Activist and founder of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore said that the legacy of late Ken Saro Wiwa whose agitations for the betterment of Ogoniland, a Niger Delta community, has largely been forgotten in Nigeria.
Ogoniland is a Niger Delta community in Bayelsa State whose farmland and fishing waters have been ravaged by oil spills by international oil companies operating there.
Speaking during a webinar titled “Environmental Activism and its Role towards Achieving Sustainable Development: Lessons from Ken Saro Wiwa,” organised by the Green Institute, Sowore said, “Ken Saro-Wiwa lost pretty much everything, but the Nigerian state didn’t lose anything. The people who killed him didn’t lose anything.
“His legacy is also the clean-up of Ogoniland even though the United Nations has said Ogoniland needs total clean-up.
“The army, the police, the oppressive system is still going after the little activism that is left in Ogoniland. They are still there actively hunting down activists in the area. So what legacy are we talking about?
“The only legacy he left is in the minds of people around the world who appreciate what he did, not the Nigerian government that I know of. There is still no Ken Saro-Wiwa University or Ken Saro Wiwa Street in Abuja. It feels we have to start the fight all over again.
Responding to Ecoscope’s question on support for environmental activism, Sowore that agreed that with the numerous problems Nigerians contend with daily especially hunger, environmental issues tend to be relegated.
He however stated that, “People must take on causes, and I think environmental causes are very important because they are linked to our survival on the long term.”
Sowore said it was wrong for people to think that environmental pollution in the Niger Delta were not their concern.
“Some of the pollution is airborne, it goes into the atmosphere and it will pour rain on your house in Ijebu Ode one day; it will affect your breathing in Lagos one day.
“It is seen largely as an academic exercise here,” he said but added that it was people like Ken Saro Wiwa that made it easy for people to understand that reality of environmental issues.