PRESIDENT Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Thursday last week, addressed a joint session of the National Assembly in commemoration of the 2025 Democracy Day celebration. In his address to the lawmakers, he announced the granting of full presidential pardon to Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders who were murdered 30 years ago by the regime of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
Tinubu went further to confer posthumous national honours on the Ogoni 9 for their activism against environmental pollution caused by oil companies in the Niger Delta region, for which they eventually paid with their lives. Those that were hanged alongside Ken Saro-Wiwa but were honoured by Tinubu included Saturday Dobee, who was conferred with the Officer of the Order of the Niger, (OON); Nordu Eawo (OON); Daniel Gbooko (OON); Paul Levera (OON); Felix Nuate (OON); Baribor Bera (OON); Barinem Kiobel (OON), and John Kpuine (OON). Saro-Wiwa, who was 54 years at the time, was honoured with the Commander of the Order of the Niger, (CON).
While the pardon and the posthumous national honours were received with mixed feelings in Ogoni land, it should perhaps serve as the first step towards healing and restitution for those that were callously murdered by the Nigerian state. Again, it should serve as a first step towards finding closure for the families left behind by the Ogoni 9.
This was much alluded to by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in a statement issued by its President, Fegalo Nsuke, who described the state pardon and the conferment of national honours on the Ogoni 9 as a positive step towards healing.
Whilst acknowledging the steps so far taken by Tinubu, he insisted that full exoneration of the Ogoni 9 would go a long way in bringing peace to Ogoni land in particular, and the Niger Delta in general. Let me quote him verbatim: “His recognition of the injustices endured by Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots, and his words acknowledging the moral wounds of their execution, have been received with gratitude across the country and by many in the international community.
However, it is appreciably and respectfully submitted that while the presidential pardon is significant and considered a vital milestone that opens the door to deeper restorative measures, a pardon, by its very nature, implies the existence of an offense. In the case of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots, it is clear that no legitimate crime was committed.
‘’His Excellency, President Tinubu himself acknowledged that their unjust execution should never have happened. In this light, we humbly appeal that His Excellency goes further by pursuing a formal exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists. Such an exoneration would be a stronger moral and legal correction, ensuring that their names are no longer burdened by the stain of injustice. To this end, the establishment of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, to investigate and formally repudiate the irregularities of the 1995 tribunal would be a landmark act of complete restorative justice, one that would further cement President Tinubu’s legacy as a leader, not only of courage, but of conscience.’’
In the same vein, the Executive Director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Akinbode Olwafemi, noted that the Presidency must match the posthumous honour with political will by speeding up the full cleanup and restoration of Ogoni land. “Major oil polluters that have caused this pain and devastation must answer for every drop spilled.”
Ken Saro-Wiwa was a writer, poet, and political activist who co-founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and led a non-violent campaign against the oil pollution and mindless exploitation of Ogoni land and waters by major oil corporations in the region.
In 1995, under the Abacha junta, he and eight fellow leaders were unlawfully arrested, subjected to a sham trial, and arbitrarily hanged on November 10, 1995, two days after they were sentenced to death on November 8, 1995, without being afforded the opportunity of exercising their constitutional right of appeal.
The decree under which they were tried required the records to be transmitted to the then Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) as a precondition for confirmation of the sentence. This was not done. In Nigeria, the right of appeal is mandatory wherever a trial court or tribunal imposes a death sentence. To exercise the right of appeal, the person sentenced is entitled to be given the record of proceedings. Ken and the eight leaders were murdered before the Tribunal compiled its record of proceedings, denying them this right.
There was national uproar and international condemnation occasioned by the executions. Again, Nigeria was heavily sanctioned, ostracised, and isolated by the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the European Union, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, African countries, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries. Without any shadow of doubt, Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow compatriots were arbitrarily and illegally executed by the Nigeria State for the socioeconomic and environmental causes they championed on behalf of their people and the Niger Delta region.
In actual fact, they paid with their lives for courageously defending the pillage of their homes and the rights to live in dignity.
After the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the execution of the Ogoni 9 in 1995, Ogoni land has faced significant challenges, including environmental devastation from oil exploration and a prolonged period of unrest. While oil exploration was halted in the area, the land remained contaminated, and the Ogoni people continued to struggle for their rights and environmental restoration.
As expected, the Ken Saro-wiwa family filed several lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell in 1996, its subsidiary, Shell Nigeria, and the subsidiary’s CEO, Brian Anderson. Charges included human rights abuses against the Ogoni people, summary execution, torture and arbitrary arrest, and wrongful death. After 12 years of Shell petitioning the court not to hear the cases, they were heard on May 26, 2009. However, on June 8, 2009, Shell settled out of court with Saro-Wiwa’s family for $15.5 million.
Again, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), in 2021, agreed to pay compensation for oil spillages in the Ogoni community of Rivers State, to the tune of N45.9 billion, after over 31 years of legal battles. The legal battle, which commenced in 1991, saw judgment in favour of the Ogoni community in 2010 by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Lagos state division of the Federal High Court. But the oil giant declined payment and proceeded up to the Supreme Court twice; first in 2017 to appeal the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had upheld the judgment of the trial court, and in 2019, seeking a review of the apex court’s judgment dismissing its appeal. However, after several back and forth, Shell Petroleum Development Company announced that it had reached an agreement with the plaintiffs/respondents to pay the sum of N45.9 billion.
Till today, the hanging of the Ogoni 9 remains an indelible stain on Nigeria’s record in the international community and state pardon alone will not vindicate their legacy until they are exonerated of the bogus crime for which they were executed.
Although Tinubu’s action was a balm on the traumatized soul of the Ogoni nation, his government should go a step further to exonerate the falsely accused whilst recommitting to the complete clean-up of Ogoni land and the entire Niger Delta region.
The Federal government’s establishment of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), in 2016, to implement the 2011 United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report on oil contamination in Ogoni land is still pending action nine years later, even though as at last year, HYPREP said that it has succeeded in the restoration of 560 hectares of oil-degraded mangroves in Ogoni, land, Rivers State, by 75 per cent.
It also added that the shoreline clean-up in the area has progressed to a 20 per cent completion rate, while the soil and groundwater remediation of the medium-risk, complex sites has advanced substantially. Interestingly, as contaminated lands are remediated and shorelines cleaned up, more areas will be freed up for farming, fishing, and other productive uses.
The rehabilitation efforts will significantly enhance the food security and livelihoods of the people of Ogoni land, and by extension, other contiguous regions that depend on the goods and services of the ecosystm that the remediated lands and creeks provide. However, the whole exercise is still work in progress.
With the on-going reapproach more in Ogoni land, it is hoped that oil exploration that was stopped in 1991 would resume, as the Federal Government is determined to meet its daily oil production targets.
Just last month, efforts by the Federal Government to ramp up oil production to over two million barrels per day suffered another setback as Nigeria’s daily oil production declined again in May, falling from 1.68 million barrels per day in April to 1.65mbpd last month. According to data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), crude output dropped from 1.48mbpd in April to 1.45mbpd in May. Recall that the crude production rose from 1.40mbpd in March to 1.48mbpd in April, signalling a boost for the country’s ambitious 2.1mbpd oil target.
While the Ogoni’s have agreed with the federal government that oil exploration can resume in the region, the clean-up of Ogoni land and the latest action taken by Tinubu would fast-track the exercise. It is when that is done that Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow compatriots’ sacrifices and untimely deaths would not be in vain. May their souls continue to rest in peace.
See you next week.
- Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.