Centenary Celebration: Ogoni Protests Saro Wiwa’s Exclusion From National Honours List

The Ogoni's People have expressed dissatisfaction with the exclusion of the late environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and other prominent sons of Ogoniland from the honours list of the centenary celebration.

Saro-Wiwa was hanged to death on November 10, 1995, on the orders of the late military dictator, Sani Abacha. 

While the man who ordered his execution will be post-humously honored by the President Goodluck Jonathan Presidency as the nation gets set to celebrate 100 years of nationhood, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s name never made it beyond the oil polluted creeks.

The Federation of Ogoni Women Association (FOWA) and the Birabi Memorial Project Group, have said they would protest the development.

They lamented that apart from the exclusion of Saro-Wiwa from the list by the Federal Government, prominent sons of Ogoni like the late Harold Biriye and Paul Birabi were also excluded from the centenary honours list.

FOWA spokesperson, Mrs. Caroline Nagbo said; “Is the sacrifice of Ken Saro-Wiwa so invisible that the Nigerian government cannot recognise it in the present day democracy? Let it not be forgotten that the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 sparked the democratic revolution in Nigeria.

“If Sani Abacha who ordered the hanging of Saro-Wiwa could be recognised, we must say it is a calculated ignorance of the obvious that must have informed the exclusion of our son from that list,” she added.

(ekekeee)