BOOK: A review of Mathew Kukah’s “Witness to Reconciliation” By Kayode Fayemi

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah is a Nigerian legend in many ways. Since the dawn of the Fourth Republic, very few private citizens in Nigeria have played such an outsized influential role in the deepening of the nation’s democratic experience and the healing of our multiple wounds. From his membership of the country’s Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission popularly known as the Oputa Panel to his involvement as Secretary of the National Political Reform Conference and his subsequent role as Facilitator of the Ogoni Reconciliation Process, Bishop Kukah has been a measuring rod of the nation’s readiness to confront her troubled past and address the inherent contradictions.

Witness to Reconciliation: My Personal Journey Towards Reconciliation in Ogoniland tells the story of his personal involvement as the Presidential Facilitator of the Ogoni Reconciliation Process with the objective of bringing Shell and the Ogoni together on the one hand and also helping to resolve differences among different factions of Ogoniland as well as the Government of Nigeria, on the other. Father Kukah (as he then was and remains to many of his friends even after his elevation to episcopacy) was appointed by President Obasanjo in May 2005 to facilitate the dialogue because “both sides…can trust you to be independent and neutral”. The Ogoniland crisis has been a long drawn one that came to a head with the gruesome murder of the Ogoni Four and the eventual state murder of writer and minority rights activist, Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni Eight in November 1995 by the Abacha military junta. It was a period of tumultuous political crisis in the country triggered by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election. The Ogoni killings exacerbated the political tension and increased international opprobrium against the military junta, leading to Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth.

This is a 267 page, ten chapter book with a Foreword from the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd Justin Welby. Archbishop Welby could not be described as an accidental choice for this responsibility, given the extensive direct and behind the scene roles he had played on the Ogoni crisis as erstwhile Director of the International Centre for Reconciliation under the Anglican Church at the Coventry Cathedral. True to type, all sides to the Ogoni crisis – Dr Peter Odili, then Governor of Rivers State, Mr Ledum Mitte, then President of MOSOP and Dr Basil Omiyi, CEO of Shell – lauded the choice of Father Kukah and looked forward to “working with Father Kukah… in making the President’s vision of reconciliation a reality.”

Despite the general support received though, Father Kukah also noted that the warning bells were equally sounded early, particularly by the old warhorses of civil society and the environment lobby like Nnimmo Bassey. For example, whilst welcoming his appointment, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth warned him that there can be “no true reconciliation without justice”. The Ogoni had already defined what justice meant to them when they appeared before the Oputa Panel. These include: Full implementation of the Ogoni Bill of Rights, public apology by Shell to Ogoni people before any discussion between both parties, comprehensive audit and clean up of Shell’s oil spillage and pollution of Ogoniland, adequate financial compensation paid to the Ogoni for the despoiliation of their environment, setting up of a Committee to catalogue and document losses by the Ogoni during the oil inspired, military campaign with a view to bringing relief to victims and their families, a referendum to determine whether Ogoni people want Shell back and total stoppage of gas flaring in Ogoniland. President Obasanjo’s appointment of Father Kukah could be taken as a logical response in pursuit of these conditions for justice for the Ogoni people.

Just as he did in his previous account of the Oputa Panel, Witness to Justice, Father Kukah deals extensively with how he moved from very little by way of a guidebook to conceptualising the approach to the assignment. The Presidential directive was simply to “facilitate the dialogue” because, according to President Obasanjo, “all I want is let there be peace in Ogoniland so that the people can settle, and if possible, Shell can go back to their work”….