This should be the question on the lips
of every man and woman of conscience, considering the acquittal last
week of Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha, Chief Security Officer of ex-military
dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha. Al-Mustapha, until his acquittal, had been
in detention since 1999 for the murder of Kudirat Abiola, wife of M.KO.
Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election who himself
died in detention in July 1998.
The state reception and effusive welcome
party for al-Mustapha must be gut-wrenching for any Nigerian who lived
through the horrors of the Abacha dictatorship. As Abacha’s Chief
Security Officer, al-Mustapha was the point man of the murderous
triumvirate that comprised Ismaila Gwarzo, National Security Adviser and
Frank Omenka of the notorious Directorate of Military Intelligence.
They had as their henchmen Barnabas Jabila (a.k.a Sgt. Rogers), Muhammed
Abdul (a.k.a Katako), Alhaji Danbaba, and Rabo Lawal amongst others.
The High Court of Lagos State under Hon.
Justice Mojisola Dada had on January 30, 2012, found both al-Mustapha
and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, one of Kudirat’s aides, guilty of the
offences of conspiracy to murder and murder of Kudirat, contrary to
Sections 324 and 319 of the Criminal Code of Lagos State and accordingly
had sentenced them to death by hanging. Justice Dada had based her
judgment, amongst other things, on the strength of the testimony of two
prosecution witnesses, Jabila and Abdul.
Both witnesses had testified that they
were “directed to murder Alhaja Kudirat Abiola by Maj. Hamza
al-Mustapha; that they were given information on her movements by Alhaji
Lateef Sofolahan; and that they, respectively, shot and killed Alhaji
Kudirat Abiola and drove the Peugeot 504 car, which they used in
trailing her car and bolted away, after killing her at the Cargo Vision
Area of the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway”.
Justice Dada’s guilty verdict was
reversed last week by the Court of Appeal. While lashing out at the
lower court, Hon. Justice Amina A. Augie (presiding justice of the Court
of Appeal’s Panel), Hon. Justice Rita N. Pemu, and Hon. Justice Fatima
O. Akinbami, based their ruling, amongst other things, on the
“contradiction in the testimony of the prosecution witnesses” who had
during cross examination and re-examination recanted, alleging that they
were forced to implicate the accused persons.
It would be interesting to know why the
learned justices of the Court of Appeal found it appealing (no pun
intended) to believe the latter story of the prosecution witnesses. With
the acquittal of al-Mustapha, it seems the Court of Appeal wants to
erase our memory and close a chapter in the sordid history of the Abacha
dictatorship. That also means that not a single person will be held
responsible for the political assassinations that took place under that
regime. So much for justice!
Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State
has described al-Mustapha as a “hero”. In a country where true heroes
are in short supply, the governor may well be right. I would add that
al-Mustapha is also a “hero” for justice because in Nigeria justice is
for the highest bidder. Alhaji Maitama Sule has asked al-Mustapha to
“forgive his detractors” who obviously were responsible for his “unjust”
incarceration. The Nigerian Army should go ahead and promote
al-Mustapha to a General, pay him his salaries and allowances for the
past 14 years – if they were ever stopped – and assign him a command to
put into good use his experiences in the service of the fatherland.
Today, al-Mustapha is a free man, free
to run for governor of Kano State, senator or even the president of the
Federal Republic. I hope he appreciates the value of life and liberty,
things that he and his former boss denied Nigerians for five years.
If al-Mustapha didn’t kill Kudirat
Abiola or order her assassination, it would be nice to know what
al-Mustapha and the regime he served so faithfully did to find the
killers of Kudirat, Pa Alfred Rewane and others murdered during the
Abacha regime.
It is the same question that Gen. Ibrahim Babangida must answer concerning the death of Dele Giwa.
Democracy and its malcontents
Nigeria is a deeply flawed polity. And
unless we brace ourselves to this reality and do something about it, we
would continue to witness the show of shame that is going on in the name
of democracy in Rivers State and indeed across the country.
In July 2003, a pseudo-democrat and
putative dictator posing as the democratic president of the Federal
Republic in cahoots with political jobbers and miscreants sacked an
elected governor of a state. Exactly 10 years later, history is
repeating itself.
It was Karl Marx who in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,
while complementing Hegel’s assertion that every major event,
phenomenon or personage in history usually appeared twice, stated that
the first appearance was usually a tragedy and the second a farce. If
Obasanjo/Ngige in 2003 was a tragedy; Jonathan/Amaechi 10 years later is
certainly a farce. Or, how else can you describe a situation where five
members of the Rivers State House of Assembly – an assembly with 32
members – impeached the speaker and replaced him with one of their own?
The video clips of that attempted coup
have become a media sensation. However, beyond the mindless violence
that we witness and the comic relief that they provide, the horror show
is an indictment of our democracy. But it is much more than that. It is a
window into a much deeper national problem. Therefore, if we focus on
the Jonathans (Goodluck and Patience), Amaechi as well as their
sidekicks and disciples, we miss the point.
For me, the crisis in Rivers State is a
reflection of our crisis of nationhood; the outcome of the distorted
structure of Nigeria and its power relations. Many of those who are
shouting themselves hoarse today will do the same thing if given the
opportunity. Clearly, any attempt to understand the current crisis
without focusing on this fundamental problem would amount to chasing
shadows.
Prof. Chinweizu captured this reality
when he noted during the January 2012 fuel subsidy crisis that, “Many of
the deadly problems plaguing Nigeria are maintained by the provisions
of the constitution as well as the structures it has set up. Therefore,
tackling many of Nigeria’s problems would require a comprehensive
critique and gutting of the constitution in which they are rooted”.
Last year, a former vice-president,
Atiku Abubakar, complained about “the scandalously limitless powers
wielded by anyone who occupies the presidential seat in Nigeria”. It is
the same limitless powers that governors enjoy in their states. Of
course, the political class will complain and do everything except
interrogate the very system that makes this scandal of a democracy
possible: Whether we are talking about governors sacking local
government chairmen with impunity, the president using the apparatuses
of the state to solve his personal and intra-party problems or the
National Assembly assuming powers it does not have – in this case, the
illegal and unconstitutional “take-over” of the Rivers State Assembly
Rather than being fixated on the
Jonathan/Amaechi farce, perhaps, this offers us an opportunity to begin
discussing the bigger question of restructuring the country. Unless we
take that bold step, the affront to democracy we witnessed in Anambra
State in 2003 and Rivers State in 2013 will happen again, perhaps on a
grander and much more farcical form.
A few days ago, during a solidarity
visit to Amaechi, the governors of Kano, Jigawa, Adamawa and Niger
states called for State Police. We must not stop at that. We should go a
step further to discuss resource control/revenue allocation,
citizenship rights and the many problems that make our democracy a huge
joke, and our country a grand illusion.
By Chido Onumah (conumah@hotmail.com)
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Chido! U've said it ALL. This country is INDEED RULED/GOVERNED by MAD MEN called POLITICIANS. So KUDI, since MUSTY, RABO & ROGERS did not KILL U may be its was DEMONS that SHOT & KILLED U on that FAITHFUL DAY.
ReplyDeleteAs 4 AMINA, RITA, & FATI, I did not BLAME Ur WOMEN 4 the JUDGEMENT, bcos If U "OLD GIRLS" has RULED OTHERWISE "they" will SURELY come after Ur LIVES.
WHO will SAVE this BLESSED LAND from DESTROYING herself?
There are atimes ppl claim that they knw all bt do not especially whn they are biased in their comment. If u ve nothing good to say abt smbody, pls shut up.
ReplyDelete