One must not keep mute and pretend it did not happen. It is quite understandable that one’s reaction is predictable. This is because I was and still am deeply involved.
The very reason President Muhammadu Buhari must not be allowed the luxury of running away with that weighty statement. Thankfully, people of like minds have squarely taken him up. That utterance was uncalled for and out of context.
I am a living testament of the late General Sani Abacha’s brutal years. For Abacha’s sake, I lost my freedom for 32 odd days. And it was for offence(s) I never committed and knew nothing about. Strange?
I was not alone in this predicament. We were 40 in that league. We were castigated as “Prisoners of War” (POWs). Some of the members are late now. They include but not limited to Chief Bola Ige. He was governor of old Oyo State, Minister of Mines and Power, and Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation in that order. He was the undisputed leader of the POWs.
Alhaji Lam Adesina, former governor of Oyo State, was also there with us. Equally involved was the fiery critic and rights activist, Comrade Ola Oni. Another prominent POW was Alhaji Lateef Akinsola, aka Tokyo. He once led the National Union of Road Transport Worker (NURTW), Oyo State.
The 1998 May Day riot in Ibadan, Oyo State, was our undoing. We were picked up in batches and in different locations. Some in their shops, some in their homes, while others in their offices. I was about the last to be arrested. I was alone.
We were all ridiculously accused of being the masterminds of the riots that shook Ibadan to its foundation. It was a Friday like never before. The masses literally took up arms against Abacha.
The rioters “invaded” the city from three locations. The fiercest group came from Lagos using the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway tollgate as its entry point. The student protesters used the University of Ibadan as their take-off point. The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife students wing entered through the Ibadan-Ife Expressway.
It was very strategic. From those points, they hit hard at their targets: Abacha’s cronies and anything associated with them. Expectedly, it turned out to be a bloody Friday. It was a bloodbath of sorts.
I had the singular “misfortune” of being the Editor, Sunday Tribune, then. And my offence was that the paper carried the details of the riots three days after. The banner headline was: Genesis of Ibadan bloodbath; The untold story.
I was accused of being the mastermind and “instigating the riots” that took place three days earlier. Stranger than fiction! So, I was additionally charged with “attempted treason.” Whatever that meant. I had the highest count of charges out of the whole lot.
My period of incarceration was between May 6 and June 7, 1998. The confinement was in three stages. I was held by the then dreaded State Security Service (SSS) for 11 days. That was at its Alalubosa, Ibadan, office.
After series of rigorous interrogations day and night, I was moved to the equally notorious Iyaganku Police Station. I spent four days in that most inhuman condition. The remaining days were in Agodi Prisons to make up for the balance of 32 days, after we were brazenly refused bail.
Throughout the captivity, Abacha never pretended about his intentions. He showcased his wickedness, and we felt it down to our marrows. He told us in plain language that we would remain his captives until October 1998. He was optimistic and confident that, by then, he would have transmuted and become Nigeria’s first life president.
We dared not doubt him. Inside Agodi, we watched on television how his military cap was transmuting into Igbo cap, Yoruba cap and Hausa cap rapidly. We were frightened even in the gulag. That sent a strong message that our freedom was not anywhere feasible.
Abacha planned to reign and ruin forever. But God is always with the best plan for the rest of us. We were all set free the second day after he lost his breath. Isn’t God great? The bail we were refused three times was placed on our laps on a platter of gold. And I remain on bail till today. Amazing!
Now, just imagine. To celebrate 20 years of that detention, Buhari irritatingly and carelessly poured out:
“No matter what opinion you have about Abacha, I agreed to work with him and the PTF (Petroleum Trust Fund). We constructed road (sic) from here (Abuja) to Port Harcourt, to Onitsha, to Benin and so on. This was in addition to other things in education, medical care an so on.”
Buhari was clearly dancing to the ridiculous tunes of his sycophants labelled Buhari Support Organisation (BSO). They were led to the Villa by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (retd).
Instantly, the fearless Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, launched back:
“President Buhari has always insisted that Abacha did not steal. He said these things repeated during his campaigns, but his government has been recovering money looted by Abacha. Here is a president who has lost his credibility and some Nigerians are still taking him seriously.”
The elder statesman was not alone. Chairperson, Transition Monitoring Group, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, is in the same mode and mood: “How can anyone laud Abacha for anything; a looter, a dictator, a killer? The President missed it. Whatever the context, the statement is unwarranted. Mr. President should respect Nigerians. Buhari cannot rewrite history.”
Then former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, tweeted, courtesy The Punch, May 24, 2018: “The greatest mistake OBJ made was not to prosecute … for (the alleged) looting of the PTF funds. I saw the report and it was shocking. Billions of dollars had vanished. OBJ summoned him and showed him the damning report. He (allegedly) begged like a baby. Sadly, OBJ let him off the hook.”
Buhari is striving hard to paint Abacha white, 20 years after. That cannot be politically correct. If you keep on saying the same thing that is glaringly odd and wrong; it is possible you are ignorant of or arrogant about it. He voluntarily made a “honest” personal confession.
That it is extremely difficult to manage him, albeit his government. His exact words: “It is not easy to defend this administration and more in particular to defend me.” He told his Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), formerly Buhari Media Support Organisation (BMSO).
However, if Buhari pretended not to know, we knew what Abacha did. Some of us experienced his brutality. Ask Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Abacha ran him and some other National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) leaders out of town. That was the extent of his criminality and corruption. They are legendary.
Certainly, that cannot be the man Buhari strenuously aspires to be. Abacha is still positively on your mind, 20 years after! Let there be a break, take him off you.