What is the Ogoni Nine?

Question

Okay. So nobody has an answer better than a cut-and-paste from Wikipedia? The first answer I received is totally unsatisfactory and unacceptable. I mean, what about the broader significance, a little background information--more than just names and dates? Seriously, use your brains a little bit!

Answer 1

The Ogoni Nine were a group of nine activists from the Ogoni region of Nigeria, including outspoken author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were executed in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. The executions provoked international condemnation and led to the increasing treatment of Nigeria as a pariah state until General Abacha's mysterious death in 1998. Saro-Wiwa had previously gained notoriety as a critic of the Royal Dutch Shell oil corporation, and had been imprisoned for a year prior to the executions in November 1995.