Flashbacks: Snippers In Police Uniform – Obasanjo, The Days Of Abacha; History And The Historian- By Maxwell Adeleye

From 1993 to 1998, Nigeria, a nation blessed with abundant human and natural resources, was being ruled by a ruthless and reclusive military dictator called General Sani Abacha.

During Abacha’s regime, General Olusegun Obasanjo, along with over 50 other army officers, were unjustly jailed by the Abacha government on trumped-up charges of coup plotting.

Nigeria, under Abacha, became a pariah nation after being expelled from the Commonwealth of Nations for executing Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists who were campaigning for a fairer share of Nigerian oil revenues and against the environmental damage caused to their lands by the drilling and spills of big oil companies.

Lt-General Oladipo Diya, Major-Generals Abdulkareem Adisa, and Tajudeen Olanrewaju, along with several other officers, were on death row awaiting execution for their role in another coup plot, thanks to the conscienceless Abacha.

The acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 election, late Chief MKO Abiola, had been in jail for 4 years, kept incommunicado from the outside world. He later died in prison, a victim of conspiracy involving the American government and the Generals.

The Guardian Newspapers, owned by Abacha’s minister Ibru, was proscribed by a newspaper proscription Decree and shut down after it criticized the government. The paper’s continual criticism of Abacha’s regime led to a near-fatal assassination attempt on Ibru’s life.

Senator Bola Tinubu, apparently afraid of Abacha’s snipers, fled Nigeria with his intellectual-civilian lieutenants. Alani Akinrinade, Babafemi Ojudu, Gani Faweyinmi, etc., were unlucky, as Abacha incarcerated them in different prisons for questioning his authoritarianism.

Kudirat Abiola was gunned down in broad daylight by sharpshooters allegedly associated with the Abacha regime. Kayode Fayemi, now a Governor, could not practice physical journalism as he turned guerrilla journalist for fear of Abacha.

General Abacha was on the verge of transforming himself from a military ruler to a civilian President, having strong-armed the then five political parties in the country into adopting him as their presidential candidate.

On June 8, 1998, God proved his worth as the Alpha and Omega. Abacha reportedly died of a heart attack and was hurriedly buried without an autopsy by the time the news filtered through to most Nigerians. Nigerians publicly celebrated the death of a reviled leader with wild jubilation. MKO Abiola also died in prison while battling to reclaim his annulled mandate.

With Abacha, Abiola, and the June 12 issue out of the way, General Abubakar announced a swift 10-month program for a return to civilian democratic rule. Just 10 months after Nigeria seemed doomed to perpetual military rule under General Abacha, the military stepped down, and a new democratic government was elected.

The speed with which Abacha’s infrastructure was dismantled seemed contrived. With Abacha alive and Abiola incarcerated, most people thought democracy was impossible in Nigeria. Just 10 months after his death, everything he did was undone: his killer squads were dismantled, coup convicts and pro-democracy activists released, Nigeria back in the Commonwealth, democracy restored, and the army back in the barracks.

History and posterity are phenomena that judge people. Affirmatively, history and posterity can never forget or forgive Abacha for the deeds he did in Nigeria. It is an understatement to christen Abacha a mistake of history; he was an aberration in Nigeria government.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, like every living creature, is a double-sided man: suave and witty, controversial and hilarious, frank and factual. Obasanjo, to some, is an elder statesman of international repute, while many see him as a villain and one of the architects of the barrage of poverty and quagmire militating against Nigerians and Nigeria.

Obasanjo is known for his depth of jokes that catch mankind napping and gasping for breath because of the dexterity with which he delivers them, as well as his famous letters to sitting presidents which always bring an omen with them after their voyage.

Ex-president Shehu Shagari in the 1980s will remember Obasanjo’s snippy letter to him, so will the tough and ruthless Muhammadu Buhari, recollecting with a slit in his throat the OBJ letter. The evil genius and daring Maradona in Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida will always smile at recalling the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) and Obasanjo’s appeal letter in the famous bid to save Nigerians in the grassroots from being economically ruined.

Recently, precisely on December 12, 2013, a letter written by Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan was leaked to the press. Obasanjo, in his letter, accused President Goodluck Jonathan of under-developing Nigeria and as well, placing 1,000 Nigerians on political watch. Obasanjo also accused Jonathan of training snipers aimed at unleashing them against his political opponents as the 2015 polls gathered momentum.

According to the obviously angry Obasanjo, Jonathan is training his snipers where the late Nigerian Maximum Dictator, Sanni Abacha, trained the snipers he unleashed against pro-democracy activists and his perceived political enemies when he was ruling Nigeria with impunity and reckless abandonment. Abacha’s ambition to transform from a Military leader to Civilian leader sent many progressive-minded Nigerians to an early grave while many were burgled, ransacked, bashed, lashed, and decayed.

As expected, when Obasanjo raised his allegations against President Jonathan, most Nigerians with easily cajoled minds and gullibility thought kicked in. Obasanjo was vilified; called names such as hypocrite, liar, etc. Obasanjo’s dirty history was retold. His past was re-echoed. He was silenced. He became an object of ridicule in the hands of those he nurtured and trained. The Owu High Chief’s image was battered by those he handed over the insignia of power to. As a pundit, I nearly countered Obasanjo, but an unseen spirit whispered to my ear that I should keep mute.

Compatriots, January 12, 2014, made it exactly a month that Obasanjo wrote his controversial letter to President Jonathan; and coincidentally, the snipers struck the same day. Obasanjo was vindicated. The quasi-snipers exploded, not in Abuja or Lagos, but in Port Harcourt, the commercial and administrative headquarters of the Niger Delta nations.

The quasi-Snipers, those in uniform, exploded. A sitting Senator was razzed, caged, gun-lashed. Egalitarian Magnus Abe, a fearless and unrepentant supporter of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Governor, Rivers State, was shot at close range by the snipers in khaki uniform. Abe represents the poverty-ridden and high-caliber people of Rivers East Senatorial District in the National Assembly.

Not surprised by the justice time brings, exactly a month after Obasanjo’s controversial letter became a public discourse, the snipers text-ran their imported instruments and weapons of destruction, oppression, and intimidation. Abe was shot by the trigger-happy men of the Nigerian Police for daring to exercise his rights to association and peaceful assembly. Magnus Abe was shot while making preparations for the mother of all rallies to drum up support for Amaechi and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Apparently jittery about the yet-to-commence rally, the quasi-snipers, under the supervision of the notorious Police Commissioner of Police in Rivers, Joseph Mbu, attacked Abe, Amaechi, and APC supporters. The courageous Abe, not minding the ammunition and weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the snipers in uniform, challenged them as to why his constituents were being harassed. He was shot like a criminal. A distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was ambushed.

In defense of their barbaric, disgraceful, animalistic, idiotic, and irresponsible action, the Joseph Mbu-led snipers in uniform, citing the Public Order Act (Cap 382) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, argued that they acted because Abe and his people did not obtain permission from them before planning to stage a rally.

I cannot believe that Joseph Mbu is still claiming that he refused to give a permit to the Save Rivers Movement, the organizer of the rally that led to the shooting of Magnus Abe. I am surprised that an illiterate who doesn’t know anything in relation to Nigerian law is occupying the office of a state commissioner of Police.

For Mbu’s information, a court of competent jurisdiction has ruled that citizens do not need a permit for public gatherings. Also, Mbu should be told that no part of Nigerian law or constitution banned political activities at any point of the year. INEC is the only body empowered to declare campaigns for political offices open. Political activities go on round the clock in a democratic society.

Mbu, be informed that INEC only has a calendar and time for political campaigns for political offices and not political activities. It saddens my heart that Mbu does not know the difference between political activities and political campaigns. Etymologically, the day Gov Amaechi declared for APC was a political activity and not a political campaign.

Without much ado and in the absence of sentiment and irrational affirmation, I put it to the quasi-snipers that the provisions of the Public Order Act (Cap 382) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, which prohibit the holding of rallies or processions without a police permit, are illegal and unconstitutional; they contravene section 40 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and article 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria is supreme.

Lastly, like it was in the days of Abacha, the snipers are apparently back on the streets of Nigeria. As history and posterity are still cursing and militating against the Abacha’s clan, the incumbent tormentor-in-chief of Nigeria should remember that whatever anyone does today becomes a point of reference tomorrow. History can never be erased from the dictionary of historians.

 

Previously Published By:  Daily Post