A GOODWILL MESSAGE PRESENTED BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF YOUTHS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY CENTRE (YEAC), FYNEFACE DUMNAMENE FYNEFACE AT THE 25TH MEMORIAL ENVIRONMENTAL SUBMIT WITH THE THEME “25 YEARS AFTER KEN SARO-WIWA: THE NIGERIAN ENVIRONMENT AND LESSONS NOT LEARNT” ORGANIZED BY ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS ACTION/FRIENDS OF THE EARTH NIGERIA HELD ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020 AT VISA KARENA HOTEL, PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE.
ADVOCACY CENTRE is pleased to be part of this epoch-making event in honour of our departed Heroes.
The lessons never learnt by the Nigerian State, 25years after the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa and Eight Ogoni Campaigners on November 10, 1995 are enormous.
The Government is yet to learn that the Ogoni campaigners led by Ken Saro-Wiwa were generally peaceful and nonviolent which needs to be encouraged by quashing the murder charge against them, exonerating and immortalising Ken Saro-Wiwa like the Government have posthumously done to MKO Abiola and others.
25years after Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni and Niger Delta environment is still polluted and the Nigerian state is yet to see reason for holistically addressing the demands of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni people as enshrined in the Ogoni Bill of Rights in order to heal the wounds of the Ogoni and Niger Delta Indigenous Peoples.
25years after Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian State has not still learnt lessons that killing peaceful and nonviolent agitators like the one led by Ken Saro-Wiwa would bring about violent agitations in Nigeria like the Avengers, Niger Delta Militants and most recently, the EndSARS Protesters that took their demands to the streets but later hijacked leading to vandalism and destruction of lives and properties.
Thus, as we mark 25 Years after Ken Saro-Wiwa, Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC) calls on the Nigerian government to reward peaceful agitations by;
1. Exonerating Ken Saro-Wiwa and Eight Other Ogonis killed in 1995
2. Adequately address the demands of the Ogoni including Environmental Degradation, Economic Strangulation and Political Marginalization as enshrined in the Ogoni Bill of Rights submitted to the Federal Government in 1990.
3. Government should unconventionally release to the Ogoni people, the unmotorized Ken Saro-Wiwa Memorial Bus confiscated by the Nigerian Customs Service since 2015.
4. Federal Government should immortalize Ken Saro-Wiwa by renaming Eagle Quare Abuja after Ken Saro-Wiwa as “Ken Saro-Wiwa Eagle Square” to promote the message of peace, peaceful and nonviolent agitations in Nigeria as exemplified by Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogonis.
Ken Saro-Wiwa’s message lives on and Silence over these demands would be treason.
God Bless Ogoni, the Ogoni People, friends of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the indigenous Peoples of the Niger Delta in
solidarity.
Thank you.
FYNEFACE DUMNAMENE FYNEFACE,
Environmental Justice Activist, Human Rights Defender and Executive Director,
ADVOCACY CENTRE.
12/11/2020.