Menegian, one of the children of late Ogoni environmental activist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, has died of Coronavirus at a London hospital at age 50.
Sister to the deceased, Noo, in a social media post, made the announcement.
She said;
We said goodbye to my brother, Gian, on Monday. He had COVID-19 combined with underlying health conditions. Gian was the smartest and most talented out of all of us: a champion sprinter at school, a poet, an artist, budding engineer, a self-taught guitarist and pianist. But mental health issues limited his life from age 16 onwards.
Noo added that;
I took this photo of him a few months ago before he was hospitalised. A kind and beautiful soul, always wanting the best for his family, always praying for our future success while being eternally optimistic about his own. And, of course, always loving his music. He leaves a wonderful son, Louis.
His father, Ken Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, a place in the Niger Delta targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s.
Through the group, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multinational petroleum industries.
In 1995, the outspoken critic of Nigerian government was tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of Ogoni chiefs and was hanged in 1995 by the military dictatorshipof General Sani Abacha.
His execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years.
