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Paul Unongo Has Lied this Time Around By Mahamman Adarawa
The veteran Benue politician Paul Unongo in his recent lecture at the Institute of Public relations said that Joseph Gomwalk was killed for liberating the middle belt. In that statement Paul Unongo deliberately lied in trying to re write history. However before I analyse the issue, I wish to reiterate that Military rule is an aberration which can sometimes turn tragic to unlucky individuals caught up in its web or to the whole nation as witnessed physically during the civil war or socio economically during IBB years (the current regime is an offshoot of IBB regime). I also feel coups, counter coups, execution of coupists etc are all consequences of military rule. However in a situation where a coup plot is against a popular leader of a nation like Murtala and if the plot involved his brutal assassination, then the coup planners and their sympathisers like Unongo would be very selfish indeed not to expect justice to take its course.
Joseph Gomwalk deserved commendation for establishing the Standard newspaper and a lot of other developments in former Benue Plateau State and may his soul rest in peace. However instead of sustaining his legacies, some so called middle belt leaders have masterminded genocides as in the Tiv/Jukun Conflicts as well as the recent ethnic cleansing of Muslims/Hausa-Fulani by Dariye, who incited genocides and then run away overseas with the resources of the state. Those cruel middle belt leaders also committed savage atrocities like digging up graves and mutilating the remains of dead parents of their enemies! This is unheard of any where in the world. If my memory has not failed me, Paul Unongo himself was a victim. It seemed most of the current so called middle belt leaders make noise about marginalisation only to get political appointments for themselves and their children. They never cared to advocate for the development of that region despite its potentials. It is also worth remembering that IBB and Gowon (both from the middle belt), ruled this country for a cumulative period of 16 years which translated to one third of the existence of this country as a nation. However this phenomenon is the same all over Nigeria, however with the current drive towards arresting corrupt leaders even outside the shores of Nigeria which was hither to safe for keeping their loot, the days of corrupt and cruel leaders all over Nigeria are numbered.
Now to analyse Unongo’s lies we need to take it in stages. First of all it was a military tribunal headed by late General Vatsa (from middle belt) that found Gomwalk guilty. The tribunal was formed by the then Head of State General Obasanjo and his Defence Minister General Danjuma (also from middle belt). Was it logical at that time for both Vatsa and Danjuma to sentence Joseph Gomwalk for “liberating” their region? It was also out of logic to conjure that Gomwalk liberated the middle belt during his tenure. If it was so then was it from Gowon the leader at that time? Or from a ghost known only to Unongo?
The second lie was that Gowon would have been killed if he wasn’t out of the country at the time of the coup against him. All accounts of the coup against Gowon had shown that the most important planner of the coup was late General Joseph Garba who was then commander of the Brigade of Guards. Without him the coup wouldn’t have succeeded. He and his co planner Late Shehu Yar’adua were warned to avoid bloodshed by their superior officers and in anyway they had never planned to kill Gowon. More over even after the coup, Murtala insisted on rehabilitating Gowon and established contacts with him in London.
My observations are that among the former military leaders Gowon and Buhari in addition to military discipline have exhibited civility in dealing with rivals and coup plotters. Both of them refused the temptation of executing their colleagues on mere suspicion unlike the others. My second observation is that military rule should be avoided at all cost, because there is no guarantee that it would make things better( with a few exceptions like the corrective coups of Murtala and Buhari), infact most of the time it makes things worse as IBB’S coup of 1985. Worst still when a coup fails, it usually leads to killing of officers by their fellow officers, which is not only a waste of human resources but leads to erosion of espirit de corps. Unfortunately the mistrust is transferred to the community leading to misplaced aggression, wars and creation of false myths at times. The other question regards executing coup plotters caught at the stage of planning like Vatsa and his group or those who are just part of the coup without actively participating in killing. I feel it was morally reprehensible to have executed Vatsa or any one in similar circumstance, a jail sentence should have been an enough punishment.
My third observation is that, the circumstances of some of the victims are worse than that of Joseph Gomwalk. In January 1966, murderous officers like Nzegwu, Ifeajuna and co killed not only political leaders like Balewa, Sardauna and Okotie Eboh over misplaced political grievances, but fellow officers like Maimalari, Kur Muhammed, Shodeinde, and Pam just out of sheer jealousy and hatred. That coup proved to be one of the most important root causes of our political instability.
In conclusion, Paul Unongo’s lies at the recent Joseph Gomwalk’s lecture were abominable especially coming from a political heavy weight at a time when wounds from communal conflicts are beginning to heal. If he is not a coward let him dare ask Obasanjo, Danjuma and IBB to tell us more about the circumstances of the trials and subsequent executions of coup plotters including Joseph Gomwalk, instead of chasing imaginary shadows.
Mahamman Adarawa
Abuja, Nigeria.
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