By Akinwale Kasali
A Group, Clean Environmental Foundation, CEF, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to declare Environmental Activist, Ken Saro Wiwa a National hero, with a National Monument named after him.
Saro Wiwa and eight others were sentenced to death and hanged during the regime of General Sani Abacha after they were found culpable in the gruesome murder of four prominent sons of Ogoniland in the cause of Saro-Wiwa’s alleged Environmental activism. The bodies of those Ogoni Four, were never found for a decent burial by their families.
The Group also urged President Tinubu to grant State pardon Saro -Wiwa who was hanged in November 1995 alongside the other eight.
In a statement on Tuesday, CEF called on the Nigerian President not only to extend state pardon to Saro Wiwa but, also, pay compensation to his family.
It said President Tinubu needed to understand the pain, misery and agony the Niger Delta people face due to the hanging of Saro Wiwa.
They, however, inexplicably, said nothing about the gruesome murder of the four Ogoni prominent leaders which included a former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Chief Albert Barde, who was dragged out from a Church where he ran to take refuge from the instigated mob, and murdered.
Saro Wiwa was arrested in 1995 by the Military regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha following the murder of those four leading Ogoni leaders.
The military government blamed him for the killing but many see it as a plot by the Government to nail its avowed enemy.
He had raised the banner of resistance against environmental injustice to the global level.
A tribunal was subsequently set up by the military which culminated in the death sentence passed on Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders.
The trial drew global condemnation from leaders across the world including the then South African President Nelson Mandela.
“We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to extend state pardon to Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others judicially murdered by the Nigerian State under Gen Sani Abacha. The President should declare Saro Wiwa a National hero after the state pardon granted him and eight others” the statement signed by the CEF Executive Director, Isaac Omomedia stated.
CEF is a leading environmental group in West Africa. Only recently, the group’s Technical Team conducted an extensive research and tour of the Niger Delta to access damage to the ecosystem and other biodiversity issues.
Omomedia said “The return of oil exploration in Ogoni is not as important as building broken trust between the Ogoni and the Nigerian authorities. The Government should not give the impression that it is more interested in profit than in Justice.”
He said today, an average Ogoni man feels depressed, marginalised and traumatised by the killing of Ken Saro Wiwa who stood out as a man of peace that never resorted to armed insurrection, yet he was killed by the Nigerian state.
Onomedia said “President Tinubu should do the right thing. He will instantly enjoy the support of Ogoni people and the entire Niger Delta if he can be courageous enough to reclaim the lost trust between Ogoni and the Nigerian state” Omomedia said.
He called on President Tinubu to also name a National Monument after the late environmental activist.
Saro-Wiwa wad born in October 1941.
He was a Nigerian writer, teacher, poet, television producer, and social rights activist who lost his life in 1995
He led the struggle for envionemtal justice in the Niger-Delta with specific focus on Ogoni people.
Instructively, he was, also, an Abacha friend, a fact he allegedly, reconfirmed while he was being led to the gallows.
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