2007: Vatsa And Other Political Distractions

By

Capt.  Abdul  A. Alliu

allianceaviation@yahoo.com

Politics, arguably, is a nasty business anywhere in the world. But in the case of Nigeria, it has taken a different or sordid direction since the public abortion of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term project.

First, it was retired General Domkat Yah Bali who came out to say that there was “not enough evidence” before the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) in the 1986 conviction and execution of General Mamman Jiya Vatsa and company for a coup plot. Really!!!

Then, there was the hypocritical and mischievous spectacle of President Obasanjo receiving Mrs Safiya Vatsa and sons (missing Bali!) at the State House with a promise to “review” the conviction and execution of her husband. All these, ostensibly, are supposedly political plots to embarrass or intimidate former president Ibrahim Babangida from contesting the 2007 presidential election. Different tactics has also been put in place to check-mate any other possible contestant for that position.

Politics do surely present cases of funny characters and clowns, not the least cowards and morons. Let’s take the case of the “middle-man”-organizer of what is now known as the Safiya-Bali project, Gen. Bali. When Gen. Muhammadu Buhari came to power in January 1984, Gen. Bali was the most senior military officer still in service. While all his mates went on retirement to give way for the younger officers to achieve their objectives, Gen. Bali was willing to do anything to stay behind. He was offered the position of Minister of Defence and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. He gleefully accepted it. Gen. Babangida was the Chief of Army Staff, administratively under him. In August of 1985, Gen. Babangida seized power from Gen. Buhari and became the president; Gen. Bali was still willing to stay on and serve yet another master. That was at a time when other officers junior to him like Generals Muhammed Magoro, Abdullahi Shelleng and Paul Omu (Babangida’s classmates) have all left.

The only reason why Gen. Bali eventually left Babangida’s government in 1990 was NOT because he had any policy disagreement with his boss, but because of ministerial appointment. What a man! And, what a nation of contradictions and hypocrisy! Lt-Gen. Bali disagreed with his boss, Gen. Babangida over ministerial posting (ministerial booty, if you like!) in 1990. He left the government and was rewarded with a promotion to a four-star general immediately after. In 2001, Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Victor Malu disagreed with his boss, Gen. Obasanjo, over policy issues. Gen. Malu was booted out of the government. His thirty-three years of national service was rewarded with a military invasion of his hometown, destruction of his home and the murder of his blind uncle! When is the destruction of Malu’s hometown and the murder of his blind uncle by Obasanjo’s government going to be due for “review”? The word “hypocrisy” must have a totally different meaning in Nigeria!

Gen. Bali, it was, in his exalted position as the Defence Minister and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, in December 1985, who convened and received the report of the military tribunal that tried and convicted Gen. Vatsa and company for their part in that coup plot. It was Gen. Bali who gleefully sat in front of the television camera and announced to the whole world in March 1986 that Vatsa and his co-conspirators were executed “two hours ago”!

In 1986, Gen. Bali, the most senior military officer in service, the Minister of Defence/Chairman, JCS and member of the AFRC, did NOT have the courage to tell President Babangida (his junior in the army) and the other members of the AFRC (all his juniors) that there was “not enough evidence” to convict their colleague, Gen. Vatsa of the coup plot. In 1986, he did NOT have the courage to quit the government of which he is a senior member and which he “believe” has wrongfully or willfully convicted a fellow general of a crime that carries the death penalty. He never found the courage to say so for the next twenty years. Until 2006. Less than one year to a general election. A general election in which his former boss, Gen. Babangida has indicated his interest in contesting for the presidency. Gen. Bali still does NOT have the courage to face Gen. Babangida and fight his battle with him as a man-to-man (if not general-to-general!). The only recourse he could find, befitting a general of his stature, is to cowardly hide behind a widow and use her to fight his battle for him. What a general! With such generals, maybe I should be a Field Marshall!

As for Mrs Safiya Vatsa, I sure sympathize with her and all the other women in her shoes. Obviously, she is being used as a pawn in a political game of which she knows nothing about or could not comprehend. The reality of life is that every action has a positive or negative result. If her husband had succeeded in his mission then, I am sure that Mrs Vatsa would have taken delight in her role as a “first lady” without any bitterness now. Unfortunately for her, like many people who fail in their ambitions in life, her husband failed and she ended up a widow. She should share the responsibility for the failure with her late husband (just as she would have gladly shared the success with him) instead of trying to blame her misfortune on the same man who would have been the victim had her husband succeeded!

As for President Obasanjo, what can one say about a man who, over the years, has outscored himself as a grandmaster in the evil art of mischief and hypocrisy? This is a government that took office with tremendous amount of goodwill and support from every nook and corner of the country in 1999. Within a short period, he has succeeded in turning every ethnic group and every religion against the other. His government has earned more petro-dollars than any other government in the history of Nigeria without much to show for it. Instead of accounting for all that money and take responsibility for failing Nigerians, he is busy demonizing and making enemy out of every other person that has ever or will ever occupy that position. This government also has the dubious record for the most rigged election in the history of Nigeria. More people has been killed, assassinated, maimed or kidnapped/abducted under his administration than any other previous administration. Instead of facing and addressing all those problems as a leader and statesman, he is busy witch-hunting anybody that shows interest in his job. President Obasanjo has used religion and ethnicity to set almost everybody in Nigeria against each other. Yet, he is talking of “transparency” and “equity”.

Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi is a former Chief of Army Staff. He and some other officers of the previous administration has been in detention for the past seven years even though none of them has ever been convicted of any crime by any court of law in Nigeria. They are being held for no other reason than political vendetta. Yet, nobody is “reviewing” their cases nor are their wives invited to Aso Rock for a photo-up with the president. 

Since President Obasanjo has started his “review” project, maybe he need to go the whole way and review every issue that needed to be reviewed in Nigeria. In other words, the “review” needed to be comprehensive to include everybody, not some selected enemies as we see daily on the EFCC front. In that case, he needed to send out a new invitation to Mrs Vatsa (Gen. Bali should be free to come along!). But this time around, the same invitation should be extended to Mrs Murtala Muhammed, Mrs I.D. Bisalla, Mrs A.B. Umaru, Mrs A.D.S. Wya, Mrs AbdulKarim Zakari and every other woman whose husband has ever been killed or executed in a coup in Nigeria. As an over-advertised “born-again” Christian, President Obasanjo would do more to advance his Christian credentials (rather than that Sunday afternoon circus on NTA) if he would just do what Jesus Christ would do in his position: remove the big clog in his eyes first before he gets too busy pointing out the pixels in other peoples eyes!

The whole question of equity and justice in Nigeria is not going to be resolved by the one-sided slogan: “Who killed Dele Giwa?” For that question to be meaningful, there should be other placards too, like: “Who killed Bola Ige?” “Who killed Harry Marshall?” “What happened to Odi town?” “Who massacred the people of Zaki Biam?” When we have an objective and judicial answers to all these and other questions, maybe then, we will be on a better path towards a durable and equitable nation. For that to happen, we as Nigerians are ALL going to accept responsibilities for our individual contribution to the failure of our fatherland. That is never going to happen when we are all busy pointing accusing fingers at somebody else as the villain while anointing ourselves as the saints. That is sheer irresponsibility. It is even worse when those perpetuating those divisions are the so-called “leaders” in the society. That is not leadership in any format. That is hypocrisy, mischief, cowardice and “bad-belly” all rolled into one. The only outcome is going to be more disaster.