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Al Jazeera
02-08-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Nigeria kills her sun: Death and vindication for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ogoni Nine
Lagos, Nigeria – 'Lord, take my soul, but the struggle continues,' the man said, before his body went limp. It swung gently from the makeshift gallows, hurriedly built a few days earlier. Before that morning, the prison had last enforced a death sentence 30 years earlier, during British rule. It was November 10, 1995. For weeks, local activists from the small Ogoniland settlement in Nigeria's lush Niger Delta region had been protesting against oil spills seeping into their farmland and the gas flares choking them. The Niger Delta, which produces the crude that earned Nigeria 80 percent of its foreign revenues, teemed with gun-carrying soldiers from the military dictatorship of the feared General Sani Abacha. They responded to the protests with force. That day, the loudest Ogoni voice – renowned playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa – faced his fate. A week earlier, a military tribunal had declared his sentence. And just the day before, five executioners tasked with carrying it out had flown in from the northern city of Sokoto. At 5am that morning, Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni activists accused alongside him of murder were moved from the army camp where they had been held to the prison grounds in Port Harcourt, the regional hub a few hours drive from Ogoniland. There, they were herded into a room and shackled. Then, one after the other, they were led out to the gallows. Saro-Wiwa went first. It took five attempts to kill him. After one failed tug, the activist cried out in frustration: 'Why are you people treating me like this? What kind of country is this?' On the final attempt, the gallows finally functioned as they were supposed to. By 3:15pm, all nine men had been executed. Their bodies were placed in coffins, loaded into vehicles and escorted by armed guards to the public cemetery. On the streets, thousands of horrified people watched the procession as soldiers fired tear gas into the air to quell any thoughts of rebellion. No relatives of the nine men were allowed into the cemetery. There were no dignified burials, no parting words from loved ones. Thirty years later, on June 12 this year, Nigeria's Democracy Day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu pardoned Saro-Wiwa and the others – the Ogoni Nine as they had become known. He went on to call them heroes and awarded them prestigious national titles. For Saro-Wiwa's daughter Noo Saro-Wiwa, who is now aged 49, and other relatives of the executed men, the pardons were moving but insufficient. In Ogoniland, it reopened old wounds that remained as deep as when they were first inflicted all those years ago. Saro Wiwa, accidental environmental activist Before his death at age 54, Saro-Wiwa wanted to be known as a great writer. A bundle of energy, he dabbled in many things, but books were his true love. More than two dozen books, poems and essays bore his name. His radio dramas and TV plays were wildly successful, particularly one that mocked the corrupt Nigerian elite, which took over after independence in 1960. In the short story Africa Kills Her Sun, Saro-Wiwa eerily warned of his killing: A man condemned to death pens a long letter to his lover, Zole, on the eve of his execution, telling her not to grieve. Saro-Wiwa's execution made him a martyr for the Ogoni people – the man whose death drew international attention to their plight. In 1958, when Nigeria discovered oil in the southern Niger Delta, of which Ogoniland is a part, a 17-year-old Saro-Wiwa wrote letters to the government and oil companies questioning how delta communities would benefit from oil dollars. Later on, his essays highlighted how Ogoniland still lacked infrastructure – roads, electricity, water – despite the oil. In October 1990, Saro-Wiwa led the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which he cofounded, to present the Ogoni Bill of Rights to the Nigerian government. In it, the Ogoni people denounced the dominance of the majority tribes (Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo) and the sidelining of minorities like the Ogoni. They called for political autonomy and direct control of oil profits, saying: 'Thirty years of Nigerian independence has done no more than outline the wretched quality of the leadership of the Nigerian majority ethnic groups and their cruelty as they have plunged the nation into ethnic strife, carnage, war, dictatorship, retrogression and the greatest waste of national resources ever witnessed in world history, turning generations of Nigerians, born and unborn into perpetual debtors.' It marked Saro-Wiwa as a thorn in the side of the military dictators, and from 1992 to 1993, he was arrested without charge several times. Still, he continued to condemn the slow death he said Ogonis were sentenced to. 'I accuse the oil companies of practising genocide against the Ogoni,' he wrote in one article. The Nigerian government, he said, was complicit. Saro-Wiwa's fervour took hold in Ogoniland. About 300,000 Ogonis, out of a population of half a million, marched with him in January 1993 to peacefully protest against the Nigerian government and Shell, the oil company that they said bore particular responsibility for the oil spills in their part of the delta. It was one of the largest mass demonstrations Nigeria had ever seen at the time. Protesters carried signs with messages like: 'Assassins, go home.' The protests were so large that the world began to notice the Ogonis and the slight, articulate man speaking for them. Soon, he was speaking at the United Nations, presenting the Ogonis' case there. Environmental rights groups like Greenpeace noted and supported his activism. By the end of that year, riots were breaking out, and angry protesters had destroyed oil pipelines worth billions of dollars. Shell was forced to suspend operations. The government promptly deployed a special task force to suppress what is now known as the Ogoni Rebellion. Soldiers brutally put down protests, carried out extrajudicial killings, and raped and tortured scores of people, according to reports by Amnesty International. In-fighting and mob actions in Ogoniland By 1994 and with soldiers still in Ogoniland, tensions were running high. Splits within the MOSOP leadership were also emerging with one side, led by Saro-Wiwa, calling for a stronger stance against the government and another preaching pacifism. Edward Kobani was a childhood friend of Saro-Wiwa's. He was also a pacifist who opposed his friend's mobilisation of young people in rallies that rang with angry rhetoric. His stance against violence upturned their relationship. More broadly, the mood in the region was turning against the pacifists, who were increasingly seen as sellouts colluding with the military regime and Shell although there is no evidence they were working with either. On May 21, 1994, word spread that some MOSOP leaders had gathered for a meeting at the chief's palace in Ogoniland's Gokana district but soldiers had blocked Saro-Wiwa from entering the area. Incensed, rioters marched to the meeting point and attacked those they could lay their hands on. Four of them – Kobani, Alfred Badey, and the brothers Samuel and Theophilus Orage, who were Saro-Wiwa's in-laws – were clubbed with everything from broken bottles to sharpened rakes. Then they were set on fire. The Nigerian military immediately accused Saro-Wiwa of inciting the killings and arrested him the next day. At a news conference, the military administrator of Rivers State, which Ogoniland is part of, declared MOSOP a 'terror group' and Saro Wiwa, a 'dictator who has … no room for dissenting views'. Eight other MOSOP leaders were arrested: Nordu Eawo, Saturday Dobee, John Kpuine, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gbooko, Barinem Kiobel and Baribor Bera. In detention, the men were reportedly chained, beaten and denied medication or visits. Amnesty International described their trial by military tribunal as a 'sham'. Civilian defence lawyers were assaulted and their evidence discarded. In protest, the lawyers boycotted the hearings. Reports at the time described how Saro-Wiwa, knowing he was already condemned, looked ahead blankly or flipped through a newspaper in court. Fighting for justice for the Ogoni Nine Noo Saro-Wiwa was 19 and in her second year of college when her father was executed. Born in Port Harcourt, she lived and studied in London. On the day of the execution, she had no inkling that her world had changed. It wasn't until late that night that her mother, Maria, managed to reach her on her landline. Her first reaction was shock. Noo, who is now a travel writer and author based in London, told Al Jazeera in a phone call that it was hard to imagine the man who would amble into her room while she idled on her bed and thrust a book in her face with a 'Read this!' could be killed in such a way. After all, powerful international voices had spoken up to pressure the Nigerian government to release him: Nelson Mandela was among them. Noo's brother, Ken, was in New Zealand to attend the opening of the annual Commonwealth of Nations meeting and press for Nigeria's suspension. The association of former British colonial states was an important aid avenue for Nigeria at the time. The world, too, reacted with shock. Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth, and the United States and several other countries severed diplomatic ties. Noo remembers wondering why United Kingdom news channels were repeatedly running the story. That's when it dawned on Noo how great her father's task had been. Her family was determined to get justice, but it was a long road, Noo explained. In 1996, her brother and uncle sued Shell, which the Ogoni Nine families accused of complicity by aiding the military. Shell denied the allegations. The case, filed in the US under a law that allows for jurisdiction in foreign matters, dragged on until 2009 when the company settled for $15.5m. Shell said it was 'humanitarian and legal fees'. It mostly went towards paying lawyers and establishing a trust fund that still provides scholarships to Ogoni students, Noo said. It's annoying, though, she added, that critics claim her family and the others got rich on the settlement. 'It was a tiny amount,' she said. 'And even if it weren't, who wants their parent killed for a $15m settlement?' For many years, Noo said, she couldn't bear to visit Nigeria or hear the name 'Shell' without feeling overwhelmed. The company was also taken to The Hague in 2017 by a group of Ogoni Nine widows with the support of Amnesty International; however, a judge ruled there was no evidence that Shell was complicit in the government executions. Meanwhile, Amnesty said in a 2017 report that it had found evidence that Shell executives had met with military officials and 'encouraged' them to suppress protests. The company, the report said, transported soldiers and in 'at least one instance paid a military commander notorious for human rights violations'. Shell denied the claims and said it pleaded with the government for clemency for the Ogoni Nine. Noo has since found the strength to visit Ogoniland. She first went back in 2005, 10 years after her father's execution. The region has become even more volatile as ethnic militias now patrol the creeks, attacking soldiers, controlling oil pipelines and kidnapping oil workers at sea. Noo said her next book will focus on the devastation in her homeland. Her brother and mother died in the past decade, leaving her and Zina, her US-based twin sister. The losses set her back, she said, but she now frequently travels back home to document the oil spills, which are still going on, although Shell never resumed operations after the 1993 protests. Life as a writer abroad contrasts jarringly with her life back home, Noo said. One week, she is walking down the streets of Paris, and the next, she is standing in oil-soaked farms in Ogoniland. But her work in Nigeria, she added, reminds her of her father's struggle. 'My father was a real kind of David vs Goliath,' Noo said. 'Most people back then had never even heard of Ogoni. As I get older, I'm just always more in awe of what he achieved. It was quite incredible.' Too little, too late? Shell's leaky pipes continue to pump oil into the earth all these years later, environmental groups say. The company, which plans to sell its onshore assets and exit the Niger Delta after so many years of controversy, has always claimed its pipes are being sabotaged. Calculated or accidental, the oily devastation is visible in the eerie stillness of Ogoniland's mangroves, which should be alive with the sounds of chirping insects and croaking frogs. In the murky rivers floating with oil, old, stooped fishermen cast nets that bring up air. Nubari Saatah, an Ogoni, has long advocated for Ogonis to control their oil wealth, just as activists before him did. The president of the Niger Delta Congress political movement said Ogonis have remained resentful since the rebellion, primarily because Nigeria has not repaired the ruptured relationship or rectified injustices by giving Ogonis control over their land. Saatah, author of the 2022 book What We Must Do: Towards a Niger Delta Revolution, regularly appears on radio and TV shows to comment on the Niger Delta crisis and often places the blame for the region's instability at the government's doorstep. 'The violent militancy that engulfed the Niger Delta was a direct reaction to the violence visited on the peaceful methods employed by Ogoni,' Saatah said. 'Unfortunately for the Ogoni, the executions brought about a leadership vacuum that has still not been filled till today,' he added. A UN Environmental Programme report in 2011 found that more than 50 years of oil extraction in Ogoniland had caused the water in much of the region to be contaminated with extremely high levels of toxic hydrocarbons like benzene. In one village, benzene in the groundwater was up to 900 times the accepted World Health Organization standard. Cleaning up the devastation and restoring the land would require the 'world's most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken', the report said. Although Nigeria and Shell committed in 2012 to a clean-up through the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), more than a decade later, progress has been slow and hard to measure, critics said. Saatah blamed the government for the lack of results. Abuja, he said, has not funded the programme as promised. To Ogonis, that feels like a message that the government does not care, he added. Shell, meanwhile, has contributed $270m to the project. Al Jazeera reached out to HYPREP for comment but did not receive a response. Still, there is some change, Saatah noted. When the clean-up started, government authorities installed a sign at the community well in Saatah's village of Bomu that read: 'Warning! Do not drink this water.' People hardly glanced at the post as they fetched their drinking water, largely because there were no alternative water sources. In the past five or so years, however, HYPREP has installed potable water tanks in Bomu. Saatah worries, though, about whether the government will maintain the costs in the long run and whether the burden will be put on his community. Some in Ogoniland see Abuja's renewed interest through the recent pardoning of the Ogoni Nine as suspicious, coming as it does at a time when Nigeria is in the throes of one of its worst financial declines and when the government is desperate to extract and sell more crude oil. Resuming active exploration in Ogoniland, which stopped in 1993, could yield up to 500,000 barrels of crude per day, a MOSOP official, which is still operating, told reporters last year. That would be on top of the current 1.7 million barrels per day produced from other parts of the delta. 'The lines are there to be connected between oil resumption and the pardon of the Ogoni Nine,' Saatah said. The pardons, he said, were to sweeten the Ogoni people and avoid any opposition. As things stand, though, Ogoni communities are unlikely to agree to renewed exploration, he added, first, because locals still cannot control oil profits and, second, because rather than make Ogonis happy, Tinubu's pardoning of the Ogoni Nine has only worsened tensions internally, Saatah said. Rifts that emerged during the 1994 crisis have not healed. The fact that the president's speech did not acknowledge the four murdered MOSOP members in the mob action that led to Saro-Wiwa's arrest has angered their families and supporters, some of whom fault the aggressive stance of Saro-Wiwa for what happened. Noo and the Ogoni Nine families are not completely satisfied with the government's move either. The national honour was a welcome surprise, Noo said, but the pardons were not enough. 'A pardon suggests that something, that a crime had been committed in the first place,' she said. 'But nothing's been committed.' What she wants, she added, is for the conviction of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine to be thrown out of the country's history books.
BBC News
21-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Who be IBB, wetin dey im book and why e dey important?
One book wey one former military President Ibrahim Babangida launch don become hot talking point for Nigeria, as e admit for di first time for di book say, na di candidate of di Social Democratic Party, Moshood Abiola win di June 12, 1993 presidential election wey e cancel. Di former military leader wey pipo sabi well-well as IBB confession dey come 32 afta di afta di incident happun. Im admission don lead to plenty reactions for di kontri from ogbonge Nigerians, wey include President Bola Ahmed, and oda past leaders. Di 83-year-old retired army general for im autobiography wey e title, "A Journey in Service" wey e present to di public on Thursday, 20 February, tok about im experiences, decisions, and challenges wen e dey serve di kontri. For di 420-page memoir, di former military ruler acknowledge say di 1993 election dey "credible, free and fair". Dis na as e blame one former Head of State Sani Abacha and oda military officers for cancelling di election. Di former head of state bin take responsibility for cancelling di exercise wey see MKO Abiola defeat di National Republican Convention (NRC) candidate, late Bahir Tofa. However, even though e dey very clear to many pipo including foreign election observers say MKO win di election, Babangida for one national broadcast on 24 June 1993, announce say im don cancel am, e cite concerns ova national security as di reason. "Undoubtedly, credible, free and fair elections bin hold on June 12, 1993. However, di tragic irony of history remain say di administration wey devise a near-perfect electoral system and conduct those near-perfect elections no fit complete di process. "Dat accident of history dey most regrettable. Di nation dey entitled to expect my expression of regret. As a leader of di military administration, I accept full responsibility for all decisions taken under my watch," di former leader tok. "June 12 happun under my watch; mistakes, oversights, and missteps bin happun in quick succession, but I say in my book, in all matters, we act in di supreme national interest so dat Nigeria go survive." Di annulment bin spark nationwide protests and political unrest, wey force Babangida to step down two months afta for August 1993. E install interim goment wey Ernest Shonekan lead. Sani Abacha use coup take ova di goment for November 1993. Political leaders, Nigerians react... Plenty past and present leaders and prominent pipo bin attend IBB book launch and dem reflect on im legacy plus di state of democracy for West Africa. IBB admission on di annulment of di 1993 election also cause plenty reactions from Nigerians, as some hail am for im courage, odas bash am for di role e play for di 1993 elections. Nigeria President Bola Tinubu wey be one of di pipo wey bin dey di fore-front of di call for democracy dat year, bin salute di di former Head of State. E say e show unusual courage and patriotism as e admit say late M.K.O. Abiola win di June 12 election for 1993. Oga Tinubu add say di former leader admission about Abiola victory go help set di records properly. "I happy about di revelation of June 12. My General, we no go forget to pray for you. I listen to you carefully. I no dey here to read speech. I dey here to pay homage. "All I fit promise as di president na to try to do best, put di best forward, and make decisions, no mata how difficult dem be, in di interest of di kontri," e tok. For im keynote address, former Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo tok about di importance of multi-party democracy for Africa development. E warn against di growing wave of military takeovers, as e call dem setback to democratic progress. "Multiple parties dey good for our continent," Akufo-Addo tok, as e urge leaders to protect democratic institutions. Former Nigerian Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon (retd.), hail Babangida rise from aide-de-camp to head of state, e describe am as "boss of bosses." Former President Goodluck Jonathan describe Babangida as one of Nigeria most charismatic leaders and e call for di creation of presidential libraries to preserve di kontri political history. Reacting to IBB admission on di June 12, 1993 election, di pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, tok say di revelation dey come late and e no reach to address its far-reaching consequences. Di group Organising Secretary, Kole Omololu for one statement tok say, Babangida acknowledgement of di election credibility no remove am or im associates of di ogbonge damage wey di annulment cause. "Im late acknowledgement say di election dey free, fair, and credible just confam wetin Nigerians don know for ova three decades—say Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola be di rightful winner of dat historic election," Omololu tok. "However, dis long-overdue confession no fit free Babangida and im associates from di big betrayal dem give di nation. "E no fit restore di lives of pipo wey die, nor e fit atone for di scars of oppression, bloodshed, plus di suppression of democracy. Di consequences of dat reckless annulment remain irreversible." "Di Yoruba nation, and indeed all Nigerians, bear di brunt of Babangida self-serving power grab. Im decision put di kontri into katakata and e bring in an era of state-sponsored terror against democracy activists, pro-democracy media, and innocent citizens wey dare to demand justice," di statement read. Di group say some of di consequences of IBB annulment, include di assassination of Kudirat Abiola, di cold-blooded murder of Alfred Rewane, and di relentless persecution of Pa Abraham Adesanya, among odas, wey dem tok say remain as permanent stain on Nigeria conscience. Who be General Ibrahim Babangida? General Ibrahim Babangida alias IBB rule Nigeria as military head of state from 27 August, 1985 – 27 August 1993. E dey popular as di leader wey cancel di 1993 election wey kontri pipo plus international community consider as di most peaceful and freest and fairest for Nigeria history. June 12 Presidential elections 1993 election na di first afta di 1983 military coup for Nigeria. Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO) run under di SDP while Bashir Tofa run under NRC. IBB cancel di election ontop allegation of wuru-wuru and mago-mago. For one interview for 2021 Gen. Babangida Rtd. say "If to say we allow June 12 happen e for cause violence. " If to say we no use maradonic way, coup for don happun. A bloody coup wey for give room for instability for happun." E tok. Dem born IBB for August 1941 for Niger state, northern Nigeria. E receive military training for Nigeria, India, Great Britain, and di United States. E rise through di ranks and e dey known for im courage. IBB play major role in suppressing one attempted coup for 1976 wen e waka enta one rebel-held radio station unarmed.
