By Owei Lakemfa
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in commemoration of Democracy Day 2025, conferred posthumous national honours on famous writer and environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogonis hanged in 1995.
I attended part of their trial in Port Harcourt and had no doubt that the Tribunal was working towards a pre-conceived conclusion.
Doubtlessly, by this conferment, the Tinubu administration was trying to bring to a closure, a case that bitterly divided the Ogoni people and brought our country to international ridicule and condemnation. I think the national honours are well intentioned. However, the government was not well advised on how to heal the Ogoni wounds, so it inadvertently opened older ones.
The Ogonis are a long suffering people who realised that the Nigerian state is a rapacious one that would enable the equally greedy oil trans-nationals to exploit their oil, pollute their homeland and then flee like armed robbers. So in November 1990, they developed the Ogoni Bill of Rights. In it, they demanded political autonomy, the right to control and use a fair proportion of the economic resources found on their land, a right to be represented in all Nigerian national institutions and, the right to protect the Ogoni environment and ecology from further degradation.
To achieve these aims, they established the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni, MOSOP. The name spoke to their fears and their determination to survive.
Despite their then small population of less than 600,000, they had well educated elites who were outstanding. One of them was Dr Garrick Leton who had in 1963, obtained a doctorate in analytical chemistry. He was Rivers State Commissioner for Health in 1975, Nigerian Minister of Health two years later, and subsequently, Minister of Information. He became the pioneer President of MOSOP. The Deputy President was Edward Kobani, a former radical student leader in the University of Ibadan and former Commissioner in Rivers State. The Publicity Secretary and Spokesman was Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer, television producer and, who like the other two, was a former Commissioner in Rivers State. During the Civil War, he was the Civilian Administrator of the port city of Bonny.
The MOSOP leaders organised the Ogoni to protest against the naked exploitation of oil on their land and environmental pollution. They shutdown oil fields and expelled the workers. The military regime sent in soldiers who shot Ogonis with some losing their lives. The MOSOP leaders were subsequently arrested and taken to Lagos, then transferred to Abuja. Later, the regime decided to negotiate with the detainees. The MOSOP- National Security Council, NSC negotiations ended on May 9, 1993 and the Ogonis were asked to reduce their demands to one page which was done by Mr Albert Badey, former Secretary to the Rivers State Government. Some demands were granted but some, deferred. For instance, MOSOP demanded that the two local governments in Ogoniland be increased to twelve. But the government side offered six, which MOSOP rejected; then it upped it to eight, but MOSOP insisted on a minimum ten. The meeting decided to leave the exact number to the discretion of the Head of State.
But within five weeks, MOSOP began to unravel. The June 12, 1993 Presidential Elections held across the country. Some of the MOSOP leaders like Edward Kobani, were supporters of the Social Democratic Party, SDP candidate, Chief Moshood Abiola. They had in fact invited him to campaign in Ogoni land during which Abiola promised to meet their demands.
However Saro-Wiwa as MOSOP Spokesman, announced that the Ogonis would boycott the elections. On election day, some Ogoni youths set up barricades to enforce the no-election announcement. This led to a split in MOSOP leadership. But worse still, in the process of ensuring there was no voting, people, including from neigbouring areas like Andoni were affected. This snowballed into a conflict in which villages were burnt.
The June 12 elections were subsequently annulled by the military. The November 17, 1993 coup that brought in General Sani Abacha was supposedly designed to give the military a maximum six months to transit and hand-over power to Abiola, the winner of the June 12 elections. However, the regime stayed put and decided to hold a National Constitutional Conference. The supporters of Abiola and the pro-democracy movement campaigned against holding the conference on the basis that it was designed to deny Abiola his mandate and, for Abacha to perpetuate himself in power and eventually transit into a civilian president.
But Saro-Wiwa not only rejected a boycott of the conference but also elected to personally participate in it. So, he decided to contest as the Ogoni Delegate to the conference. I met him in Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti’s Anthony Village, Lagos office two days before he left for his May 21, 1994 conference election rally. We had discussions during which I tried to persuade him to change his decision to attend the Abacha conference as it would only serve to legitimise it and, in any case, he would be breaking the ranks of the pro-democracy family that had decided to oppose it. He argued that the Ogoni voice needed to be heard at the conference.
The old Ogoni leadership opposed Saro-Wiwa’s candidacy and this further drove a wedge between them. Apparently, the Abacha regime did not want him at the conference either as it sent security forces to abort his rally and escort him out of Ogoni land. Simultaneously, some Ogoni leaders opposed to him were holding a meeting in Gionkoo, another part of Ogoni to organise a reception for Barinem Kiobel, appointed Tourism Commissioner and, Mene Gbaragba appointed Gokana Local Government Chairman. Some persons descended on that meeting and killed four. The victims were Chiefs Edward Kobani, Albert Badey, Theophilus Orage and Sam Orage, two brothers. The latter was also Saro-Wiwa’s brother-in-law.
The Abacha regime took advantage of the situation to put on trial and, hang the nine Ogonis. Over the years, there have been sustained efforts to heal the Ogoni wounds. These included brokering peace amongst various factions including within the Saro-Wiwa MOSOP which split between his Deputy, Ledum Mitee who escaped the hangman’s noose and, Monday Owens Wiwa, Saro-Wiwa’s younger brother. But above all some closure has gone on by recognising the sacrifices of the Ogoni 4 and the Ogoni 9, merging and referring to them as the Ogoni 13.
Apparently, the Tinubu administration is not advised on this reconciliation moves, so it selects the Ogoni 9 for national honours, leaving out the Ogoni 4. But it is not too late; just as it later included retired Colonel Abubakar Umar Dangiwa to the national honours list, so can it include the Ogoni 4 and ensure a closure of the Ogoni tragedy. May the souls of the Ogoni 13, rest in peace. Amen.
