Groups Urge Tinubu to Exonerate Ken Saro-Wiwa, Commit $1 Trillion to Niger Delta Clean-Up -

Groups Urge Tinubu to Exonerate Ken Saro-Wiwa, Commit $1 Trillion to Niger Delta Clean-Up

Groups call on Tinubu to exonerate Saro-Wiwa, commit $1 trillion to Ogoni, Niger Delta clean-up

Civil society organisations on Monday renewed calls for the Nigerian government to formally exonerate Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders executed in 1995, while also demanding a $1 trillion investment to clean up Ogoniland and other polluted Niger Delta communities.

The call was made during the Environmental Rights Collective for Social and Intergenerational Mobilisation (ERECTISM) symposium in Lagos, organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) in collaboration with 10 other organisations, including Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre, CAPPA, Social Action, Oilwatch International, Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative, Lekeh Development Foundation, We The People, and HEDA Resource Centre.

Exoneration, Not Pardon

In his opening remarks, Nnimmo Bassey, director of HOMEF, said the executions of Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues were “judicial murders” and that the government’s talk of issuing a pardon is “misplaced.”

“What Ken Saro-Wiwa and the others deserve is not a pardon,” Mr Bassey said. “They deserve exoneration, because they committed no crime. Exoneration is the only way to clear their names and address the injustice done to them.”

Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine were executed in 1995 under General Sani Abacha’s regime on charges widely viewed as politically motivated.

President Tinubu had announced during his June 12 Democracy Day broadcast that the government was considering pardons and national honours for the activists. But groups at Monday’s event called the gesture “hollow,” insisting that a pardon still implies wrongdoing while exoneration affirms innocence.

Ongoing Devastation in the Niger Delta

The coalition said that nearly 30 years after the executions, Ogoniland remains severely polluted, with contaminated rivers, unproductive farmlands, and persistent gas flaring exposing residents to toxic emissions.

They cited declining life expectancy, deep poverty, and ongoing environmental destruction in the Niger Delta while oil companies continue to profit.

Mr Bassey recalled Saro-Wiwa’s ideology of “ERECTISM,” which emphasises environmental justice, resource control, ethnic autonomy, and sustainable development.

Key Demands from Activists

Formal Exoneration: The Nigerian government should exonerate Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues, not pardon them.
$1 Trillion Clean-Up Fund: The coalition urged the federal government to commit $1 trillion to a scientific, transparent, and community-led clean-up of the Niger Delta.
Corporate Accountability: Oil companies must be held responsible for decades of pollution and cannot divest without cleaning up their mess.
Protecting Defenders: Environmental and human rights defenders must be protected from harassment and criminalisation.
No New Drilling: The groups rejected any resumption of oil operations in Ogoniland, saying “the oil should remain in the ground.”

The groups also referenced international precedents, including the U.S. Department of Justice’s 2018 settlement over the Green Canyon oil spill, to argue that the scale of pollution in the Niger Delta warrants far greater investment.