President Muhammadu Buhari might have meant well but, whatever was his intention, he could not have bargained for the inevitable reverberations against which he should have been warned. For some unknown reasons, the man (Buhari) reportedly planned some kind of pardon for the late Ken Saro Wiwa. For a start, what purpose was the gesture supposed to serve? The pardon requested and granted could never have brought the man back from the dead.
Could the pardon have won votes for Buhari’s party, the APC? Certainly not. Nigerians have experienced the performance or non-performance of both the APC and PDP and are now in no mood to stick to any preference for either side. At least, not so enthusiastically. Worse still, it seems certain, it seems certain that not much thought was given to whatever implications of the pardon, the first of which was that it totally discredited the late General Sani Abacha, who, admittedly, surprised observers. Even then, that would not justify Buhari’s grant of pardon to Ken Saro-Wiwa and co-convicts. Gen. Abacha did not concoct the murder trial. As Head of State, the man had a duty to guarantee the security of all Nigerians, the bounden duty, which President Buhari is also currently performing.
During Gen. Abacha’s tenure, there were riots in Ogoniland. The riots were preceded by reckless outbursts to potential rioters to kill the “vultures.” By the way, the riots were caused over disagreement on what method the Ogoni community should or could adopt in their political demands from the Federal Government. Some opted for peaceful negotiations while others believed in force. There was no doubt that the peaceful elements were on the defensive most of the time. In the process, four of their leaders were murdered. Most notable among them was Edward Kobani, along with three others, namely, Albert Badey, Theophilus Orage and Sam Orage. They all disappeared, till today, without trace
What was the government, specifically, Gen. Abacha, expected to do? To remain unaccountable for the whereabouts of the fatal victims of the riots? If government did not take firm action, there was no doubt anarchy would creep in at Ogoniland and more alleged “vultures” would have been killed in large numbers. Is Buhari not being blamed for the large-scale insecurity in Nigeria today? Accordingly, Abacha’s government had to put suspects on trial. Neither would that be the first time government would prosecute suspects for murder whose victim’s corpse was never found.
In 1953, a Muslim teacher was killed in Lagos. Alhaji Bisiriyu Apalara was murdered by Oro cultists and despite the fact that the corpse disappeared till today, 11, repeat, 11 accused were convicted and hanged for the murder of one preacher. In the case of Ogoni, eight men were hanged for the murder of four victims. Execution of the eight men went some way to re-assure fellow citizens resident in Ogoniland of their safety. As the suspects were on trial, they had a duty to prove themselves innocent with credible alibi. What happened? The accused never took the trial seriously. Indeed, key characters among them were giggling throughout.
As if that was not self-implicating enough, their defence team completely unilaterally withdrew from the trial, allegedly in protest against the proceedings. A murder trial? The accused and defence team should both take responsibility for their eventual fate. To cap it all, as if reading from the script of former Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who, after his conviction for alleged murder while in office, contemptuously refused to appeal for clemency after a death sentence and was hanged, Ken Saro-Wiwa and co-convicts refused to appeal for mercy. The only option for Gen. Abacha was to carry out the death sentence. If the men executed were the wrong persons, that fact should have been established at the trial.
Gen. Abacha, as a human being, might not have been perfect, but he had a duty to ensure the safety of life and property of every Nigerian citizen, not the least the feuding Ogoni clan. Abacha was not a mad man or he would not follow legal procedure for the trials conducted under him. After all, he could have executed both Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and Gen. Oladipo Diya. But the two men faced reality and never defied prospects of death penalty. Why did the Ogoni men not follow suit?
The purported pardon given to or even being considered by President Buhari for Saro-Wiwa was wrong in many aspects. The decision was not thoroughly considered, since it was most unfair to Gen. Abacha, who is no longer alive to explain himself or justify his action in executing the condemned men. In a way, the pardon exercise unjustifiably discredited the deceased Nigerian Head of State. Such a pardon is capable of triggering violence in other hotspots in the country in the belief that pardon would follow whatever bloodshed. That would be in contrast with Ogoni, which, since 1995, following the execution of the condemned men, has been enjoying relative peace.
There is a limit to cheap popularity. Or better put, repercussion of cheap popularity is inevitable. Hence, picking on the pardon looming for Ken Saro-Wiwa, relatives/sympathisers of late General Mamman Vatsa (have) also commenced agitation for an identical pardon for their man. Why is the government keeping quiet on the hope of sympathisers of Gen. Vatsa for the deceased to be pardoned? That was a compelling question, which those who interviewed President Buhari should have asked and Nigerians are (still) waiting for an answer. Gen. Vatsa was executed for alleged treason in 1986 and his trial was observed throughout by Nigerian Bar Association to ensure strict compliance with the law.
Also waiting for their turn to seek pardon would be sympathisers of the late Defence Minister, General Ilya Bissala, who was similarly executed for alleged treason in 1976. The controversy over all these executions will surely reveal that one pardon could not be granted without extending the same sympathy to other cases. Pardons for major crimes are either unwarranted or, if considered in one, must also apply to all such crimes. How then would President Buhari handle a particular case without being embarrassed?
In 1984, during his short tenure as a military ruler, General Buhari’s military regime signed the death warrant of some Nigerians for drug peddling. Among those shot were Bartholomew Azubike Owoh, Lawal Akanni Ojuolape and Bernard Ogedengbe. Even today, death penalty is still justified for drug-peddling. The executions for drugs in 1984 sent the peddlers into hiding just as the execution of Saro-Wiwa in 1995, henceforth, sustained peace in Ogoniland. All the same, the 1984 public executions in Lagos by the Buhari regime still raised eyebrows, not necessarily because of opposition to death penalty. Instead, the criticism and concern were against backdating of the anti-drugs decree, in the case of two of the deceased. Public criticism was in defence of two of the convicts who committed the drug offence before the anti-drug decree was promulgated.
We (at least, I, in this column then on the defunct National Concord) unsuccessfully pleaded that, much as the death penalty should be retained and the execution carried out for the rest, the two convicts who committed the drug offence before the anti-drug decree came into force should be exempt from the imminent death. The pleas were ignored as the Buhari regime proceeded to execute the two men. If pardon should, therefore, be granted at all by President Buhari, the first set of beneficiaries should be the two executed drug peddlers who committed the offence before the decree was promulgated in 1984.
Otherwise, it remains intriguing why any pardon was granted at all.