A transcript of the impromptu speech delivered by Senator Magnus Abe to over 40 thousand Ogoni people at Bori on the 21/2/2016.
I want to welcome everybody to this event today and also give special thanks to the Khana Connected Friends and everybody in that group. I have put my fate in the hands of the youths of Ogoni because this election is for the benefit of the future and the youths are the future. Whatever they want to do with this election is what will happen, so I have put my fate in their hands.
I want to respond to one thing I noticed about our supporters. Anyday they hear that some people have decamped to our fold, they keep asking why we accept decampees. I want to answer to them that in the sky there are many stars and non has ever pushed another away in order to shine. So if the sky can accommodate every star, then APC can accormodate every decampee.
Today I want to tell you a story. One day, the child of a snake and the child of a frog went out to play together as friends. After having a field day playing together, they both returned home to their mothers. The mother of the frog asked her child “where have you been since morning?”, the child retorted that he has been out playing with the child of a snake. The mother fumed in anger and sternly warned her child, “never ever in your entire life play with the child of a snake again. Are you hearing me? The day you repeat that risk, you will be dead. The child of the snake will swallow you as food.”
The child of the snake also came home and complained of hunger. The mother asked him, “where have you been since morning? I have been looking for you all over the place. Where were you?” The child of the snake responded that he has been out since morning playing with that child of a frog. At that disclosure, the mother was enraged. “Can you see how stupid you are? Don’t you know that the child of a frog is your food? So you have been playing with your food all day only to come here and complain of hunger. Come on, run away from here and go and look for that your friend and eat him up. He is your food”
The child of the snake ran away and saw the child of the frog from a distance and yelled “my dear friend, please come close, let’s play again as usual”. With wisdom all over his eyes, the child of the frog responded, “my friend, whatever your mother told you, my own mother also told me”.
On Saturday, Governor Nyeson Wike came to khana, and he told the people of Khana that the only thing he wants from them is for them to fail Sen. Magnus Abe in the senatorial election. Someone should go and tell him that WHATEVER IT IS THAT HIS OWN MOTHER TOLD HIM, OUR OWN MOTHER HAS ALSO TOLD US. What did I say? I said, and I want to repeat, somebody should go and tell Governor Wike that whatever his own mother in Ikwerre land told him, our own mother in Ogoni land has told us.
Nobody can deceive us. Nobody can call us fools. Why would the election of Senator Magnus Abe be more important to him than the one in his own senatorial district? Why should the election of Senator Magnus Abe from Ogoni be more important than the one in his own senatorial district? That thing that makes this election more important to him than his own makes it more important to you than any other election. It is for that reason that we cannot afford to lose on the 19th of March. We must come out and vote. This is our own thing. Nobody can make us begin to go back to the time that we want to go away from. I know the importance of this election to the Ogoni people. I know the importance of this election to the people of Rivers South-East Senatorial District. And I know that nobody, however well proportioned the person may be can love us more than we love ourselves.
We have seen several governors. Nyesom Wike is not the first. By now, the Ogoni people know that there is no governor that can love them more than they love themselves.
If Nyesom Wike loves Ogoni people, he should start with the ones working with him. Why did he suspend a man without even hearing from him? Himself was a council chairman. Fred Kpakol was a council chairman. What made him higher than Fred was that his brother was governor. If Fred’d brother was governor, Fred would also have been higher than him.
They say the sermon in an evening service is usually not long. Today, I don’t want to talk too much. I just want to thank you people. The work we have to do is ahead of us. When I see you people, I am strengthened. When I see you people, I am strong. When I see you people, I am confident. When I see you people, I know that victory is sure. When I see you people, I know that my people are with me. And if your people are with you, you have nothing to fear.
This election is about people. Whoever has the people will win the election. I have the people because I have you. As long as you are there, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody can steal our mandate. Let me repeat what I have said before. Dr. Benneth Birabi told me that there was no slave of Ogoni extraction because Ogoni people refused to be slaves. Even when there was no government, there was no army, there was no police, there was no constitution, our forefathers did not agree to be slaves to anybody. Now, how can you be a slave in your own land? Is that possible? (Crowd, Noooooo)
So let us go home and prepare. If they come from the north, we shall meet them in the north. If they come from the south, we shall meet them in the south. If they come from the east, we shall meet them in the east. If they come come from the west, we shall meet them in the west, but we shall win!
Thank you and God bless you.
