₦airaland Forum

“I hereby give the CON award to Ken Saro Wiwa and OON to the remaining Ogoni 8 and also grant them a State FULL PARDON” - President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu today granted posthumous national honours and presidential pardons to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other members of the Ogoni Eight. These were men who were executed in 1995 by the military regime of General Sani Abacha under circumstances that remain deeply controversial.

While I acknowledge the symbolic importance of this gesture and the possible sense of relief it may offer to the bereaved families, I am also compelled to ask: Pardon for what?

Let’s not forget what this word (pardon) fundamentally means. It implies wrongdoing. It suggests guilt. It infers that those who are being pardoned were, in the eyes of the law and society, justly convicted and are now being shown mercy.

Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow Ogoni activists were not terrorists, criminals, or economic saboteurs. They were environmental and human rights crusaders, victims of a military dictatorship that sought to silence dissent with bullets and bayonets. Their only "crime" was daring to speak truth to power, to challenge a foreign oil company environmental exploitation of Ogoniland, and to demand justice for their people in a country where oil wealth often meant misery for host communities.

The curse of Oloibiri!

The trial that led to their deaths was marred by lack of due process, allegations of bribed witnesses, and global condemnation. It is not a matter of mere opinion; it is historical fact that the tribunal that sentenced them was widely denounced as a sham.

To now issue a pardon, nearly 30 years after they were hanged, is to quietly reaffirm that they were rightly convicted in the first place. It lends false legitimacy to an act that was an egregious miscarriage of justice by all moral and objective standards.

I feel what would have been more appropriate and indeed more powerful is an exoneration, not a pardon. To exonerate is to say you were wrongfully accused and condemned. That is the truth of the Ogoni Nine. That is the honour they deserve.

The families of these heroes, and indeed all of Nigeria, deserve more than symbolic gestures. They deserve the truth, officially stated and recognized.

They deserve to see history corrected, not just commemorated.

The memories of these heroes deserve clarity, not compromise or shrouded in English definitions.

A pardon, however well-intentioned, falls short. Maybe I'm the one who doesn't understand English enough. I hold it that, the legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues is too important, too sacred, to be framed by the language of guilt.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must be commended for taking a bold step toward healing; but let that healing be rooted in truth, not tokenism.

They were not criminals. They were not convicts. They were heroes. They deserve to be remembered and officially declared — as such!

Taofik Adekunle Jimoh (JAAT) is the Editor of News Bulletin Nigeria.

People will always have something to say. This writer is just an attention seeker. I'm sure if jis father, brother or uncle were among those 9 that were unjustly unalived by the military junta, he won't be spewing these jargons.
God bless PBAT for this deserved honor for the departed. Hopefully the family and their kinsmen can finally find a lasting closure.

Treason....Working against the government of the day and chasing shell away from ogoni land

Tinubu doesn't even know what he's doing. He's own is to read prepared speech to Nigerians then loot our money.

I would have said kindly wake me up when these clowns start making sense...


Bomb Dig_it... Is it even possible? Free me make I sleep.

Pardon may not mean they were guilty! How else would innocent people legally killed during the military regime be recognised that they were illegally killed?

Go and ask the Judge that sentenced them and not the kind man who granted them Presidential pardon.

Since they were convicted by the previous administration, it is logical to cancel out such conviction with a pardon

The writer should go back to kindergarten.

The OP is just making moles out of Nothing

Thestonyroack:
Taofik Adekunle Jimoh (JAAT) is the Editor of News Bulletin Nigeria.

Tinubu and his gang of thieves and cocaine sniffing cabinet dont know what they are doing.

What a blow and embarrassment to the good people of Niger Delta

Instead of pardoning

Revoke the conviction in the first place
Condemn and boldly state that the conviction was Un constitutional....

Pardoning means the conviction was correct and right in the first place

Gbadugbakun:
Tinubu doesn't even know what he's doing. He's own is to read prepared speech to Nigerians then loot our money.

How come you are still poor despite knowing what you are doing?

Treasonable offense against the then government and the present government deem it fit to reverse the process

So many illiterate in Nigeria , although Nigeria is not an educated country,so understandably,according to the laws of the land then, they have committed a crime,according to procedures, subsequent rulings can only pardon them. Read the last pardons from trumps and co

femi4:
Treason....Working against the government of the day and chasing shell away from ogoni land

Exactly.
How is this difficult to understand?

Is only God that know the truth and everything that happened to their execution

Gbadugbakun:
Tinubu doesn't even know what he's doing. He's own is to read prepared speech to Nigerians then loot our money.

Why were the men killed? Were they not tried and found guilty of something before they were executed?

Make una no just dey comment for the sake of commenting

And this one called himself an Editor and he doesn't understand how power works. He thinks it's only about vocabulary. A panel was set up by the military government to investigate them and were found guilty. That in itself had given legitimacy to their death sentence. Whether rightly or wrongly they were sentenced is a different kettle of fish. And it would only take a presidential pardon to restore their freedom. That's why Ogoni people had been asking and agitating for their pardon for a very long time. It's more of an issue of the law and not morality.

Kudos to the president for honouring them.

Thestonyroack:
Taofik Adekunle Jimoh (JAAT) is the Editor of News Bulletin Nigeria.

AntiChristian:
Pardon may not mean they were guilty! How else would innocent people legally killed during the military regime be recognised that they were illegally killed?

Thank you so very much for using your brain. The Editor or whatever he calls himself just dignify himself in shame, how else you want government to right the wrong of Abacha killing of innocent 9 men fighting for liberation of their people than giving them one of the highest honors posthumously?

He has a court case with Federal Government not with Abacha before his death.

So I truly understand why He was pardon.

Globad:
This aptly describes you because you lack an understanding of the matter but simply inserted yourself into it

Understanding that a useless president as such cant even settle down to understand what he is doing. Everything is grab and always missed.
Anyways, there are zombies like u to defend him regardless

It's quite laughable when you weigh in on the situation.

Self determination is a crime in these parts.

Just lol
You pardon person wey dey killed 30yrs ago but you order and massacred youth at lekki tow-gate during end sars ,who go pardon you for this maybe the next 7th president also .. attenntion seeker shior no

Officially, they are convicted and criminals by federal republic of Nigeria, as gazetted by one govt,( even though it was cooked up allegations), so, another govt must also nullify such convictions.

Just like fathom coup of Gen Diya, even though it was orchacrasted by junta himself, yet, the official position was that they planned to take over govt.

Another analogy, if you are being arrested when they were arresting rogues and you are completely innocent, they took you to court and Court convicted you alongside with criminals.

Even though you are innocent, before the public, you are criminal, if govt didn't pardon you, you remain convicted criminal forever.(Dead or alive)

Pardon lol. You killed people and decided to pardon them after death. This one pass worshipping idol o

It shows how pathetic this government is when it comes to capacity to govern well. All they do best is politicking.

The urge to argue won't just allow some people to think. They were tried and sentenced. But now, guilty or innocent, they are pardoned , case closed