Nigeria-Ogoni,sched-lead
   Emotional Obasanjo honours late political activist
   by Joe Obi
   ATTENTION - ADDS details, colour, quotes ///

   BORI, Nigeria, Sept 21 (AFP) - President Olusegun Obasanjo made an
emotionally-charged appeal Thursday to the Ogoni people to unite in memory
of
their late leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and put the past behind them after years of
suffering under military rule.
   Obasanjo was welcomed by a crowd of thousands of as he made the first
visit
by a Nigerian leader to this politically-explosive region since the
execution
in 1995 of Saro-Wiwa, a writer and Ogoni rights activist.
   In a voice laden with emotion, the president elected last year after
more
than 15 years of military rule, asked the crowd to hold a minute's silence
for
Saro-Wiwa and his eight supporters, executed in 1995.
   "Let us stand and observe a minute's silence for the sons of Ogoni who
paid
the supreme sacrifice," he said.
   Obasanjo, who himself spent more than three years in jail under late
military dictator General Sani Abacha, and was given a death sentence which
was later reprieved, said he understood what the Ogonis had suffered.
   "I feel touched because I know what it means to have death hanging over
your head," he said.
   But the president urged Ogonis to unite in working to develop the
economy
of an impoverished area, rich in oil but poor in infrastructure and jobs.
   "I don't want to say forget the past, otherwise we might repeat the
mistakes of the past," Obasanjo said. "But let us put the past behind us so
that we can move forward."
   The president arrived in Bori, the 'capital' of 'Ogoniland' around 10:00
a.m. (0900 GMT) Thursday and was greeted by local Ogoni chiefs. He was
given a
traditional Ogoni costume to wear and gifts.
   The Ogonis are just one of dozens of small ethnic minorities in the
impoverished oil-producing region of Nigeria.
   They became known around the world after the 1995 execution of Saro-Wiwa
who had campaigned for greater autonomy for the Ogoni people. The region
had
been put under heavy military rule in 1994.
   Obasanjo was Thursday on the second day of a three-day visit to the
oil-producing region and was heading later in the day to nearby Bonny
Island
to officially open a massive new natural gas plant.
   Since coming to power, Obasanjo has pledged to develop the delta region
and
tackle the grinding poverty of its people.
   The organisation founded by Saro-Wiwa, the Movement for the Survival of
the
Ogoni People (MOSOP), welcomed the president's visit.
   "MOSOP welcomes the president's coming here. It is long overdue. He is
the
president of Nigeria and of course he should come," a spokesman told AFP
Wednesday.
   "MOSOP and its supporters have suffered tremendously to see the
enthronement of democracy in Nigeria and an elected president visiting is
about democracy," he added.
   The visit was not however without controversy.
   Obasanjo pleased locals with a renewed pledge to force oil companies to
end
harmful gas flaring but was tasked by some sections of the crowd over human
rights, including the destruction by the army last year of the town of Odi
in
Bayelsa State where 12 policemen were killed.
   str-pcj/kc

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------