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General Babangida told me that after considering the matter, he wanted to give Vatsa a reprieve and asked me, a friend of his, a frie...Read the full article.

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....Nigerians watch keenly how his own life will end!


Thanks,

SOLID

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The day they were executed was a very sad day for us...WS and others gave a press statement to the fact that Babangida will do something...we all thought that he will convince the AFRC to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment...bt inaa...hmm.:arrow:

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In the military, each day is a busy day. You must always sleep with one eye opened.
Be suspicious of every other soldier be he Officer or Other Ranks. Anyone of them can do you harm.
Perform your military duties as best as you can but look after yourself very well.
Love all but trust no one. Always be security conscious especially when you are invited out of your house/quarter,an ambush party may be waiting to recieve you. Military life is not a good life but I did not regret being there for over ten years because it was service to my country.
There are few schools of thought about Vatsa/IBB case. The sad thing is that most of us{the general public} may never know the whole truth and the clique who knew may never tell us until the grave is closed up on them.
I was in the military when the coup of Muritala took place.Everyone of us who were a little closer to the centre scene then knew and still remember the active roles played by Vatsa, starting from his boldly denouncing the coup while it was still going on to hunting down and investigating the plotters.
His roles {although justified} helped so much in the arrest,prosecution and eventual executions of a large number of the arrested plotters.
Most of those executed were from the then Benue/Plateau State including the former Governor. It was a sad period for the people of BP State.Trust me,they never forgot.
It may be true therefore that servicemen from that segment of the country did not forgive Vatsa for his roles which which is a recipe to the fate suffered by their loved ones.
They saw to it that Vatsa suffered the same fate as their homeboys when such opportunity arrived. Looked exactly like "what goes around comes around".
It may be true also that between IBB and Vatsa,it was a case of "Macbeth!Macbeth! beware Macduff!"
In the military you have to keep eye on your best friend{s} too and take no chances.
It was evidenced that there were such rivalries between those two friends.IBB may have founded Vatsa to be too close for comfort.IBB may be fearing the inevitable as a result of which he reduced Vatsa's threat by removing him from command post where several troops were under him to ministerial appointment where he became like a "lone ranger". Such is not an uncommon excercise in the military.
Also,Vatsa as writer was becoming too popular for IBB considering the books he published,awards he recieved and the calibre of folks he is associating with like Chinua Achebe,Wole Soyinka etc. Possibly IBB fell threatened by the giant strides of his friend.
But why was Vatsa executed? Like I said ,we may never know the whole truth except IBB and his loyalists.
The only sad thing was that the man was never linked directly to the plot if in truth there was any.The coup was never allowed to take place neither were they caught red-handed doing the coup. They were executed as what the court of law would call "suspects". It is sad though!
Domkat Bali's heart is beating so fast today because his fingerprint remained forever indelible in the death of people whose involvements in percieved crime was never proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Has he told the whole truth?I don't think so.
Did IBB try to save his friend from execution?I also doubt it much.He probably was happy that his great threat is going away. IBB according to himself concluded that Vatsa was indeed plotting coup hence he{Vatsa} wanted to escape out from air-conditioning hole.
But who wants to believe Maradona? Vatsa would not have made any attempt to escape knowing fully that his residence was surrounded by armed military guards. The rest is history!

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A touching piece indeed. If IBB sanctioned the execution of those men without incontrovertible evidence, then he has erred. Accepted that coup plotting is serious business in the military but any life-and-death situation must be resolved only on fair terms and not on the alter of one man's whims and caprices. Sheer stupidity it is if, indeed its true that Mr. Babangida starved the Airforce of funds because some of them were involved in the coup.It only goes a long way in confirming the barbaric & vindictive nature of the hooligans that have been prowling the corridors of power in Nigeria for years. Today,its our collective shame - i doubt if our armed forces will be able to cope in case of external aggression.

Nigeria cuts a pitiable picture. For her to be brought back on her feet, Babangida and his ilk must pay.Remember what Rawlings did in Ghana?

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Max,

Major Bamidele was, I believe, from Kogi State. Please check.

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:sad::sad::sad::mad::mad:,

To believe that in matter of life and death,men would abograte power to themselves not only to decide, but ultimately extinguish such a life reflect sadly on our level of development and value for life. Agreed this happened some years ago, our pyshic and the way we handle life in general has not relected that we value life.

What the these guys(Babaginda, Bali) and other should know is that there is none of us immune from death, What they done is just send some people earlier than themselves. I wrote an article on the day that Ken Saro-Wiwa was murdered, that Abacha had just sent Ken ahead of himself, 3yrs later he headed for the great beyond.

Maybe if we are reflect more on our tenure here on earth, the report other we say of us and the account we would have to give to that who brought here, we might all leave this place, a better place.

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Good piece, you know what I strongly believe that Nigeria needs to addrss these issues. Having read the story of Vasta and those convicted for that coup, we knew it was another phantom coup. What is important is that their families need to be rehabilitated.

But more importantly, Babangida , Bali and all their cohorts should be brought to justice for the harm they have caused this country. It is never to late. 2 months ago in Argentina, former generals in the 70s and 80s were sent to jail for the atrocities they committed in the early 70s. Same in Chile where Augusto Pinochet was hoarded to death for atrocities during the 1973 coup.

Another remedy to the families is to sue these military leaders in International courts. Pinochet arrest was ordered by a Spanish judge and effected in London by British police.

Let's stop being victim of this rich Cabal and stand up to them through internal law. What's more, if they can't trravel to London & US for fear of arrest , maybe they will improve our country.

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Nice article, but I think the stroyline belongs to the history of the "dark days of military rule in Nigeria".

The military have a "peculiar creed" which they live and die by. I am sure Vatsa throughout his stay in the military was aware of the creed.

The unfortunate thing, is that the military (including Vatsa) by taking over Government, roped the rest of Nigerians into what would typically had been - a military story.

:icon_ques:icon_ques:icon_ques:icon_ques

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Country men & Women:

The main lesson and possibly "ISSUE" here is our collective failure to upheld
our laws beyond "personalities" and "institutions"

When laws are broken in the streets, we send authorities after perpetrators, prosecute them according to the laws of our land but when "institutions" err
we turn our backs and let go of the legal steps necessary to correct things.

The army as a whole must be subjected to legal redress. It is still not too late to call the institution to order. The sooner we tackle this
reoccurring power crisis the better for the country. Today, we are foolishly
still following a "kitchen" table constitution drafted by General Abubakar & co.

Because we fail to address such errors, we continue to suffer lopesided judgement and other matters of grieve consequences. People like IBB take advantage of such lapses, inflict damage on fellow citizens and get away with crime. Saro-Wiwa, Abiola & his wife, Rewane, Dele Giwa, etc. all suffered
such fate because we fail to enact and defend genuine national laws to protect ourselves.

If laws do not wall a leader, he/she will become power drunk and use the position to revenge old scores with true and 'percieved' enemies. We owe ourselves the duty to make a clear separation between self-interest and our national interests.

Because we failed to do that, today; we cannot hold a true national census, or hold a true and fair election, or throw all treasury looters to jail.

We FAILED ourselves as a people!

SOLID