Shame On Any Governor Who Buy Award From Institutions – Kokori 

Former Secretary General of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Chief Frank Ovie Kokori on Saturday took a swipe on some Governors whom he said buy award confer on them by institutions in the country.

Kokori who spoke on Saturday during the 20th convocation ceremony of the Petroleum Training Institute held at PTI conference centre, Effurun, Delta State, said it was very unfortunate that some Governors pay well over N10 million to purchase award and sponsor award ceremonies.

The elder statesman who received the Petroleum Training Institute honorary Fellowship Award, FPTI, alongside Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark and Chief (Sen.) Nimi Barigha-Amange, said award should be merited by the awardee through his or her work and deeds and not bought as some governors now do.

According to him, his numerous contributions in the oil and gas sector, effort at promoting democracy, education had earned him the award unlike those who go about purchasing awards with nothing to write home about as reason for such honor.

He, however, in nostalgia while narrating some of his selfless services to humanity, told the gathering of how he was kept in solitary confinement in the notorious Bama prison for four years during the Abacha junta, saying that he paid the Supreme price for his selfless activism and struggle for good pay package for oil and gas workers.

Kokori said that his experience however made him to realize that Nigeria has the worst prisons all over the world, saying that because of the deplorable and hellish nature of the prison, he once told Nelson Mandala of blessed memory that if he had spend two years in Nigeria prison he would have died long ago.

Speaking further, he said that the struggle for emancipation by a quarters of the country was not succeeding the way it ought to be because freedom fighters were alien to the country, unlike some African countries whose people achieve freedom, emancipation from military, and dictatorial government through freedom fighters.

“I have spend the whole of my life fighting for freedom and justice when we were agitating that the military should go back to the Barracks and allow Nigeria to function but Nigeria didn’t achieve its independence through freedom fighting. Freedom fighters are strange to this country.

“We don’t have freedom fighters in this country unlike South Africa, Namibia, that have their own crop of freedom fighters. Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya have their freedom through blood and sweat but when Nigeria was entrapped by the military regime, we don’t have a reservoir of freedom fighters.

“We were at the mercy of the military and they threw us into the prison at will. I spent over four years in Bama prison, one of most notorious prison in the world. By the time I was done with schooling and was ready to go into unionism, I told myself it wouldn’t be for economy benefits but to liberate my country.

“I championed a very strong fight for the upgrade of PTI as well as improve pay package for the workers. We fought doggedly for PTI workers to get same working condition as NNPC staff and behold while the benefits started coming, I was in a lonely cell languishing but today I’m being honour and I must say this is the kind of award I value.

“This is the kind of award I appreciate. Some have come to me to say they want to give me PhD in my house and that I should sponsor them. I don’t buy award. But this is how our Governors go about buying awards that they don’t merit and lavish state fund celebrating it and advert it in the pages of Newspaper. It is a shame. But this a great award and I must say I merited it!.”

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