beyondfacts

THE CRIMES OF BUHARI BY WOLE SOYINKA

2015-01-12T07:42:00.000-08:00

This intervention has been provoked, not so much by the ambitions of General Buhari to return to power at the head of a democratic Nigeria, as by declarations of support from directions that leave one totally dumbfounded. It would appear that some, myself among them, had been overcomplacent about the magnitude of an ambition that seemed as preposterous as the late effort of General Ibrahim Babangida to aspire yet again to the honour of presiding over a society that truly seeks a democratic future. What one had dismissed was a rash of illusions, brought about by other political improbabilities that surround us, however, is being given an air of plausibility by individuals and groupings to which one had earlier attributed a sense of relevance of historic actualities. Recently, I published an article in the media, invoking the possible recourse to psychiatric explanation for some of the incongruities in conduct within national leadership. Now, to tell the truth, I have begun to seriously address the issue of which section of society requires the services of a psychiatrist. The contest for a seizure of rationality is now so polarized that I am quite reconciled to the fact it could be those of us on this side, not the opposing school of thought that ought to declare ourselves candidates for a lunatic asylum. So be it. While that decision hangs in the balance however, the forum is open. Let both sides continue to address our cases to the electorate, but also prepare to submit ourselves for psychiatric examination.

The time being so close to electoral decision, we can understand the haste of some to resort to shortcuts. In the process however, we should not commit the error of opening the political space to any alternative whose curative touch to national afflictions have proven more deadly than the disease. In order to reduce the clutter in our options towards the forthcoming elections, we urge a beginning from what we do know, what we have undergone, what millions can verify, what can be sustained by evidence accessible even to the school pupil, the street hawker or a just-come visitor from outer space. Leaving Buhari aside for now, I propose a commencing exercise that should guide us along the path of elimination as we examine the existing register of would-bepresident. That initial exercise can be summed up in the following speculation: “If it were possible for Olusegun Obasanjo, the actual incumbent, to stand again for election, would you vote for him?”

If the answer is “yes”, then of course all discussion is at an end. If the answer is ‘No’ however, then it follows that a choice of a successor made by Obasanjo should be assessed as hovering between extremely dangerous and an outright kiss of death. The degree of acceptability of such a candidate should also be inversely proportionate to the passion with which he or she is promoted by the would-be ‘godfather’. We do not lack for open evidence about Obasanjo’s passion in this respect. From Lagos to the USA, he has taken great pains to assure the nation and the world that the anointed NPN presidential flag bearer is guaranteed, in his judgment, to carry out his policies. Such an endorsement/anointment is more than sufficient, in my view, for public acceptance or rejection. Yar’Adua’s candidature amounts to a terminal kiss from a moribund regime. Nothing against the person of this – I am informed - personable governor, but let him understand that in addition to the direct source of his emergence, the PDP, on whose platform he stands, represents the most harrowing of this nation’s nightmares over and beyond even the horrors of the Abacha regime. If he wishes to be considered on his own merit, now is time for him, as well as others similarly enmeshed, to exercise the moral courage that goes with his repudiation of that party, a dissociation from its past, and a pledge to reverse its menacing future. We shall find him an alternative platform on which to stand, and then have him present his credentials along those of other candidates engaged in forging a credible opposition alliance. Until then, let us bury this particular proposition and move on to a far graver, looming danger, personified in the history of General Buhari.

The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naive. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order.

Buhari – need one remind anyone - was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry.

Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths - Lawal Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three – Ogedengbe - was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community – religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear.

The execution of that youthful innocent – for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission - was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws? And even if our sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so coarsened the sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what should one rightly expect after they have been rescued from the snare of power” At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully to remorse, and its expression to a wronged society. At the very least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence. In the case of Buhari, it was the opposite. Since leaving office he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this murder and would do so again.

Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely fundamental right on which all other rights are based. The crime that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went further however, inconceivable as it might first appear. That crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being. Not content with hammering down the freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian, democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud our media – those battle scarred professionals did not completely knuckle down. They resorted to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign for a time-table to democratic rule. Overt agitation for a democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed – military dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari and Idiagbon was here to stay. To deprive a people of volition in their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and gloried in a master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition.

So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets that took up the gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all he asked was his traditional medicine that had proved so effective after years of struggle with asthma!

Nor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the pattern of his ‘corrective’ rule. Shagari’s NPN had already run out of steam and was near universally detested – except of course by the handful that still benefited from that regime of profligacy and rabid fascism. Responsibility for the national condition lay squarely at the door of the ruling party, obviously, but against whom was Buhari’s coup staged? Judging by the conduct of that regime, it was not against Shagari’s government but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom primary responsibility lay, was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cozy house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri prisons. Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or responsibility.

And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks. Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief Akinloye, strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinjide, Legal Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with equal ease. The Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were yet to eat from dustbins - escaped through the same airtight dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment for his ingratitude, since he went berserk when, after waiting in vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all, for the immediate consolidation of the party of extreme right-wing vultures, but for the military hyenas.

The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of the country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace, he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand special landing permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of the change in his status since he was airborne. The delighted airport commandant, realizing that he had a much valued fish swimming willingly into a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked into the arms of a military guard and was promptly clamped in detention. Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and reappeared in safety overseas. Those whose memories have become calcified should explore the media coverage of that saga. Buhari was asked to explain the vanished act of this much prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant levity. Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the slogan of ‘dis’pline’, it was nothing short of impudent.

Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several politicians several lifetimes in prison? Recall, if you please, the ‘judicial’ processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin. He was arraigned and tried before Buhari’s punitive tribunal but acquitted.Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not find this man guilty of a single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be acquitted of all charges of corruption or abuse of office. Was Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained indefinitely, simply for the crime of winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror.

The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical travesty of justice. Audu Ogbeh, currently chairman of the Action Congress was one of the few figures of rectitude within the NPN. Just as he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of an internal critic and reformer, warning, dissenting, and setting an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he spent months in unjust incarceration. Guilty by association? Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of the Buhari justice, then it was most selectively applied. The utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially reserved either for the opposition in general, or for those within the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of responsibility and patriotism.

Shall I remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of Ife over their visit to the state of Israel? I hold no brief for traditional rulers and their relationship with governments, but insist on regarding them as entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of any Nigerian citizen. This royal duo went to Israel on their private steam and private business. Simply because the Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic foreign policy towards Israel, a policy of which these traditional rulers were not a part, they were subjected on their return to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly chastisement of errant pupils. Since when, may one ask, did a free citizen of the Nigerian nation require the permission of a head of state to visit a foreign nation that was willing to offer that tourist a visa.?

One is only too aware that some Nigerians love to point to Buhari’s agenda of discipline as the shining jewel in his scrap-iron crown. To inculcate discipline however, one must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public probity. Example speaks louder than declarations, and rulers cannot exempt themselves from the disciplinary strictures imposed on the overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well-being. The story of the thirty something suitcases – it would appear that they were even closer to fifty - found unavoidable mention in my recent memoirs, YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DOWN, written long before Buhari became spoken of as a credible candidate. For the exercise of a changeover of the national currency, the Nigerian borders – air, sea and land – had been shut tight. Nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets.

Yet a prominent camel was allowed through that needle’s eye. Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide-de-camp, Jokolo – later to become an emir - to facilitate the entry of those cases, he ordered the redeployment – as I later discovered - of the Customs Officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. That officer, the incumbent Vice-president is now a rival candidate to Buhari, but has somehow, in the meantime, earned a reputation that totally contradicts his conduct at the time. Wherever the truth lies, it does not redound to the credibility of the dictator of that time, General Buhari whose word was law, but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable.

Written By Wole SOYINKA

January 2007.

Buhari, Politicians And History

2015-01-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

I was a Buhari detainee. For nearly 20 months, the General Muhammadu Buhari military regime kept me inside three of Nigeria's prison centres, from 1984 to 1985. There were many of us (politicians) who were caught in the Buhari military web after the New Year eve's coup of December 31, 1983. Some of my colleagues unfortunately were not lucky to survive the ordeal. I am not in anyway writing this piece as a result of bitterness against what General Buhari and his colleagues of the military did to me and other politicians. Ours was a price that had to be paid in the struggle to create a lasting democracy in our dear country.

I write to produce answers to certain verdicts delivered by the former Head of State on men, matters and events in our country since January 15, 1966 when the Khaki boys rolled out the tanks to dismiss the Shagari administration. In a lecture, General Buhari delivered under the auspices of Bayero University Kano Centre For Democracy, he came very hard on politicians describing them as their own worst enemies.

While not dismissing the entire paper as conveying nothing, it is however pertinent to point out to Buhari certain areas where his submissions amount to mere window dressing and a total distortion of the facts of history.

The most contentious areas of General Buhari's lecture are where he said the following on politicians and soldiers in Nigeria: "In 37 years of independence, Nigeria has had four separate successful coups and several other unsuccessful attempts with ten different programmes. While these frequent changes have no doubt been quite disruptive, the political class has no moral right to present this fact as its excuse for failing to learn the ropes. And like all other patriotic Nigerians, members of the Armed Forces have every right to resent the mismanagement of affairs by the politicians, "Nigerian politicians have no one to blame but themselves when they find themselves out in the cold. They are their own worst enemies. They have very little commitment to democracy beyond election day. And as I said elsewhere, many Nigerian politicians are not true democrats; they are democrats of convenience - extolling the virtues of democracy when they campaign, that's the rule of the jungle with the added burden of having to vote for it. Conversely when they lose, politicians refuse to accept the verdicts and invite the military to return."

The above represents the thoughts and ideas of Buhari on politicians. While he clearly sent the politicians to the junkyard of history, he cleverly justified the incursion of the military into politics. One wonders why General Buhari did not discuss the inordinate ambition of some soldiers in seizing power. Neither did the General talk about some soldiers coming into power via military coup as a result of bitterness over some state matters in which they have been active participants and collaborators. We ask General Buhari in all humility whether any politician did invite him and his military colleagues to stage the coup of December 31, 1983. We submit that long before that coup, Buhari and some of his colleagues in the Army had made up their minds to terminate the life of the Second Republic.

General Muhammadu Buhari is fully aware of the speech he made sometime in 1982 calling on Nigerian soldiers to start reading the Nigerian constitution for a future role they (the soldiers) might be called upon to perform. On September 19, 1982, I took him (Buhari) on in my column POLITICAL PANORAMA in the Sunday Tribune for making this statement which was a clear signal for a coup detat against the democratic government.

I concluded my column by stating inter alia:- "If tomorrow Nigerians are woken up once again by the familiar slogan of "GOOD MORNING Fellow Nigerians we would have known that the signal for such had long been given". That column (which Nigerian Tribune republished on January 16, 1984 after the Buhari coup) was to send me to a near twenty month detention by the Buhari regime. Dr. Ibrahim Tahir told me in March 1984 at the Kirikiri prison, Lagos that a young Major who had visited his house after the Buhari coup had inquired about my residence in Lagos.

If General Muhammadu Buhari may want to debunk the idea that his call on soldiers to start reading the Nigerian Constitution represented a call to overthrow the democratic government, I will further wish to humbly submit that moves made by General Buhari within the military between 1982 and 1983 clearly confirmed this interpretation. The story I am about to narrate has been fully told in my book THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA (1960-1983).

There is the need to retell the story here: " A soldier in the 3rd division of the Nigerian Army based in Jos had gone to the office of the then civilian Governor of Plateau State, the colourful Chief Solomon Dashep Lar, to report on some strange operations in the barracks. The soldier gave vital information to Solomon Lar that soldiers were being taken for an early morning exercise in the military training grounds in Jos for what the soldier suspected was aimed at overthrowing the civilian regime. The soldier named General Muhammadu Buhari as having participated in the military exercise as the Divisional Commander. This information was given to Chief Solomon Lar about the time that President Shehu Shagari was paying an official visit to Plateau State. Chief Solomon Lar took the opportunity of the President's visit to intimate him of the information he had received about preparations of the military for a possible coup d'etat. "Alhaji Shehu Shagari, instead of passing this crucial information to the security agencies for their investigation, decided on inviting Major-General Muhammadu Buhari to Lagos.

Alhaji Shehu Shagari was said to have told the General what Chief Solomon Lar had told him of preparations by soldiers under the Command of Buhari in Jos for a coup. President Shehu Shagari when pressed by General Buhari to disclose the source of his information, was said to have named Chief Solomon Lar as the main source. "Major General Muhammadu Buhari on reaching Jos went straight to the office of the Governor (Chief Lar) where he was said to have told the Governor (whom he was fond of calling uncle) in no unmistakable terms his displeasure at the information passed to President Shehu Shagari instead of Chief Lar calling him for clarifications on the military exercise programme of his division. "Chief Solomon Lar was rather surprised that such crucial information could have been so lackadaisically treated by Alhaji Shehu Shagari instead of being very discreet in inquiring into it.

Chief Solomon Lar was said to have handled the situation maturely and both parties parted company on friendly terms. Buhari certainly did not forget the incident. "Interesting too was the fact that General Muhammadu Buhari as G.O.C 3rd division of the Nigerian Army was a member of the Plateau State security council presided over by Chief Solomon Lar as Governor of the State at the time of this incident. "The Attorney-General of Plateau State during the second republic, Mr. Gregory Goltona Golu, who was also a member of the state's security council told me in Jos Prison (where we were both detained after the coup) that Major-General Muhammadu Buhari had attended the Plateau Security Council meeting held on 24 December 1983. Golu said General Buhari participated very actively in the deliberations of the meeting. He (Buhari) was however conspicuously absent at the annual Christmas Party of the Governor, Chief Solomon Lar, held in his home town Langtang on 26 December 1983. General Muhammadu Buhari was said to have sent an officer to represent him at the party.

Little did all the participants at Chief Lar's Christmas party know that the country was only a few days away from martial music which a soldier had warned Chief Lar about a couple of weeks before. On the day of the coup, a Nigeria Airways Boeing 737 plane piloted by Captain Gowon flew out of Lagos at about 4 p.m. to Jos. When the plane returned to Lagos that evening, it had on board the army officer that was to be announced by Sani Abacha at midnight of 31 December 1983 as the country's new military head of state. The important passenger was Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, the General Officer commanding the 3rd infantry Division of the Nigerian Army, Jos. "A few days after December 31, 1983, Chief Solomon Lar who had been privileged to be told of the military preparations of the Jos centre of the coup was to later join his other civilian politicians as inmates of Kirikiri Prison. Chief Solomon Lar was subsequently jailed by the Buhari regime for 25 years sometime in 1984".

The imprisonment of Solomon Lar was to let him know that he had opened his teeth too wide by leaking Buhari's preparation for a coup to President Shehu Shagari long before it took place. I will never forget that twenty four hours before the Special Military Tribunal in Jos pronounced a jail term on Solomon Lar, General Hananiya the then Nigeria's high Commissioner to Great Britain had been reported by the BBC to have told the British press of the conviction of Lar by the Tribunal.

Chief Lar and all of us inside the Jos prison were quite peeved by the Hananiya announcement in London. Of course, Lar went to the Tribunal the next day to collect the sentence which had alrady been released in far away London. Though Shagari's NPN regime had prepared the grounds well for its collapse, no politician invited General Buhari and his soldier-politicians to come and take over power. They invited themselves and later turned their guns on themselves. General Buhari cannot dispute the fact that he did a bitterness coup to avenge what he considered wrongs that had been done to him by certain people.

In one of his early press conferences after he had come to power, General Buhari did tell the gentlemen of the press that he would tamper with the freedom of the press. He was particularly bitter with the way the Nigerian press had reported the Justice Irikefe Oil probe of 1980. He (Buhari) felt the press was not fair to him as a former Minister for Petroleum resources of the period the Justice Irikefe panel was to inquire about. Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor of The Guardian newspapers later went to prison as ransom for the rascality of the Nigerian press. Haroun Adamu was incarcerated for once writing a critical essay on the General inside the Kano based Triumph newspaper. Mr. Rafindadi was appointed as the head of the N.S.O and all the Intelligence officers who favoured a fair treatment for detained politicians were weeded out of the organisation. Mr. Ndukwe then the Deputy Director of NSO now (SSS) and Mr. Oshodi, two fine officers, were all retired at the instruction of Mr. Rafindadi.

The last point, I will like to comment on relates to what General Buhari said of his political programme. While talking about the military class, General Buhari had said the following on his regime's political programme: "The regime that took over on 31 December 1983 decided that in the then corrupt atmosphere of 1983 Nigeria, it was virtually impractical to attempt any meaningful political reorganisation without tackling the issues of corruption and indiscipline.

Perhaps, it was a mistake to have put our political transition programme on the back burner since it probably tended to portray us as a sit-tight group. We were nothing of the sort". General Muhammadu Buhari ruled Nigeria for one year and eight months without giving Nigerians an inkling of what would be his political programme. In an interview with the FINANCIAL TIMES of London, General Buhari had said that his (military) regime would hold a referendum before handing over power to politicians.

He never gave the paper what were to be the issue to be decided upon in the referendum by the Nigerian people. The only hint of the possible Buhari political programme was given by respected Dr. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari the then External Affairs Minister while delieving a lecture in America very early in the life of the Buhari administration in 1984. Agboola was quoted too have said that Nigeria might experiment with an indigenous system of government for the next period of civilian rule.

The rest is for Nigerians to decide. General Buhari's observations about politicians in Nigeria by and large are correct. We politicians have allowed selfishness, petty jealousies and unguarded lust for power to becloud our sense of judgement. We are equally too narrow minded to be objective in our stand on various national issues.

Despite all these however, it is my humble opinion that politicians inside military barracks are not the ones to condemn civilian politicians and teach our country men and women about democracy - Certainly not General Buhari. Teacher don't teach us nonsense (apologies to the late Pan Africanist musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti). General Buhari still needs to tell Nigerians more stories about his difficult and tough regime. Like Muffet said, "we must all let the truth be told". God bless Nigeria.

Written by Chief Ebenezer Babatope
December 2001

YOU ARE A WIDOW GO AND DIE - SAYS OSHIOMOLE

2013-11-28T14:59:00.002-08:00

I heard it, never believed it until I saw the clip. I never imagined, a one time labour leader, a well respected politician and even a governor of his calibre could alter such a derogatory statement.

I guess this widow might have voted for him and the best wishes she had from Mr Governor is death. I wish this widow long life and prosperity, the God who is the husband of the widows will surely provide for all her needs.