Former
Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, unwittingly did Nigeria a big favour
regarding our democracy. On May 29, 2014 Nigeria celebrated its 15 years
of unbroken democracy in the Fourth Republic, which is about three
times longer than the longest period of democracy we had had hitherto.
If not for Abacha, this could not have been possible.
The First Republic had lasted five years
and three and half months. The Second Republic lasted three years and
exactly three months. That showed retrogression. After many
postponements about handing over to the civilians, the Third Republic
kicked off in a peculiar way: Gen. Ibrahim Babangida conducted
governorship and legislative elections while he was still ruling the
nation. That experiment, which started in 1991, was supposed to
culminate in the conduct of the presidential election in 1993 and final
handover to a democratic government.
Eventually, the presidential election
held on June 12, 1993 was peaceful, free and fair, according to the
reports of all observers. The electoral body began a state-by-state
release of the result as collation was concluded in each state. Chief
M.K.O. Abiola of the Social Democratic Party was ahead, winning in
states which were assumed would be won by his opponent, Alhaji Bashir
Tofa of the National Republican Convention. Then like a joke, the
release of the results was suspended. While Nigerians were wondering
what Babangida’s plan was, he announced the annulment of the election on
June 23, 1993, to the consternation of most people. According to
Babangida: “These steps were taken to save our judiciary from being
ridiculed and politicised locally and internationally.”
It was obvious that the action was
crisis-prone. Reacting to that infamous annulment, Nobel laureate, Prof.
Wole Soyinka, had said: “A very tiny but powerful cabal is toying with
the future of our nation. Any further delay in making the people’s
verdict official is a deliberate cultivation of chaos.”
‘Senior Advocate of the Masses’, Chief
Gani Fawehinmi, issued a statement, warning: “The nation is in danger.
It is abundantly clear that the military government is leading Nigeria
into a political crisis of immeasurable, chaotic proportions.”
Babangida gauged the mood of the nation
and retired hurriedly with his tails in between his legs, handing over
to an unelected Interim National Government, led by Chief Ernest
Shonekan. A chain of events led to the emergence of Abacha as the Head
of State in a move which looked premeditated. Abacha initially gave the
impression that he would reverse the annulment of the election. He bided
his time, while gaining the trust and support of the people. Once he
had dug in, he showed that he had his own plans, which did not include
reversing the annulment or leaving the stage soon.
With Abiola declaring himself president
in 1994, Abacha bared his fangs. Every day saw Abacha getting more
brutal. People were arrested, demonstrators were brutalised and shot at
by security agencies, newspaper houses were shut down at will, newspaper
editions were confiscated, media houses were bombed, bombs were
exploding at different places killing people, attempts were made on the
lives of those suspected to be opponents of Abacha’s regime, like Chief
Abraham Adesanya, the leader of the National Democratic Coalition, which
was the key opposition group, and Mr. Alex Ibru, the publisher of The
Guardian newspaper. Some like Chief Alfred Rewane and journalist,
Bagauda Kaltho, were not lucky, as they were killed. People were framed
up in fathom coups or as “accessory after the fact of treason” and
sentenced to death or life imprisonment, including Gen. Shehu Musa
Yar’Adua, who died in prison; Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, former Head of
State; Mr. Shehu Sani, a human rights activist; Mrs. Chris Anyanwu,
publisher of The Sunday Magazine. Many Nigerians fled into exile for
fear of being arrested, framed up, or killed.
After the hanging of environmentalist and
leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Mr. Ken
Saro-Wiwa, on November 10, 1995, Nigeria was sanctioned and isolated by
many countries and groups. Rather than make Abacha reduce his
viciousness, it got him fiercer. The only people who benefited from that
global outcry were the purported coup plotters like Obasanjo and
accessories like Anyanwu whose death sentence or life sentence was
commuted to life imprisonment or 15 years imprisonment respectively.
When Abacha finally announced the
transition to civil rule with the formation of five political parties,
everybody heaved a sigh of relief that he would soon leave the scene.
But all the hope evaporated when the five political parties began to
name him their sole candidate one after the other.
Abacha became like a bone across the
throat. Nobody knew what else could be done to ease him out. Nigerians
resorted to prayers for divine intervention.
That divine intervention came on June 8,
1998, when Abacha suddenly died. Contrary to the respect Nigerians are
known to accord the dead, Nigerians broke into celebration across the
nation.
A sticker by a group called Concerned
Professionals captioned the mood of Nigerians, at that time, towards
military rule and dictatorship. The sticker said: Never Again. That was
the favour Abacha did to Nigerians on democracy: He painted a horrendous
picture of military rule that most Nigerians would not like to
experience again. He showed the military dictatorship as financially
reckless, morally bankrupt and managerially incompetent of handling a
nation.
Until Abacha, any time there was a
misunderstanding between political parties, the opposition parties would
call for military takeover. It was believed that the soldiers were not
as corrupt as the politicians, nor as managerially incompetent, nor as
unpatriotic, nor as greedy. Even though the military was known to be
high-handed, it was believed that their actions were motivated by the
national interest.
But Abacha changed all that perception.
It was obvious that his actions were motivated by his will to cling to
power, and that he did not care whatever befell the nation in the
process.
Many had rued Abiola’s non-inauguration
as president. Looking back now and judging by the trend, Abiola could
not have lasted in office beyond two years. The maximum he could have
lasted was four years when he would have re-contested for the presidency
in 1997. Complaints would have trailed his re-election and calls for
military intervention would have rented the air.
Following the trend, since the First
Republic had lasted less than 6 years; and the Second Republic had
lasted for about 4 years; the Third Republic would have lasted for 2
years.
Nigerians are known for having short
memories. Heroes soon become villains and vice versa. Abiola would most
likely have suffered such a fate.
But the draconian regime of Abacha put
the fear of living daylight into Nigerians. Even though the short memory
of Nigerians still makes some people to occasionally praise the years
of the military in governance, thereby asking for their return, yet the
brutality of Abacha has continued to paint a terrible picture of
military rule.
Those who lose election – no matter how
below par the election is – always complain but do not publicly ask for
the intervention of the military.
So, without meaning to, Abacha –
supported by Babangida – had made our democracy last longer than it had
ever lasted since our Independence in 1960. Our democracy may not be
meeting our expectations to the fullest, but we must guard it jealously.
No matter the shortcomings of democracy, it is much better than
military rule. But we must eschew politics of suppression and
intimidation or that of “If I can’t have it, let it be destroyed.”
If our democracy had been unbroken since
1960, there might have been brazenness from politicians, no doubt, but
we would have been able to fashion out an effective way of running the
affairs of the state.
No comments:
Post a Comment