Conscious of his place in history, Chief Frank Kokori’s words, as he lay dying in a hospital, had the character of an epitaph. He was reported saying, “I was born a hero and I will live the life of a hero even in my death.”

Indeed, as a pro-democracy activist, he heroically fought against military dictatorship in Nigeria, and enabled the country’s return to democracy. His name became a byword for heroism. His death, at the age of 80, on December 7, his birthday, brought back memories of the country’s intense struggle against internal anti-democratic forces.

Under the malignant despotism of Gen. Sani Abacha, who sought to perpetuate his predecessor’s unjust annulment of Nigeria’s June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola, there was a fierce urgency to fight back, and the pro-democracy camp bared its fangs. Abacha had arrested and detained Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), one of the two existing political parties at the time, for seeking the restoration of his electoral mandate.

Kokori was the General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Financial Secretary of the SDP. His union, in collaboration with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), in 1994, organised unprecedented nationwide strikes that crippled the oil industry, the soul of the nation.

“We had to mobilise because we controlled the whole system,” Kokori recalled in an interview. “The Nigerian refineries were working full-blown at that time. We were in control of the terminals that were exporting oil, the refineries, tanker drivers, and everything downstream, upstream, and midstream. So, we shut down the country.”

The resistance, which lasted 8 to 10 weeks, ended shortly after his arrest in August 1994. He had coordinated the confrontation from a hiding place. He was caged for four years, and was declared a prisoner of conscience by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Amnesty International (AI). Abacha’s successor set him free after the tyrant died in 1998.

Nigeria’s return to democracy, in 1999, was the outcome of the pro-democracy battle in which he was an influential combatant. It is a testimony to his sense of history that his 2014 book, ‘Kokori: The Struggle for June 12’, “details the roles he and other individuals played in the quest to re-validate the June 12, 1993 presidential election.”

Significantly, in 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari changed Nigeria’s Democracy Day, marked every May 29 since 2000, to June 12, to honour Abiola, who died in detention in 1998. The day was also declared a national holiday. It was another testament to the victory of the country’s June 12 activists and heroes of democracy, among whom Kokori was highly ranked.

Born in Kokori, Warri, in present-day Delta State, he attended the University of Ibadan, and the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands (ISS), where he earned a master’s degree in Labour and Development Studies in 1984. Before his era as NUPENG general secretary, which lasted 22 years, he was general secretary of the National Union of Nigeria Bank Employees for three years.

He was a recipient of the George Meany Labour/Human Rights Award by the American Federation of Labour/Congress of Industrial Organisation (AFL/CIO) for the most outstanding Labour Leader in the world in 1996; and the Febe Elizabeth Velasquez Trade Union/Human Rights Award of the Dutch Labour Federation (FNV) for the most outstanding Labour Activist and Human Rights Crusader in the world in 1998.

He was appointed chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) in 2017, and later chairman of the board of Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies in Ilorin, Kwara State.

About a month before he died, he made the headlines on account of his ill-health, hospitalisation, and neglect by individuals and organisations that were expected to take an interest in his wellbeing. It was an undeserved treatment for a hero of his standing, and raised questions about how the country treats its heroes. For his heroic service to bring about democracy in Nigeria, he deserves an enduring honour.

Update news