Bashar Sani’s murder: Alabi-Isama repeats call for withdrawal of oil block licences from individuals

By Isa Isawade

Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama (retd.), the Chief of Staff, 3 Marine Commando and Principal General Staff Officer of the Nigerian Army between 1967 and 1977, has restated a clarion call he made in his book: THE TRAGEDY OF VICTORY which he repeated in his recent interview with TheNEWS Magazine that the primary cause of terrorism in Nigeria is feudalism and the only solution to the malaise is the dismantling of what he regards as an evil system of feudalism which saw the country sharing crude oil wells to individuals rather than the states of the federation.

Alabi-Isama repeated the call following the sad story of Malam Bashar Sani, a director at the College of Education, Maru, Zamfara State after the bandits had collected a total of N25.7m from him and his family as ransom.

Investigations carried out by PRNigeria revealed that the late Sani had paid not less than N25.7 million in ransom and other demands such as motorcycles, mobile phones, etc over the years to secure the release of family members kidnapped by bandits before he was kidnaped and eventually killed by the same criminal network.

According to the report, family members and community sources disclosed that the chain of attacks against the family began a few years ago when armed bandits abducted Sani’s two wives from their residence at Tsohon Tasha in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

In a desperate bid to secure their freedom, he reportedly paid a huge ransom to the kidnappers.

Months later, the criminals returned and kidnapped his younger brother, Hassan Sani, forcing the family into another round of negotiations. He had to pay another N3.5m to secure his release.

Terrified, he relocated his family to a crowded area, hoping for safety. After a year and a half of relief, the bandits located their new abode and kidnapped him, the same wife taken years before, and his daughter.

The ransom was N20 million, he managed to raise N7 million Naira. Like an observer said, this wasn’t enough. They killed him after 42 days in captivity, releasing only his wife and daughter. What an unimaginable level of bestiality!

A distraught Northern Nigerian wrote on a platform: “One man !!! 3 kidnappings !!! Millions paid !!! Still dead !!! This is not a story !!! This is what happens every day in our villages, our communities, our local governments!!!

Gen. Alabi-Isama felt highly distressed by the horrific experience and death of a fine gentleman like Bashar Sani in the hands of merciless miscreants who torture and kill with reckless abandon for money.

The shocked General on Tuesday sent a terse message that actually showed a penetrating pain in his heart for us to again escalate to those in positions of authority to cause the country to dismantle the structure of feudalism in the North and institute federalism in the true sense of it across the country.

Following are the excerpts from the interview by General Alabi-Isama, published on Feb. 8:

“Now, we are talking about the insecurity that our soldiers have been fighting for fifteen years. The shoes the bandits wear; the clothes they wear; the food they eat; the ammunition they use; the weapons they use, somebody must be interested. Somebody somewhere must be interested. For fifteen years? Calculate the budget for fifteen years. Such an amount would be good enough to look after our poor people. The other factor of the insecurity in the country is the political system. It’s called feudalism. The British did not put democracy in Nigeria. Throughout 1914 till 1960, we had only one election. When the British were here, they did not organize election for us. They continued to tell us that the feudalism in existence was good for this country. Whereas, if I remember, Oliver Cromwell fought the King of England on this same issue, where the King would distribute money- members of parliament would have this, states or local governments would have that. It was like a beggar system where you would distribute money. What happened when the money was not available for whatever reason?

“Let me use myself as an example. I grew up in Ilorin. I was born there. We had what we called Baale, head of the family, Alabi Kanike. We were about twenty children in the house. Every morning, he would give us money for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When the man died, there was nobody to give us money. My mother was away and I would just carry a little plate and stay at a junction as a beggar, as a little boy. They would put Onini (farthing) at that time, a part of one Kobo. I would quickly go and buy cassava, it’s called ‘rogo’. Another person would come again and put another one, I would go and buy groundnut to eat my rogo.

“When my mother came for the eighth day Fidau, she asked: “Where is my pikin?” They said your pikin dey for junction. My mother said junction ke! My son, as onibaara (a beggar)? That’s how she took me away from Ilorin to my maternal grandparents’ home at Owode, a place 25 miles away from Abeokuta, Ogun State where they had kolanut farm. Now, I was a beggar because there was no more money coming from somebody. I was a little boy. The older ones were picking bags and stealing things around. If somebody gave them either ten naira, five hundred naira, one thousand naira, and so on to go and kill someone, they would. So, it’s feudalism that caused our problem of insecurity. I have a video of children who were beggars and children in the West who were going to school. Which ones will become bandits when they grow up?

“These little beggars have grown up, and I remember reading a book Awolowo wrote about this type of situation that the children that we fail to train today will be our problem tomorrow. They are our problem now. It’s the same thing that there are fifty beggars and there are ten professors, in democracy it is a game of number. The fifty beggars would win the election against the ten professors and you would have to pick the ministers from them. These are the reason we are where we are today. So many things caused the problem. To solve it, we will have to go back to the errors. Whatever went wrong with family, with children, with your states, your local governments and so on, we have to go back to the errors and fix them.The then President Goodluck Jonathan tried to build Alimajiri Schools, nobody attended. Because it’s so easy to say if you want to eat breakfast tomorrow, I am the one giving you money to feed, go and vote for that camera, and that’s what they will vote for. Feudalism is a potent tool.

“We have manpower; we have land; we have capital; in fact, we have so much oil that we give the oil to individuals! We must be sick! The Marine Commando captured all the oil in this country, and I have not heard of anyone of us getting an oil block, except Danjuma. Look at the gold in Zamfara. There is oil in the continental shelf. Let us divide that and share to the states instead of giving individuals to buy more cars and marry more wives. Today, we are all limping. If you give oil block to me, maybe before I die I will have sold it to the Chinese. I have sold it to have private jet to go to where? You see, because he has private jet, the idiot will start making unnecessary visits just to warm the jet and show off. You can’t even have a rest. That is feudalism for you. I was told that somebody in Maiduguri had so much oil, that his house was made of gold, everywhere shining and so on. Now, he’s late! Like Mobutu Seseko in Congo, his children could not maintain his house. That is the result of feudalism.

“Let’s create the environment to create jobs for our people. That is what we need to do now. Then, you have the ports at the continental shelf. Share the oil to the states…”

The exclusive interview continues here