Ken Saro-Wiwa: 31 Years of Begging the Question

Nigeria has continued to evade, rather than confront, the issues at the heart of the Niger Delta agitation. Vincent Obia writes

Nigeria marks a bitter anniversary today. On November 10, 1995, the Nigerian state, under the military rule of General Sani Abacha, silenced one of the most powerful voices of justice in environmental rights history. Ken Saro-Wiwa, a celebrated writer, environmental rights campaigner, and leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), was hanged alongside eight other Ogoni activists after a trial that was widely condemned as designed to act out a script rather than deliver justice.

Saro-Wiwa, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuinen, Baribor Bera, Felix Nuate, Paul Levula, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, and Daniel Gbook were accused of murder by the state, which also applied every known treachery to frustrate the efforts of the accused to prove their innocence.

But it was clear from the kangaroo trial that the crime of the Ogoni 9 was daring to challenge the environmental devastation and economic injustice visited on their homeland by decades of oil exploration and exploitation.

Many believe the murder of four Ogoni chiefs – Chief Albert Badey, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Theophilus Orage, and Chief Samuel Orage (Ogoni 4) – in 1994, for which Saro-Wiwa and the others were tried, was conducted by the establishment to create an excuse to silence the Ogoni 9.   

Abacha conducted the executions in Port Harcourt on a day the Super Eagles played against Uzbekistan in the second leg of the Afro-Asian Cup of Nations, at the National Stadium, Lagos, and the attention of the whole country was diverted. The celebratory mood that would have followed Nigeria’s 1-0 victory in the edgy game turned to national bitterness as news of the executions broke. The indignation flowed quickly across the world.

Nigeria was isolated by the international community, until it commenced visible efforts to return to civil rule in 1999.

Thirty-one years after, the questions Saro-Wiwa raised remain unresolved. And like the state under Abacha, successive administrations have seemed more zealous to apply cosmetics and divert attention from the real issues than address them. This begs the question of whether Nigeria is committed to justice and sustainable development in the Niger Delta.

The federal government launched the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in June 2016 following the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report findings on Ogoniland.

HYPREP was set up to clean up soil and groundwater contamination and restore shorelines and mangroves damaged by over 50 years of oil activities in the Niger Delta.

Under the scheme, some infrastructural projects have been established, including hospitals, potable water, environmental research centres, as well as educational and skills acquisition schemes.

In September, HYPREP commenced the development of a new five-year Strategic Plan, 2026-2031, focussing on completing outstanding projects, sustaining restored ecosystems, and safeguarding the gains of the Ogoni Cleanup Programme.

Minister of Environment and Chairman of HYPREP Governing Council, Balarabe Lawal, said at the 10th anniversary of the Ogoni Cleanup Programme that the plan will also focus on “preventing re-pollution and strengthening community ownership of completed projects”.

Lawal unveiled the remodelled Ogoni Cleaup Plaque and monument at the historic Patrick Waterside in Bodo City, Gokana Local Government Area, saying it is a permanent reminder of the Nigerian government’s commitment to the people of Ogoni.

But Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation(HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey says the clean-up exercise in Ogoni does not address the continuing “environmental genocide” in the Niger Delta.

Bassey states, “There has been some throwing of money at the region through the NDDC, but that does not address the existential challenges of massive, persistent, and possibly irreversible damage done to the environment of the region.”

Nigeria has historically established interventionist agencies to try to tackle environmental degradation, poverty, and infrastructural deficit in the Niger Delta. They include Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB), established in 1961 following the Willink Commission report; Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) set up in 1992 by the military government; Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) created by the President Olusegun Obasanjo government in 2000; and Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs created in 2008 by the President Umaru Yar’Adua government to coordinate development policies and supervise federal development agencies in the region. There is also the Presidential Amnesty Programme initiated by the Yar’Adua government.

The derivation principle is also a major policy intervention in the Niger Delta.

But the regions under the Independence Constitution of 1960 and Republican Constitution of 1963 controlled their natural resources, and retained 50 per cent of revenue derived from such resources, while the rest went to the common pool and the central government. From 1970, the states were stripped of control over their natural resources by the military, which also created an onshore/offshore dichotomy that limited derivation to onshore production.

The derivation principle was reduced to as low as 1.5 per cent, before it went up slightly to three per cent, and to the current 13 per cent under the 1999 Constitution.

Successive governments have initiated intervention agencies and programmes for the Niger delta, but the fundamental questions of environmental justice and resource control remain largely unresolved.

Yet, the Niger Delta remains the economic lifeblood of a country whose fortunes have depended heavily on crude oil exports. But for many in the region, the wealth produced on their land has brought neither economic prosperity nor a healthy environment, as pollution from oil spills, gas flaring, blowouts, and other oil-related disasters continue to degrade the environment and destroy livelihoods.

The recent divestment of Shell’s onshore Nigerian subsidiary underlines a seeming alliance between the state and foreign capital in the continuing economic exploitation of the Niger Delta. It raises the question of whether international oil companies (IOCs) can walk away from decades of devastating operations without fully accounting for their environmental liabilities.

Bassey believes the divestment by IOCs should be revoked.

He says, “The IOCs must clean up their mess. They own their toxic legacy and cannot leave without addressing the gross harms.”

The issues that inspired Saro-Wiwa’s agitation appear to have become even more entrenched, with politicians hardly seeing the Niger Delta question as a serious topic.

The HOMEF director says, “Any presidential candidate who cannot enunciate his plans for addressing the Niger Delta genocide should not be voted for.

“The same goes for the Niger Delta candidates for the state Houses of Assembly, House of Representatives, and Senate.”

The persistence of the ugly circumstances in the region has raised fears of a possible return to agitation by the people.

Bassey says, “The issue is whether the people can survive and reasonably expect a future for coming generations.

“The region has been essentially sacrificed and the reign of life threatening health issues continue to be compounded by reckless and irresponsible exploitation and pollution of the area.”

Last year, President Bola Tinubu granted a posthumous pardon to the Ogoni 9 and Ogoni 4, ironically, recognising them as heroes, but refusing to exonerate Saro-Wiwa and his eight compatriots of the bogus charges for which they were executed.

Amnesty International Nigeria and many in Nigeria’s civil society community rejected the pardon as deficient, insisting that the government must grant the Ogoni 9 a full legal exoneration rather than a pardon that implies retention of guilt.

Bassey insists, “You don’t pardon persons who were not found guilty of any offense through a fair justice system.

“Saro-Wiwa and the other eight leaders were denied the right to appeal the sentence handed down to them by the kangaroo tribunal. They should be exonerated. Nothing short of that would come close to an admission of grave error.”

Paradoxically, amid the unfinished clean-up work in Ogoni, the federal government is pushing for the return of oil production in the area. And outside Ogoniland, the environmental devastation has continued, with burning oil wells, abandoned oil wells, and gas flaring.

Bassey says, “The federal government should declare an environmental state of emergency across the Niger Delta and urgently commence environmental auditing, remediation, and restoration.”

He says the push to resume oil production in Ogoni “shows a lack of understanding of the interwoven nature of the Niger Delta environment and would be the final nail sealing of the hopes of ever getting the Niger Delta environment cleaned up and restored”.

According to him, “Not one new oil wells should be drilled in the region. And Ogoni oil should be left in the ground. To drill that oil is literally to bleed the blood of the people and the land.”

Thirty-one years after Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots were executed, Nigeria still confronts the issues for which they died. The Niger Delta question remains alive and unresolved, and operators of the Nigerian state appear content to beg the question, with no indication of when – or if – they will ever provide a real answer.