Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
On The Introduction Of The Resolution On The Ogoni Nine
November 10, 2005

MR. LEAHY.  Mr. President, ten years ago today, in what was by all accounts a barbaric miscarriage of justice, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his Ogoni colleagues from the delta region of Nigeria were hanged after being convicted by a biased military tribunal.

Those of us who knew Mr. Saro-Wiwa remember him as a thoughtful, passionate, nonviolent advocate for the rights of the Ogoni people.  His arrest, conviction and hanging by the corrupt and brutal Abacha government outraged the world and resulted in Nigeria’s suspension from the British Commonwealth, and a United Nations investigation which concluded that Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues had been denied due process in violation of international and Nigerian law.  The UN recommended financial relief for their families and improvements in the living conditions of the Ogoni people and the other minorities in the delta region.

Unfortunately, none of the UN’s recommendations have been carried out, the environmental, economic and social conditions there have gotten worse, and ten years later the Ogoni Nine remain convicted of a crime for which they were unfairly tried.

Today, I am honored to introduce, on behalf of myself and Senators Kennedy, Obama, Feingold, Durbin, and Dodd a resolution calling on the Government of Nigeria to conduct a thorough judicial review of this travesty.

By this resolution we remember Ken Saro-Wiwa and the others who were executed, and we honor their courage and their nonviolent commitment to social justice.  In addition to calling for a judicial review and just compensation to the survivors if a miscarriage of justice is found, we urge the Nigerian government, international donors, and international oil companies operating in the Niger delta to increase assistance significantly to improve the lives of the people who live there.  It is unconscionable that after all the billions of dollars in oil that have been extracted from that area, these people continue to suffer daily from the polluted water and soil and the gas flaring and are living in squalor. 

And we call on the Nigerian Government to ensure that its security forces receive the necessary training and discipline to prevent the violations of human rights that the Ogoni have suffered for so many years. 

The volatile situation in the Niger delta has been ignored for far too long.  It cannot be resolved by force.  It cannot be resolved by lip service.  There are serious environmental issues and urgent economic and social needs.  Ken Saro-Wiwa’s example of nonviolence stands today as it did a decade ago as a model for the Nigerian government, the people of the Niger delta, and the international community to join together to finally address them.

I yield the floor.  

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PDF of Resolution