30yrs after Saro-Wiwa’s execution, environmentalists call for justice, cleanup in Niger Delta
Thirty years after the execution of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders, speakers at a commemorative event in Lagos renewed calls for justice, environmental restoration, and an end to oil pollution in the Niger Delta.
The anniversary programme, organised by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation in partnership with the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), brought together environmentalists, activists, and rights advocates who paid tribute to Saro-Wiwa’s courage and enduring legacy.
In his welcome remarks, Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), described the gathering as both a celebration of courage and a reminder that the struggle for justice and a clean environment is far from over.
“Ken Saro-Wiwa showed us that ordinary people can challenge injustice, no matter how powerful its backers are,” he said.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of HOMEF and a 2010 Right Livelihood Laureate, called Saro-Wiwa “a man who saw tomorrow.” He lamented that three decades after his death, the Niger Delta remains scarred by oil spills and pollution.
“Our environment still bleeds,” Bassey said. “The land and waters are still poisoned, and the promised clean-up has not been properly done.”
He warned that any move to resume oil exploration in Ogoniland would only deepen the suffering of local communities.
Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, drew parallels between Saro-Wiwa’s campaign and global struggles for environmental justice.
He recalled that Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni people received the Right Livelihood Award in 1994 for their “exemplary courage in striving non-violently for the civil, economic and environmental rights of their people.
“The problems Saro-Wiwa fought against—pollution, exploitation, and corporate impunity—still exist in many countries,” von Uexkull said. “The fossil fuel industry continues to cause pain and injustice worldwide.”
He cautioned that new oil drilling in the Niger Delta would be “crazy,” particularly at a time when the global community is transitioning toward renewable energy.
Von Uexkull also condemned international oil companies and banks for funding fossil fuel projects in Africa, describing such investments as “criminal activity.”vQuoting Martin Luther King Jr., he concluded, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. It does not bend by itself—it has to be bent. And that is what Saro-Wiwa did; he helped bend the world toward justice.”
The event ended with a collective call for Nigerians to honour Saro-Wiwa’s memory by continuing his peaceful struggle for justice, human rights, and environmental renewal in the Niger Delta.
