The Martyrs

By Sola Adela

Now Mustapha is free at last, the public wants to know how and who will compensate the victims of the Abacha tyranny and when? Having been discharged and acquitted of charges relating to the murder of Kudirat Abiola, the release of Hamza al-Mustapha, former chief security officer, CSO, to the late General Sani Abacha, has generated and still generates a lot of controversy.

The law requires sanctions against those who commit crimes. Here lie the arguments: For some, al-Mustapha’s release is clearly a political action rather than a judicial decision. There are those who believe that there were connections from above because of 2015 while others believe that the North wanted al-Mustapha released since DSP Alamieyeseigha, former governor of Bayelsa State and an ex-convict who has been penciled down as a senator come 2015, was able to get official pardon. In my opinion, the equation is not balanced yet as the South-West is yet to make a request of who they want to be released and pardoned to President Goodluck Jonathan. Or could it be that the South-West does not have a voice in the administration of President Jonathan or is crime-free?

I recall the gruesome state murder of late playwright and environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa. The late leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, was executed without being given the opportunity to appeal his death sentence by the kangaroo tribunal set up by the Abacha regime under which all sorts of atrocities were committed.

It is imperative that President Jonathan balance the equation by compensating the families of MKO Abiola, Dr. Sola Omatsola, Saro-Wiwa and his Ogoni patriots, and all other martyrs of democracy who laid down their lives for the entrenchment of democracy in this country. The President needs to balance the equation by ensuring that these martyrs did not labour and die in vain. However, the President must examine his conscience to assure himself that justice has truly been done.

On 16 November 1993, l was in front of the Law School in Lagos when it was announced on radio that Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 8 had been murdered without a fair trial and any opportunity for appeal. While the Commonwealth nations summit was going on, Saro-Wiwa’s murder was announced. The then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tom Ikimi, was instantly expelled from the meeting and Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth. The country was seriously embarrassed by this incident. Those who masterminded the murder are still walking freely on the streets with pride and, unfortunately, without sanction. Those who were killed without fair trial and those who were killed because they asked for the actualisation of the mandate of June 12 presidential election, who will compensate them?

These are the heroes and heroines that we ought to have immortalised as soon as the nation returned to civil rule in 1999, after years of military administration. Instead, their memories are being denigrated with government actions which mock at them. This is one of the reasons that Nigerians are not ready to stick out their necks for the country, because we are not a people who reward true heroes. Instead they are castigated and forgotten. What a nation!

As if that is not enough, is it not absurd that Joseph Waku is now canvassing that al-Mustapha should be compensated for the “injustices” done to him? What injustice? Where was he during the struggle for June 12?  Why is he feigning ignorance about the atrocities committed under the Abacha administration? Has he ever thought about these questions? Who cares about the children that were orphaned, the widows and the rest of the dependents of the martyrs? Most of these ungrateful people are benefitting from the labour and blood of these martyrs by being elected or appointed into different offices in government. I doubt if Waku ever achieved any meaningful contribution throughout his controversial term as a senator representing his constituency. The families of those that were gruesomely murdered are still crying for justice. Why should Waku score cheap political points with these heroes? One can easily summarise Waku as a man who wants to remain relevant at the expense of others, even the dead. Waku, characteristically wants to be the bride at a wedding, the celebrant at a birthday ceremony and even the corpse at a funeral. In his desperation to achieve this, he speaks like a broken microphone that wickedly tears the eardrums of his listeners.

Now, the whole world is watching how the Lebanese alleged terrorist case will be treated. This is a litmus test to determine our seriousness in fighting acts of wickedness against humanity. It will be shameful if the imported concept of plea bargaining applies in this case. Plea bargaining is not in our constitution; it was imported to undermine the constitution. The world’s eyes are on you, Mr. President.

Here again, the home of the alleged terrorist where military hardware were stored ought to have been destroyed. The supermarket and the Wonderland are standing because of some traditional rulers who have been pleading for them behind closed doors. A serious nation that is interested in fighting terrorism would have demolished all the ammunition houses and the sources of income of the terrorist in the country. Did they need permission to do that? All the houses and the hideouts in Niger Delta were demolished by JTF without recourse to the presidency, neither did  JTF ask for permission to demolish in Kano, Maiduguri and Gombe. Did they demolish these places because they were owned by nobodies? Why treating Abuja, the seat power, with kid’s glove? Because of the personalities involved, Amigo and Wonderland are still standing today.

Undoubtedly, some unscrupulous individuals are benefitting from this crisis while billionaires emerge everyday by making undeserved money from inflated security contracts. The activities of this Amigo operator are not hidden from the authorities, neither are they new to the police. Many times he was arrested for tax evasion but was always negotiating his way out.  Informed consumers are wary in other not to buy unwholesome and expired foods from the so-called Amigo supermarket. However, it is worrisome and sad that the authorities are treating the matter with levity.

Paradoxically, the same traditional leaders were the ones crying that the President was not doing enough to tackle terrorism. These same supreme leaders have taken it as their responsibility to beg on behalf of the terrorists whose hands drip with the blood of over 1,000 innocent Nigerians killed, maimed or rendered homeless.

Last week, Governor Peter Obi had to personally supervise the demolition of an edifice where human parts were found. That is what the federal government ought to have done in the case of the Lebanese. Why is Jonathan afraid to take decision? But it was handled with kid’s gloves, and for all we know, they might soon be released and the case dumped like the fuel subsidy palaver. The world’s eyes are on you, President Jonathan.

Nigerians are concerned that the blood of the martyrs of democracy and the victims of Boko Haram must not be in vain. President Jonathan does not need any Ouija board to receive messages from the dead. The dead are angry, and we must assuage their anger.