Vigil Eulogizes Ken Saro-Wiwa

More than 100 people, including human rights activists and the daughter of the elected president of Nigeria, gathered at a candle-lit vigil last night for Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian environmentalist and activist executed last Friday.

Some speakers at the event also called on Harvard to divest its stock in the Shell oil company, which Saro-Wiwa had criticized for exploiting the Ogoni people and polluting their land with oil spills.

Saro-Wiwa, a nominee for the 1996, Nobel Peace Prize, was one of nine members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People hanged after a murder trial that was widely condemned as unfair by the world community.

The memorial, which was organized by amnesty International, the Harvard African Student Association and the Environmental Action Committee, featured speeches by students who praised Saro-Wiwa for his commitment to environmental responsibility and economic justice.

David Stephen 96, the coordinator of the Kenya Nigeria Campaign for Amnesty International, said "Ken's words were so moving, so strong, that indeed he did get a response from the Nigeria government one of fear, one of a dictatorship desperate to hold on to a mandate it never had."

Taziona G. Chaponda 97, a member of the Harvard African Student Association, urged the crowd to continue Saro-Wiwa's fight for human rights in Nigeria. After the vigil, some who attended signed petitions to President Clinton, Harvard and Shell.

"There is no problem which is far from us; we fail to act out of ignorance," Chaponda said "We must remain vigilant. Let us use this [execution] as a platform to put to the forefront the Nigernan crisis."

Also attending the vigil on the steps of Widener library was Omo Omoruyi, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, who initiated Nigeria's Democratic transtion program. "[Saro Wiwa] was my classmate; bright, intelligent, a man of peace," Omoruvi said. "His death should not have been the was it was, but he is gone."

In his speech at the event, Omoruyi called for an oil embargo, "At the same time as the U.S. condems [General Abacha's] regime it funds his bank accounts," Omoruyi said. The U.S. consumes 50% of Nigeria's oil exports.

The vigil concluded with a reading by Hafshat Abiola '96, daughter of the democratically elected President of Nigeria, M.K.O Abiola, who she has not heard from since he was arrested in June 1993. She read part of the closing statement Saro-Wiwa made at his trial.

"I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated." Abiola read, "I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause.

"There is no problem which is far from us; we fail to act out of ignorance," Chaponda said "We must remain vigilant. Let us use this [execution] as a platform to put to the forefront the Nigernan crisis."

Also attending the vigil on the steps of Widener library was Omo Omoruyi, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, who initiated Nigeria's Democratic transtion program. "[Saro Wiwa] was my classmate; bright, intelligent, a man of peace," Omoruvi said. "His death should not have been the was it was, but he is gone."

In his speech at the event, Omoruyi called for an oil embargo, "At the same time as the U.S. condems [General Abacha's] regime it funds his bank accounts," Omoruyi said. The U.S. consumes 50% of Nigeria's oil exports.

The vigil concluded with a reading by Hafshat Abiola '96, daughter of the democratically elected President of Nigeria, M.K.O Abiola, who she has not heard from since he was arrested in June 1993. She read part of the closing statement Saro-Wiwa made at his trial.

"I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated." Abiola read, "I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause.