HISTORY MEMOIRS: NIGERIA FROM MY CHILDHOOD LENS

Who killed Marshall Harry?

Who killed Bola Ige?

Who killed Aminasoari Kala Dikibo?

Who killed Funsho Williams?

Who spearheaded all the other political assassinations that have taken place in Nigeria from the inception of our “new” democracy in 1999, till date?

As a 10-year-old child, I was pretty observant. I read the papers almost daily and I eavesdropped on political conversations in the family. I think what sparked my interest in politics was the murder of an Imo State senatorial aspirant, Ogbonnaya Uche, the father of a girl whom I really admired in primary school. I stood for academic excellence & distinguishment, and watching Ojiugo Uche (daughter of the slain politician) called out so many times to accept academic awards on her graduation marvelled me. I, just a year from graduating at the time, made a pact with myself that I too would be called out.

On Saturday 8^th February 2003, 3 alleged gunmen shot Chief Ogbonnaya Uche in his Owerri house. Being a frontline politician for All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP), major rival to the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). His assassination was suspected to have been politically instigated.

Before Ogbonnaya Uche’s assassination he was running for Imo State’s  Orlu constituency Senatorial seat. He was the ANPP flag bearer and his major opponent at the time was PDP’s Arthur Nzeribe.

Arthur Nzeribe is known to be the longest serving Senator in Nigeria, he’s known for his die-hard attitude and also as politician who cannot be double-crossed. I am not implying that Mr Nzeribe was involved in OGB’s murder but I am concerned that I did not find any records that showed that the police took in Arthur Nzeribe or any other political opponnents in for questioning after OGB’s assassination. I believe it is only logical that in cases that seem to have political involvement, opponents should be interrogated. After police investigations, a group of hoodlums were paraded as his assassinators, no political big wigs were indicted, OGB was laid to rest and the chapter of his assassination was closed up soon. I was only a child when all of this happened, but that was when I lost all faith in Nigeria’s Police Force.

I remember the name Marshall Harry vividly. Judging from how often his name was mentioned when I was around people in Port Harcourt who were interested in Politics, I viewed him as some sort of political legend. Chief Marshall Isokrari Harry was a very active PDP stalwart in 1999. He decamped to the ANPP (All Nigeria’s People Party) later on. He became the South-south co-ordinator during the 2003 General elections. It was recorded that Marshall Harry applied to use the Liberation Stadium Port Harcourt to kick off the ANPP’s campaign rally. He was asked to pay Seven million, five hundred thousand Naira for a stadium that was used earlier on by the PDP and they only paid Eight hundred thousand Naira. Chief Marshall Harry spoke out saying that he refused to be harassed and intimidated by the PDP. Marshall Harry finally made the payment of Seven million, five hundred thousand Naira to secure the stadium for use on the 8^th of March, 2003 but he was shot at his house on the 5^th of March, 2003.

On the 5^th of March 2003, the then ANPP chairman Don Etiebet released a statement making it known that he felt the PDP was responsible for Marshall’s death. I am writing this essay in 2013 but no PDP members have been indicted,

A group of hoodlums were paraded as the killers on national media, but were the sponsors ever found? The hoodlums didn’t take any of Marshall Harry’s valuables so the theory that it was an assassination with high-end sponsors is valid.

 In Port Harcourt circles, Aminasoari Kala Dikibo popularly known as A.K Dikibo was another name I always saw in the papers. I remember waking up one morning barely a year after Marshall Harry was murdered and hearing people say “Ah, they don kill A.K Dikibo oh”. The then President and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Retired General Olusegun Obasanjo declared in a media chat that armed robbers killed AKD. He was the Vice-chairman of the PDP South-south region, he was known to be very opinionated. He was on his way to a zonal meeting when he was murdered. Several questions arose as to what the purpose of the meeting was, If AKD was acting as an obstacle to the intentions of certain politicians, and so on. Are we going to pretend that he was slain by a group of armed robbers? There were no political connections? Lets assume that he was truly killed by armed robbers, why weren’t they found?

How can a Country’s Attorney General be murdered and up till date, his killers have not been found? How is it that all the people arrested and tried for the murder of the ATTORNEY GENERAL OF A FEDERATION were acquitted? This to me is very mind-boggling. Chief Ajibola Ige was murdered on the 23^rd of December 2001. 12 years on, we are still waiting on the Government and The Nigerian Police Force to tell us their findings after Investigating. We want to know what happened to Bola Ige!

The people mentioned above are only a few of the politicians who have lost their lives in Nigeria’s so-called “New found Democracy” I have asked myself a lot of times if Nigeria is worth dying for. I am not unpatriotic, I love my country but I feel like we are terminally ill. Any man with vision who tries to speak up against the ills in our government is cut down and the change we seek is still very far away from us. We are still burdened with the same under-developed infrastructure we faced in 1999 and in some cases, worsened situations. An example would be Federal Government Colleges and Tertiary Institutions.

The Government and the Nigerian Police Force owe the families of every single slain politician, reports on their investigation. I personally believe that most of the assassinations were spear- headed by people in the government at the time. We will never forget our slain heroes, they have been penned down in our history memoirs and their legacy would guide us, the youth. I can only wish that one day the killers amongst us face the music and pay the price for all the atrocities against humanity they have committed.