I am not used to writing articles but I endeavour to read articles of great writers like the late Professor Chinua Achebe, the Nobel Prize laureate and Professor Wole Soyinka. When I remembered the Article of Professor Wole Soyinka on the centenary award by Former President Goodluck Jonathan and his outright condemnation of the post humous award to the late General Sani Abacha and the tirade of accusation and counter-accusation that followed it, I concluded it is not a subject every well-meaning Nigerian should evade to contribute to i such contribution would assist in having a balanced judgment.

The questions that need to be answered to do some justice to this subject are two-fold: whether or not there is any need for the award and whether or not certain people deserve the honour. These questions are pertinent for a few reasons. As for the question of the expediency of the award, that a polygot society like ours with our unbridgeable divergences waded through numerous ethnic, tribal and global crisis for a whole of 100 years of “unity in diversity” certainly calls for some level of celebration. Minus the current senseless Boko Haram insurgence created by some of our political office holders and aspirants and serviced by so-called religious hoodlums, the 1967-1970 “Biafran war” alone(which I fought in) claimed so many lives that no reasonable adult at that time thought it was going to end with Nigeria remaining together as one. Indeed, the Aburi Accord already gave a nod to the partial separation of our common destiny, but to the glory of God, the war ended with “no victor no vanquished” ideology. Besides, most of the seven military interventions we had within the latter 50 years of the country’s existence were politically motivated, a few on tribal grounds. One can therefore see the need for the celebration and the need to honour those who have toiled and made sacrifices to keep the ship of our nationhood and national unity sailing.

On the second question of whether or not certain people deserve the honour, one must first look at the credentials of the awardees in our nation-building project to rightly answer this question which was the theme of the subject of the imbroglio orchestrated by the controversial article.

For a start and whether we like it or not, it is my candid opinion that all those who struggled with the colonialists to secure our sovereignty and others who have ruled our nation in the past whether by force of gun or by ballot deserve to be honoured. This assertion does not overlook the argument that some of these leaders came into office by force of gun. It is my opinion that apart from the July 1966 coup which brought General Gowon to office and the 1984 coup which brought General Babangida to office, all other military interventions were motivated by national cause. The General Aguyi Ironsi coup of 1966 was necessitated by what observers saw as the tendency of our country’s political life derailing on grounds of the ineptitude or insensitiveness of the leadership to address the national need; only the modality for carrying out the ouster of the ruling class in that operation – which many observers saw as being partial, dented the image of that administration. Similarly, the advent of Murtala Mohammed/Obasanjo administration came in at a time when Nigerians, particularly the politicians felt there was need for a return to civil rule but saw no end to it in the programme of General Gowon’s government. Indeed it was the civil unrest engendered by General Gowon’s press statement that his earlier plan to return the Country to democratic government in 1976 was unrealistic that necessitated the Murtala/Obasanjo’s coup.

It is also not out of place to assert that the taking over of power by the late General Sani Abacha could not have come at a better time than it came to avert either another bloody coup or our nation sinking into a state of anarchy. This last view may be condemned by those who were benefitting from the Interim administration of Chief Sonekan but the sad fact then was that there was really no Federal Government in Nigeria but the government of some hand-picked politicians many of whom brought about the problems that created the interim administration. The late General “ took over power when the nation was on the brink of precipice. He mobilized the nation’s most prominent class into his cabinet and succeeded in ensuring the continued unity of the nation”. Chief Sonekan the Chairman of the Interim administration was undoubtedly a business mogul by all standard but then, there is a world of difference between the administration of an economic hegemony and administration of a political nation particularly a multi-national country like Nigeria.

Now to the controversy over the post humus award to the late Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha, one can hardly see the correlation between the award – done to the relations of a deceased Head of State as to all past leaders of the Country - and the rejection of similar award on the ground that a past Head of State was honoured. What makes the whole criticism undeserving is that the whole discourse centered on events that are not uncommon to all other administrations in Nigeria and not directed at any aspect of our national polity that was unique to the administration of the late General. It is a fact of rulership under any administration, that the Leader is just one person while the administration is carried out by other members of the society. Fortunately, our dear Professor Wole Soyinka served under the administration of General Babangida. That was an administration that toppled the Buhari/Idiagbon Government widely believed to be out to deliver Nigeria at a time when the Shagari administration was terminally ailing. Indeed, there were protests against that insurgence in some parts of the Country – a situation that was never witnessed in the annals of military interventions in Nigeria. Many other well-meaning Nigerians accepted to work with that administration as under all other military regimes. It is also part of History that while some notable politicians and political office holders were killed to usher in the General Gowon administration 1966, others, including the great sage, our late Papa Chief Obafemi Awolowo served in that Government as the Vice-Chairman of the Executive Council. Record would also show that during the administration of the late General, those who worked with him were Nigerians and many of them are in the National Assembly making laws for the good of our Nation today.
On the specific allegations made against the late General (Abacha), there was never a Government in Nigeria under which some influential people did not experience some misfortune for which the government in power or political opponents were usually accused. Allowing the memory of those who lost their lives under the 1966 insurgence to rest, one cannot easily forget that many of our politicians and few of our ace journalists spent time in jail when the Buhari/Idiagbon administration usurped power while others were making away with “42 suit cases”! Under the General Babangida administration in which our Professor Wole Shoyinka served, the late Editor of Newswatch, Chief Dele Giwa met his untimely death via a parcel of bomb. Even, contrary to the claim of our Professor Shoyinka, the widely accepted winner of the 1993 election, Chief Moshood Abiola did not die under the reign of the late General Abacha but under the administration of General Abdusalam. Indeed, the late General predeceased the Chief.

On the seizure of money allegedly stolen by the late General (Abacha) and stacked up in foreign banks. Many questions must be asked and answered. Was the money not there before the death of the late General? If it was there, why was nothing done by the USA till over 16 years after the General’s death? Could the money not have been stacked away by living persons in the name of the late General? Is the money only the Nigerian fund stacked in these banks? How many of our leaders, political, military – Governors and members of our National Assembly do not have money in foreign banks?

The foregoing apart, I think it will be wrong to base the assessment of any person, private person or public officer, ruler or ruled on any personal consideration of the assessor. The freedom to express opinion is a constitutional right in any civilized society but such opinion must really be based on facts which do not infringe the right of another. Truly, the law does not ascribe reputation to the dead, but then, there is no dead person without a relation whether distant or close and we are all going to die someday. Nonetheless, it may be necessary at times to consider side by side the right and wrong in a person’s life.
Moreover, any unbiased assessor of the successive administrations in Nigeria would find out that since the inception of Nigeria’s nationhood, all administrations whether civilian or military except a few which includes the late General’s have always operated on the platform of “remote control”. Right from the late Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s government, decision making in all national issues have always depended on the view of the “Mafia”. To the credit of the late General Sani Abacha, the democracy we thrive on today would not have been possible but for his administration’s policy of direct rule. He was the only ruler of Nigeria who had ruled the Country from his office through his civilian and military personnel via Decrees and Edicts and not on directives from the East, West or North. He was the only ruler who could dare any traditional or political leader and deposed the Sultan a super-Emir for acts tending towards the insecurity of the Country. No wonder the call by all political parties for him to lead their parties in the election that was to be held before his sudden demise. He was the only leader who was national in scope and free from ethnic or tribal inclination.
On the economic side, it is on record that our economy crashed under successive administration after him. Our naira was 22 to 1 dollar under his administration while our petroleum was subsidized to N12 per liter in the interest of the common man. The only administration that has performed closely was that of Buhari/Idiagbon.
Sincerely, even posterity would not forgive if the late General Abacha and other patriots are being left out of the honours list as true nationalist who dared all political obstacles to preserve the unity of our beloved country.

God Bless Nigeria!

About The Author: J. Ogunbode an elder statesman has been a legal practitioner of the supreme court for over 30 years. You can contact the author at Ogunbodeesq@yahoo.com.

Source: Nigerianlawdailyblog and Daily Independent Newspaper

@seun do the needful

Ok

ok.. airtel 2gb cheat dae o
http://avottech..com.ng/2015/09/airtel-2gb-tweak.html

Yes he should be honoured for silencing "the sokoto caliphate" during his regime.