Democracy Day: Rename Eagle Square After Ken Sarowiwa, Activist Tells FG

In commemoration of Nigeria’s Democracy Day, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), Rivers State, has urged the Federal Government to immortalise late environmental activist and journalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who had advocated against marginalisation of Ogoni people.

Washington Post reports that in 1995, “Nigeria’s military government of General Sani Abacha today hanged nine political activists, including a well-known playwright, ignoring pleas from foreign governments and human rights groups that their lives be spared.

“Most prominent among those executed was writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, 54, president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni Peoples, who was accused of involvement in the killings of four pro-government traditional chiefs during disturbances against the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell in May 1994.”

Reflecting on June 12 in a statement made available to THE WHISTLER, YEAC’s Executive Director, Fyneface Dumnamene, urged the government to review the country’s democratic experience so that no part of the country feels marginalised.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari while addressing Nigerians on Saturday, said he noted the agitations and feelings of marginalization across the country.

On his part, Dumnamene said that the government should address the hurting memorial of Ken Sarowiwa, who, according to him, stood as a champion of the Ogoni people.

“We recall that when Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, two key issues were on the table, the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others on November 10, 1995, death of Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 election on July 7, 1998.

“The MKO Abiola perspective was addressed by making Olusengun Obasanjo President in 1999 but the Ken Saro-Wiwa issue remains unaddressed till date even after the posthumous recognition that MKO Abiola deservedly receives,” he stated.

He stated that the federal government should do the following so as to deepen the unity of the country:

“The call for Ken Saro-Wiwa to be posthumously recognized as well by quashing the murder charge against him, naming Eagle Square Abuja after him, releasing the unmotorised Ken Saro-Wiwa Memorial Bus confiscated by the Nigeria Customs Service since 2015 and do other things that would heal the wounds of the people of the Ogoni and the Niger Delta over the unjust killing of nonviolent agitators like Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others.

“We also call for the declaration on November 10 as Nigeria’s Nonviolence Remembrance Day in honour of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a nonviolent agitator to entrench the culture of nonviolence agitation in Nigeria, promote peace, Human rights and national unity.”