The Paramount Ruler of the Baroko Community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, Kadilo Kaabari, revealed that the people of Ogoni are marginalized like modern-day political slaves in the state.
Kaabari conveyed his disappointment during a visit to his palace by the socio-cultural political group Sor Ogoni on Wednesday.
He expressed his sorrow that no one from the prominent Ogoni local governments, Gokana and Khana, had been appointed as a commissioner in Governor Siminilayi Fubara’s current administration.
He urged the leaders of KAGOTE, the apex Ogoni socio-cultural group, to wake up from their complacency and fight for the rights of their people.
The monarch stated, “Imagine we the Ogoni people that even the colonial masters could not conquer are now seen as modern-day political slaves with no voice due to the antics of some politicians who I prefer to call ‘beauticians’.”
“Imagine that up till now Khana and Gokana has no Commissioner in the Rivers State Executive Council. We cannot see Julius Berger doing internal roads in any part of Ogoni land.”
He accused the Ogoni leaders, especially those in elected positions, of standing by and doing nothing while the palace of a prominent Ogoni king was being desecrated in public.
Mene Kaabari said, “We even as a Chairman, Supreme Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers, King Godwin Giniwa and his tool desecrated with no one taking.”
“Where is KAGOTE, KAGOTE of old? Where is MOSOP? Where are the so-called elected representatives? From this ancient throne of my ancestors, I assure you, Ogoni shall rise again.”
He also said that his predecessor, Mene Barikura Kabari, a former executive chairman of Gokana LGA, will always be remembered for his role in the struggle for the Ogoni people’s political emancipation.
According to him, “Though few of them still exist, Chief Dr. Barikura Kabari represents what I may call the last crop of patriotic fearless, and selfless leaders of the Ogoni ethnic extraction.
“He was not just a former Gokana council chairman, but also a renowned medical doctor and educated Paramount Ruler who died standing to be counted in the struggle for our political emancipation as a people as against the kind of leaders we have today.”
Elder Jude Nwiko, the National Coordinator of Sor Ogoni, said that the visit was to remember Mene Barikura Kabari, whose contributions to the Ogoni political struggle are a timeless legacy.