Education
Akinnola urges stronger documentation of Nigeria’s environmental struggles – EnviroNews
– Advertisement –
Nigerian journalist, lawyer and author Richard Akinnola has called for stronger documentation of Nigeria’s environmental struggles, particularly the Ogoni movement.
Akinnola made the call on Friday, October 2, 2026, at a Book Day organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) in Benin City, Edo State.
The journalist warned that failure to preserve such records could leave younger generations vulnerable to distorted versions of the country’s history.
According to him, environmental campaigns, including the struggle of the Ogoni people and the activities of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), form an important part of Nigeria’s history that should be preserved for future generations.
“Everything depends on the environment. Everything,” Akinnola said.
He said journalists, lawyers, activists and other public-interest actors had a responsibility to document major environmental struggles, injustices and campaigns to enable younger Nigerians to understand the circumstances that shaped them.
“We need more advocacy and public-interest litigation around environmental issues,” he said.
Akinnola also advocated stronger collaboration between environmental groups and organisations involved in public-interest litigation to strengthen environmental law and address violations.
He said the need for documentation extended beyond environmental issues to Nigeria’s political, legal and human-rights history, noting that poor documentation created room for the distortion of significant events.
“Those who are holding the levers of power today will not be there forever. We are going to write their history,” he said.
Akinnola said his career in journalism, law and activism had strengthened his commitment to research and documentation, adding that he often connected contemporary events with developments in Nigeria’s past.
“There is nothing that is happening that has not happened before,” he said.
He recalled his years at The Guardian newspaper, where, according to him, journalists were encouraged to place news events within their historical context rather than report them in isolation.
“When we started Guardian in 1983, it wasn’t just to write news reports. You were tying it to background,” he said.
He said the approach influenced his documentation of major political, legal, environmental and human-rights events.
Akinnola recalled documenting the trial and eventual execution of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders under the military regime.
He said his records covered the trial, the judiciary, allegations of torture of prosecution witnesses and the circumstances surrounding the execution.
He also recalled the efforts of human rights lawyer Gani Fawehinmi and other members of the defence team to challenge aspects of the trial and seek legal intervention after the Ogoni activists received death sentences.
According to Akinnola, the legal efforts continued until the activists were executed at Port Harcourt prison on Nov. 10, 1995.
He said he also documented Fawehinmi’s activism and encounters with successive military governments.
“Nothing is too small for Gani not to put in publication. No document is too small,” he said.
Akinnola recalled an incident in which Fawehinmi, while being taken into detention, reportedly left a message on a piece of tissue paper indicating that security officials were taking him to an unknown location.
He said such seemingly insignificant records could later provide valuable evidence when official accounts were unavailable or contested.
Akinnola also recounted his own abduction in 1996 after he wrote about the killing of businessman and pro-democracy figure Alfred Rewane.
He said he later documented the experience in a book, including his detention and questioning by security officials.
The journalist said the experience reinforced his belief that journalists should preserve their experiences and records, particularly when working under oppressive political conditions.
He also recalled the assassination of Dele Giwa, founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine, saying important events and personalities must remain part of Nigeria’s documented history.
“People don’t understand where we are coming from,” he said.
Akinnola said historical documentation provided the context needed to understand events unfolding in the present.
He said his books had documented the struggles of lawyers, journalists and activists who challenged military rule, defended human rights and pursued public-interest litigation.
He further noted that artificial intelligence had made accurate documentation increasingly important because future generations would rely more heavily on digital records to understand the present.
Akinnola said he was exploring platforms such as YouTube and TikTok to make some of his historical accounts accessible to younger audiences.
He said the objective was to ensure that important stories did not disappear simply because younger people were less inclined to read books.
For Dr Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of HOMEF, preserving knowledge also required taking it beyond traditional books and classrooms.
Bassey described Akinnola as an activist, lawyer, journalist, editor, publisher and author whose work had documented important aspects of Nigeria’s political, legal, environmental and human-rights history.
He urged participants, particularly young people, to read and engage with Nigeria’s history.
“We need to get ourselves educated. Read and read,” Bassey said.
He said HOMEF’s Book Day and related cultural activities created spaces for people to encounter ideas, exchange perspectives and understand the connections between environmental protection, human rights and social justice.
Bassey said the initiative deliberately brought together students, lecturers, lawyers, journalists, activists and members of the wider public.
“When people have knowledge and information, they can make better decisions about how they relate to the environment,” he said.
He acknowledged that changing patterns of information consumption required new approaches to knowledge-sharing.
“Everybody’s attention span is getting shorter. We’re looking for reels, for short things on social media. And so we use all the tools,” Bassey said.
Beyond book-reading sessions, he said HOMEF’s culture series used poetry, films and animation to engage audiences and create different entry points into conversations about environmental issues.
He said the organisation could not rely only on books when trying to reach audiences accustomed to consuming information through digital and visual platforms.
By Usman Aliyu
