Abacha in our memory

IRRESPECTIVE of race or creed, the human memory is 'very short'. There is an inverse correlation between the number of times the pendulum oscillates and the intensity of man's feeling about his predicament, hence the adage 'Time Heals' but there is a caveat that says 'not all wounds'. It is from this perspective that one can appreciate the current clamour, particularly by northern leaders to deify the name of General Sani Abacha, the man whose demise in 1998 sent all Nigerians onto the street, jubilating as if their darling Super Eagles had just lifted the elusive World Cup. The problem is not with the attempt to enshrine a rustic name in gold but doing it at a time when the mess generated by the transgressions and atrocities of those times are still been mopped by a court of law in Lagos.

Sergeant Roger is still very much alive willing to sing like canary about his escapades as the 'agent of death' in that government, with compulsive intention to mention the names of accomplices. There are 'lucky' victims and other living witnesses to the very callous and animalistic activities of those years of 'insanity' called the Abacha years and one is sure that their eyes would be swollen with tears not for their agony in the hands of the predator Abacha and his boys but for the unforgivable massive leakage of the bag in the brain of those Nigerians, who knowing the truth deliberately chose the path of falsehood.

These Nigerians are of two categories; the mischievous former Nigerian leaders, who out of mental idleness decided that 2008 is the year to turn Sani Abacha into a martyr. On the other side of the divide are the outright ignorant public, who are always willing megaphone of political slandering. For the latter, there is forgiveness, because, it is obvious that human wisdom could be limited by lack of intellectualism but for those privileged few who have had the great opportunity to 'tell it as it is' and chose to do otherwise, the heart bleeds for mother Nigeria. One still wonders what the families of Alex Ibru, Abraham Adesanya, Olusegun Osoba, Olu Onagoruwa and their likes or other families like those of Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane, Omatsola and so on would say to the current craze to hang the picture of Abacha in the hall of fame. It is doubtful if the families of the Ogoni nine will forget in a hurry the callous execution of their sons, including Ken Saro Wiwa on November 10, 1995.

Of particular reference is the disgusting public utterances of three former Heads of State, all of Northern stock who tried fruitlessly to convince our nation that Abacha served his fatherland leaving impeachable and flawless legacies, yet according to The Guardian newspaper of July 15, 2002, the Swiss Banks in an out of court settlement offered to return $535 million with the condition that the Federal Government would drop all criminal charges against the former Head of State and members of his family. According to the report, he was accused of stealing about $3 billion prior to his five-year rule in 1995.

A couple of principal actors in that infamous government are currently writing books and memoirs to render account of their roles in the June 12 saga and one expects that more expose of the internal working of that government would be revealed as time goes on. The sacking of the Interim Government of Ernest Shonekan by Abacha and his cronies and the subsequent incarceration of top echelon of his own cabinet, such as General Oladipo Diya, General Abdulkarim Adisa, General Tajudeen Olanrewaju and others outside the government such as Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, Kokori and others are all indications that while it lasted, all was not well with either Abacha or his government.

The alleged use of lethal injection that led to the demise of Shehu Yar'Adua is also part of the 'clean bill of health' that the trio of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari are trying to give to Sani Abacha.

The action of these three elder statesmen is tantamount to covering the eyes of the nation with a yoke with the intent to read history in the reverse. It is nothing but an 'unspeakable act' on the part of men who have had the opportunity of ruling this nation and should therefore relish in the honour of remaining quiet when there is no sensible thing to talk about.

While the Abacha family reserves the inalienable right to remember and celebrate a decade of the demise of their patriarch, it is sheer fraud for anybody to use such solemn occasion to paint Abacha in an undeservedly cleaner colour, thereby deceiving the nation and trying to distort facts and history.