TINUBU-NATIONAL AWARD: “‘You Honor Those We Hold Responsible’: Son of Slain Ogoni Leader Slams Tinubu’s Tribute to Ogoni-9

TINUBU-NATIONAL AWARD: “‘You Honor Those We Hold Responsible’: Son of Slain Ogoni Leader Slams Tinubu’s Tribute to Ogoni-9”

By: Ovieomeleh 

In a searing and emotionally raw appearance on ARISE NEWS Prime Time, Suage Bade the son of Albert Bade, one of four prominent Ogoni leaders killed in 1994, has broken his silence, delivering a powerful rebuke of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent decision to posthumously honor the Ogoni-9.

The President’s announcement came during his June 12 Democracy Day speech, marking the anniversary of Nigeria’s annulled 1993 election. But what was intended as a symbolic gesture of national healing has, for some, reopened deep, still bleeding wounds.

“For my family, this isn’t reconciliation, it’s a betrayal,” Bade said, his voice cracking under the weight of memory and grief. “You don’t honor the people we believe are linked to my father’s murder and call it justice.”

While President Tinubu stopped short of exonerating the men executed under General Sani Abacha’s brutal regime, his choice to award national honors to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest of the Ogoni-9 has sparked fierce backlash especially from those who remember the bitter and bloody divisions that tore through Ogoni land in the early ’90s.

Bade, who has long remained quiet about the events that shaped his family’s history, didn’t mince words. 

He questioned not only the timing of the honors but also the political motives behind them, suggesting they may be tied to a renewed push for oil exploration in the resource-rich yet long-suffering Ogoni region.

“There’s an uncomfortable pattern here,” he warned. “It feels like we’re being asked to forget, to move on, just as the ground is being prepared, once again—for drilling. The pain of the past is being polished into political capital.”

Acknowledging the moral complexity of the situation, Bade conceded that Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists may not have physically carried out the killings. But, he argued, their leadership in the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) helped fuel the mob mentality that led to the extrajudicial deaths of the Ogoni-4; including his father.

“The facts are inconvenient, but they matter,” Bade said. “MOSOP created the climate. They lost control of the movement. And my father paid the ultimate price.”

His critique runs deeper than personal loss. It’s about historical clarity in a country where stories are often blurred by politics and time. Bade voiced deep concern over what he sees as growing public amnesia and a romanticized retelling of events, especially among younger Nigerians.

“People cheering this decision today weren’t there. 

They don’t know the full story,” he lamented. “It’s not just about Saro-Wiwa, it’s about the lives that were destroyed in the process, including my father’s.”

In Ogoniland, where memory is political and the past remains painfully present, Bade’s words cut through the national conversation with the sharpness of unhealed trauma. His is not just a personal plea, it’s a warning against rewriting history in pursuit of national comfort.

As Nigeria attempts to navigate the murky waters of reconciliation, voices like Suage Bade’s remind us that healing cannot come without truth, and that honoring the past requires confronting it, not smoothing it over.