A Nation of Sheep Will Beget a Government of Wolves."--Edward R. Murrow

By

Francis Adewale

fadewale@spokanecity.org

 

Imagine my shock and awe recently when I read this news item titled “Abacha Never Stole, Say Buhari, Babangida” (published online by This Day newspapers on June 9, 2008). Here are excerpts from the news story: “The late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, did not loot the national treasury contrary to the general impression, two military former heads of state have said. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who ruled Nigeria between 1983 and 1985, and his successor, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, gave Abacha the clean bill in Kano yesterday after the remembrance prayers marking 10 years of the death of Abacha, who ruled between 1993 and 1998.”

 

Here you have it Nigerians, who do you want to believe, the returned loot or your lying eyes! At first, I was stunned when I read the story but then I comforted myself with the hope that maybe, just maybe, someone will tell me that this is all in the spirit of April fool’s day. And this huge joke will pan out to be what it is, a joke!

Just imagine someone come into your house, stole everything you ever worked for and then on his way out of your crib left you a note, saying sorry, he did not steal your stuff to use it but to pawn it. How bizarre? I know. For those who don’t know, Abacha was accused of stealing nearly $10 billion while in office, out of which over $1 billion has reportedly been recovered from various sources around the world. In fact as at today, some of the billions are still stashed away in Western banks, tied up by legal “mumbo jumbo” by Abacha lawyers.


To hear Babangida, described Abacha as a “courageous, loyal and honest military head of state who stood for the unity and development of the country during his years in government”, does not in any way surprised me. He has a lot at stake in defending his co-militricians who stole the country blind. They are birds of the same feathers when the latter was still alive, they were flocking together. What I can’t stand is the outright perfidy, given the fact that the same Babangida had earlier commented on the pervasive insanity of the Abacha’s regime and spoke against the docility of the civil community in not standing up against Abacha early during the latter infamous regime.

 

But then there is something else in Babangida’s interview, he stated that he, Babangida is still waiting for the outcome of the probe of his government by the immediate past administration, saying: “We are still waiting for the outcome of the probe.” The problem with his selective amnesia is that he was once probed by a panel led by Late Pius Okigbo and the result of the probe was suppressed by him, because the panel found damning deeds of him whilst in office.

But that was Babangida, we are all used to his “maradonic” tendencies, and his occasional shoot from the hip style of public conversation which, many may recalled is not often grounded in reality. To him facts, can’t stand in his way when he attempts to dribble himself away from the quagmire his regime left Nigeria.

 

However, the fact that General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who took over when Abacha died on June 8, 1998, would also commended his predecessor for initiating Vision 2010, definitely take the cake for me. Abubakar tasked Nigerian politicians to concentrate on how best to contribute to national development instead of wasting time and money investigating their predecessors, adding that probing past administrations “does not yield anything positive to the nation and should be discouraged”.  Here in lies the “raison detr” for their apologia for their friend. This is all an attempt to stop any probe into their regimes and couch themselves in the toga of saints genuinely concerned about the nation ills. First of all, Vision 2010 was never the brainchild of Abacha but the private sector. It was first initiated by the Ernest Shonekan’s Interim Government of National Unity. Secondly, probing a past administrations does yield positive results as evidenced by the stupendous amount of money recovered from Abacha and Iyabo Obasanjo!

 

Perhaps the unkindest cut of all came from General Mohammadu Buhari, who has been described by many Nigerian as a very honest man, even though his religious demagoguery knows no bound. But “it is not for nothing that he is known as "Mai Gaskiya"(Man of Truth) in Northern Nigeria” to quote an online friend of mine writing on the same issue recently at Cybereagles.com. Buhari definitely let himself down by putting his name to such ridiculous declarations. This was a memorial service and not an opportunity for needless political grandstanding. We know the age old African traditions forbid one from speaking ill of a deceased person but that tradition similarly frown on burnishing the dead ill deeds.

There is no doubt that at every twist and turn, our leaders continue to show that they have a skewed idea of what their lofty status requires: Nation building and Statesmen. But then this is Nigeria where former Presidents, Vice Presidents, Senate Presidents and Chief Justices of the Federation leave office after having had the entire federation as their constituency, only to go back to their home regions and sign up for micro-nationalist platforms such as Arewa Consultative Forum, Ohaneze Ndigbo and Afenifere/YCE once they are out of office. Yet they all love to be described as nationalists and elder statesmen and describe all the actions which they took whilst in office as having been guided by the national interest!”

 

The attempt by Nigerian army general to do an extreme makeover of their terms in office is at best laughable and at worst comical, especially when they sacrificed truth in that attempt. Their argument amounts to a basic truth wrapped in a major fraud. The advise to those in currently in power is to take the interest of the common man at heart in making every decisions. Your peers can’t white washed your deeds in office, even if they stood truth on its head.

 

Francis Adewale

Spokane, WA

U.S.A