Sani Abacha: The best president Nigeria humanity has ever had

@naijababe
The point of this thread was not whether Abacha had a good human rights record or not.

Was Abacha a brutal dictator?  Perhaps he may very well have been.

Was Abacha a looter ?  All the evidence shows he was not - this is the point of this thread.

The point of this thread is to expose  how the ememies of Nigeria- Obasanjo and IBB set out falsely discredit Abacha, whose government performed very well economically.

Your assertion that Abacha's wife was caught with suitcase of money leaving Nigeria is nothing more than beer palour rumour.
You need to find any reliable news stories that carried those allegations at the time, for it to be credible.

Shehu Yaradua was reported to have died of kidney failure whilst in prison, this was reported by the BBC at the time.

Kudirat was killed, but how do you know it was Abacha that ordered her murder? It may well have been IBB.

I do not kn ow anything about Pastor Rewane, please enlighten

Go back and re-read my post and explain the suitcases filled with money that his wife tried to move out of Nigeria? You don't know who Pa Alfred Rewane is? Dude, you are full of beans, stop farting all over the place mehn!

On the contrary, you are the one that needs to go back an re-read my response to your post.

GenBuhari:

@naijababe
The point of this thread was not whether Abacha had a good human rights record or not.

Was Abacha a brutal dictator? Perhaps he may very well have been.

Was Abacha a looter ? All the evidence shows he was not - this is the point of this thread.

The point of this thread is to expose how the ememies of Nigeria- Obasanjo and IBB set out falsely discredit Abacha, whose government performed very well economically.

Your assertion that Abacha's wife was caught with suitcase of money leaving Nigeria is nothing more than beer palour rumour.
You need to find any reliable news stories that carried those allegations at the time, for it to be credible.

Shehu Yaradua was reported to have died of kidney failure whilst in prison, this was reported by the BBC at the time.

Kudirat was killed, but how do you know it was Abacha that ordered her murder? It may well have been IBB.

I do not know anything about Pastor Rewane, please enlighten

naijababe:

Go back and re-read my post and explain the suitcases filled with money that his wife tried to move out of Nigeria? You don't know who Pa Alfred Rewane is? Dude, you are full of beans, stop farting all over the place mehn!

@naijababe,
Pastor Rewane couldn't have been very important then. since I could not recall him, but he was clearly important to you that is the man thing.

GenBuhari:

@naijababe,
Pastor Rewane couldn't have been very important then. since I could not recall him, but he was clearly important to you that is the man thing.

wtf

oyb:

wtf

The guy is just a cretin!

Sagamite:

The guy is just a cretin!

Sagamu, i approve this post 110% cretin lomo latile, oponu afofun gbemu

oyb:

wtf

Una see wetin freedom of expression dey cause ?

And Boko Haram loves us all.

I really wish you guys stop replying this thread so it can die off. Its contents are deeply nauseating.  

die off?

Not any time soon

I am doing my best to ensure as many people as possible learn the truth!

The masses were deceived by the enemies of Nigeria and I am on a personal mission to expose the truth about Abacha.

On the issue of human rights?

Would you say that human rights today is better than it was under Abacha?

[size=18pt]24th Novemeber 1993 -  The New York Times
ABACHA OFFERS CONCESSIONS TO PRO-DEMOCRACY GROUPS, NAMES ABIOLA'S RUNNING MATE AS FOREIGN MINISTER[/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria, Nov. 23— The head of Nigeria's new military Government made a concession today to pro-democracy forces, naming the man apparently elected Vice President in June to be Foreign Minister.

Baba Gana Kingibe, a career diplomat who was the running mate of Moshood K. O. Abiola, a businessman, in the June presidential election, was named External Affairs Minister by Gen. Sani Abacha.

Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, the longtime military chief, voided the June election, apparently won by Mr. Abiola, and named an interim leader, who was ousted last week by General Abacha.

General Abacha also named a radical anti-Government lawyer as his Attorney General and the publisher of a respected independent newspaper as his Internal Affairs Minister. Generals or Police Officers

But the rest of his 11-man ruling junta are generals or police officials.

The appointment of Mr. Kingibe is an apparent effort to stanch growing international condemnation of Mr. Abacha's takeover of the Government and his decision to dissolve all the elected federal, state and local legislatures.

Mr. Abacha named Alex Ibru, the publisher of The Guardian, an independent Lagos newspaper, as Internal Affairs Minister.

Mr. Ibru is the first member of a southern ethnic group to hold the important position, which had been held by the politically dominant northern peoples. Voided Results of Election

Nigeria was plunged into civil and political turmoil after General Babangida, who took power in a 1985 coup with General Abacha's help, voided the results of the June election that was to restore democracy after a decade of military rule.

Mr. Abiola, the apparent winner and a member of the southern Yoruba ethnic group, was believed to have been opposed by the northern groups.

Mr. Babangida resigned under pressure on Aug. 26 and named a civilian supporter, Ernest Shonekan, as interim head of state.

Echoing promises made by the previous string of military rulers, General Abacha promised to rule only as long as it took to create a new constitution and move Nigeria to democracy.

The nation has been largely quiet this week, after a strike ended. The strike was called to protest major increases in fuel prices but was called off after increases were partly rolled back.


https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-693700.192.html

[size=18pt]7th August 1994 - The New York Times
Abiola rejects chance of freedom on bail[/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria, Aug. 6— With tensions growing from more than a month of strikes, opponents of military rule in Nigeria are signaling that they will accept no solution to this country's political crisis short of the installation of the man widely believed to have won the presidential election last year.

With most workers in the country's economic capital, Lagos, joining in a strike by employees of the country's vital oil industry this week, Nigeria's mh ilitary leadership has sought a solution to the crisis by offering a conditional release to Moshood Abiola, an opposition leader and the presumed winner in the June 12, 1993, national elections. He has been jailed on treason charges since late June of this year for his attempt that month to claim the presidency.

In a series of maneuvers that surprised even close associates of Mr. Abiola, lawyers and labor leaders who were apparently acting at the behest of the military requested the opposition leader's release on bail before a federal judge in Abuja, the federal capital, on Friday.

Although the request was granted, Mr. Abiola, whose wife says he was not consulted over the petition, declined the offer of freedom because it required him to refrain from meeting with or addressing supporters and would have barred him from leaving the country. Labor Leaders Radicalized

The bail offer appeared to have further radicalized labor leaders who, in the wake of Mr. Abiola's arrest, have emerged as the backbone of an increasingly militant democracy movement.

"Even if they release Chief Abiola unconditionally, discussions must begin for a smooth transition to actualize his presidency before we call off our strike," said Frank Kokori, general secretary of Nupeng, an oil workers union that has joined the strike. "Right now, there is nothing to consider."

Residents of Lagos, a stronghold of Mr. Abiola's Yoruba ethnic group, seemed cheered when Government-controlled radio and television first announced the bail on Friday, hinting in some reports that he had been released.

The hopeful mood quickly turned to anger, however, as word of mouth spread that the proposed release would have virtually required Mr. Abiola to refrain from politics, and offered no solution to the country's crisis. 'Ready to Explode'

"These military folks don't seem to realize that they are playing with fire," said one Lagos resident who gave his name only as Bola as he waited for a bus Friday evening. "They have been playing the people for fools for far too long, now our country is ready to explode."

Labor leaders and residents said they expected that this city would remain on strike next week, despite an announcement on Thursday by the head of the Nigerian Labor Congress, an umbrella organization for many of the country's unions, that a nationwide strike called last Wednesday was being suspended to allow talks with representatives of the military leadership to continue.

For many, this country's deepening crisis has disturbing parallels to the period before the outbreak of a violent three-year civil war in 1967 over the attempted secession of the southeastern region of Biafra. Growing Militancy

Residents of the predominantly Yoruba southwestern part of the country have grown increasingly militant in their demands for democracy, insisting on respect for the results of last year's election, which Mr. Abiola, himself a Yoruba, is widely believed to have won.

The country's predominantly Muslim north has largely continued to support the military, an institution its residents have long dominated.

The southeast, where most of Nigeria's oil is produced, meanwhile, has grown increasingly restive over what many of its residents say is an unfair distribution of wealth favoring the two other regions. Nigeria receives 80 percent of its export earnings from the sale of oil.

"We are already hearing reports about guns being distributed around," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who recently carried a message here from President Clinton urging the restoration of democracy. "If this situation degenerates, it will make Rwanda look like a birthday party."

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/murder-kudirat-abiola-court-sentences-al-mustapha-abacha%E2%80%99s-cso-death

A Lagos High Court has sentenced Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to maximum dictator, Sani Abacha, to death by hanging for the 1994 murder of Hajia Kudirat Abiola, the wife of the late business mogul and winner of the June 12, 1992 election, Bashorun MKO Abiola.

The court presided over by Justice Mojisola Dada also sentenced Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, A homer personal assistant to Mrs. Abiola to death by hanging over the assassination.
Mrs. Kudirat Abiola was killed on the streets of Lagos on one 4th 1996 by gunmen sent by Major Mustapha while he was the CSo to Abacha. Alhaji Shofolahan provided surveillance assistance to the killer squad as they trailed the outspoken wife of Chief Abiola until her murder.

It would be recalled that in August last year, Al-Mustapha read out in court an incriminating written confession he had given to the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) in Abuja on October 13, 1999, after the statement was admitted in evidence in the case.

In that statement, Al-Mustapha admitted responsibility for supplying the guns used in the murder of Kudirat. The presiding judge, Mojisola Dada, then ruled that the prosecution, which was led by Lawal Pedro, the Attorney-General of Lagos State, could cross-examine Mustapha on the statement.

perhaps gen abacha also does not know who kudirat was


Al Mustapha acknowledging cheers from his supoorters Genbuhari at the court premises today

^
So because the corrupt Nigerian courts convicts Al Mustapha means that Almustapha ordered Kudirat Abiola's assassination?

It does not make sense for Abacha to assassinate Kudirat, whilst keeping Abiola alive in prison.

Did not have to assissinate Kudirat, he could have easily quietened her by imprisoning her.

I am starting to suspec that the somebody like Babangida may have ordered Abiola assassination, in order to make it appear that Abacha had done it.

[size=18pt]7th September 1994 - The NY Times
General Abacha Assumes Absolute Power[/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria, Sept. 6— A day after defeating a pro-democracy strike, Nigeria's military ruler banned several newspapers today and decreed that his Government had absolute power.

Nigerian oil workers ended a two-month strike on Monday after failing to force the military Government of Gen. Sani Abacha to step down.

The workers had demanded that General Abacha surrender power to Moshood K. O. Abiola, a businessman and politician who is widely believed to have won the annulled 1993 presidential election. Mr. Abiola is in jail awaiting trial on treason charges.

One decree sets General Abacha above the courts, denying them any jurisdiction over his military Government. The first victim of the decree was a lawsuit filed by a five million-member labor federation, the Nigerian Labor Congress, challenging the military's dissolution of its executive committee. A high court judge dismissed the case today, saying she no longer had jurisdiction.

Another decree allows detention of people for three months without charges. General Abacha appears intent on keeping in jail the dozens of human rights activists, labor leaders and pro-democracy politicians arrested in the last few weeks.

The most prominent prison inmate is Mr. Abiola, who was arrested after he declared himself president on the anniversary of the election in June.

Democracy advocates responded to General Abacha's decrees with frustration.

"They unfold an era in which no Nigerian is sure of his or her freedom or sanctity of life," said Gani Fawehinmi, a lawyer who is defending dozens of jailed dissidents.

General Abacha closed three newspaper and magazine groups, including the most influential and respected in the country, The Guardian of Lagos. The others are Concord, which Mr. Abiola owns, and Punch.

The Medical Association of Nigeria said that Mr. Abiola is critically ill, and it threatened to take "exceptional measures" if he is not freed by Saturday. Doctors were reported to be considering a strike.

Mr. Abiola's trial has been delayed because the Government could not persuade a judge to hear his case.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-693700.192.html

[size=18pt]23rd March 1995 - ITN News
ABACHA DETAINS EX-RULER OBASANJO AND RE- LAUNCHES "WAR AGAINST INDISCIPLINE"[/size]

More than 10 years ago, Nigeria's military rulers launched what they called a War Against Indiscipline.
as meant to persuade unruly Nigerians to cross the road in the right place, refrain from dropping litter and generally improve their behaviour. The campaign had only a limited success.

Now, the latest military government has revived the scheme, under an even more grandiose title -- the War Against Indiscipline and Corruption.

A special task force has gone into action on the streets of the West African nation's biggest city, Lagos, arresting unfortunates whofail to use pedestrian bridges to cross the road or who hawk their goods in the streets.

Culprits are sent for trial at special mobile courts, where they face fines or jail sentences of up to three months.


https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-693700.192.html

[size=18pt]31st March 1995  - The New York Times
Abacha Allows Obasanjo to be detained under House-Arrest in his Ota farm after intervention of Former US President Jimmy Carter[/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria, March 26— Whenever he has sensed a challenge since seizing power 18 months ago, Nigeria's latest military dictator has consistently relied on two reflexes: dismissals and mass arrests.

The dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, who rules by decree, has dissolved labor unions and jailed their leaders, dismissed dozens of army officers, repeatedly shuffled his Government, shut down newspapers and even reached deep into the bureaucracy to fire anonymous civil servants.

Rarely appearing in public and trusting of few, General Abacha has a penchant for security that sometimes passes for paranoia, probably arising from his experience at the center of several past coup plots.

If little is known of his motives or political thinking, most Nigerian analysts and foreign diplomats agree that General Abacha, the sixth military ruler since independence in 1960, is the purest expression yet of the army leadership's obsession with absolute power and the wealth it brings.

When he took power in November 1993 by deposing Ernest Shonekan, a civilian who had been named President after the cancellation five months earlier of the first democratic elections in a decade, General Abacha declared that his aim was to prevent the breakup of the country and to restore democracy. But rarely has Nigeria been so divided or the path to civilian rule been so uncertain.

In the latest wave of repression, earlier this month, General Abacha's aides declared they had uncovered a coup plot involving prominent politicians and mid-level army officers. Diplomats say as many as 400 officers have been detained, many at secret locations where they are thought to be subject to torture.

Facing complaints in the Nigerian press and from foreign diplomats of a witch hunt and an absence of due process, the Information Minister denied in an interview with the BBC that there were any political detainees, saying, "Everyone who has been arrested knows why he is in jail."

But few Nigerians seem to believe the story of a coup plot. "Almost none of the names allegedly connected to the coup are officers commanding troops," said Abayomi Ferreira, a retired colonel who has called for restoration of democracy.

Though Nigerians have become accustomed to military purges, many say the inclusion of two former leaders in the latest sweep seems to have backfired, causing consternation among General Abacha's own constituents and bringing calls from abroad for the isolation of Nigeria.

The detention of one officer, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, the former military head of state, brought an unusual warning to General Abacha from the United States "against taking any summary measures against those arrested that could be construed as outside the bounds of international norms."

Traditionally Britain, Nigeria's former colonial ruler and one of its leading trading partners, has been much quieter about military abuses than Washington has. But General Obasanjo's arrest brought public criticism from London as well.

During a visit here last week, the former President Jimmy Carter met with General Abacha to seek General Obasanjo's release. But instead of letting him go, the Government put the former leader under house arrest at his farm near Lagos.

Even Abacha's detractors can not fail to praise him for realising that Obasanjo needs to be imprisoned 

2nd October 1995 - ITN News
[size=18pt]Abacha announces he will remain in power for another 3years(video clip) [/size]

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1995/10/02/BSP021095032/?s=nigeria&st=2&pn=81&sortBy=date


NIGERIA: The military dictator General Sani Abacha has 2.10.95 announced that he intends to hold onto power for another 3 years. There is concern about the fate of opposition activist Ken Saro Wiwa and human rights in the country.

^^See how the western press portrays Abacha as the corrupt, even Wole Soyinka was singing from the same song sheet

It is a wonder that not many people can now believe that Abacha was in fact one of the best performing Presidents Nigeria ever had.

Interestingly you will never recall the same western media (or even Soyinka) ever calling IBB or Obj corrupt whilst they were in power.

Interesting perspective. This news, if true, definitely puts him in a new light.

GenBuhari:

It is a wonder that not many people can now believe that Abacha was in fact one of the best performing Presidents Nigeria ever had.

millions of nigerian citizens dancing in the streets after his demise suggest otherwise, my friend.
dictatorship is never a good.

^ google inflation, exchange rate, corruption statistics for Nigeria, and you would be amazed that Abacha performs very well on each performance indicator.

Or you can check data held by CBN website

[size=18pt]11th November 1995 - The New York Times
Abacha Executes Ken Saro-Wiwa ; Nigeria gets International Criticism[/size]

Nov. 10— Nigeria's military Government today executed Ken Saro-Wiwa, one of the country's leading environmentalists and authors, provoking international protests and calls for punitive measures against Nigeria.

Mr. Saro-Wiwa, 54, a prominent critic of the Government who was arrested last year on charges of murder that he had steadfastly denied, was hanged with eight co-defendants at the prison in the eastern city of Port Harcourt at 11:30 A.M., the official Nigerian press agency said.

The executions, which followed an outpouring of appeals for clemency, drew a swift international response.

The United States, Britain and other countries withdrew their ambassadors, the Commonwealth countries were considering whether to expel or suspend Nigeria and the World Bank announced it would not support a $100 million loan to Nigeria for a huge project to develop liquefied natural gas.

The White House called on the United Nations to condemn the executions and consider an embargo on sales of military equipment to Nigeria. But it stopped short of calling for the action that would sting most -- sanctions on the oil exports that provide virtually all of Nigeria's foreign income.

South Africa's President, Nelson Mandela, called the executions a "heinous act." In Washington, the White House issued a statement that deplored the Nigerian Government's "flouting of even the most basic international norms and universal standards of human rights."

Nigeria went ahead with the executions despite the multitude of calls for leniency, which reflected an increasingly cloistered siege mentality among the country's military rulers, diplomats said.

For the last several years Mr. Saro-Wiwa, a popular author, playwright and television producer, has been one of the Government's most articulate and determined critics. He had built a campaign against environmental damage by oil companies and for a fairer share of Nigeria's immense oil wealth for the regions where it is produced.

Mr. Saro-Wiwa's organization, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, grew to become the largest political organization in the 350-square-mile homeland of the Ogoni. This ethnic group, to which he belonged, includes 500,000 people who live in the oil-rich but desperately poor swamplands of Delta State.

When the movement's members began to demonstrate for an end to oil spillages by Royal Dutch/Shell and for a share of the revenues from the oil pumped from their land, international human rights groups say, Nigerian troops began mounting a kind of scorched-earth campaign against the Ogoni, burning villages and committing murders and Desecrates.

Shell, Nigeria's largest oil producing company, has acknowledged frequent spills but has said the Ogoni movement exaggerated their impact.

After four pro-military traditional leaders were killed last year, Mr. Saro-Wiwa and several associates were quickly arrested for the crimes. But his defenders say he was framed and did not receive a fair trial.

Deeply unpopular, the current Nigerian leaders have little to show for over two years of near-absolute power in what was once one of Africa's most prosperous countries and is now one of its most miserable.

The head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, issued a clemency order last month lifting death sentences in a reported coup plot involving a former head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, and dozens of other former officials, army officers and journalists. Diplomats and Nigerian analysts said the order had created profound tensions among senior officers who interpreted the lifting of the sentences as a dangerous sign of weakness.

"These guys know that they have their backs against the wall," a Western diplomat said of Nigeria's leaders. "There are people in the ranks who are against them, there are people in their own circles who are having doubts, and with the population against them and now the world against them too, they must feel that to show any softness is to commit suicide."

The executions drew outraged reactions at a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Auckland, New Zealand, a regular event that brings together Britain with its former colonies.

Hours after the announcement of the executions, Prime Minister John Major of Britain and President Mandela each called for the expulsion of Nigeria from the 52-member organization.

"I would recommend every move to indicate to the Nigerian Government that we totally condemn what they have done," Mr. Mandela told reporters in Auckland.


[flash=800,800]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62-rLX1UYBE?version=3[/flash]


[size=18pt]

Ken Saro Wiwa[/size]


https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-693700.192.html

GenBuhari:

^ google inflation, exchange rate, corruption statistics for Nigeria, and you would be amazed that Abacha performs very well on each performance indicator.

Or you can check data held by CBN website

his was a reign of terror that I pray Nigeria will never witness. ever again
you must be related to him. are you his kith or kin?

It is apparent that you were probably too young to remember Abacha's government, the truth is that his human right record was better than Obasanjo's so-called democratic government's human rights record.

Purpose of this thread is to show young people like yourself that Abacha was deliberately demonised by the criminal and genocidal Obasanjo and Babangida.

Yes, he executed Ken Saro Wiwa which was wrong, but it has since become apparent that Shell was rumoured to have set him up and framed him.

you are not serious at all. how long ago was 1998?
I think you are the one who need to check yourself here. I was starting to see from your point of view (about the extent of abacha's looting) but now i definitely take back my words especially with that nasty condescending attitude of yours.

I did not intend to be condescending, it is just that most NL'ers are under 28years of age and most would not have been able to understand what was going on in government 14years ago.

You do not have to take my word for it.

The economic performance of Abacha is easily verifiable.

The point of this thread is that there is no proof that Abacha ever looted other than the news reports which were fed to the press by the very dishonest Obasanjo, who turned out to be the biggest looter in African history and I estimate he has embezzled up to $120bn.

Look at it this way:

Obasanjo a genocidal dishonest and biggest looter in African history tells us Abacha looted Nigeria without providing evidence.

Buhari a honest man, who is fiercly anti-corruption tells us Abach  never stole.


Who should we believe?