President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is currently engaged in a high-powered political-sociological cum economic engineering in Ogoni land with a view to enhancing peace process and consequently allowing the oil to flow, again, in Ogoniland, after 30 years of violent agitation shut the wells.
The latest gambit in the peace process is the granting of pardon to the Ogoni Nine convicted and executed on November 10, 1995 for incitement and murder of the Ogoni Four on May 21, 1994 , as reported in the media, including The Nation and The Punch both on Friday, October 10, 2025.
The pardon is the latest effort to placate the militant wing of the Movement for the Survival Ogoni People (MOSOP ) led by writer and environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who had early in September 2025 been given national honours by President Tinubu. The Ogoni Nine were Saro-Wiwa, Dr Barinem Kiobel, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera and John Kpuine. These national honours for the Ogoni Nine sparked criticism of the federal government for ignoring the Ogoni Four, victims of brazen, broad daylight murder.
Following the backlash, Tinubu, on Wednesday, September 24, 2025 bestowed the national honour of Commander of the Order of Niger (CON) on the Ogoni Four, the four prominent Ogoni leaders murdered at the incitement of Ken Saro-Wiwa. The Ogoni Four were Chief Albert Badey, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Theophilus Orage and Chief Samuel Orage. They were among founding leaders of MOSOP who brought Saro-Wiwa into the organization as Publicity Officer because of his media connection.
So, even if the honour to the Ogoni Four is considered an after thought, President Tinubu still deserves some commendation for allowing reason and pragmatism to eventually prevail over blackmail. But let Tinubu beware of banana peels in the treacherous terrain of Ogoniland where the militants continue to hold sway, given how they successfully blindsided the Tinubu Presidency into initially forgetting the Ogoni Four. The latest pardon, seen as continuing appeasement of the Saro-Wiwa disciples is more likely to heighten the deep-rooted, seething anger in Ogoniland between the two divides, a situation akin to a simmering volcano that could erupt into fireballs.
The Tragedy of The Ogoni 13, a festering sore that refuses to heal, has deeply polarised the Ogoni community in Rivers State and to some extent, the larger Nigerian society on the matter of guilt or otherwise of the Ogoni Nine, with the pro- Saro-Wiwa group dominating the public narrative. The poser here is : How did the Tinubu presidency get persuaded – or railroaded – into granting that initial faux pas honour to the Ogoni Nine?
The Saro-Wiwa saga is a classic example of how a well oiled propaganda machinery can easily sway the unwary and the intellectually indolent, because propaganda appeals to the emotion and not to reason. Details of the crime were willfully ignored by many, as if being an activist is a license for murder.
I will start on a personal note. I had an opportunity to meet Saro-Wiwa when I was at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. His fellow Ogoni, James Nally, a staff of NAN then, brought him to NAN office. What struck me first was the disproportionate bigness of his head! It was like a character from ‘Igbo Irunmole’! (Forest of the deities).
He raged about Ogoni marginalisation. He came across as an Ogoni irredentist, which manifests in one of his books – The Darkling Plain (1989- 268 pages) where he noted the Ogoni as the only honest tribe in Nigeria. James, his kinsman, also had this sense persecution in the office and of the Ogoni as an ethnic group. He calls me ‘Oga Bisi”, and I was about the only one he related with well.
The other personal note was on the day the Ogoni Nine were executed, November 10, 1995 when NAN reporter in Port Harcourt filed the story to Lagos. As Assistant Editor-in-Chief, I was the most senior staff on duty. When I broke the story in the newsroom, there was bedlam, the office was thrown into pandemonium, with many saying we should not publish the story for fear of repercussions.
Others were cursing Abacha. I reminded the agitated staff that four leaders of Ogoni were murdered in broad daylight. That statement further enraged some staff and one of them even started moving, menacingly, towards me. I dared him to get physical and that it would be his last day in NAN. He beat a fast retreat. I then reminded the staff present that it was such inclination to violence that got the Ogoni Nine into trouble. I read the draft of the story to the Editor-in-Chief, Mr Dave Igiewe, at home and he gave clearance to publish. There was instant global reaction, with sanctions slammed on Nigeria.
Staff who feared the Abacha military government would clamp down on NAN were surprised that nothing of such happened. We were professional in writing the story – no adjectives, no opinion, no insinuations, no embellishments, just the bare facts. Most times, it is when journalists fail to adhere to ethical journalism practice that they run into trouble with government.
Thirdly, a granddaughter of Chief Kobani, Zigalobari Peace Kobani, was one of my students at the Department of Mass Communication, Adeleke University, Ede (September 2019- July 2023 ) She was an ever smiling, brilliant student, graduating with Second Class (Upper) – CGPA 4.15 of 5.00 Max.
The tragic journey for the Ogoni 13 began on May 21, 1994 when a murderous mob of Ogoni youths descended on prominent Ogoni leaders gathered in the palace of Gbenemene, the traditional ruler of Gokana, to celebrate one of their own. According to reports, security agents had escorted Saro-Wiwa out of that town earlier in the day, given the restiveness of youths who were ardent disciples of the environmental activist. As he was being led out, he was reported to have told the youths that their oppressors were meeting to share money from Shell oil company and from the government, describing them as vultures. In Ogoniland, the prevalent notion was that once Saro-Wiwa tagged anyone ‘vulture’, it amounted to a death sentence. Some elders were said to have gone to Kiobel, one of the Ogoni Nine, to come to the palace and calm the mob. This commissioner in government was reported to have told the emissaries that he could not counter Saro-Wiwa’s directive.
At this point, the mob went berserk, broke into the gathering and unleashed mayhem. As narrated by Suage Badey, son of Albert Badey, one of the Ogoni Four, the father was said to have escaped from the venue and ran to hide in the house of a woman. However, when the mob threatened to lynch the woman, he had to come out of hiding and the mob pounced on him. The mob got the other three.
In a horrific display of bestiality and cannibalism, this pro-Saro-Wiwa mob dismembered these four prominent fellow Ogonis and the pieces of their bodies carted away such that there was nothing for the children to bury !And this happened in broad daylight! The murderers were natives and the people know themselves.
Why Ogoniland remains on tinder box, that should be tended with great caution, is the demand of the Saro-Wiwa group for the exoneration of the Ogoni Nine while the pro-Ogoni Four are demanding the bodies, or even the bones, of the four Ogoni chiefs to bury and a public apology from MOSOP to give them closure.
However, with campaigners aggressively seeking that the Ogoni Nine should be exonerated of the killing of the Ogoni Four, is it then that the Ogoni four were killed by ghosts? The pro-Ogoni Nine’s demand is symptomatic of the pervasive impunity in the country where criminal elements, including murderers, have developed the effrontery to claim immunity from justice. It is that bad and reason violence is literally drowning the country.
Media bias
The media, local and international, have been complicit in the Ogoni tragedy by their morbid partisanship in the saturation reportage of Saro-Wiwa, apparently inducing in him a sense of invincibility that ultimately led him on to the path of perdition.There are a few, though, who, like the Arise TV host, Charles Aniagolu, have pondered whether the fact of Saro-Wiwa’s trial and execution under Gen. Sani Abacha was a factor in deodorising the image of the environmental activist and downplaying the crime he was accused of.
But the media is expected to abide by the accuracy and fairness doctrine. Can the Nigerian press claim to have been accurate and fair to the Ogoni Four in their news reports and analyses of the Ogoni Saga all these years? What is more, virtually all media reports about the Ogoni Nine are discriminatory – it is usually Saro-Wiwa and eight others. So, the eight others are non-persons ?
Government Complicity
Successive governments have been complicit in environmental degradation, especially in oil producing areas of the country, a lax that brought Saro-Wiwa to limelight in his agitation for remedial measures of his polluted homeland. Governments would rather cohort with exploitative multinational oil companies than protect the environment for the good of the people.
To that extent, Saro-Wiwa was engaged on a noble cause. The Ogoni Four were similarly engaged in agitation for environmental cleanup of Ogoniland. They only differed in strategies, with the Ogoni leaders preferring the non- violence approach as against Saro-Wiwa’s alleged militancy. The point has to be made, and strongly too, that disagreement in strategy should not be a license for murder.
I have written two newspaper articles on the Ogoni crisis, the first titled : Ogoni Four – Remembering the unsung martyrs. It was published in The Guardian of June 5, 2005, and New Age of June 13, 2005. The second, titled : Between Gambari and Ken Saro-Wiwa : Who is the villain? was published in The Guardian of May 25, 2020; Daily Independent, May 22, 2020 and Peoples Daily of May 22, 2020 where I took exception to Saro-Wiwa proganda ensemble vilifying Gambari for defending the activist’s execution at the United Nations. In the two articles, the central point I articulated was that it is wrong to canonise someone found guilty of murder.
The Ogoni Tragedy – Dr. Garrick Barilee Leton (PhD, Chemistry, University of London, 1963), the founding president of MOSOP got ostracised from Ogoniland when Saro-Wiwa and his militant youths took over the organisation. It is significant that Leton, a former Minister of Education, testified against Saro-Wiwa at the Military Tribunal that Ken was consumed by lust for power to be in complete control of MOSOP.
Chief Edward Kobani, Ogoni Four, was a former vice president of MOSOP. Chief Sam Orage was married to the elder sister of Saro-Wiwa’s wife. In one of his letters to an ally, one Majella, dated July 30, 1994 while in detention, Saro-Wiwa had noted his and Ogoni’s tragic circumstances : “I haven’t heard from the children and that’s worrying … And the family has been wracked by illness and tragedy. My first son underwent heart surgery and the Orages who were murdered were in-laws. Sam Orage brought up my wife (he’s married to her elder sister). So, the tragedy grows”.The Ogoni tragedy grows, indeed. Today, division-wracked Ogoniland has three claimants as President of MOSOP!
Tinubu – Navigating the Ogoni Tragedy.
Is President Tinubu genuinely interested in restoring peace in Ogoni land or is primarily motivated by prospects of oil money from Ogoni land? Suage Badey, son of murder victim, Chief Albert Badey, while appearing on Arise TV programme ‘Prime Time’ on October 1, 2025 spoke of “palpable tension” in Ogoniland given the subsisting deep divisions while Kenneth Kobani, son of Chief Edward Kobani, at the 2025 memorial service for the Ogoni Four indicated the resolve of the families of their parents for the bodies and penance.
President Tinubu seems to have just woken up to the lost revenue from Ogoni shutdown of the oil wells and maybe tempted to rush into the terrain, with his cash-cow boy at the FIRS, Zacch Adedeji, in tow! However, Tinubu is better advised not to present as if he has been captured by the Saro-Wiwa lobby and being seen as implementing the agenda of the militants. An obvious partisan inclination by Tinubu will generate resentment from other sidelined stakeholders in Ogoni land.
That cannot foster the peace process. He should be an impartial conciliator, a healer. An emerging trend where the state usually surrenders to militancy is one of the reasons Nigeria today is prostrate before terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, ritualists and sundry violent agitators.
Dr Olawunmi, senior lecturer, Department of Mass Communication, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, is a former Washington Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria and Fellow, Nigerian Guild of Editors (FNGE). He can be reached via:[email protected] and 08033647571 (SMS ONLY).
