I READ with some hilarity, but with great concern an article penned by (I don’t know what is his political affiliation now) Tacuma Ogunseye on the Walter Rodney issue. At the time he was backpedalling on an earlier interview he had given. In that interview with a Guyana Times journalist he stated emphatically that “The WPA has evidence that Rodney was assassinated,” and that the evidence and knowledge of what took place that fateful night was fresh in his mind then. However, soon after that interview Ogunseye has suddenly lost his mind – possibly after some threats from his new-found friends in the PNC/APNU. He now has a change of heart, which has caused him to refute claims made in that previous article. Ogunseye has become amnesiac and practically denies all previous statements made in the press He did some fancy footwork with words such as “what he actually said and what was actually reported  was (were) not one and the same” – all semantics, which was meant to muddle the real facts of this case. So what did he say, and what did he mean to say? This is a set of foolishness that characterizes these shameless people.
The same letter penned in the Stabroek News better explains his vacillating position when he states that the information he gave in that interview “was not for publication.” Why would a person who considered himself a “friend or close associate of Rodney” want his interview to be a private affair? Why does he want secrecy on a matter of such great national importance? Was I a friend of Walter’s I would be the first to shout it from the roof tops as I went about identifying the murderers. I would not be silent on this matter: But here we have a set of guys who have no shame. In the first place he refuses to testify at the COI set up to look into Walter’s death, now this shocking display. Ogunseye and others, whom I would consider staunch – or at least so it seemed – members of the WPA have abandoned their leader? This is a traitorous act which I would like to see exposed for all it is worth. Walter would be turning in his grave to hear such utterances coming from some of his trusted associates. In like manner Walter’s wife and brother would stand aghast at this 180 degree turnaround from these one time followers.
The shameless Ogunseye was in essence denying any association ever with Brother Walter. It was as if the name Dr. Walter Rodney did not exist or he was some passing vagrant whose name should be blotted out of the landscape of Guyanese history. This is preposterous! And this is exactly what Burnham in his murderous plans wanted – a people who would deny that an assassination did take place and the people who carried it out. But, try as these shameless bunch would, that is not going to happen. We would get to the bottom of this and the world will know how devious these people are. Rodney was and still is a national hero – a name that would be forever etched in our memory for standing up to PNC thuggery.
Over the years I have come to understand the true meaning of the term “politics make strange bedfellows.” We are now looking on to a classic case of this. These guys are a heartless, shameless bunch of opportunists who cannot openly say that they are out to sabotage the COI of the dead intellectual. So they are doing the Burnham thing when they are faced with the truth “pretend that it did not happen.” But try as hard and as long as they could they cannot derail what we as a people all know; that is, our brother Walter was brutally killed by a hired thug of the day. The shedding of innocent blood would forever stain that party and no amount of denial can wash it away.
But all of this was expected ever since Roopnarine crawled out from under that rock he was hiding with the statement that “Walter Rodney was building up an arsenal of weapons to fight the Burnham regime.” I was never again in any doubt as to where they stand. That statement solidified what I feared that these guys were out to erase the hard work done by the brother to restore democracy to this battered nation. Roopnarine and others of his ilk would deny reality for a mess of political pottage. A shameless bunch of losers!
Neil Adams