Saro-Wiwa was a powerful voice for the Ogoni people, fighting tirelessly against environmental degradation and advocating for their rights.
‘We the People,’ a nongovernmental organization based in the Niger Delta cities of Port Harcourt and Calabar, has urged the Nigerian government to ensure the complete clean-up of Ogoniland polluted by the activities of oil companies.
Today (Sunday), November 10, 2024, marks the 29th anniversary of the tragic killing of renowned environmental activist and television producer Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight other activists, at the hands of General Sani Abacha's regime.
The organization issued a statement on Sunday, signed by Ken Henshaw, to commemorate this somber occasion and reaffirm that the execution of Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists was a blatant disregard for the rule of law and human rights.
Saro-Wiwa was a powerful voice for the Ogoni people, fighting tirelessly against environmental degradation and advocating for their rights.
His work as a writer, teacher, and television producer helped bring attention to the struggles of his community.
As the president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against the exploitation of Ogoniland by international oil companies, particularly Royal Dutch Shell.
The execution of Saro-Wiwa and the eight other activists sparked international outrage, leading to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years.
The activists were instrumental in mobilising their community under MOSOP to demand fair benefits, remediation, and compensation for ecological damage caused by Shell's activities.
Their efforts led to the 1993 expulsion of Shell from Ogoniland.
A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report later confirmed the massive soil and water contamination in Ogoniland, compromising livelihoods and slowly poisoning the people.
The statement reads, “The government responded to this genuine concern with widespread militarization of Ogoniland and the Niger Delta region, mass killings, arson and the eventual executions that left the world outraged.
“The 9 were murdered after the recommendations of a stage-managed tribunal and denied the opportunity to appeal.
“The report of UNEP provided irrefutable evidence of massive soil and water contamination in Ogoniland, which significantly compromised sources of livelihood and was slowly poisoning the people.
“So alarmed was UNEP about the findings that it recommended that inhabitants of the area immediately stop using water from all their traditional sources, while the government was to immediately commence a clean-up exercise which could take up to thirty years.
“Despite this groundbreaking revelation, and the continued widespread condemnation of the killing of these Ogoni leaders 29 years ago, the Nigerian government refuses to retrace its steps and address the unfortunate anomaly.
“For the avoidance of doubt, what the Ogoni people and all well-meaning people of the world have consistently demanded is an admission that the quasi-judicial process which resulted in the conviction of the Ogoni 9 was a mockery of justice orchestrated by the military government with the active collaboration of Shell to quell community demands for resource and ecological justice.
“What we continue to demand is the complete exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his associates. Previously, the Nigerian presidency had proposed a ‘state pardon’ for the Ogoni 9.
“It is a proposal that we condemn and reject. The suggestion of granting a ‘pardon’ is tantamount to saying that the 9 were guilty and rightly executed.”
Regarding the resumption of oil extraction in Ogoniland, the organisation expressed concern that the “Nigerian government continues to make frantic efforts to resume oil extraction activities in the oil wells located in Ogoni territory, after they were shut down in 1993”.
“It is worrying that the government will decide to resume oil extraction when the pollution of the last decades is yet to be cleaned, and the recommendations of UNEP are yet to be fully complied with.
“How does one explain the fact that a site supposedly being cleaned up will resume full oil extraction activities with all the pollution that comes with it?” the organisation asked.
The statement, therefore, urged President Bola Tinubu to exonerate the late Ken Saro-Wiwa along with the eight other activists killed by Abacha’s regime.
The statement also demanded the immediate implementation of strategies for a Niger Delta-wide clean-up.
The statement added: “We are deeply concerned about the neglect of key issues around ecological and social justice in Ogoniland. The world recognizes that the people of Ogoni have suffered unprecedented pains and losses on account of oil extraction.
“No apology has been rendered for the destruction of their environment, the killing of their people, the loss of their livelihoods, the destruction of their villages, the forced exile of their people and the murder of their leaders. To assume that the extraction of oil can commence whilst these issues remain unaddressed is to be naïve at best and cruel at worse.
“Flowing from the foreign, it is our recommendation that the government put a stop to any attempt to resume oil activities in Ogoniland.
“It should rather concentrate on remediating the ecological disaster in the area, decommissioning aged oil infrastructure, replacing the lost livelihood of the people and securing justice for the countless Ogonis waiting for closure.”
“As we remember the killing of the Ogoni 9, we call on the President and the National Assembly to reverse the injustice which the murder of the Ogoni 9 represents. We call on them to exonerate the Ogoni martyrs and apologize to the Ogoni people,” it added.