Politics
Ogoni 9 undeserving of national honour, Ken Saro-Wiwa not a martyr, Senator Birabi declares
Senator Ben Birabi, a founding figure in the Ogoni struggle and pioneer president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), has strongly criticised the recent posthumous national honours conferred on the Ogoni Nine by President Bola Tinubu, stating that they do not deserve such recognition.
Speaking during a no-holds-barred interview on Arise News Morning Show, Senator Birabi, who also led the prominent Ogoni pressure group KAGOTE, described the decision to honour Ken Saro-Wiwa and others as a product of misinformation, arguing that they were involved in the tragic killings of four prominent Ogoni elders in 1994 and should not be seen as martyrs.
“What Ogoni needs is not recognition of killers,” Birabi declared. “Ken Saro-Wiwa was not a martyr. Martyrs are people who died for the people’s cause. What cause did they die for?”
He insisted that the murder of the elders in 1994, which led to the controversial execution of Saro-Wiwa and eight others in 1995 by the Abacha regime, was the result of internal power struggles, not a fight for Ogoni liberation.
“The person who killed the elders is now being celebrated as a martyr. That is wrong. The events that led to the killings were not hidden. The attackers were known, they were not masked. This was an ego war, not about oil or environmental justice,” Birabi said.
Birabi, a former Senate Minority Leader, revealed that he narrowly escaped the killings that triggered the crisis, arriving at the scene just 30 minutes late. He claimed that Saro-Wiwa had sowed discord within the community by targeting elders, using propaganda to turn Ogoni youths against them.
“Ken Saro-Wiwa told the young people in my village that until the Birabis were gone, they would never make progress. He didn’t tell them to kill me directly, but that was enough. The blood from the knife attack on me during the June 12 crisis is still on my pyjamas till today,” he said.
According to Birabi, he had played a key role in bringing Saro-Wiwa into KAGOTE and forming MOSOP, but the writer-activist later hijacked the movement and pursued his personal ambitions, including seeking to represent Ogoni at the 1995 Constitutional Conference without the support of community elders.
“MOSOP was formed in my house. I chaired the meeting. Ken Saro-Wiwa was brought in because he was a media guru, and we made him Publicity Secretary. But he later manipulated things to make himself the sole spokesman,” he recounted.
The former senator accused Saro-Wiwa of using propaganda to build personal acclaim while demonising respected elders.
“He called us vultures. He labelled our leaders as the reason Ogoni people were poor. It was propaganda, and sadly it worked. But propaganda does not change the truth. You cannot build peace by urinating on the graves of murdered elders,” he warned.
Birabi stated that although President Tinubu has the constitutional right to grant pardon, the gesture does not erase the pain of those whose relatives were murdered.
“Nobody is asking what happened to the victims. Are they not human beings? It’s unfair to treat the people who were killed as if they never mattered,” he said.
Turning to the issue of oil resumption in Ogoniland, Birabi expressed support for renewed oil production but criticised the federal government’s approach, accusing it of ignoring authentic voices from the community.
“Ogonis want oil production to resume, but not under the same exploitative structure used in the past. The government keeps handpicking people who don’t have the people’s mandate to represent us. That is the problem,” he said.
He noted that the current negotiation team assembled by the government to liaise with the presidency excluded key historical figures of the Ogoni struggle.
“Not one of them was there when MOSOP was founded. How do you solve a problem you don’t understand?” he asked.
While he acknowledged the role of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, in mediating the issue, he accused Ribadu of surrounding himself with the wrong advisers and ignoring the legitimate expectations of the Ogoni people.
“There are holistic things to be done to make oil resumption successful. This is not about elders getting paid. It is about justice, development, and respect for the people’s voice,” he said.
Senator Birabi stressed that the Ogoni people today are more educated and politically aware than they were in the 1950s, and would not accept old models of exploitation.
“Back when Shell came in, Ogoni had only one university graduate. Today, every Ogoni family has a lawyer. We have petroleum engineers, chemical engineers — you cannot treat us the same way as before,” he noted.
Birabi maintained that while he does not oppose the presidential pardon granted to the Ogoni Nine, the act must not rewrite history or erase the pain of those who suffered.
“The pardon does not change the facts. The reality remains. The victims deserve justice. We must move forward, yes, but not on a foundation of lies and dishonour,” he stated.
President Tinubu recently granted state pardons to the Ogoni Nine and included them on the 2025 national honours list, describing the gesture as part of reconciliation efforts and national healing. But Birabi’s comments may reignite debate over one of Nigeria’s most painful human rights chapters.