News

OPINION: Saro Wiwa, Eight Ogoni Posthumous Pardon, And The New Drill Dream

Published

1 month ago

July 2, 2025

By Israel Adebiyi

There is an old Greek tale—the story of King Priam, who welcomed a majestic wooden horse into the city of Troy, not knowing it hid the enemy. A gift, yes—but a deadly one. That tale birthed the phrase “beware of Greeks bearing gifts,” a timeless warning against generosity that masks darker motives. Today, Nigeria may confront its own version of this tale in the posthumous pardon granted to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine.

In 1995, Nigeria etched its name into the black book of global conscience by executing Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists. Their crime? Daring to challenge environmental exploitation and demand accountability from multinational oil companies and the Nigerian state. Their voices, though silenced by death, became louder in memory. The world mourned. The nation retreated into silence. For nearly thirty years, the injustice of their execution remained a scar on Nigeria’s soul.

Now, in what appears to be an act of national atonement, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has granted a posthumous state pardon. But one must ask—what exactly is being pardoned? And who benefits from this symbolism?

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: NNPCL, Abiku, And The National Rip-off

Pardons, by nature, imply mercy extended to the guilty. But the Ogoni Nine were not criminals. They were environmental defenders whose only offence was demanding justice. To pardon them without acknowledging the wrongful convictions that led to their deaths is to miss the point entirely. It is to offer a flower where fire is needed. It is to gift-wrap amnesia.

But context is everything. Beyond the moral theatre lies a quiet but consequential move by the Federal Government: the renewed push to recommence oil exploration in Ogoniland. Recent reports have hinted at behind-the-scenes negotiations and administrative groundwork to revive oil drilling in this land that has seen more spills than dividends. Suddenly, the pardon begins to resemble less a national apology and more a strategic peace offering—a political anesthetic before economic surgery.

Could this be Nigeria’s Trojan Horse?

The Niger Delta, and particularly Ogoniland, remains a powder keg of environmental trauma and distrust. The land that birthed Ken Saro-Wiwa remains largely untouched by justice. The UNEP report of 2011, which mapped out a detailed path for environmental restoration, has been slow-walked, politicized, and underfunded. Communities still breathe toxins, drink poisoned water, and watch their children grow up in a landscape of death. If the pardon was meant to heal, it missed its mark. It touched memory but ignored reality.

This is why the concept of a “Greek gift” is dangerously relevant. When a government offers mercy without accountability, when it performs reconciliation without restitution, it risks turning tragedy into theatre. What Nigeria owes the Ogoni Nine is not a pardon—it is exoneration. It is an unreserved admission of judicial murder. It is structural reform to ensure such abuses never reoccur. It is aggressive cleanup, healthcare restoration, educational intervention, and full community reintegration. Anything less is performance.

The suspicion now is that this performance sets the stage for re-entry—not just into Ogoniland, but into its oil. The pardon may be the lubricant for exploration. The government knows that in a region where memories are long and grievances deep, you cannot drill without first disarming resistance. And what better way to lower the guards of a traumatized people than to offer posthumous forgiveness for state-sanctioned executions?

But justice cannot be bought with symbolic gestures. We must ask: Why now? What has changed? Where is Shell in all this? Where is the justice for the decades of extraction and devastation? Where is the legislation that protects environmental defenders today? The pardon, if not matched with real reparative justice, becomes a Trojan Horse—invited into our national conscience but bearing within it the same inertia, the same betrayal.

We must look deeper. Because if all we do is pardon the dead while abandoning the living, then we have not learned from Troy.

We have only invited the horse in again.

Israel Adebiyi is a senior journalist, and Head of News, Super FM, Benin City.

Israeladebiyi28@gmail.com
07034950917

News

Bumper Harvest: Foundation Distributes 6,000 Fertilizers To Farmers In Bauchi

Published

2 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

A group, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation has donated 6,000 50kg bags of fertilizer to farmers in Bauchi state in order to have a bumper harvest.

Speaking during the flag off ceremony of the distribution of the fertilizers on Thursday, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation, said the distribution was only for the indigent farmers in the state.

He said the fertilizers would be distributed to farmers in underserved communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

“We are gathered here to flag off the free distribution of fertilizers to farmers, especially the indigent farmers that don’t have the means to buy fertilizer for their farms.

“That is the reason why the founder of this foundation bought the fertilizers and distributed them to the low income farmers in the state.

“We have gone round the nooks and crannies of the state to identify the underserved communities and those that deserve this particular gesture.

“We planned to distribute about 6,000 bags of fertilizer and due to the populous nature of the Bauchi LGA, they have the largest share but some other local governments too have hundreds of beneficiaries which we divided into Senatorial zones,” he said.

According to him, today was the flagging off of the Bauchi South Senatorial District, adding that the extension of the gesture would commence in Bauchi North and Bauchi Central Senatorial Districts tomorrow.

Mohammed explained that the only criteria used in selecting the beneficiaries were underserved communities and low income farmers, adding that “we know that a large number of the farmers in Bauchi state are low income farmers.

“Those are the people that we identified, verified and they are our beneficiaries and we have warned the general public about the activities of some unscrupulous elements that go round to impersonate our foundation.

“Wunti Al-Khair Foundation is not charging a kobo for every part of its activities, be it education, healthcare, economic empowerment and community development”.

Responding, one of the beneficiaries, Emmanuel Samson, described the support as a timely intervention that would greatly enhance his farming activities and appreciated the foundation for the intervention.

Another beneficiary, Salisu Maidawa, who was short of words for the gesture, said the gesture came at a time when he was in dire need of it.

News

IYC Urges Tinubu To Sack NCDMB Boss

Published

3 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Western Zone, has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for allegedly not “keeping up to the fundamental mandate,” upon which the agency was established.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Nicholas Igarama, Comrade Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo, and Comrade Tare Magbei, Western Zone
Chairman, Secretary, and Information Officer respectively, and made available to newsmen in Warri on Thursday, August 14, 2015.

According to the IYC, the call for Ogbe’s sack becomes necessary following his incompetence and ethnic bias, adding that Ogbe has turned the agency meant for the whole Niger Delta to his Itsekiri ethnic group alone.

The IYC, while noting that efforts to meet the NCDMB Executive Secretary to discuss critical issues as they affect the region and its people have proved abortive, said it can no longer fold it arms and watch while things go from bad to worse.

“As Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Ogbe has consistently failed to input his supposed industry track record in the advancement of the mandate upon which the agency was founded.

“He has continually had a sectional engagement with his fellow Itsekiri Kits and Kin, thereby shutting all other ethnic nationalites in the Niger Delta region out.

“Repeatedly, he avoided critical youth engagement in the region while sponsoring that of his Itsekiri ethnicity through different human capacity development initiatives, while other ethnic nationalites are left unattended.

“As Ijaw, mostly from the western flank where Engr. Ogbe also hails from, we will not sit and watch others benefit from the resources that we produce without our practical involvement to better the lives of our people as well.

“It is on record that the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone has tried to establish communication with Engr. Ogbe, for the last ten months, but every medium of communication to get his attention has fundamentally proven to be abortive.

“As youths, we can no longer have leaders in office who have now equated themselves to demi-god and have refused to attend to most significantly youthful issues in the Niger Delta Region.

“To this end, we therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinibu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, who has consistently displayed disregard for critical actors in the Niger Delta and has also exhibited the highest level of gross inefficiency by not keeping up to the fundamental mandate upon which NCDMB was founded,” the statement reads.

The IYC also called for the probe Ogbe as Executive Secretary after his sack.

Efforts to reach Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, for reaction proved abortive.

News

I’m Being Impersonated – Goodluck Jonathan Disowns Social Media Account

Published

5 hours ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday said he is being impersonated by fraudsters.

Jonathan alleged that a fraudulent Instagram handle has been impersonating him.

In a statement by his Media Aide,
Ikechukwu Eze, the former President insisted that he does not operate any Instagram handle.

The statement is titled ‘Beware of fake Instagram account impersonating H.E. Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’.

“Our attention has been drawn to a fraudulent Instagram account operating under the handle goodluck_ebelejonathan, which is falsely impersonating former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

“This impostor account has been deceitfully posting content, some copied from Dr. Jonathan’s Facebook page, while pretending to represent the former President.

“We wish to emphasise that Dr. Jonathan does not operate any Instagram account.

“The media and members of the public are strongly advised to disregard, avoid sharing, or promoting any content originating from this fake profile,” the statement read.