Okah roars from jail

Sun News

27 Feb 2011

Okah roars from jail

•Says Nigeria ripe for revolution
•I didn’t abuse Jonathan, ministers

•Moved to maximum prison

Even in jail, purported leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Henry Okah, remains unrepentant and unfazed. From his South African prison cell, he spoke at the weekend and called for the “flushing out” of the political class in Nigeria through the kind of mass revolt and popular resistance sweeping across North Africa and parts of the Middle East.

Okah telephoned Sunday Sun twice, first on Friday morning and again on Saturday morning, and spoke on his travail in a conversation that cumulatively lasted about 15 minutes. In a voice dripping with confidence, Okah insisted that the situation in Nigeria was not different from what was happening in the Arab countries that had experienced uprising since the beginning of the year.

“Let me tell you that a revolution can happen in Nigeria. What you see happening in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain or Yemen will one day occur in Nigeria except the present crop of political leaders are flushed out. There is grinding poverty in the country and corruption continues to be endemic. So what else do you want? These were some of the harsh realities that led to the revolts in those countries.

“I hear they say there cannot be uprising in Nigeria. They are just deceiving themselves,” he said.