|
A Polite Response To Mrs Abacha
By Reuben Abati
Today is the tenth anniversary of the death of Nigeria's military dictator, the dark-goggled General Sani Abacha, who ruled the country with a vicious grip between 1993 and 1998 and helped to spread the rot that General Ibrahim Babangida had introduced into our lives. His widow, Maryam Abacha has been busy in the media trying to tell whoever cares to listen that her husband is not a thief. Revisionism is a very convenient Nigerian game because Nigerians are ever so forgetful. But to see Mrs Abacha playing the same game and trying to fool the rest of us is the very limits of it. She and her sympathisers must be reminded of the open wound of truth. The Guardian reported on Thursday, June 5, that Mrs Abacha held a press conference "barely 96 hours to the 10th anniversary of the demise of her husband", where she said that her husband, who is now dead and his ministers, many of whom are still alive, were never given the opportunity to defend themselves by the Obasanjo administration, 1999-2007.
Her words: "This is life. We can always point fingers of accusation against people, especially after leaving government. The difference between our own and what is happening today is that the late Head of State is no longer alive and it was after he died that he was accused of something and this man is not going to be around to say yes I did this!". Mrs Abacha was really determined to exonerate her husband so she advised that those who are accusing her husband of misdeeds, should turn their attention to his Ministers. She said: "But the ideal thing should have been that any government which wanted to probe Abacha should call all the Ministers and ask, say, Minister of Petroleum, Minister of what and what - what and what did Abacha do during your tenure? Then we can now get the fact from them, maybe they can reveal something". This is an intervention in governance straight from General Abacha's kitchen and bedroom. But not to worry. Nigeria is full of such surprises. Nonetheless, Mrs Abacha further dismissed Obasanjo as ignorant, she insisted that her husband was "wrongfully accused", and ended her press conference with some advice on statecraft. You see what we go through in this country? Mrs Abacha's media parley must have been carefully organised because in the last four days she has been showing up like a bad coin in every corner of the Nigerian mass media, including news, interviews and feature stories about her and her husband in the newspapers.
Well, we are Africans, so what should we expect? It is good to see Mrs Abacha loving her husband and defending him ten years after his death. She is playing the expected role of the loving and dutiful wife. But Abacha's place in the public domain, in Nigerian history, is not about his being Maryam Abacha's husband, but about how he intervened in our lives as Head of State for a period of five years. Sorry Mrs Abacha, the verdict of history is that your husband was a thief in power and a dictator. Some would even add, with the benefit of hindsight, a murderer. And it is not true that this has not been proven. Investigations by the Obasanjo administration, conducted in collaboration with international anti-corruption agencies, established that former Head of State, General Sani Abacha stole public funds running into over two billion pounds which he stashed away in banks in the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Dubai, and Hong Kong.
It was confirmed that Abacha and his agents took money from the Central bank as if they were looting a cash register. In the prolonged tussle between the Abacha family which insisted that Abacha's wealth was legally acquired and the Obasanjo government, which said No, assets worth over 530 million pounds were seized from the Abacha family. Has Mrs Abacha forgotten? Her son Mohammed Abacha was arrested, detained and put on trial by the Obasanjo government over financial crimes as well as murder, committed during her father's reign. His eventual release was negotiated, with the announcement that the Abacha family had agreed to give up about one billion pounds out of the stolen funds. The United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland were very active in helping Nigeria to trace General Abacha's stolen wealth across the world, and it is on record that Switzerland in particular returned some money to the Nigerian government, from Abacha's frozen accounts. Abacha reportedly kept money in 19 Swiss banks, even the Swiss Federal Banking Corporation had to express its embarrassment! So what is Mrs Abacha talking about? Transparency International in 2004, listed General Abacha as the world's fourth most corrupt leader in recent history. These are facts not fiction. So Madam, please.
The irony of the Abacha story really is that General Abacha ran a government which sought to catch thieves particularly in the financial sector. It was during his regime that some bank Directors were sent to jail for looting the banks over which they superintended. But in the end, Nigerians were treated to stories and facts about how General Abacha and his agents looted Nigeria. Perhaps Mrs Abacha can now afford to claim that her husband was not a thief because successive administrations in Nigeria have proved to be even worse than Abacha's. In comparison, the kind of details of massive corruption that we have had in the last ten years, would make Abacha look like a saint. But this certainly does not make him a saint. He is guilty as charged. When General Abacha died on June 8, 1998, I recall that there was dancing on the streets of Lagos. He was taken to Kano and hurriedly buried in the night. A feeling of relief swept across the nation. Under Abacha, the country suffered. He is remembered today as an absolute dictator and that is what he was. Anyone who dared to express an independent opinion during the Abacha years was either detained, or jailed or murdered. The assault on civil society was total, and the people groaned under a leadership that whipped them with iron and placed scorpions on their path.
In case Mrs Abacha has forgotten, the main issue under Abacha was his government's deliberate frustration of the realisation of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election. When he seized power in 1993, there were hopes and there were supporters in civil society who imagined that General Abacha would help to bring the winner of the election which General Babangida and annulled to power. But he did no such thing, Instead, as soon as his government settled down, he began to hound and eliminate anyone who talked about June 12 or who appeared sympathetic to the June 12 cause. The cemetery is full of Abacha's victims. The society is full of persons who have been scarred by Abacha for life. Does Mrs Abacha remember MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, Bagauda Kaltho, Toyin Onagoruwa, Ken Saro Wiwa, The News, Tell, The Guardian, Concord Newspapers, Chief Alfred Rewane, Chief Abraham Adesanya, George Mabh, Kunle Ajibade, Chris Anyanwu, Sylvester Odion-Akhaine, Osa Director, Shehu Yar'�dua, Olusegun Obasanjo - and others, men, women and institutions who suffered because of her husband's sadism.
We admit that Abacha was a creation of the Nigerian system, a sad product of the Nigerian military who ended up being the nemesis of that institution. Abacha's tyranny quickened the exit of the military from office, as it ultimately united the people and the international community against that institution. The biggest damage that General Abacha did to Nigeria, however, was not the public funds that he looted., but the people's hopes that he destroyed, the lives that he ruined, the pain that he inflicted on many homes, the shame that he brought upon the country and the legacy of hate that he left behind. For five years, he robbed Nigerians of the opportunity to be citizens in their own country. Many fled. Those who remained behind many never complete their stories of deprivation in a lifetime. Where was Mrs Abacha then? She was First Lady and she was loyal to her husband in oppressing and terrorising Nigerians. She should learn to be quiet.
She says if her husband were alive, he would have defended himself. If he were alive, what can he possibly say? If he were alive he would have been in detention since 1999. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo would have seen to that. If he were alive, he would probably have been killed by an aggrieved party. If he were alive, he would have been the target of attacks in the media. If he were alive, he would have been helpless. Nobody would have taken his protestations of innocence seriously. All of this however is in the realm of speculation. What is known is that General Abacha died, suddenly, unsung and under mysterious circumstances on June 8, 1998, and his death further strengthened anti-military sentiments. Even in death, Nigerians still hold Abacha responsible for the pains of the last eight years. Abacha in many ways made the Obasanjo Presidency possible. Ten years later, we are yet to recover from the evils of the Abacha era. And imagine Mrs Abacha, trying to re-write our history.
She says she is not bothered that many of her husband's associates have not been visiting the family, although there are a few loyalists who still come around to pay homage. Mrs Abacha can be sure that very few Nigerians miss General Abacha positively today. This should be contrasted with the fact that in his lifetime, there were indeed some Nigerians who considered him their hero, but these were rented friends, hungry, miserable things who were ready to do anything for cash, terrible ideological prostitutes really. They included traditional rulers, musicians, university teachers, public intellectuals, contractors, and politicians. They had declared then that without Abacha, Nigeria will perish. They organised a one-million man march in Abuja where they anointed Abacha as Nigeria's ruler for life. They formed political parties, and five political parties adopted Abacha as the only fit and proper person to rule Nigeria. Where are those persons today? In the newspapers yesterday, there were very few adverts remembering General Abacha.
On Friday, June 6, one Prince Clement Bebenimibo was quoted in The Vanguard, p. 12, as saying that Ijaws of the Niger Delta should forever remain grateful to General Abacha because "he it was who made the Ijaw to have a sense of belonging in Nigeria by creating an autonomous state, Bayelsa state for them." He wants the Ijaw to declare an Abacha Day, and worship their benefactor on that day. Bebenimibo is certainly not speaking for all Ijaws. The same Abacha turned Ijaw and Ogoniland into a battle field, his government encouraged conflict in the region and many Ijaw lives were wasted. There was an advert yesterday on p. 45 of the Nigerian Tribune signed by Brig-Gen Yakubu Mu'�zu (rtd) on behalf of "former military administrators", and another advert: "We remember our great leader" on page 15 of the Saturday Sun signed by members of the Nigeria Youth Organisation (NYO). There may well be a few more media adverts today and Mrs Abacha may receive a few visitors in her home in Kano. But let her be reminded that the Abacha brand is a poor brand indeed in the Nigerian market. And putting it all down to the opinion that "that is life" misses the point.
On the 10th anniversary of the death of General Sani Abacha, Nigerians can only be forcefully reminded of the many tragedies that General Babangida's annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election brought upon Nigeria, the leadership deficit that constitutes the bane of Nigeria's development process, the culture of fear that Abacha and co imposed on the nation, and the lives of so many fallen heroes who wanted truth, justice and democracy but whose lives were wasted by General Abacha and his agents. Abacha was our own Mobutu Sese Seko and Idi Amin rolled into one ugly combination. His story should serve as a lesson to the present generation of Nigerian leaders: indeed the evil that men do lives after them. And, Mrs Abacha, it is in that spirit that General Sani Abacha is remembered today.
|
Authors 
Posted by Robot| 08.06.2008 08:29