Owei Lakemfa
12 December 2000
opinion
Lagos — I did not find it necessary to write on the Oputa panel sittings in Lagos and the 'revelations' we were treated to. Having lived under the Abacha dictatorship, seen friends sentenced to death or life imprisonment, seen families of close friends harassed and detained, and having to fear for my own life, I found the theatrics of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha at the Panel revolting. And when I recall that one of my friends and a colleague, Bagauda Kaltho remains unaccounted for having been seized by the Abacha gang, I feel quite angry.
So I regarded Al-Mustapha a nonentity, a scoundrel, a vagabond and an impulsive liar. But I didn't think so of the generals.
I thought before a man rises to the rank of a general he would have some principles and would of course be courageous. But having seen generals on parade at the Oputa panel and watched their dishonourable conduct in trying to exculpate themselves from blame for the disaster that was their rule from 1984 to last year, I feel ashamed.
The most senior of these generals is Oladipo Diya who was number two man to the butcher Abacha. When he came before Oputa, it was not to make any analysis or apologize for the pains the coup he led caused Nigerians . Rather he was there to tell long tales, exonerate himself from any blame, elicit public sympathy and make the same recommendations many Nigerians made a decade ago.
Diya told us that Major Al-Mustapha was so powerful that he upturned decisions made by generals in their ruling council.
He claimed that four times did the generals collectively order Chief M.K.O. Abiola's release, and four times the Major single handedly upturned their decision. Even as a soldier, but more so as a lawyer, I expect Diya to be intelligent enough to know that those decisions were reversed by Abacha and not Al-Mustapha. Diya also claimed that Major Al-Mustapha was the real ruler of Nigeria because the major also had Abacha in his grip. Again, Diya fails to make any intelligent analysis. Al-Mustapha was Abacha's lap dog and no matter how hard a dog barks, he always recognizes and bows to his owner. Even a dog knows that any day he turns against his master and bites him, that maybe the day he journeys out of the world.
I think the fear Al-Mustapha instilled in Diya made the latter blind to reality. So while Diya could still walk up to Abacha and complain of the assassination attempt at the Abuja airport, he would melt on being confronted with Al-Mustapha.
Diya should be ashamed that a major was his boss even when he claimed to be both a general and the number two man in the country. Diya denied planning any coup with General Abubakar, but was he a coup plotter or not? We all know that Diya was a prime mover of the November 17, 1993 coup that brought him and Abacha to power.
So what is the fuss of not being a coup plotter all about?
Diya cried that there was an attempt to assassinate him. Was he not aware that the government he was number two man was a government by assassination? When in 1994 the homes and offices of opposition figures like Dan Suleiman and Gani Fawehinmi were being fire bombed and machine gunned what was Diya's reaction? I'm sure he felt it was alright. The killings of Pa Alfred Rewane and Kudirat Abiola? What did Diya do? Would he claim he did not know those responsible for these assassinations? Perhaps he did not know that the monster he helped to feed and make violent would one day seek to devour him.
After the bomb blast at Abuja airport, Diya had a fuelled plane waiting for him, his security details were with him and there were pilots ready to fly. Realizing that he was the target of the assassination attempt, and feeling powerless to fight back, shouldn't he have flown out of the country and shut up in exile or team up with patriots in the fight against Abacha's misrule. Diya makes some capital out of the fact that he is Yoruba. Does he not know that traditionally Yoruba generals commit suicide once they lose a war or fail their people? But here you have a Diya not being courageous enough to own up to his actions. Rather he assaults us like Al-Mustapha did that he had no regrets serving under Abacha. True?
By the way, one of Diya's wives said soldiers removed N2m from her home when they attacked. Was her Lagos home a bank?
What are Diya's well considered recommendations? He wants the panel to prevent future evil. Yes, we can do that by keeping the military out of power and being eternally vigilant. Secondly, he recommended a National Conference, the same idea he helped to subvert in 1994. Of course he calls for a restructuring of the army. Doubtlessly, an army that produces generals like Diya and majors like Al-Mustapha need restructuring. General Diya, many of us are not impressed one bit.
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