A round mid 2004, my enterprising journalistic passion got stimulated dramatically. I had craved for some stint with some news media either local or foreign, to expend that energy. I could not find a “good” media house as an independent journalist, to sell my goods and services (newsgathering and reporting), in spite of the news worthiness of the happenings in the disturbed delta region of Nigeria during that period. I had also sent out some journalistic proposals around. About September of 2004, Alhaji Dokubo-Asari, who was thrown into General Olusegun Obasanjo's dungeon a year later, had on the platform of his insurrectionary Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), started a well-coordinated armed campaign against the Nigerian State and a rightwing group called the Icelander confraternity or Niger Delta Vigilante Services (NDVS) led by the estranged “godfather” Tom Ateke. Dokubo-Asari had accused Ateke, of being funded by the Sir, Dr. Peter Otunaya Odili, the silver governor of Rivers State , to eliminate him. News people or organizations longed to report the activities of the groups (NDPVF or NDVS) as a major news beat in Nigeria . Within that period I had ran into Martin Adler, who had just arrived Port Harcourt , Rivers State as a reporter and was looking for a dauntless local journalist like him, to work with, on the Niger Delta story. I was recommended to him. Adler was doing an exclusive story on the boiling delta, which will be sold to interested foreign media. Martin Adler and I signed a deal, to work on the story. Since then, we had worked together severally until his death on last Friday, June 23, 2006 in the violent Somalia . His last journalistic voyage in Nigeria was early 2006, when the insurgent Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) destroyed oil facilities and held western oil workers hostage in parts of the central and western Niger Delta region of Nigeria . He was doing the report for the London-based independent news station, Channel 4 TV Network. He left Nigeria , and traveled to London , and later Somalia , where he had visited several times before his tragic end. Martin Adler while in Nigeria discussed the Somalia trip with me at a dinner in my house in Port Harcourt , I had organized for him and other westerners. I advised him to be careful, because I understand the conflicts there a bit. Life has its twist. Martin Adler is one journalist I have worked with that is too honest, hard working, highly disciplined and committed to his calling. “Journalism was (is) reckless, dangerous, and an unreliable occupation”. Elinor Sisulu, the Zimbabwean/South African journalist and author had warned us. Its practitioners are at risk all the time whether in war or peacetime. However, wartime is the most risky time for journalists. A journalist armed with a notebook, pen and cameras, walking or running with beasts called human beings brandishing dangerous weapons of mass destruction called guns; just to let the world know their grievances or cause. The person or group who first discovered the guns or weapons were wicked. The world would have been better without it. Martin Adler was born in Stockholm in Sweden , of Anglo-Swedish parents. As a journalist he had worked in Iraq , Eritrea and Somalia before now, Kashmir , Bosnia , Peru , Liberia , Abachazia , Afghanistan , Sierra Leone , Angola , Burundi , Sri Lanka , Chechnya , Niger Delta, Nigeria and Sudan . He was 47-year-old. He left behind a wife and two daughter and numerous friends and admirers to mourn him. In 2001, the late Martin Adler won the Amnesty International Media Award (news category) for his story on the kidnapping and sale of women in the People's Republic of China . In 2004, he also won the London-based prestigious Rory Peck Award for Hard News for a report, which exposed abuses by the U.S troops in Iraq . Adler was a very fearless and brave war veteran journalist. Martin before his death had spent a week at Shamo Hotel in Mogadishu with two other foreign journalists, covering the crises there. Mogadishu is the capital of Somalia , that poorest and highly under-developed country which Porches in the horn of Africa ( Eastern Africa ). Somalia has a population of 8 million and half. Sunni Muslims dominate the country. Somalia is surrounded by Ethiopia , Kenya on its South-West and the Gulf of Aden on its north and the Indian Ocean on its eastern border. On July 1, 1960, Somalia gained her independence from Britain and Italy and soon after formed the Somalia Republic . Since 1991, the country has no effective central national government. According to the New York-based journalists safety group, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 14 journalists including Martin Adler, have been killed in Somalia, because of their work since the fall of former dictator Said Barre in 1991. On March 20, 1994, Ilaria Alpi, an Italian journalist working for the public TV station. RAI 3, and Slovenian Cameraman Miran Hrovoatin were murdered in Mogadishu . In January 2005, Kate Peyton, a well-know British female journalist working with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was shot dead in Mogadishu by “unknown gunmen”. In June 2005, a militiaman killed Duniya Muhiyadin Nur, a Somalia journalist with the privately owned radio station, Horn Afrik, at a checkpoint; several other journalists on duty were killed in that conflict polluted country. The world has lost one of its gifted and seasoned war reporters. In several assignments I have had with him, I was envious of his techniques as a print, television and radio reporter and photographer too; he was indeed, a man of many talents. The Somali swine who murdered him should have allowed him to live and tell the tale after. The world cannot afford to loose Martin Adler, the man I knew too well. Adler was in that hostile territory, to file news reports for The Aftonbladet, a leading Swedish daily newspaper and Britain 's Channel Four Television. “Unknown armed militia” shot him from his back at close range when he was taking pictures of the crowd, and after the cowardly act faded into the Islamists swarm, there was a stampede as Adler died instantly. On Thursday, June 22, 2006, an agreement was signed in Khartoum , the Sudanese capital between the weak transitional government and the Sunni Islamists, who now control the greater parts of Southern Somali, including the capital ( Mogadishu ), after the bloodiest battle Somali had ever witnessed since 1991. The Sunni Islamists who massed under the umbrella, Islamic Courts Union (ICU), want to rule Somalia under Islamic or Sharia law. They have their local police and militias armed with guns, weapons and charms. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed born on July 25, 1965 in Chabila, a town in central Somalia and studied in Libyan and Sudanese universities, was teaching geography, Arabic and religious studies in a secondary school in Somalia , now heads ICU. ICU is accused of having links with terrorist-Qaeda network of Osama Bin Ladin. While, ICU rivals who are tagged. “Secular warlords” who are fighting under the name, Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) are accused by ICU, their rival of being funded by the George Bush government in Washington , USA . ICU has defeated ARPCT and is regaining many of secular warlord's bases ARPCT is made up of several Somali warlords and business folks. They are Musa Sudi Yalahow, Botan Ise Alin, Nuur Abdi Hassan Awale and Omar Muhamond finish among others. The Khartoum accord calls for a ceasefire and confer Islamic militias recognition in the interim government. The demonstration, which Martin Adler was covering and was killed by the “unknown” militia, was called by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), over 5, 000 Islamists, heavily armed with various guns, bows and arrows and charms and amulets participated in the blood-spattered event. They were marching to mark the Khartoum peace deal, and to protest the proposed deployment of foreign troops (United Nations Peace Keeping Force) to Somaliland . The Arab League sponsored the Khartoum agreement. Arab league is a voluntary association of independent countries whose people are mainly Arabic speaking. It's aims and objectives, according to the league, are to strengthen ties among member state, coordinate their policies and promote their common interest. It was founded in Cairo , Egypt in 1945. They were also protesting against the alleged intrusion of neighboring Ethiopia in Somali internal affairs, and America 's support for ARPCT's secular warlords. During the armed rally, ICU Islamic militias reportedly burnt the United State of America 's ( USA ) and Ethiopian flags to show their indignation. Why do they killed Adler? What will these barbarians who don't have any regard for human lives achieve by killing a colleague and friend? Why do they do that? The tragic death of Martin Adler can be likened to the irony of a great warrior who fought several battles and conquered several territories, only to die in a rivulet in front of his house at the end of his career. A man who had worked in several dreaded and dangerous jungles of the world unhurt will finally killed by a filthy militia. What kind of chaotic society is this? There in Mogadishu , the ill at ease capital of their Somalia , where anarchy and antagonism angled, here where fools who do not know the importance of good journalists and their savaging act and art dared. There where the precious blood of my workmate poured in the desert plague and pains. My condolence to Mrs. Adler, his beautiful wife and two of his fine daughters, he used to show me their pictures any time we met when he was alive. The man who wanted the world to understand what was going on at every war fronts is gone and gone forever. Ode to Martin Adler, the fallen hero, friend and colleague, this is an elegy, a lamentational piece, not a run-of-the mill newspaper tribute. Adieu, Martin. Buyers Beware!

This piece appeared in this column on July 28 July 4, 2006.

Source: The Port-Halcourt Telegraph

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