11 Nov 2005 |
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The day Kenule Saro-Wiwa was judicially murdered was a deeply sad day for all progressive-minded Nigerians and the world at large. In fact, it is safe to say that his murder was the apogee or climax of Abacha’s barbarity.
On that day, I wrote two articles and was on my way to Rutam House, Isolo, the abode of The Guardian, to see the Editorial page Editor, Rueben Abati and submit these for publication when I ran into a combined police/army checkpoint close to the place. They searched the vehicle I was in, took out the hard copies of the articles I’d written (one of these was actually a Sonnet I wrote as a tribute to the great man) and tore them to shreds immediately. They then bundled me to a police station in Oshodi, accusing me of “sabotaging the government�. To cut a long story short, I spent the night at the station.
Below is that Sonnet (it was published at the time in some of the national dailies)
SONNET FOR THE BROKEN PIPE (A tribute to Ken Saro-Wiwa)
Grieved by this tender clothing on wild growing grass You stuff them brittle into this dug altar Lined on all sides with well-seasoned brass A prayer never to falter
You have puffed the crudity of our thoughts In hazy rings of tangled smoke And like Shakespeare’s Daniel burnt up our courts In a wriggling mass of huge joke
Now they knock off ashes In their sanitary best They that nurture rashes In their place of rest
Knock real harder Old Soldier For this Broken Pipe you need to badger
Kennedy C Emetulu
November 10, 1995
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