Abuja: Nigeria’s president has pardoned the late activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, 30 years after his execution sparked global outrage. Along with eight other campaigners, Saro-Wiwa was convicted of murder and then hanged in 1995 by the then-military regime. Many believed the activists were being punished for leading protests against the operations of oil multinationals, particularly Shell, in Nigeria’s Ogoniland. Shell has long denied any involvement in the executions.
According to Nam News Network, President Tinubu stated that the accolades recognized heroes who had made outstanding contributions to the nation’s democracy. Responding to the pardons for the Ogoni Nine, campaign groups said they would like the government to take further steps. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which was formerly led by Saro-Wiwa, called the pardon a courageous act. However, MOSOP also said that the pardon implies wrongdoing, while in reality, no crime ever took place.
Barinem Kiobel’s widow expressed her grat
itude to President Tinubu for the national honour but called on him to properly declare her husband and his compatriots innocent, as a pardon is not granted to the innocent. She stated her desire for a retrial. Meanwhile, Amnesty International remarked that clemency falls far short of the justice the Ogoni Nine need and emphasized that more must be done to hold oil companies accountable for environmental damage currently occurring in Nigeria.
Saro-Wiwa, one of Nigeria’s leading authors, led the Ogoni people in peaceful demonstrations against Shell and other oil companies. MOSOP accused the multinational company of polluting the land that locals relied on for their livelihoods. The Nigerian government responded by brutally cracking down on the protesters. The Ogoni Nine were subsequently found guilty by a secret military tribunal of the murder of four Ogoni chiefs, which led to their execution, sparking international outrage. It was widely condemned as extrajudicial murder and became a global symbol of the st
ruggle against environmental injustice and repression. As a result, Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth group of nations.
Since then, Shell has faced numerous lawsuits over oil spills and environmental damage in the Niger Delta, the southern region that Ogoniland is a part of. In 2021, a Dutch court ordered Shell to compensate farmers for spills that contaminated swathes of farmland and fishing waters in the Niger Delta, with the company agreeing to pay more than a hundred million dollars. Earlier this year, lawyers representing two Ogoniland communities argued in London’s High Court that Shell must take responsibility for oil pollution that occurred between 1989 and 2020. Shell denies wrongdoing and claims that spills in the region have been caused by sabotage, theft, and illegal refining, for which the company asserts it is not liable. The case’s full trial is set for 2026.