Grant Ogoni Nine full pardon, apology

A hint by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to grant state pardon to the Ogoni Nine, who were murdered by the Nigerian state nearly three decades ago, should ordinarily be a soothing balm to the frayed nerves in the country. Symbolised by the writer and environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, the military junta led by the late dictator, Sani Abacha, executed the activists on flimsy grounds on November 10, 1995. Buhari should use the upcoming anniversary of that atrocity to begin healing the wounds Abacha inflicted on the Ogoni psyche by making good his promise.

Under the infamous Abacha, Nigeria was at a terribly dangerous moment. Shortly after a suspicious intra-communal riot in Ogoniland in 1994, in which four pro-government Ogoni chiefs died, the Abacha regime herded Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists fighting for the remediation of their environment into detention. With the help of a military tribunal, they were summarily sentenced to death. It was a Kangaroo court devoid of a minimal pretence to standard judicial process; they were promptly executed. They were denied the benefit of recourse to the appellate court. Sadistically, the Abacha death squad reportedly poured acid on the corpses.

Campaigning for environmental rights does not deserve being jailed for, let alone a death sentence, but Abacha thought otherwise. Instantly, the world reacted with consternation and Nigeria became a pariah nation. The Commonwealth, the United States, Canada and other Western powers, slammed sanctions on Nigeria. Abacha poured vitriol on the mess, pulling out the Super Eagles from defending the 1996 Nations Cup Soccer Finals hosted by South Africa. The anger at home was understandably pronounced because the Ogoni Nine were fighting a just cause – remediating the Niger Delta environment despoiled by the exploration activities of the Royal Dutch Shell oil company and other oil companies.

Twenty-six years after their callous execution, the cause the Ogoni Nine fought is still evident. Not much has really changed there. A United Nations Environmental Programme scientific analysis released in 2011 stated that Ogoniland is still an area of ecological disaster from oil pollution, part of the reason Buhari launched a clean-up there in 2016. UNEP estimates the clean-up fund at $1 billion.

All this reinforces the cause of Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuine, and Saro-Wiwa died for. During the struggle, Saro-Wiwa, who had formed the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People in 1990 to sensitise the world to the ecological degradation of the Niger Delta, had asserted with prescience: “You can kill the messenger, but not the message.” Saro-Wiwa’s non-violent ideals probably tragically transformed to a larger campaign of violence by militant Niger Delta youths after his execution.

There is much to be said about the Niger Delta, the place where crude oil was discovered in 1957. Decades before and after the cruel execution of the Ogoni Nine, the local communities have little to show for the oil wealth. Instead, their land has been devastated; their source of livelihood, farming and fishing, disrupted as their water is polluted by oil spillage. There are no basic amenities. Poverty is entrenched despite the billions of dollars flowing into the coffers of the oil companies and the federal treasury.

Thus, Buhari should do the needful because the government is a continuum. A former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, failed to fulfil his promise to name some national monuments after the Ogoni Nine. Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the Niger Delta region, did nothing to assuage the anguish of his people over their environment during his five-year tenancy as president. Having raised the issue again, Buhari should be different.

Nigeria’s current instability is partly predicated on injustice to the minorities. At this stage, tokenism cannot address the long-running marginalisation of the oil-producing areas. Justice is paramount. It is the only way to close the horrible saga of state murder. Just like he did by recognising June 12 and Moshood Abiola, who won the 1993 presidential election but was detained by the unconscionable Abacha, he should give justice to the Ogoni Nine. This will go some way in ameliorating the pains of the Ogoni people.

The saga should teach those in the office a lesson about intolerance. Indeed, the Buhari regime is also guilty of intolerance, especially in the cases of those agitating for self-determination. His regime labels them criminals and terrorists, just as Abacha did with Saro-Wiwa’s MOSOP. This is ridiculous. Protests and fighting for causes are inherent rights in a democracy. Extinction Rebellion, a global environmental movement, is engaging the G20 leaders on climate change. It is an open protest to ginger the world to save itself from environmental disaster.

If Buhari’s goal is to have a satisfactory ending to the sordid saga, he should go beyond mere pardon. After Obasanjo was implicated in a phantom coup by the Abacha regime in 1995, the Abdulsalami Abubakar regime declared him innocent. This enabled him to contest for president in 1999. Elsewhere, the New South Wales Justice Department in Australia justified “the royal prerogative of mercy” with the argument that “the purpose of the power is to temper the rigidity of the law by dispensing clemency in appropriate circumstances.” In addition, the immediate past American president, Donald Trump, gave a full pardon to 73 convicted criminals in January 2021. For the Ogoni Nine fiasco, clemency, full pardon, apology, payment of compensation should follow.

First, the president should officially acknowledge that the Ogoni Nine were not guilty of the offence of murder, and it was unjust for the state to have executed them. After that, the Nigerian state should tender an unreserved apology to the victims’ families and the Ogoni nation. Although a court has ordered Shell to pay some compensation, the state should also pay compensation for the tragedy. All this will enhance the regime’s stature at home and abroad, giving a sense of justice to the loss these families have suffered.

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