By Adewale Adeoye
The honour bestowed on MKO Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi should be commended
President Buhari has done the right thing.
They are not steps backward. It’s a journey to justice, but the destination is still very far.
First was to admit that it was wrong for IBB to have annulled that election. IBB is now giving reasons, many of them false. He said it was due to pressure from his colleagues. This is patently false.
IBB is a chameleon. Generals were opposed to his killing Vatsa, but he went ahead and killed him. Generals were opposed to his killing many soldiers after the April 22, 1990 coup, but he killed 76 of those coupists. Why then did he annul June 12? Simple: He didn’t want to hand over power to Abiola, a southerner. Saying he would be killed if he handed over to Abiola is nothing but Blame Storming. He should rather Brain Storm and apologise to Nigerians.
If his colleagues wanted him dead because of Abiola, why did he allow Abiola to scale the screening? His worst nightmare was that Abiola won.
Tofa was his preference with the hope that the election would be annulled and Tofa would not resist.
The whole programme was designed from the beginning to ensure Abiola did not emerge and that Abacha succeeded IBB.
IBB is a liar. A big-time liar and a disgraceful personality. Those who lick his behind do so only for his money.
The horrendous crime he committed against Nigeria and the people are too numerous to mention. June 12 did not begin with Abiola and June 12 will not end with the post humous honour. June 12 was the apex of accumulated struggle which began in 1986 when Nigerians began to suspect IBB’s motive after the killing of Dele Giwa through a letter bomb.
This was followed by unparalleled human right violations: The 1986 ABU rape and killing of students. Police men stormed female hostel, raped and killed the students. I was one of those who rose with other heroic students when NAN was Alternative Power of the people. Myself, late Chima Ubani, Kennedy Ononaeke, Innocent Chukwuma, Lanre Ehonwa, late Emma Ezeazu, Nderibe, Ogadinma, Okeke, Lucas Udeagbala and many others held the South East like lions.
Young Femi Falana was our selfless lawyer. Have we forgotten the Oko Oba killing? Eight siblings were shot dead. The Dawodu brothers killed at Oshodi. The massacre in the Niger Delta.
Then the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP that ruined the Nigerian economy. It enriched IBB and his blood-sucking cronies but left many broken homes, fractured hearts and traumatic livelihood.
The Abacha years completed the ugly drama with disappearances of Nigerians and killings in broad day light.
Two colleagues of mine at The Guardian disappeared.
Prof Agboluaje came from US and disappeared. He was picked from the airport and till date, no trace. Women, including married women, were arrested at Ojuelegba for street trading and raped at Alausa.
On July 7 hundreds of people were killed in Lagos. I was in that protest march. These calamities gave birth to the campaign that the military must go leading to CDHR, CLO, CD, DA, etc.
Late Beko Ransome-Kuti provided his house for operations and meetings. At a time, it was Debo Adeniran’s house located somewhere at Ogba. You can’t trace the house unless someone directs you. I went to meetings there but even now I can’t trace it.
The military and police were assaulted. DSP Dare, from Kaba investigating the death of Dele Giwa died mysteriously.
Col Ajayi and several others were sentenced to death. He and others were detained at Ikoyi cemetery. You remember Tempo, The News and Tell. These publications are no more to the eternal shame of our own perilous history.
Sowetan stood against apartheid. ANC ensured the Sowetan newspaper did not die.
We have allowed The News, Tell and Tempo to die. The publishers made no profit but donated their blood for Nigerians. We have failed to honour them.
Fraudulent STATES get bail-outs, but none for these great newspapers.
These were some of the most heroic publications. Journalists wrote with their blood.
I was detained by Directorate of Military Intelligence. That tyrant, Col Frank Omenka, was my tormentor. I understand he has been in exile in Brazil.
The Guardian, Concord and Punch were proscribed.
During the civil war nko? Millions of Igbos were killed during the civil war. Many of their soldiers who were reabsorbed never got compensation until they died of hunger. Many women of the East were abducted and raped. Some of them bore offspring; those children will never recover from the carnage.
Underneath the Nigerian mother earth flows the blood of millions of innocent souls yet to be appeased. That is why we may never know peace. When Will justice come beyond the post-humous honours?
Back to IBB: Before his death, many of us pray that if he cannot get justice from a fraudulent anti-people legal system, he should at least get the justice of God right on this earth and in our very eyes.
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