Press Statement

The Solidarity Network for Workers’ Rights (SNWR) strongly condemns the recent posthumous pardon and national honours conferred on Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Eight by President Bola Tinubu. This gesture, wrapped in symbolic rhetoric, fails in all ramifications to meet any of the demands for which these activists were wrongfully murdered.

Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni eight were not criminals; they were environmental justice fighters who stood bravely against the environmental plunder of their homeland by multinational oil companies—especially Shell—and their collaborators in the Nigerian state. Their so-called “trial” under the brutal Abacha regime was a legal farce, a miscarriage of justice orchestrated to silence dissent and protect capitalist oil interests.

A state pardon implies guilt, but these men were never guilty. What they demanded—clean air, clean water, sustainable livelihoods, and control over Ogoni resources—are legitimate and just demands. This pardon will not appease their murdered souls. If indeed President Tinubu admits they were wrongly killed, then he must go the whole way: initiate a formal retrial to exonerate them, publicly hold accountable those involved in their sentencing, and reveal Shell’s financial and political role in that horrific injustice. Is it possible for Shell to pay the Abacha regime for this execution to go ahead? These are the real questions, not empty awards.

More fundamentally, President Tinubu’s government is not only failing to meet the objectives of the Ogoni Nine—it is actively betraying them. With its neoliberal capitalist policies of deregulation, currency devaluation, and removal of fuel subsidies, the Tinubu regime has deepened the suffering of Nigerians—particularly the working people of the Niger Delta. These are the same policies Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP stood against. They fought for the democratic control of oil wealth by the people, not continued exploitation by multinational corporations and their cronies.

It is an insult that the people of Ogoniland must now pay more for fuel extracted from their very soil—while their land remains polluted, their rivers poisoned, and their livelihoods destroyed. There is still no comprehensive clean-up, no compensation, no free and functional healthcare, and no access to quality education for Ogoni children. The award, under such conditions, is not an honour—it is hypocrisy.

If the dead could speak, Ken Saro-Wiwa would reject this award. He would not accept any recognition from a regime that continues the economic policies of the same military dictators—Babangida, and Abacha—who worked with Shell to execute him. Tinubu’s government today implements the same IMF and World Bank-dictated neoliberal program, which prioritizes profit over people, private interest over public welfare, and foreign corporations over Nigerian lives.

SNWR’s Position:

1. Reject symbolic pardons that do not accompany structural redress.

2. Demand full exoneration of the Ogoni Nine and legal accountability for their murder.

3. Expose Shell’s complicity and demand reparations for the Ogoni people.

4. Nationalize the oil sector, placing it under the democratic control of the working class, to ensure that oil becomes a blessing—not a curse—for the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.

5. Make Nigeria’s refineries functional, and build new ones, to end dependency on imported fuel and guarantee affordable energy for the people.

6. Hold all perpetrators accountable for the environmental destruction and health crises caused by oil pollution in Ogoniland.

The Tinubu regime has not broken from the past—it has entrenched it. It remains a regime of the capitalist elite, serving the interests of multinational corporations and local profiteers. We call on all Nigerian workers, youth, and oppressed people to rise in solidarity and demand a radical, socialist alternative—one that puts human need above profit, and honors the legacy of our fallen comrades not in words, but in action.

Ken Saro-Wiwa did not die for awards. He died for justice. We must carry forward that struggle.

Signed,

Akande Daniel

Solidarity Network for Workers’ Rights (SNWR) June 13, 2025.