Weekly Trust Friday, August 16, 2002

Merchants of bias

It would amount to repeating an old story to recall some of the reasons why Dr Chuba Okadigbo was removed as Senate President. For the purpose of this piece, however, it is important we do so.

Two of the reasons remain fresh in memory. The first was that he gave an anticipatory approval to the tune of about N27 million which, in the good wisdom of the Senate, was a serious offence as to warrant his removal.

Since this was the wish of Aso Rock who masterminded the game plan, as later to be personally admitted by Mr President, during one of his media chats, the press took up the fight on his behalf. If it may be recalled, in a response to an observation that the anti corruption war had not dealt with any "big fish" Mr President wondered what big fish was bigger than the number three citizen who was removed in the process of the war?

So Okadigbo was removed by Aso Rock using the Senate for an offence of anticipatory approval to the tune of N27 million and the good people of the media believed that this war effort was worth supporting and they did so with extra zealous determination.

The other "criminal" offence allegedly committed by the former Senate president was the attempt to award the phase two contract of the National Assembly Complex at a cost of about N4 billion. For this "crime" also both Aso Rock and its media supporters saw to it that the man was removed.

We all thought that it was indeed a patriotic war being conducted with utmost sincerity to salvage our country from the maladies of corruption. But something happened. A few weeks after Okadigbo was removed for giving anticipatory approval to the tune of N27 million, Mr President gave a similar approval to the tune of N38 billion for the Abuja stadium. This was in addition to the N12 billion given Julius Berger and 10 million US dollars to Niger Republic also without appropriation. There was also the purchase of quarters for senior aides to the tune of N2.8 billion through the same anticipatory approval.

Then came the Minister for Information, Jerry Gana, to announce to Nigerians that the phase two of the NASS building, which Okadigbo allegedly attempted to award for N4 billion, for which he was roundly punished, with removal as Senate president, had been awarded by the wise Federal Executive Council at a cost of N25.5 billion to the same company Okadigbo wanted to award! The same contract!

Curiously, no one saw evil in awarding a N4 billion contract for N25.5 billion and for that through anticipatory approval the very offense for which Okadigbo was removed. Perhaps awarding it at N4 billion was more criminal and corrupt than doing so at N25.5 billion! Or else how would we explain why those who crucified Okadigbo for awarding a contract for N4 billion kept totally mute when the wise anti corruption crusaders of the Federal Executive Council awarded exactly the same contract for N25.5 billion? That is bias at work.

We know what happened to Salisu Buhari. Crusaders of purity and the saints of our world went after his neck until they got him thrown out of the House for age cheating and certificate falsification. We all saw the cause as noble and joined in chorusing the demand for his neck. He was eventually removed and kicked out of the house. He lost his seat.

Governor Tinubu exploded with his Chicago scandal allegedly a worse crime than Buhari’s. What did we do? For the same reason we got Buhari thrown out of the National Assembly we supported Tinubu, only because he is not Buhari.

It was right that Buhari was thrown out for age cheating and certificate forgery and right to defend Tinubu for committing the same crime! Some even went as far as denying Gani Fawehinmi space in their papers for loudly protesting this glaring discrimination and bias.

Meanwhile, according to the police, Dr Frederick Faseun and Gani Adams were accessories to the massacre of non-natives in Lagos in their thousands at various times. Adams went into hiding when the police declared him wanted. (Was this a prima facie case or not?) One year after, he was caught and taken to court. In less than three months, a magistrate court quashed all the charges against him! Today, he is a free man walking the streets with the blood of the innocent in their thousands on his hands. Faseun too was discharged and acquitted on similar charges by the magistrate court.

I never read any editorial insulting the trial magistrate or impugning motives into this judgement. No columnist came out to impugn political meaning into the ruling. Nor has anybody ever said that the running into hiding of Gani Adams was a good enough prima facie case to establish accessory before and after the act of murder. Nothing of that sort has ever happened.

His discharge and acquittal was all fair and good in spite of all the strong suspicions. Nobody said that his running away was a strong suspicion to warrant his trial. Strong suspicion then was not valid as a fact in law.

Not so in the case of Mohammed Abacha. His own strong suspicion is enough a prima facie case to establish accessory to the fact of murder, because he is not Gani Adams. It was good Gani Adams and Faseun were discharged and acquitted for alleged mass murder since their suspicious involvement was not enough to establish a prima facie case against them, but wrong that Mohammed Abacha is discharged and acquitted for almost the same legal argument. See again how bias and discrimination could pollute the mind, including that of the reasonable.

Mohammed Abacha is allegedly linked to the Kudirat case through the actions of two of his associates who presumably participated, anyhow or somehow in the act of murder. Through them he became an accessory to the fact of murder. Curiously, those who allegedly participated in the act for which he became an accessory are not being charged with any crime of murder. So if they are not being charged with any crime and that he is being tried because of his remote connection with them, how possible was it that he committed the crime when the persons he allegedly associated with them have no case to answer? Mohammed is being charged for the crime of his assumed associates, whom he presumably used to commit the actual crime have no crime case to answer. If they were the ones who committed the crime by his assumed usage of them and they have no crime case to answer, it simply means that no crime was committed by him since the persons he allegedly used to commit the crime had no case to answer.

For the kill-him crowd and their sponsors such simple logic is unimportant. No legal verdict satisfies them except those that meet their fancy. We are becoming too biased to be of sincere help to the cause of the democracy project in this country.

In the process of the expression of our petty biases as in such matters, we seek to bring down such great institutions like the Supreme Court. We are aware that some people would not be satisfied with any verdict concerning the Abacha case until a verdict of guilt is returned knowing their stereotype and mindset attitude to this and such matters. Indeed, others would not be so satisfied until perhaps the entire Abacha family is wiped out. But they are not Allah.

Today, the power-that-be in the land is showing its fangs to ditch the rule of law simply because it is the Abachas that are involved. Nothing of such was ever done to alleged mass murderers. As a matter of fact, justice Abutu had to discontinue a case against one of them because according to him the federal government was no longer interested in prosecuting him. This was how the charges against Gani Adams were dropped and he was eventually discharged and acquitted. Unfortunately, Mohammed is not such a favoured citizen. He is not Gani Adams or Faseun, which is why terrorism, vendetta, disregard for judicial authority and vengeance are all being put in place in his own case.

Let those who are committing these debasing acts be reminded by the verdict of history. All days are not their time.

It is a pity that in spite of the glaring evidence to the contrary, some papers are still going to town with the nonsense theory that there was a money for freedom agreement between Mohammed and the President Obasanjo; in which the former allegedly paid 1.2 billion US dollars in exchange for his freedom. The question, such people should ask therefore is; if so why then is the federal government still after his life if he has fulfilled his own side of the bargain? Couldn’t it be therefore that government is after his life in spite of his honouring of his own side of the agreement? Doesn’t this perfectly fit into the theory that General Obasanjo is visiting on Mohammed the supposed sins of his father committed against him?

Has he not therefore personalized the issue? Those who are persisting in this false theory are not helping the image of General Obasanjo in this matter, because what they are saying indirectly without knowing so, is that having fulfilled his own side of the money-for-freedom deal, Mohammed Abacha is still being hunted by Obasanjo because of the supposed wrongs his late father committed against Obasanjo, therefore confirming the charges of vengeance and vendetta which a lot of people see as the issue central to his (Mohammed) saga in the hands of the president.

The issue of his saga has gone beyond petty sentiment to one of the rule of law. The refusal of General Obasanjo to allow Mohammed Abacha enjoy the freedom granted him by the constitution as pronounced by the Supreme Court and the Abuja Federal High Court is not an assault on the Mohammed alone but on the entire Nigerians whose judicial system is being rubbished, demeaned, ridiculed, hunted and abused on the altar of personal vendetta. It is no longer Abacha who is being hunted but the entire Nigerian legal system and indeed the good people of this country.

And this should matter to all of us no matter our mindset attitude in this case. That our entire judicial system is being undermined to achieve the personal verdict of vengeance and mindset by an administration that has no respect for the rule of law is a serious case for concern. It should be of great concern to us that the federal government wants to get by brute force what it cannot get through the due process of the law. We are in serious danger. Let us be alerted that by this act alone we are dragging our supposed democracy project to the graveyard of dictatorship and this is pretty dangerous for all of us including those who are happy that it is happening to an orphan today.

Pity that the PDP as a party does not bother how this case is denting its image. Mohammed’s lawyers have made the point that General Abubakar Abdulsalami’s regime requested the Abachas to refund about 1.2 billion dollars to the government out of which they allegedly refunded 800 million. and that before he could enjoy the freedom granted him by the court, the Government is insisting that he must refund the balance. Yet this is the issue before the court for which he was granted bail. Furthermore, the lawyers said that he was ready to make up the balance but the same government which is asking him to do so is not ready to defreeze his accounts to enable him source for the refund. How then can he make the refund without them defreezing his accounts? Here again, we can clearly see that it is not the money they are after but Mohammed himself in place of his late father against whom they hold deep-seated grudges. This is the crux of the matter.

There is so much reckless executive intimidation in the whole Abacha saga but as I said, power is a temporary illusory substance. Allah gives it as an act of trial. If we care to appreciate the wanton victimisation of the Abachas today on account of what their father allegedly did to certain key persons in this administration, it is enough a reminder of the transient nature of power and also a reminder that what is being done to others today could apply to you or yours tomorrow.

This administration set up the Oputa Panel supposedly in view of the outcry against alleged violations of human rights in the past. But a keen observer cannot but note that with Odi and Zaki-Biam, Bola Ige, Mohammed Abacha, the Bamaiyis and others, no other period has in our history, witnessed state terrorism against innocent people as this period of dictatorial democracy under the direction of the PDP. The number of people being killed by the agents of the state as happened at the Kawo market last year, and as happened to some innocent students in Lagos and several others unreported are enough evidence in support of this observation. Which is why history will not take it kindly if the successors of this dictatorial administration fail to investigate human rights violations from May 1999 to May 2003 or May 2007. There is always a time to regret certain exercise of the brute use of power and by the grace of the Almighty such a time has never failed to come. Pinochet in Chile is a living witness.

Dele Sobawale has made the point that people like me should not be allowed to create a judicial hero or martyr out of Abacha. My reply is that the state has long created one out of him by its refusal to respect the rule of law in the matter of his case. My other reply is that Dele at least shows some considerable level of a man with an independent mind who has respect for the rule of law. I am happy that he is far from the madding crowd of the bias and mindset. My last reply is that in making a case for Abacha, I am doing so for all Nigerians because the case is no longer about him but about respect for the rule of law. This is now the new issue and not Abacha and should therefore be the article of discourse. It is the law now that the Obasanjo administration is victimising and not Mohammed Abacha. Nigerians should be clear about this. This is what our merchants of bias and terrorists against the rule of law should appreciate.

Let PDP appreciate the impact of the rampant violation of law on its corporate image. The party cannot be distanced from the reckless disrespect for the rule of law by its elected key officials. I rest my case.