By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu

The past decade has witnessed the demise of some of the finest brands in the human rights community. The list has continued to swell: Chima Ubani, Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome- Kuti, Bamidele Francis Aturu ( who we fondly referred to as BF), Festus Iyayi,of late ,Chuks Ehirim and Nze Ifeanyi Onwuneme, among others.

Sometimes last year, men of the pen-pushing profession and social activists from across the country gathered somewhere in Isiekenensi, Imo State to bid one of their own, Chuks Ehirim farewell as he set out for the journey to the great beyond that fateful afternoon.There was a deluge of emotion- laden and thought- provoking orations from comrades and colleagues alike.

From all indications, Ehirim’s death was caused by lack of medicare in the country.It bespeaks of a man who died trying to make ends meet, notwithstanding his public profile. It is a clarion call to media owners in the country to rise up to the challenge of making sure that their employees are paid.Had Ehirim’s failing health condition received an earlier intervention, we couldn’t have lost that very honest, courageous and hardworking journalist and social crusader.

Also, sometimes this year, a repeated gathering of journalists and social crusaders was witnessed in Umuahia, when Nze Ifeanyi Onwuneme was interred. Onwuneme and I served for almost a decade as Chairman and Secretary respectively of the Abia Branch of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO).

Onwuneme was like a father and I enjoyed bountifully his pieces of advise and encouragement.We also had our differences but one striking characteristics of Onye Eze ( as Onwuneme was fondly called) was his ability to resolve conflicts and forestalling them from escalating. My major disagreement with Onwuneme, and the only one we had was during the build up to Jigawa Convention in 2005, shortly after Chima Ubani’s burial.

The convention was to elect the president of the organisation and by extension, the fate of who succeeds Chima Ubani as the Executive Director (ED) of the organisation was, to a reasonable extent to be determined by who emerges as the president. Already there were myriad of interests for the position, even at the burial ground of Ubani.

Members and state leaderships were divided along interest lines and Abia was not spared. The tendencies that the issue generated created a crack in the Abia leadership and produced prallel leaderships and delegates. At Jigawa, even before some chieftains of the organisation, especially from the South East, me and Onwuneme had resolved the issue in a closed door meeting. This was done for the interest of the organisation in particular,and the branch in particular.

Bamidele Aturu (BF) was humility personified. To buttress this, in 2008 Kwara Convention of the Democratic Alternative, we had a marathon and stormy sessions on the closing day of the convention that stretched up to 3am. Delegates were exhausted and had to catch a little sleep in preparation for their departure that morning. Surprisingly, BF called to remind of the interview appointment I had booked with him early in the day. The interview stretched to about few minutes before 5am. BF demonstrated high intellectual capability and can disarm you with his superior arguments on issues.

BF was elected President of the Students Union and emerged as one of the leading young voices against military rule in Nigeria at a time when it was quite dangerous to do such things. Yet, in 1987, he graduated with a first class degree and as the best student from the college. Armed with this qualification, BF undertook his compulsory National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, as a physics teacher at the Federal Government College, Minna, Niger State, where he earned a reputation as an exceptionally able, committed, and caring teacher. The management of the NYSC adjudge the best member of the NYSC 1987/88 in Niger State, and this assessment was considered worthy of recognition by the then military administration. During the passing out parade, he was called upon to receive recognition from the Military Governor ,Lawan Gwadabe at the passing out of his NYSC but he declined to shake the hands of the Governor as an act of objection to military rule.

His inability to undertake a fulfilled teaching vocation without the NYSC discharge certificate compelled him to enrol in 1989 as a law student at the University of Ife.Once again,BF graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Ife in 1994 as the best student in international law, one of the best overall. He was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 1995, and passed under the Professor Itse Sagay, a former Dean of Law at two leading law faculties in Benin and Ife. He was one of the leading forces that resisted the regime of late General Sani Abacha through the instrumentality of United Action for Democracy (UAD).

He was one of the persons that provided efforts that led to the coalition of Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, in 1989, and the Constitutional Rights Project, CRP, in 1991 to form the Campaign for Democracy, CD.

The world was treated to a rude shock when the death of Comrade Chima Enyinnaya Ubani was announced on 21st September, 2005. Ubani, the generalisimo of the struggle until his demise was the Executive Director (ED) of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO).

Ubani and a photo journalist with Vanguard Newspapers, Tunji Oyeleru lost their lives in a ghastly auto crash along Yobe-Pokistum road. The circumstances surrounding this crash is still shrouded in controversy because we were told that there were other occupants of the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) whose identities were not disclosed.

Due to the then Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime’s anti-people policies, including incessant hikes in fuel prices, the labour movement and civil society groups coalesced to form what was called Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO).

LASCO was undertaking rallies across the six geo-political zones in the country protesting the fuel price hike, and had just concluded the North East geo-political zone at Maiduguri. Ubani was to travel by air but under circumstances which is also not clear opted to travel by land. The rallies were designed to take its grand finale at Abuja, the seat of power, where LASCO would have occupied for days.

Chima Ubani died at the age of 42 and was a former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience. He was born to a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) pastor, Late Friday Okoro Ubani, and Mother Late Mrs. Eunice Nnem Ubani of Obete Umuoha in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State. Ubani, like Aturu, demonstrated high- intellectual capability. He was a Students Union leader at University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) where he graduated in crop science in 1988. He took an MA in Mass Communication from the Leicester University in 2002, and joined the Civil Liberties Organisation in 1990 as a researcher.

Ubani demonstrated activism traits early in life as he was said to have opposed a punishment from one of his seniors in the secondary school while he was in form two. The activism in Ubani attained its climax when in 1993 when the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida annulled a presidential election that was to return Nigeria to civilian rule. He helped to bring various human right organisations together under one umbrella group, the Campaign for Democracy. He also joined the campaign against oil companies in the Niger delta, supporting such activists as the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1995.

In February 1994, Ubani’s house and office were raided by security agents, and a report on women and children in Nigerian prisons which he had co-authored was confiscated. He went on the run, but was arrested and imprisoned in 1995, after which his case was taken up by Amnesty International.

The following year, he was released and came to Britain for medical treatment, before returning to Nigeria. After the death of General Sani Abacha in 1998, Ubani worked to ensure a return to civilian rule. But he refused to accept the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 as a genuine return to democracy, and lampooned what he saw as a corrupt government which disregarded human rights.

In July 2000, in a case he brought against the Nigerian police, he was instrumental in the abrogation of a decree that allowed state security agents to detain people indefinitely. He also campaigned against extra-judicial killings by the Nigerian police and the use of capital punishment. At the time of his death, he was campaigning against fuel increases.

Worthy to mention here is that during the burial of Ubani in October 2005, the then Governor of Abia State Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, who was represented by his deputy, Dr. Chima Nwafor promised Ubani’s family some cash and to rename a street within Ehere Road area of Ogbor- Hill after Chima Ubani. Why these promises were not fulfilled remains to be desired. Ubani was a worthy son and deserves more.

Finally, as these comrades and other comrades continue in their journey to eternity, the current situation in the country deserves to be appreciated. The welfare of the masses these comrades fought for have degenerated from worse to worst. Nigerians are currently passing through excruciating experience that can equal that of the hell.

Source: https://abacityblog.com/2017/10/remembering-comrades-okechukwu-keshi-ukegbu.html