Noo Saro Wiwa, the daughter of Ogoni matyre and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, has opened up about why she has avoided Nigeria, her father’s country.
The younger Saro Wiwa was recently named among the top 30 most influential women travelers in the world in 2018.
She was named alongside such figures as American actress Angelina Jolie, late US journalist Marie Colvin, and Jordan’s Queen Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah.
The survey was published by the international magazine Conde Nast Traveler.
Noo Saro Wiwa grew up in Surrey, United Kingdom. She describes Surrey as a bountiful paradise, far removed from the ‘heat and chaos of Nigeria.’
Her book Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria, has been described as a brave first foray into travel literature.
Noo had spent childhood summers in Port-Harcourt on the Niger Delta but after this, she didn’t return for 10 years (except for his funeral and burial), wanting nothing more to do with the country.
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Noo’s feelings about Nigeria is a warming to those in power and those aspiring to power to fix Nigeria.
What kind of country are we building when some citizens feel so unwelcome that they just stay away on self-imposed exile, even during peacetime?
People are being threatened to hand over their ancestral lands at pain of death. Where is justice? Where is fair play?
Ogoni cleanup, how far about it?
What kind of country do we have where injustice has led to internally displaced people? Where youths are not given jobs or are underemployed, making our youth vulnerable to manipulation to engage in organized violence against the citizenry?
We need to fix our country. And the time starts now!
It’s her choice!
We are here to create that Nigeria that we all want to see, whoever wishes can leave but we are here until we make the change!