Abacha and the Fourth republic.

Today makes it exactly 14years since the demise of the military ruler Gen. Sani Abacha. I refrain from using the media imposed title of ‘Dictator’ not because the General wasn’t deserving of it but because if that appendage must be applied at all, it should be applied to the entirety of leaders in Nigeria today. Abacha died in the most uncertain of circumstances, from tales of Indian call girls, to poisoned apples and international clandestine operations as stated by his C.S.O, Maj. Al-Mustapha. What was certain however was the relief and elation Nigerians felt at his demise. 

       I was a skinny little lad then, not yet a teenager, my younger brother and I were in the local neighborhood market trying to obtain school sandals when the news filtered through over the radio- what happened next was an experience that was clearly unprecedented in my mind. The market place erupted into a scene of wild jubilation and euphoria and even then it occurred to me the oddity of celebrating over the death of a fellow human being. Suddenly, there was alcohol everywhere, wild joyful screams, laughter, people locking up shops to get lost in the moment. “ Abacha ti kuu ooo.”!!! “O ti kuu da nu”!!! Rent the air, the local women turned to dancing, the burdens and the business of the day forgotten. That scene made an impression and I have never forgotten it nor do I doubt that I ever will. Sometimes I even wonder why I just happened to be listening to the radio at that stall. “…..the death of the commander in chief of…” every moment seemingly etched.

   With the passage of time my view of that scene has changed, the still clear voice over the radio, the woman whose scream after the announcement seemingly starts the pandemonium, the coloured plastic buckets behind her, the dancing characters….., all remain the same except the reason for the jubilations. While I cannot speak for them I can however deduce that the euphoria wasn’t about the demise of a fellow human being but the realization of their freedom from a reign of tyranny and the hopes for a far better future.

    Fast forward almost a decade and half later and one wonders if the celebrations had not been ill advised, a little immature perhaps. The transitional government of Gen. AbdulSalam Abubakar handed over to another General-as a sign that our democracy was just another scam-Olusegun Obasanjo to begin a chapter that holds the record for being the most putrid in our nation’s history. The Fourth-Republic for all the aspirations behind it could rightly be argued as having a greater symbolism in the life of this country than the fight for independence itself. Permit me, the fight for independence holds great value and I by no means demean the struggle of those who fought for a ‘sovereign Nigeria’ but if we hadn’t fought for it back then the British would have gotten bored eventually and handed over. It may seem a difficult argument to observe given that some say the colonialists would never have left this shores if oil had been discovered earlier but the answer simply is the current presence of Shell, BP and the others.  Colonialism as a system of government practiced as it were pre-1960 was definitely not sustainable it has simply just morphed into other forms-media, resource, technology-colonialism but, I digress.

     1960, our fight was against colonization, now our fight is against corruption. The control of our means, welfare and resources by a few, using this said resources to further pauperize the masses they govern over. It is a newer, more brutal form of colonialism and just so because it is done by us to us.

        The fourth republic shares a lot of similarities with any military government. And since we  are discussing Abacha and his place on the scale of villainy allow me to rephrase the above. This fourth republic shares a lot of similarities with Abacha’s military government. The website www.assetrecovery.org/  places the amount looted in five years to 3-5 billion USD. Estimated amount recovered is given at 2.6 Billion USD. compare with the amount misappropriated by the successive PDP led governments of the Fourth republic. Do we have an estimate of the said sums? Need we? The undeniable fact remains that corruption is corruption and the difference in scale is irrelevant as long as the people remain impoverished and uncared for. If in a single year allocation for subsidy increases from 280 billion Naira to some shady 2.6 estimate in trillions without an equivalent increase in fuel consumption, and or production cost of crude then should we not begin to honestly see the similarity between Abacha’s resource grabbing and that of misappropriations of this fourth republic….?    

Let us take this particular instance; After the fuel subsidy reduction, we find that in the first quarter of 2012 financial year, the increase in the price of PMS to 97 naira only gave the government 60b naira. At 50 %, deregulation calculations will prove that the government will be saving a mere 240 billion. Now I don’t need no calculator nor mathematician to tell me 240bn is far cry from 2.6 trillion spent in 2011, so where is the subsidy?  what really is going on? And we aren’t even quoting facts from the Farouk Lawan report they are trying so hard to discredit.

Abacha wore a uniform, and couldn’t really figure what diplomacy meant hence anyone who held a dissenting opinion got shot, imprisoned or exiled. The lucky ones quickly buckled up and adapted until his demise in 1998. Similarly, the rulers of our fourth republic don the uniform of respectability, honesty and accountability. They haven’t exactly been shy to shoot people down either: the nation watched as President Olusegun directed the flattening of Odi, Zaki...Aljazeera exposed the death squads that we call the police over the Boko Haram insurgency. (Some have argued that this is what has spawned the current spate of national terrorism.) But while Abacha’s  has been the only face we spit at for massive corruption and misappropriation, this republic has given us variety. The small names: Ibori, Alameyesigha, Bode George, Tafa Balogun, why not the EFCC corruption list of 2006/2007 ET-al.? And to the big name: Lord Obasanjo.  While the opposition has not been exiled in this fourth republic, they have suffered worse: they have been grossly ignored. Ask anyone shouting at the top of his voice what is worse than being ignored? you might as well be voiceless. It is a strategy that has been perfected in this current dispensation, one which the opposition is discredited so it's message whether right or wrong is rendered....silent.

We could list instances but that entirely goes against what this article is meant to do. Am not trying to tabulate differences here, anyone can see that CORRUPTION as personified by Abacha, is the same CORRUPTION today in the fourth republic. While the patients have simply been rotated, the disease remains the same, nay! We may add that the disease has become more resilient, deadlier.

So what exactly is this article about? Is it to absolve the long dead General his wrong doings by equating his crimes to that of our democracy? I simply try to put in perspective the Crime with which we have judged Abacha and the Crime we are letting this republic’s leaders get away with. They are both one and the same. Like the proverbial two sides of a coin, heads or tail- both meaningless to the coppery nature of the coin.

 And in assessing ourselves, we of the dancing market women, former exiles and righteously indignant media, do we not profess to a certain double standard? And by this standard are we justifiably recompensed by the strengthening of corruption in our lands? Why are we not preparing another bizarre market dance? That good feeling as we returned from exile, free from the strongman’s whims did not burn strong enough? The dizzy dance and feelings of freedom surely must have been incentive enough for us to have prepared some sort of vaccine against corruption?? It wasn’t, we didn’t.  Look where we are.  

But if we must compare for the sake of this piece we are subtly tempted to romanticize that bespectacled General, we begin to see that it was his ground work that gave birth to 13% derivation (although true credence should be given to the Martyrs of that region), who implemented policy for the mobile telephony that we currently enjoy today. A foundation that the Obasanjo’s administration hijacked and termed: “dividend of democracy”.….This same Abacha had a better idea of what foreign policy for a country such as ours should be. Alas! Do we forget just how well he chided South Africans who are too willing to forget the role Nigeria has played in her History? Few leaders since then have defended the sovereignty-whether rightly or wrongly- of Nigeria with such resolute fierceness. (Even though he was pariah of sorts to the rest of the western world. )  But the temptation to romantics we must severely resist, just as the restraint-which we currently feel in appropriately labeling this dispensation as due-we must subdue. We must all not forget that they of the fourth republic and he of the spectacles and all that they stand for are one and same. The abuse of power for personal enrichment at the detriment of those whose interests they claim to protect.

We must dance in the markets again, and to do this we need to first tell this present crop of looters that they are no different from that General, that they should derive no sense of sanctimony over him. We must tell them that they are but changing faces of the same evil, that they are one and the same, nay!! Worse than Abacha himself! For they had the example of his years of terror to educate themselves from yet, they learned only of his greed.