On the 10th of November 1995, the Nigerian military junta headed by General Sani Abacha authorized the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine. The 9 were instrumental in mobilizing Ogonis under the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), and had issued a set of demands contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights which included calls to the Nigerian government to clean up the Ogoni environment and restore livelihoods of the indigenous people who had suffered over 30 years of reckless oil extraction by Shell. MOSOP had called global attention to the poverty, neglect and environmental destruction which decades of oil exploitation had bequeathed the Ogoni people. MOSOP demanded fairer benefits to the Ogoni people from oil, as well as remediation and compensation for the ecological damage caused by the activities of Shell. Their selfless mobilization and campaigning led to the 1993 expulsion of Shell from Ogoniland.
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 fears expressed by Ken Saro- Wiwa and MOSOP were confirmed when the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP) carried out a scientific assessment of the impact of oil pollution on parts of the Ogoni environment. 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 step 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. We deem the proposal to pardon Ken Saro-Wiwa and his comrades insensitive and offensive to their memory and that of other victims of environmental injustice. We also consider it a denial of the need to bring closure to the thousands of Ogonis who were victims of government-driven repression characterized by murders, rape, torture and forced exile.
On the Resumption of Oil Extraction in Ogoniland
We are equally concerned 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?
It is also gravely disconcerting that in the ongoing frenzy, the concerns raised by the Ogoni people which led to the termination of oil extraction have not been addressed. Similarly, there has been no attempt to secure justice for the countless families that lost lives, livelihoods and properties in what is still the worst attack on a peaceful indigenous population by Nigerian security forces. Persons who committed acts of genocide and abuses against unarmed populations, and boasted publicly about it, have still not been brought to justice. For the majority of Ogonis, the events of the 1990s remains an open and sour wound, begging for the healing of truth and justice.
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 forgoing, it is our recommendation that the government puts 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. We also advice the President to institute strategies for a Niger Delta-wide clean-up of decades of environmental pollution which has stolen the people’s livelihood and poisoned them.
This statement is endorsed by We the People and signed by Ken Henshaw
