demonization of the armed and unarmed progressives in the region, plus the ongoing not-so-subtle nigh-genocidal killings in the region, may slow the speed at which the region will realise its full destiny and potential….but it cannot stop that day of glorious social, political and economic emancipation from dawning.
The Niger Delta struggle is unstoppably destined to triumph, because it is a mass of ideas really…of man being allowed to reach his God-given limits…of not being subject to some fools’ feudal limitations….of being all that God wills you to be.
That’s what Kings Jaja and Nana fought for. That’s what Adaka Boro and Kenule Saro-Wiwa died for. That’s what Asari is being demonized for. That’s what Henry Okah is being vilified for. And that’s what millions will continue to strive for now and in the future. And the future is NOW and will exist as we dare to birth it!
Only those who dare, win, brethren of the Niger Delta; “we must dare to invent the future”, always remembering that “while revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas”
“The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off ….how can I? Light up the darkness!”— Bob Marley
Written by Tony Uranta Friday, 08 May 2009
Source : http://www.vanguardngr.com//
