Yesterday, I got wind of the fact that my adorable Uncle Sam Amuka, the universally respected veteran journalist and owner of this newspaper (who turns 90 today), was going to get a national honour. And sure enough, when President Tinubu’s Democracy Day address was read out during a joint session of the National Assembly, Uncle Sam’s name was there. And I was thrilled that he had been so recognised.

HOWEVER, in the very next paragraph, the following announcement was made and the smile was wiped off my face and I went into shock:

“I also confer posthumous national honours on Ken Saro Wiwa (CON), the leader of the Ogoni Nine and his fellow travellers, Saturday Dobee (OON), Nordu Eawo (OON), Daniel Gbooko (OON), Paul Levera (OON), Felix Nuate (OON), Baribor Bera (OON), Barinem Kiobel (OON), and John Kpuine (OON). I shall also be exercising my powers under the prerogative of mercy to grant these national heroes a full pardon…”

Since Ken was accused of inciting evil thugs who were loyal to him rather than of killing anyone, I can live with Ken being pardoned.

But as far as I am concerned, his so-called fellow-travellers were directly responsible for the deaths of 4 distinguished Ogoni chiefs – my dear uncles, Edward Kobani, Albert Badey, Theophilus Orage and Sam Orage – who were brutally assassinated in broad daylight.

As far as I am concerned, the Ogoni Nine should never be forgiven for this heinous crime, never mind described as heroes. Only God knows who advised Mr President to bestow national honours on them…AND to totally ignore their victims (whose bodies have never been recovered).

I could be wrong, but I am so accustomed to obviously bad decisions being made by the government in this insanely dysfunctional country; and I strongly suspect that Tinubu has been told that placating violent elements in Ogoniland will make the resumption of oil activities easier.

There is, after all, plenty of money to be made (by individuals as well as by companies and the authorities) from the reactivation of our substantial but long-dormant hydrocarbon resources.

Ogoni Nine fans have been loudly agitating for government pardons for years and blaming the army for slaughtering Kobani et al, while Ogoni Four advocates have been doggedly opposing this push for posthumous pardons and accusing the Ogoni Nine of using soldiers as scapegoats.

So why did Tinubu take sides without providing any evidence to support his humiliating rubbishing of the Ogoni Four faction’s position?

Could it be that because we Ogoni Four people are infinitely more civilized than those who killed our fathers, uncles, brothers, husbands and sons, it has been decided that it is safer to antagonize us than to antagonize those who have proved that they are capable of murder? 

Whatever the President’s motivation may be, the bottom line is that a grave injustice has been inflicted on the loved ones of the Badey, Orage and Kobani families. And I hope that it will one day be rectified.

And, by the way, my late father, Ignatius Suage Kogbara, also got a national award; and I am wondering whether I have a right to protest on his behalf and return his OON to the government in disgust….because I can assure you that Daddy is turning in his grave and would not want to belong to the same club as Ogoni Nine psychos.

CRY ME A RIVERS!

Another unhappy aspect of Democracy Day was the president’s failure to restore democracy in Rivers, my home state.

We have been unfairly subjected to a state of emergency since March when our governor, Sim Fubara, was suspended and replaced by a military administrator who is not an indigene and is spending our money anyhow.

Fubara is not my favourite person right now, for reasons you will understand if you check out recent “Nigeria Unfiltered” podcasts on my YouTube channel (titled Donu’s World).

In a nutshell, I regard him as too timid, too weak and too reluctant to thank those who have stood by him since he was tossed onto the political scrapheap. And if he stands for election today, I will definitely not vote for him. Bluntly put, I prefer his deputy, Dr Ngozi Odu.

But as much as Sim annoys me, I still think he should be reinstated!

Tinubu was a pro-democracy NADECO activist in his younger days.  

Democracy Day would have been a perfect opportunity for him to backtrack, re-embrace the liberal side of his personality and show Rivers people that he has not become an irredeemable dictator in old age.