Empowered Newswire; Abiola’s
friendship with IBB, Abacha led to
his death – Don
By Laolu Akande (Empowered
Newswire)
The friendship between the late
winner of the June 12, 1993 election,
Chief M.K.O. Abiola and former
military president, Generals Ibrahim
Babangida and Sani Abacha led to his
death. The death of late Major General
Shehu Yar’Adua has also linked been
linked to his friendship with Generals
Babangida and Abacha, Empowered
Newswire reports.
The friendship between President
Olusegun Obasanjo and late Attorney-
General of the Federation, Chief Bola
Ige, and former Military President, and
between General Ibrahim Babangida,
the late Head of State, General Sani
Abacha and the winner of the June 12,
1993 presidential election, Chief
M.K.O. Abiola, have been described as
“disastrous friendship”.
It is a kind of friendship that leads to
death and destruction. This statement
was made by a Nigerian scholar who
teaches at the University of California,
Davis, USA, Professor Wale Adebanwi,
while delivering the 2013 Annual
Lecture of the African Studies Centre,
at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford
University, United Kingdom.
Adebanwi, who is the author of
Authority Stealing: Anti-Corruption
War and Democratic Politics in Post-
military Nigeria, also analysed the
friendship between Babangida and
his late friend, former Minister of
Federal for the FTC, Abuja, Major
General Mamman Vatsa, Abacha and
late Major General Shehu Musa
Yar’Adua and former Bukinabe leader,
Captain Thomas Sankara and
President Blaise Compaore. He
concluded that the friendship that
existed between these competing and
ambitious leaders contained the
possibility of danger and death.
Professor Adebanwi stated that it was
not a surprise that the kind of
“instrumental” friendship that these
leaders shared among them led to the
death of some of them in their pursuit
of power, position and prominence.
He cited the example of the execution
of Vatsa by his friend and best man,
Babangida, the assassination of
Sankara by his friend, Compaore, the
alleged murder of Yar’Adua through
the injection of a killer virus into his
body by the agents of his friend,
General Abacha, the annulment of
Abiola’s election by his friend,
Babangida, the imprisonment in
solitary confinement of Abiola by his
friend, Abacha, and the assassination
of Bola Ige while serving under his
friend, Obasanjo. He added that it is
ordinarily surprising that in spite of
the gruesome way in which Ige was
killed and his loyalty to President
Obasanjo, Obasanjo later dismissed
his friend as someone who did not
know his left from is right.
He told the audience that Ige was
assassinated while planning to return
home to stop Obasanjo’s party from
rigging the 2003 elections in the
southwest. the lecturer also reminded
the audience of the famous statement
by the philosopher, Aristotle, “O my
friend, there is no friend!”
In a lecture entitled, “What are Friends
For? The Fatality of Affinity in the
Postcolony” Adebanwi challenges
African scholars to pay attention to
friendship among powerful people in
understanding the nature of power
and political competition in Africa. He
cited philosophers who states that
friendship can be used for three
things, including virtue, pleasure and
utility. He added that in the context of
political competition, friendship is
often not used for virtue but for utility
thereby turning friends into enemies.
Stated the former Bill Gates Scholar at
Cambridge University, “First, from the
profile of all these men, their roles,
and the positions they occupied in
Nigeria’s national life, it is already
evident that their friendships could
not but have been politically
consequential. However, the fact that
their friendships were also fatal in
virtually every case invites us to
examine the potential fatality of
friendship when friendship intersects
with the search for power in (Africa).
Two, the friendships and ambitions of
these men have largely defined the
political history of Nigeria in the last
three decades and half…. Three, the
friendships of these men were largely
cross-cutting.”
Adebanwi, whose much-expected
book on the Awolowo political
movement will be released by the
Cambridge University Press in 2014,
recalled the secret execution of
General Vatsa and General Domkat
Bali’s expression of regrets many
years later. General Bali had stated
that there was no clear evidence that
Babangida’s friend, Vatsa, was really
involved in the coup plot for which he
was executed. He also recalled
Babangida’s statement that he realised
after the execution of Vatsa hat he
and Vatsa had been involved in a
competition for most of their lives.
The lecturer traced the personal and
political history of the friendship of all
these Nigerian leaders and quoted
someone who said that “Politics seems
a real testing ground of friendship
chiefly because it is a testing ground
of character and goodness.” He added
that political friendship does not only
have disastrous consequences for
individuals who are involved in the
friendship, but also for nations, as the
example of the Nigerian leaders and
the Bukinabe leaders show. The
lecturer also stated that Nigeria’s crisis
is not unrelated to the fact that the
“disastrous friendships” of these
Nigerian leaders have defined the fate
and destiny of Nigeria in the past 30
years.
The chief host, Dr. David Pratten, the
Director of the African Studies Center,
Oxford University and Fellow of St.
Anthony’s College, Oxford, stated that
the University was happy to invite
Adebanwi to give the annual lecture
which had been delivered in the past
by distinguished scholars from all over
the world.
Those who attended the lecture
included the Governor of Ekiti State,
Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his wife, Erelu
Bisi Fayemi, Senator Babafemi Ojudu,
representing Ekiti Central at the
National Assembly, Dr. Tokunbo
Awolowo Dosumu, the Managing
Director and Editor-In-Chief of the
Tribune newspapers, Dr. Anthony
Akinola, former editor of TheNEWS,
Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, popular Punch
columnist, Mr. Tunde Fagbenle, a
famous British publisher, Mr. James
Currey, Dr. Anthony Akinola of
Oxford.
-SaharaReporters