 Published
August 8th, 2011
The pro-longed and tortuous trial of the
former Chief Security Officer, Al Mustapha, has reached a
crescendo. His disclosures are at once chilly and explosive.
They could be true, half true or untrue. The court will have
to rely on the evidence available to it as presented by the
defence and as countered by the prosecution. What will be
established will touch upon the lives of a majority of
Nigerians. Our race seems to have been inoculated by the
spirit of Mormonism, ritualism, kidnapping for financial
gains and blatant pursuit of money.
The Cynics will not believe Al Mustafa. In a swift reaction,
Chief Ayo Opadokun, the son of Bola Ige and other interested
persons denied Al Mustapha’s allegations. The too sure will
do.
The latter will rely on the indomitable belief in the
Masonic grund norm of the race that OLOWO OKERE, FOLOWOSHELE
and OWO LAGBA. This has manifested in the behaviour of some
indicted men and women of our country.
The pursuit of money with reckless abandon is
artificial as it only helps in the enjoyment of material
life, but leads inexorably to spiritual death. The Bible
says, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole
world but suffers the loss of his own soul?”
MKO Abiola’s life and times portray the futility of pursuit
of money, fame and cosmopolitanism. He was a good man, of
that I am sure, having related to him, before he was nudged
on by favour-seekers, fortune-seekers and ambitious cretins,
who wanted to benefit from his money and position.
Some determined women with Ogbanje and mammy-water spirits,
infused him with the spirit of the he-goat. This drove him
into epicurean life, which was insatiable and ill-defined,
unlike Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who had a distinguished
history in Stoicism.
The man of virtue said Confucius, thinks of virtue, the
small man thinks of comfort.
All these human frailties did not warrant Abiola, being
sacrificed on the altar of power politics by alleged
executioners, who played Judas.
Nigerian politics is dominated by men and women, who
understand the value of power and money and so go over the
top and over the bend to get elected or appointed into
political office.
They end up advancing primitivism, negativism, the abolition
of civic and social ties to the very people they have
contracted to serve. This is the matrix from which
corruption emerges.
They do not acknowledge that they have cheated society and
since human intelligence has the forte to retain memories of
the bad and ugly, corrupt people and corrupt practices blunt
the edge of husbandry.
The people may not have the means to fight against powerful
corrupt people, but they do remember those, who have robbed
them and by how much.
The revolutionary doctrines of the Rights of man have etched
in the mind of our citizens, the rising tide of opposition
to the infamy of political corruption, ineptness and
confused thinking is waxing strong.
Yet, the people are helpless because, it is very difficult
to cast the first stone. In Nigeria, some Heads of State
inaugurated the philosophies of conduct but, each time the
spirit of evil overtakes new rulers, hard attitudes erase
the established virtues and impose a Luciferian edict.
From the events we have just witnessed, it looks as if “as
it was in the beginning, is now……..” Tell me what has
changed? Tell me what will change.
In 1980, we were promised that there would be houses, jobs,
electricity, water and other amenities, by the year 2000.
The same people promised that all will be well by the year
2010, now the same political class has promised that we
shall, by some magical conjuration, be among the advanced
states of the world in 2020. What is our industrial policy?
I know someone who has laboured to draw up one in great
details, but who cares?
This is the disadvantage of using old speeches, dusted up
from ministerial achieves and re-furbished as new policies.
Those, who have heard the refurbished speeches, are wont to
say.” We have heard that before”. This is how cynicism grows
and total loss of confidence in the ability of the
government to deliver begins to manifest.
MKO Abiola thought that he could change Nigeria. Perhaps,
the forces that hold Nigeria down obstructed his ambitions.
They still do.
Our problems are more spiritual that material. We could
develop this country within ten years, if we can harness the
abundant Nigerian talents in the Diaspora, now in the
service of developed states. We need to exorcise the occult
forces that hold us down.
In order to attract home the Diaspora Nigerians, give them
plots of land at reasonable prices, build clinics for the
returning medical doctors, build houses for the highly
qualified cadre, create a safe society, where national
security, re-enforced by police and military intelligence
outfits, will ensure that they do not become targets for the
sinister forces that roam the land.
The illegal monies in the hands of some former officials of
the Nigerian state can re-settle these talents, who can
contribute meaningfully to the transformation process.
If it is true that the Federal Government has adopted
strategic measures to recover stolen wealth and has plugged
the loop-holes in the existing financial system through
fiscal best policies, then my lost optimism in the progress
of Nigeria will return, with bells on.
Al Mustafa’s disclosures and testimonies are very telling.
This is why Dr, Fredrick Fasehun has said that no harm
should befall Al Mustafa. With the Freedom of Information
Act in place, the old system of with-holding the truth from
the nation can no longer be the case.
Al Mustafa still has enough wit to extricate himself from
his difficulties. How he has found courage to soldier on is
amazing. His pontifications are deep and his affirmations
seem ineradicable.
Those leaders, who gave Abiola long-winded advice to claim
his mandate, abandoned him, when he needed their support.
Now, we are being told that money got in the way. Money gave
them sensations of supreme delight. The subsequent criminal
acts lead to attacks of apoplexy.
There is an astonishing similarity in the way both Abiola
and Sani Abacha died. The only person, who knows the
details, is disclosing unheard of information about that
national calamity.Ayo Opadokun’s narrative seems to
contradict Al Mustafa’s claims. The truth lies between Olumo
Rock and Aso Rock! Opadokun’s argument appears to be a
conflation of the existing popular with the intelligence
doctrine of form and matter. Newspaper editorials are
eloquent of the distress the June 12 story represents.
The episode attempted to provoke obscure proletarian
uprising, which we are now being told was subjected to state
manipulation and control.
Contemporary confusion apart ,the NADECO social philosophy
was partisan, which is why the call to immortalize M.K.O
Abiola has been largely ignored. The defects of NADECO’s
logical structure arose from the fact that they never made
up their minds, what exactly was fundamental and what was
derivative. Their seasonal remembrance agitations fizzle out
too quickly after the last protester goes back to Abeokuta.
As far as I know, no intellectual museum has been erected to
display the artifacts of the June 12 failed political
“revolution”. June 12 still prosecutes the study of
Nigeria’s social history, but it has the foible of
omniscience and the itch of simplicity. It appealed to fact
but insists that facts must speak a predetermined language.
The movement rested on empirical theory of ethnic, not
national motives. This empiricism was anchored on an anti -Abacha
popular dislike. This was why the musings were logically
incoherent and so lacked a national response.
The preposterous caricature of the lady with the golden
apple and the exploits of visiting “friends of Abiola” do
not convince anyone. If true, the surprisingly easy success
of these assassins, show how fragile our national security
networks are.
So, if the Chief Security Officer, at the time, is talking,
we have no option than to listen to him and evaluate his
depositions.
Nothing stops the Federal Government from setting up a
Committee to investigate such a serious national security
issue, even though these things happened long ago.
I hereby repeat the conventional opinion that Abiola’s life
and times are wrapped in an enigma.
Professor Dr. Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai, a Writer and
Academic, is the Academic Chancellor, BOSAS INTERNATIONAL
LAW BUREAU, Abuja., Nigeria. |
