Weekly Trust Friday, June 7, 2002

Buhari, Obasanjo and human rights

Wada Nas

wada@gamji.com

 

Recently, Vice President Atiku Abubakar suggested that General Muhammadu Buhari who recently joined the opposition APP should be made to appear before the Human Rights Violation Commission apparently to answer charges for human rights violation.

Although Mr Vice President was not specific, we could deduce that he was referring to the imprisonment of two journalists of the Guardian, the execution of two cocaine pushers after a lawful court judgement and the arrest of alleged corrupt politicians.

For these reasons, Mr Atiku went on to say that Buhari was never a democrat because he had no plan to hand over power to civilians.

As a senior officer of a government, which virtually all Nigerians agreed that it was a complete failure, we can appreciate why he wants to catch on any straw in order to revive the decayed image of the administration.

However, it is very important to take Mr. Vice President into the record of history. If Buhari sanctioned the hanging of two cocaine pushers, General Obasanjo sanctioned the hanging of about 30 alleged coup plotters, including two innocent ones. It is also important to remind Vice President Atiku of the killing of five ABU students and one University of lbadan student when Obasanjo ordered the invasion of the campuses, in those days. Nor could we forget what happened to Fela’s mother and the burning to ashes of the musicians’ house, admittedly one of the greatest African musician ever.

Let the vice president be further reminded of the lekki concentration camp created by Obasanjo’s administration where alleged criminals were taken to and treated as slaves.

Not only was Obasanjo the first Nigerian leader to hang alleged coup plotters, he was also the first Head of state to close down a media organ, the New breed, for the alleged offence of a few. Which is better, to imprison two offenders for their offences or to visit their sins on their establishment by closing it down? Yes Buhari got two Guardian newspaper journalists imprisoned, but Obasanjo closed down a whole organisation thereby denying the whole staff their means of livelihood.

If Buhari detained alleged corrupt politicians, Obasanjo has visited murder charges on one of the sons of a former Head of state on alleged corruption when in fact the son was never the offender. To visit the alleged sins of a father on his son is a crime in the way of Allah.

Buhari got two cocaine pushers hanged after a due process but in the case of the Obasanjo-Atiku administration, thousands were killed in Odi and Zaki-Biam on the orders of the Presidency and without even a minimal court trial. The alleged offence of a few Tivs were visited on the whole Tiv population including the parents of a former Chief of Army Staff. in the same way, the offence of a few Ijaw youth was visited on the entire population of Odi. It is left to Nigerians to judge between Buhari and Obasanjo, is the worst human rights violator and who between them should face the Human Rights Violations Commission.

If on account of this General Buhari is not a democrat, let Nigerians judge between the two who is the greatest anti democrat personality.

One of the serious complaints against President Obasanjo is his failure to pull off his military uniform as he operates the democracy project. No less an institution than the Supreme Court made pronouncements of numerous violations of the constitution. We know how he has been trying to muzzle the National Assembly and the party system. We all also know how he has no respect for the due process as he tried to smuggle a section into the electoral law. All members of the National Assembly know how he has been operating the budget act in the breach, respecting only those portions that please him.

If any Nigerian is to accuse Buhari of human rights violation, no member of the Obasanjo administration should do so.

Anyway we thank God that nobody has accused Buhari of corruption, and we don’t need to be reminded of what Transparency International, Britain and America said of the Obasanjo’ s regime in this regard. And we are waiting for Mr Vice President to make any pronouncement in their regard.

If he doesn’t, we would ensure that we come out with a catalogue on the issue. Finally, let me remind politicians that blackmail is not an effective tool in electoral propaganda. When its sharp edges acts, the blackmailers may emerge worse. In this regard, Mr Vice President should do well to educate Nigerians on why the failed Obasanjo administration should return to power for another four years of great suffering. The issue is not Buhari but what the Obasanjo-Atiku denounced administration has achieved so far. If they cannot tell the good people of Nigeria what they did, then they should be better advised to be extra mindfu1 of what they say. If Nigerian politics is issue-based, Vice President Atiku would have found solace in keeping to himself rather than discussing Buhari as the issue. When a politician discusses personalities as issues, it means he has lost his bearings.

Finally, Atiku as a young politician, who wants to aspire to the leadership of this country, should be advised to scale down his criticisms of some personalities, and the ACF in particular .I am making this advice for the good of his own political future.

For long, he has been presenting himself as an enemy of a particular section of this country and this is not good for his image as the Vice President of the Federal Republic. “ When last Northerners were massacred in Lagos, what did the Obasanjo-Atiku administration do? Not even a condolence visit was organized to sympathize with the victims. Those who are part of the project of not seeing with the plight of Odi, Zaki-Biam and the numerous killings of non-natives elsewhere, need to be reminded of their future political horizon. They should be told not to hide their failure in Buhari but their incapacity to deliver what they have promise. I repeat that the challenge before such people is to tell Nigerians what they have done to better their living condition in the past three years. Failure is certainly a yardstick for measuring political waterloo, and not General Buhari. However, if General Buhari is the issue, we know those uncomfortable and why.

The issue of the day is the betterment of the lives of the Nigerian people.

Has the Obasanjo-Atiku regime delivered? I will come up with why Atiku Abubakar could not be a running mate to any serious Presidential candidate in Nigeria.

I wish to call on Mr. Vice President to respond to this question. This would help his regime more than seeing Buhari as the issue and putting ACF in bad light.