Frank Kokori: The titan in white and black

Personalities who graced the occasion said Frank Kokori, the resilient former General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), is indeed a jolly good fellow. To his honour a memoir is being launched and to his honour they have come to celebrate.The book: “FRANK KOKORI: THE STRUGGLE FOR JUNE 12” […]

Personalities who graced the occasion said Frank Kokori, the resilient former General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), is indeed a jolly good fellow. To his honour a memoir is being launched and to his honour they have come to celebrate.
The book: “FRANK KOKORI: THE STRUGGLE FOR JUNE 12” is said to have been delayed for 14 years by the author himself. This he attributed to a number of commitments and challenges.  
At a press briefing held by Kokori to herald the formal launch of the book, the former labour leader said his wife’s sickness and eventual death was one of such challenges.
“My wife’s sickness was a great blow to me. This was a woman, when after the NLC under Paschal Bafyau abandoned the June 12 struggle following my incarceration, suffered to ensure I was well-catered for in prison. She was a singular voice, apart from NUPENG and PENGASSAN, which continued to champion my cause and that of June 12,” Kokori said.
The dream of putting his prison experience in white and black is not one that would remain a mere vision forever. At the turn of his 70th birthday, Kokori surmounted the challenge of procrastinations. He got the book ready for launch.
“Actually my 70th birthday was in December 2013. But the launch is taking place in June. A sacred month for me. It was the month Nigeria had the freest and fairest election ever but it was annulled by a military junta,” he said.
Expectedly, Kokori’s autobiography opens certain can of worms. And the explanation about that was not done by him but by Kayode Komolafe, the book reviewer who is also the Deputy Managing Director of Thisday Newspapers.
According to Komolafe, the labour activist used a narrative to expose which basically touch on his first-hand experience before, during and after his prison experience.
“This book is thought provoking. It can as well be described as frank talk from Frank. In some places, Frank didn’t spare anyone and on other occasions, he also did not spare himself. But is not all a serious affairs. In some parts of the book, Frank make sure that there are some line that are laced with humour,” Komolafe said.
One other interesting thing the book succeeded to have revealed was the lingering insinuation as to the role played by the former Ogun State Governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba on how the military goons snuffed Kokori out of his hideout. Komolafe said the author has absolved Osoba from that mess.
“Some said Osoba was the one who sold me out to the military. Well, I wish to say on record that he was not. Some people actually planted the story that it was Osoba but I know who did it,” Komolafe quoted from  the book.
The former governor who appeared to be very happy with the way he was absolved, said at least he has been vindicated as that is even one of the reasons he had come to grace the book launch.
“The story was actually planted by some sinister people within the civil rights group. But I am now happy and vindicated because the man himself has absolved me that I knew nothing about how he was picked up,” Osoba said.
The former Ogun State governor might not be the only one vindicated after all.