Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The decision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to grant a posthumous presidential pardon and confer national honours on the late environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others, known as the Ogoni Nine, has stirred strong emotions and renewed calls for their full exoneration.
While the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, described the move as a “positive step towards healing,” it insists that a pardon implies guilt, and that the nine men, executed by the military regime of General Sani Abacha in 1995, committed no crime.
“While the presidential pardon is significant, a pardon, by its very nature, implies the existence of an offense. In the case of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots, it is clear that no legitimate crime was committed,” MOSOP said in a statement signed by its President, Fegalo Nsuke.
President Tinubu, during his address to the National Assembly in commemoration of Democracy Day 2025, posthumously conferred national honours on Ken Saro-Wiwa, CON, and the rest of the Ogoni Nine: Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levura, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine (all awarded OON), adding that his administration was exercising the “prerogative of mercy to grant these national heroes a full pardon.”
“Today, we correct the record and honour their courage in the face of tyranny,” Tinubu declared.
But MOSOP and other Ogoni leaders are urging the President to take further action to “remove the stain of injustice.”
“We humbly appeal that His Excellency goes further by pursuing a formal exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists. Such an exoneration would be a stronger moral and legal correction, establishing a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to repudiate the irregularities of the 1995 tribunal would be a landmark act of restorative justice,” MOSOP said.
Similarly, Esther Barinem-Kiobel, widow of Dr. Barinem Kiobel, one of the executed men, expressed appreciation for the national honour but rejected the notion of a pardon.
“Pardon is not granted to the innocent,” Mrs. Kiobel wrote in an open letter to the President.
“Though he was declared guilty by a military tribunal, the constitution of the said tribunal and the procedures thereof were not in sync with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“These were men who stood for the right cause but were murderously hanged because of the greed of a select few. I seriously crave (Mr. President’s) indulgence to perfect the move so as to etch his name on the tablets of countless hearts that have been bruised following that unforgettable execution.”
Human rights campaigner and environmentalist Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface also rejected the framing of the presidential gesture as a pardon.
“We appreciate the recognition, but we reject the pardon approach. What the Ogoni people want is not a pardon, but exoneration. A judicial commission of inquiry should be constituted to review the trial and clear their names.”
He also called on the federal government to extend recognition to the Ogoni Four, other victims of the anti-Shell protests, and commended the conferment of the CON on Barr. Ledum Mitee, who was arrested alongside the nine but later acquitted.
“The struggle must continue until the Ogoni Nine do not die in vain. Their resilience remains a beacon for environmental justice in Nigeria,” he added.
The Ogoni Nine were convicted by a special military tribunal on charges widely seen as politically motivated and executed by hanging on November 10, 1995, sparking international condemnation and Nigeria’s temporary suspension from the Commonwealth.
President Tinubu’s gesture, while historic, has opened a new chapter in the decades-long call for justice, one in which many insist that forgiveness without full vindication is incomplete.
