Ogoni’s have over the past 2 decades consistently demanded that 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.
It is important to note that no civil society organization in Nigeria has asked for a presidential ‘pardon’ for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine, who were unjustly murdered by the Sani Abacha dictatorship.
On the 22nd of October 2021, a select group of Ogoni leaders attended a parley at State House with President Muhammadu Buhari. Among other issues, the President stated that the ‘federal government will consider the request for the grant of pardon to finally close the Ogoni saga’.
“The President made this commitment to ‘consider’ a pardon immediately after he declared that “the unfortunate incidents of the early 1990s leading to the loss of lives of distinguished sons of Ogoni land and the collateral judicial processes are indelible in our memories”
What we the civil society groups are demanding is the complete exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 8. It is also important to note that the President’s suggestion of granting a ‘pardon’ is tantamount to saying that the Ogoni 9 were guilty and rightly executed. We deem the proposal to ‘consider’ a pardon for 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.
The President also used the opportunity of the parley to state that the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd (NPDC), had been granted license to re-open and operate OML11. It is pertinent to recollect that in 1993, Shell was forced to abandon its OML 11 operations located in Ogoni and pull out of the area. This was the direct outcome of passionate but peaceful campaigns by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) led by Ken Saro-Wiwa. MOSOP had called the attention of the world to the poverty, neglect and environmental destruction which decades of oil exploitation had bequeathed on the Ogoni people. MOSOP had also demanded fairer benefits to the Ogoni people from oil wealth, as well as remediation and compensation for the ecological damage caused by the reckless activities of oil companies. These have still not been addressed.
The report of UNEP indicated massive soil and water contamination in Ogoniland, which has significantly compromised sources of livelihood and was slowly poisoning the inhabitants. It was only about 3 years ago, that the government began actual clean-up with the agency called HYPREP. It is therefore shocking that while the clean-up is ongoing, the government is prioritizing restarting of oil extraction in the same area being cleaned up, with all its polluting impacts.
Civil Society groups maintain that is important to reiterate that proposing an unnecessary ‘pardon’ for the Ogoni nine, seemingly in exchange for support to reopen OML 11, is in bad faith and capable to breeding conflict. If the President is interested in reversing the injustice which the murder of the Ogoni 9 represents, the appropriate action is to exonerate the Ogoni martyrs and apologize to the Ogoni people. Apologize 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
It is also pertinent to observe that the move to resume the extraction of oil in Ogoniland, happening against the backdrop of the contentious clean-up of polluted sites in Ogoni, raises fears and fuels cynicism. It is worrying that the government would think of resuming oil extraction in Ogoniland when the pollution of the last decades is yet to be cleaned, decrepit installations are yet to be decommissioned and the many recommendations of UNEP are yet to be fully complied with.
The ecological disaster in Ogoniland provides a cue for the government to take actions towards the clean-up of the entire Niger Delta .We advice the President to institute strategies for a region wide clean-up of decades of environmental pollution by setting aside $100 billion dollars as takeoff fund for clean-up.
Endorsed By:
1. Rivers state Civil society Organizations
2. Take it Back Movement
3. Ogoni Solidarity Forum
4. We the People
5. Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
6. Health of Mother Earth Foundation
7. Media Awareness and Justice Initiative (MAJI)
8. Peace Point Development Foundation, Nigeria
9. Policy Alert, Nigeria
10. Kabetkache Women Resource Development Centre, Nigeria
11. People Advancement Centre, Nigeria
12. Lekeh Development Foundation, Nigeria
13. SWAYA, Nigeria
14. Rights Advocacy and Development Center (RADEC)
15. Community Development Advocacy foundation (CODAF)
16. Oilwatch Africa
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