“When I was contemplating the struggle, I knew it was going to require a lot of energy, patience and money,” Ken writes in his prison memoirs A Month and A Day (which I am paraphrasing here since somebody has permanently borrowed my copy). Of those three things, Ken said he knew he had a lot of energy, that if he did not have patience he could cultivate it. But concerning the last one, money, he knew he had no money anywhere in the world. So, inst
ead of waiting to win a lottery, Ken became a business man. But because his foray into business was for a higher purpose, it could only be a transitory phase. He knew when his trading career had served its purpose and then, even though he had become a very successful business man, had to call it quits in order to devote his energy to the Ogoni struggle. He did not succumb to the joys of money making and its attendant greed and glories.
But the rudiments of the struggle were already stirring in Ken even as he served in
different portfolios as a commissioner to the government of Rivers state. Indeed, much earlier than that, he had already started to question why the oil companies operating in his native village should be flaring so much gas and filling the whole place with obnoxious seethe. At that time he memorably wrote that “The flames of Shell are the flames of Hell.” This, admittedly was only innocuously lodged at the back of his mind at the time for he reportedly sought employment at Shell at a point. But as he grew in maturity the question began to haunt him. So it was no surprise that as a member of the Rivers state government he was becoming increasing vocal in his criticism of the shabby way oil producing communities were being treated. This led to his being unceremoniously sacked from that government. From that point on he knew that his work was cut out for him. But he had to do his homework thoroughly. That was when he realized that he needed mostly the three things I just mentioned a
bove.
ead of waiting to win a lottery, Ken became a business man. But because his foray into business was for a higher purpose, it could only be a transitory phase. He knew when his trading career had served its purpose and then, even though he had become a very successful business man, had to call it quits in order to devote his energy to the Ogoni struggle. He did not succumb to the joys of money making and its attendant greed and glories.But the rudiments of the struggle were already stirring in Ken even as he served in
different portfolios as a commissioner to the government of Rivers state. Indeed, much earlier than that, he had already started to question why the oil companies operating in his native village should be flaring so much gas and filling the whole place with obnoxious seethe. At that time he memorably wrote that “The flames of Shell are the flames of Hell.” This, admittedly was only innocuously lodged at the back of his mind at the time for he reportedly sought employment at Shell at a point. But as he grew in maturity the question began to haunt him. So it was no surprise that as a member of the Rivers state government he was becoming increasing vocal in his criticism of the shabby way oil producing communities were being treated. This led to his being unceremoniously sacked from that government. From that point on he knew that his work was cut out for him. But he had to do his homework thoroughly. That was when he realized that he needed mostly the three things I just mentioned above.
