And Olaitan Died By Malcolm Fabiyi
Posted: May 6, 2012 - 23:17
Posted by siteadmin
Admin FieldsHighlight on homepage: Highlight on Homepage Top Item: Highlight as a Top Item


caption: Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde
By Malcolm Fabiyi
I remember the day I met you almost two decades ago as if it was yesterday. I was President of the University of Lagos Students’ Union at the time. I had just been released after 30 days of torture and detention in Abacha’s gulag. The period after was one of flux. There were wounds to heal from and the local challenges of leading a proscribed and demoralized Union at Unilag to attend to. But, there was also a national struggle to fight. June 12 had been annulled, an illegitimate government was in place, and all patriots had a role to play in the urgent struggle for the restoration of democracy.

The safe house at Mushin was our theater. I still smile, even now through tears, as I recall that four of us, five sometimes, shared a bed, and a chair in that face-me-I-face-you apartment that we shared. I recall the long nights of discussion and debate during which we – you, me, Revo, Femi, Kola, and sometimes Aremson and Sango - talked about literally everything under the sun; from the Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyite-Stalinist divisions in Nigerian socialist progressive circles, to the Cuban revolution, the sheer incredulity of Castro’s march through the Sierra Maestra and his eventual takeover of Cuba; we talked of Che Guevera’s contributions to the Cuban and global revolutionary struggle; and we debated Nigeria’s turbulent political landscape and the path forward. You held the strong view that the labor movement was essential to the Nigerian struggle. It was at Mushin that I discovered the works and contributions of Mokwugo Okoye, Raji Abdallah and others – whose names are not in the history books, but whose contributions to the Nigerian nation are without parallel.

You were a force of nature, and your frame belied the fire that raged in your bones. Your intellect was fierce and piercing. If most people who have read reports of your passing do not know you, if they do not understand what has led to the outpouring of grief and this outrage at your violent death, it is because it was in your nature never to seek a stage or platform for yourself. You were content to organize, to work fervently but silently behind the scenes. Those who had the good fortune to cross paths with you, to sit with you, to live with you and to learn from you know that Nigeria has lost one of its brightest lights. The assassins of Edo, did not just kill a man, they killed a pure and a gentle soul, a true patriot. The heavens are one star dimmer.

But it was not all politics, talk of struggle or revolution and intellectual disputations with you. You played as hard as you worked. You introduced me to Baba 70, and exposed me to the cultural and emotional side of activism. It was with you that I first went to Fela’s Shrine. It was through you that I got to meet and to know a number of people who have since made indelible marks in my life.

Ironically, it is another incident involving Edo State that comes to my mind when I remember you. In 1994, at the height of the June 12 crisis a NANS Senate meeting was convened at Auchi Polytechnic in Edo State. It was an important convention, one in which a position was to be taken by NANS on the Abacha dictatorship. We all agreed that every progressive voice had to be at that convention to push for continued resistance to military rule by Nigerian students, to complement the efforts of NUPENG and PENGASSAN. There was concern that if we had no voice present, the reactionary elements within NANS would sabotage the struggle. As a Students Union President, I was also a NANS Senator – with a voice and a vote at the Auchi Senate meeting. We had limited funds, but when did that ever stop us from moving forward? The UNILAG contingent consisted of myself, Deji Kolawole, then Speaker of the University of Lagos Student’s Union Parliament, Tope Ajeigbe and Jones Idonije (of blessed memory), both stalwarts of the struggle. You and Femi Obayori helped us raise whatever monies you could in Lagos, and then you handed me a note and said if we ever ran into any trouble, we should drop by to see Osagie Obayuwana in Benin. “Osagie will take care of you if the need arises” you said. Well Olaitan, we ran into trouble. The not too Luxurious, Luxury Bus that we boarded from Ojota to Benin, broke down after Ore. The driver promptly disappeared with all of our fares. The hapless conductor was almost lynched by the irate passengers. We stayed the night by the roadside and hopped on a Newspaper delivery Pick-up van to Benin in the early dawn. We arrived in Benin destitute, and at Osagie’s home penniless. Osagie took one look at that note, and as you had promised, took very good care of us and set us on our way to Auchi. We got to Auchi in time for the debates about the path forward, and with other progressive elements, we were successful in pushing forward the resolution that we sought. NANS, at least for a while, remained a strong bastion of the struggle to restore democracy in Nigeria.

Thank you Olaitan for your life of service to Nigeria. I salute your commitment to the cause of freedom, your many sacrifices, and the countless privations you suffered. I salute your unalloyed commitment to the cause of Nigerian workers. And I thank you for sharing your deep intellect and for helping me to navigate the complex tapestry of the Nigerian activist space. You died doing what you loved – serving Nigeria.

Where you are, there is no more dread of death. I am sure Mokwugo, Raji, Imoudu, Rewane, MKO, Saro Wiwa and the countless patriots that have laid down their lives for our nation have already gathered around you, seeking to know what has become of Nigeria. Tell them a battle rages for Nigeria’s soul. Tell them corruption still ravages the land. Tell them death no longer comes in letter bombs, or torture cells. It stalks the streets, it sits in places of worship and visits Newspaper offices. Tell them Nigeria still lacks direction and purposeful leadership. Tell them corruption is rife, and that the poor are poorer still. Tell them the Nigerian worker is worse off today than he was when they walked amongst us. But also tell them, that the embers of struggle still burn. Faintly maybe, but they still burn.

To those who conspired to kill you, and those whose hands pulled the bullets that felled you, we say this prayer. May they and the ones they love, walk always upon famished roads. Death’s sickle will harvest their young in their prime. They will bury children, and children’s children, and mourn their living as though they were dead. Their barns, now bristling with wealth that drips with the blood of innocents will be assailed with palmerworms, cankerworms, weevils and fungi. Diseases that mystify the physician will dwell within their homes. Justice will stalk them, like a Hyena, its prey. From now, only elegies will be sung in their homes. There will be no tears at their passing. They will be unsung, forgotten, like wilted acacia leaves in the Harmattan season.

You cannot be forgotten, Olaitan Oyerinde because you have done too much for too many. Those of us who remain promise you this: that as long as breath remains in our being, the struggle will continue. Men can be killed. But ideas, voices and ideals can never die. You will live on, in our hearts and in our memories. We will speak for you and channel your voice with each word we speak or write about our nation, and the vision and path to its greatness. Farewell, brother. May your revolutionary spirit live on.
Aluta continua, Victoria Acerta!

http://saharareporters.com/article/and-olaitan-died-malcom-fabiyi

This is one of those times where correct grammar is most important.

The pain and emotion expressed is more important than grammar. He passed accross his message.

Some very familiar names in that tribute. .too much blood has been shed for this British mistake. .May Olaitan's soul rest with the ancestors.

Still makes no damn sense. Can't understand why they had to kill him.

^^^ I was talking about the title. I was thinking about something else until I read the contents.

This man was a private secretary to the governor.my number one suspect in the murder of this man is the edo governor himself.recently,news has been making the rounds of the govnor owning expensive properties/mansions,it seems the govnor has decided to deal with those he believes betrayed him by leaking out information about the properties.

@Ileke_idi, Ok then. In Ora o.

the man wouldnt have any effect on the outcome of the election,his job title sounds so private,like he isnt paid by edo govt but by the govnor personally, and whatever job he does is to the govnor personally. It is laughable for the govnor to attribute the death of the 3 journalist in that accident to assasination attempt on him,unless he believes so much in the potency of juju.