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The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People has renewed its call on the Federal Government to exonerate slain environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his Ogoni kinsmen of any wrongdoing.
Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots were murdered by the late Sani Abacha military junta on November 10, 1995.
Their killing through the hangman’s noose at the Port Harcourt prison attracted international condemnation which also earned Nigeria suspension from the Commonwealth.
The President of MOSOP, Prof Olu Andah Wai-Ogosu, speaking at a memorial martyrs lecture to commemorate the 19th anniversary of November 10, otherwise known as Martyrs’ Day in Ogoniland, said the exoneration would help to heal the wounds in the hearts of all Ogoni people.
The ceremony was held at Bane town in the Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State on Sunday.
Wai-Ogosu said, “I want to use today to call the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was Ken Saro-Wiwa’s colleague from the side of NADECO to, as a matter of urgency, initiate the process of exonerating Ken and the eight others.
“We will push that issue beyond the jargon of pardon and exoneration because we believe that the official clearing of the names of our heroes will heal the wounds in the hearts of all of us.”
The MOSOP president also declared that the time for negative agitation for the emancipation of the Ogoni people was over, saying the new leadership under him would use dialogue and engagement to achieve the dreams of the Ogoni forebears.
“This is the time of meaningful engagement. We have passed the time of negative agitation. We have started to move MOSOP back to the international arena.
“As I speak to you all, we have started meaningful engagement with the United Nations Unrepresented Peoples’ Organisation…In the next few months, we are going to revive the vision that would remove helplessness and hopelessness in our faces,” he said.
MOSOP, he stated, is positioned with the mandate of being the mouthpiece of the Ogoni people.
“Ogoni has four local government councils and they are with us with the charge to reconcile the people, reposition MOSOP to be the mouthpiece and voice of the people but we can only be the voice if we are going to be forthright, courageous and stand for the truth,” he said.
Wai-Ogosu promised to revive the spirit of the struggle in Ogoniland and to also create a source of livelihood for the people through empowerment.
“This movement is based on justice, fair play, equity, free speech, to be able to say your own, not to be cowed.
“MOSOP is well positioned now to take it up from where Ken left, I want to promise you that. We’ll start by recreating love for ourselves, reconciling ourselves because that’s why development also eluded us,” he said.
The MOSOP president used the event to announce plans by the organisation to empower the people with fishing tools to get them back to their original source of livelihood.
“In the next few weeks, MOSOP is going to kickstart the fishing project, because that was the major occupation of our people.
“We are starting that project and in a couple of weeks, we’ll be empowering families in three communities of Ogoni such as Kaa, Sii and Gwara with boats and fishing tools appropriate to those different ecosystems and we are going to charge them to form a fishing cooperative society, so that they can enlarge the space for more communities and participation.”
The MOSOP president further called for support from all stakeholders and well-meaning Ogoni to sustain the struggle for a better life for the Ogoni people.
Rear Adm John Nicholas Bakpo (retd) recounted the incident that led to the killing of the Ogoni Nine and called on the people not to make the mistake or engage in any action that would lead to the killing of any set of Ogoni leaders.
He urged MOSOP to unite the people and work to ensure the martyrs did not die in vain.
“I must tell my own Ogoni people that we must not make the mistakes of the past where we were divided against ourselves to create an opportunity to silence us because that’s what is happening now with these clandestine moves to re-enter Ogoni.
“And the only thing we are seeing now is a situation whereby we will also fight ourselves and those who think they are in front now would be silenced. We must learn from history.”
In a goodwill message at the event, the Eze-Ogba of Ogbaland, Eze Obioha Nwachukwu Nnam-Obi, charged the Ogoni people and the leadership of MOSOP to remain united.
“I want to also call on MOSOP to hold onto the baton, recharge its batteries, to march forward with strength and courage, to look deeply into those things that would move the people forward which summarises why we are here.
“It is, therefore, my call on Mr President and believing that with you at the saddle, carrying the whole hopes and aspirations of the entire Ogoni people, you would bring the same dexterity, you would bring the same forthrightness, that depth of thoughts for making sure that they realise the reason why the struggle started.
“I call on you people of Ogoni to rally around your leaders, to listen to them, they will think of the best for you, they can’t afford to do less because Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest have shown the way already, so they cannot deviate,” Nnam-Obi stated.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Central Planning Committee for the celebration, Dr Henry Kpunee, expressed delight at the event, stating that it afforded the Ogoni people the opportunity to reflect on the struggle started by their forebears who laid down their lives for their emancipation.
