Prof Sam Aluko Saint Or Sinner

Another heading that came to mind in deciding to write on Professor Sam Aluko, Nigeria’s foremost economist, second only perhaps, in my view, to the late Dr Pius Okigbo, was: What Is Prof. Sam Aluko’s Place In History? – especially as the octogenarian has come to the fore lately in media interviews and reports, as lucid and unapologetic as ever.

It’s a question that bothers my mind, with the revered economist’s evident commitment to what I would call pragmatic intellectualism and his unquestionable integrity clashing furiously with his role in providing some degree of legitimacy to the despised tyrannical regime of late General Sani Abacha – throwing up issues of where ego and veiled self-interest starts and genuine nationalism ends.

It is a tough one.

Where should the line be drawn? To what extent should one allow one’s sense of patriotism and nationalism to carry one in serving one’s country regardless of the political environment? Can one’s life, and one’s role in it, be completely separated from politics?

In looking for answers to these questions, one cannot but take historical perspectives on brutal regimes the world over and the role played by notable and respectable personalities – professionals, academics, scientists, et al – in propping up the regimes, wittingly or unwittingly, through the inadvertent legitimacy their blind-eye turning, only-doing-my-job, position offered.

Let’s take Hitler. The Nuremberg Trial of many eminent Germans for crime committed against humanity in the name of serving Germany’s interest (or, more appropriately, The Fuehrer’s interest) brought to light the complex issue of when moral or ethical imperatives should override ‘national call’ rationale. Those tried included Hans Frank who was the President of the Academy of German Law, and Walther Funk who was economic advisor to Hitler (a role akin to that of Prof. Aluko for Abacha), and many others; although it must be said that several of them, including Funk, were freed on the grounds that they did not play a ‘lead role’ in the activities they participated in. But the fact that they were brought to trial was point enough.

Talking of Hitler in relation to Abacha may be stretching the argument too far, even to absurdity. But say that to the many families whose father, mother, or child were brutalised, maimed, or even murdered by agents of that evil regime, and the equation may not be that remote! It is not a question of numbers, not of how many innocent people were killed by a regime; one unjust murder is bad enough.

But still we must be careful how we let ourselves get carried away by our sentiments. One’s perception and evaluation of a regime often are led by subjective values. Consequently, to some Abacha was no worse than any other military dictator before him, from Gowon to Babangida. So why single out Abacha, and why not serve Abacha when many other eminent Nigerians, including even late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and late Tai Solarin, served military regimes in certain capacities – citizens who, as far as they were concerned, ignored the particularity of the regime to offer services to their fatherland in an area of sore interest to them. Wahala!

I think Abacha was in a class of his own – making any brutality associated with the regimes of Generals Buhari and Babangida, before him, pale into insignificance. And that is the point. Aside the very criminal sustenance (bearing in mind Babangida did the act) of the annulment of the freest and fairest presidential election the country ever held, Abacha’s regime abducted, jailed and murdered scores of innocent civilians, even in broad daylight. The list is long: from the dastardly murder of people like Chief Rewane, Kudirat Abiola, Bagauda Kaltho and many others, to the Gestapo attack on Chief Adesanya, Chief Ibru, amongst others! Nay, it set itself in virtual war of attrition against the Yoruba ethnic group as a whole for what he considers as their most vociferous and fierce challenge to the continued annulment in general and the insulting detention of the winner of the election, late Chief MKO Abiola, for seeking to claim his mandate, in particular!

I had my own taste of his detention (for my Sunday Punch columns and staging of an anti-military demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London). This is not to go personal, but that little experience buttresses the fact that only those who ‘behaved’, served Abacha’s purposes, or sold their kin out, were safe.

Certainly, Professor Sam Aluko cannot claim ignorance of such monumental atrocities. He either chose not to believe them, projecting into his face as they were, or he chose to be indifferent to them, deciding that the need to help salvage the nation’s economy was overriding of all issues, including the real threat of dismemberment the nation itself faced politically.

But we must pause to consider what persuaded the elder professor to accept to serve Abacha in the first place, and the benefits derived there-from.

A glimpse is provided in his media appearance. Abacha emissaries, including General Diya, came to beg for his service, in an “only-you-can-save-the-economy” fashion (now, who would not be drunk by that?) and he accepted on his own terms, which included being part-time. Aluko also let us know that General Abacha respected, indeed accepted virtually all of his economic advice and recommendations! – something that Aluko believes made the country’s economy formidable in Abacha years.

Why did he continue even when it became clear he was serving the devil? Abacha was no devil, says our professor, in fact he was near enough an angel – he did not loot the treasury, as widely reported (although lately amending that to: perhaps his agents helped themselves to lifting and selling some of the nation’s crude petroleum on Abacha’s behalf, something that, according to Aluko, is still happening till today). Moreover, and very importantly, Abacha, for Aluko’s sake, created Ekiti state as a “thank you” for having “really worked for the government”, and, when the problem issue of Aluko’s first son’s name getting on the “wanted” list for anti-Abacha and pro-democracy activism, the favoured chief economic adviser used his position in the government to get his son’s name removed from the list!

Nothing said here removes from the fact that Professor Sam Aluko is a man of personal integrity and principle. He may not have used his position to enrich himself. But one cannot but wonder how Awolowo, who brought Aluko to prominence early in life and whom Aluko served in various capacities, would have felt about Aluko’s role in those bleak, dark, years. Discomfited? You bet.

One can then imagine how Bolaji, (the professor’s oldest child, himself a professor of chemical engineering in the United States) would have felt. I was in the States for some of that ugly period, and Bolaji – a leading crusader against Abacha’s regime, and a young man with prodigious zest and intellect – suffered severe emotional torment on account of his father’s chosen counter-position, even while distancing himself from it.

Would Awolowo have wondered if the old professor was going senile, as his friend, General Olusegun Obasanjo, lately crudely and uncharitably put it? No one going through the interview published in The Sun newspapers in December would share Obasanjo’s opinion, though. The professor’s intellect remains as acute, and his contentions as robust, as ever.

But how would history view Professor Sam Aluko’s support for the Abacha regime at a time the regime was committing the vilest atrocities against his own ethnic group? Was Aluko’s role purely altruistic? Is our dear uncle a saint or is his defence of Abacha insincere? God dey.

Note: This article was first published on Jan. 18, 2009. Reproduced as tribute to one of the greatest minds of our time as he departed this world on February 7, 2012. Rest in peace.

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posted on 02-13-2012, 09:19:33 AM