CURSED OR THE CAUSE.A LESSON IN MISCALCULATION AND MISADVENTURE. (2)

CURSED OR THE CAUSE.A LESSON IN MISCALCULATION AND MISADVENTURE.  (2)

C (2018)                    CHIBU NDUBUISI                         09/04/2018    WEEK 15

“A nation that allows crimes to go unpunished soon finds itself in a state of anarchy and loses all legitimacy. The more serious the crime, the greater the erosion of the moral authority to govern and ensure peace, stability and the welfare of the citizens” Ogaga Ifowodo

Peace be upon you.

            

Bola Ige and the Leprous Fingers Analogy

The five political parties that endorsed Gen Sani Abacha as he was mutating to a democrat all averred that Abacha is the only messiah who can steer the ship of the Nigerian state.  Bola Ige described the political parties endorsing Abacha as their sole candidate as “five leprous fingers”. The parties are: Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM), Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN), United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), Congress for National Consensus (CNC), National Center Party of Nigeria-(NCPN)

The import of that analogy is far deeper than the literal meaning. Leprosy is an infectious disease and those who suffer from it are quarantined or secluded from the rest of the society. Sometimes, men of power are not in tune with the reality on ground. Abacha blinded by ambition coupled with the praise singers that were urging him to continue can be seen as the lepers who have been secluded from the rests of the society as a result of their sycophantic leanings and could not gauge the mood of the nation. 

They were unable to see the trails of “tears, sorrows and blood” and the descent of Nigeria to the Hobbesian state of nature where life was “nasty, brutish and short,” regularly unleashed on the people by the government of Abacha as he was about mutating to a democrat which never was because he paid the supreme price and paved the way for another democratic experiment which came to fruition in 1999 as president Obasanjo was sworn in as the president of Nigeria. Obasanjo  was one of those lucky to escape from the noose of Abacha’s murderous tentacles.

 The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won the 1999 election and another experiment at democracy began. The regime went on to establish the “Oputa Panel” that will help in reconciliation and healing process like the “truth and reconciliation commission of South Africa. In the panel, we were regaled by Sargent Rogers who was the hit man of the killer squad of Abacha and how the Chief Security Officer Major Hamza Mustapha directed them on the enemies of government that needed to be eliminated and silenced forever. The events of the dark era of Abacha are well chronicled in the books by Kunle Ajibade and Chris Anyanwu who were all victims of Abacha’s megalomania.

Bola Ige was member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) that contested the 1999 elections with PDP but Lost. 

The regime of Obasanjo appointed him as Minister of Mines and Power and later Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, an offer he could not resist, even when some members of his political party advised him against serving in the government of Obasanjo. Pa Ayo Adebanjo, in his autobiography, “Telling It As It Is,” stated emphatically that Obasanjo appointed Bola Ige Minister to Destroy Alliance for Democracy. According to Adebanjo, “we were opposed to Ige joining Obasanjo’s cabinet but he accepted the appointment to spite us; following his loss of AD’s presidential primaries where he polled six votes against Chief Olu Falae’s 17.

Nigerian politics is motivated by the “food is ready principle” so he was invited to come and eat or serve the nation by Obasanjo who understood the advice form Pablo Escobar that “Everyone has a price; the important thing is to find out what it is.”.

 

Bola Ige obliged and it cost him his life on December 23, 2001. It is a well-known fact “that when dining with the devil, use a long spoon”. He was murdered two years into Obasanjo’s two-term presidency while serving as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. President Obasanjo promised to fish out the murderers but never did like the many assassinations that occurred during his tenure as the president. Obasanjo attempted to alter the constitution to pave way for a third term as president.  The project failed woefully. The events found in Abacha’s leprous political parties were all present in the PDP government that Bola Ige worked for. He was eventually consumed by trigger leprous fingers of assassins like Sargent Rogers of Abacha’s hit squad.

The same Obasanjo is today going about preaching about the imperatives of democratic ideals. He wrote lately, letters to Jonathan and Buhari on how to steer the ship of the state. We can see a clear example of a “prostitute preaching virtues in the market square”. We know him as the father of "do or die" politics in Nigeria because a sitting governor was abducted during his time as president and the perpetrators went free. Many politicians of repute lost their lives including Bola Ige during his tenure.

Funso Adegbola, Bola Ige’s daughter in an interview granted to the Punch Newspaper. September 17, 2016 advised that “Dying for Nigeria is a waste”

It was and is still the reign of the beast in Nigeria today.

 

Peace be with you.