Sonny Onyegbula
13 February 2004
The Oputa Commission submitted its report to President Olusegun Obasanjo on 28 May 2002 and most surprisingly 21 months after the government has neither released the report to Nigerians nor implemented the recommendations of the Commission. Nigerians are now asking where the Oputa Commission's report is. Is the report going to go the way the report of other Commissions in the past have gone? To the latter question, the answer should be a categorical No. Nigerians as a people should never allow the Oputa Commission's report to continue to gather dust in some office somewhere or its recommendations to be sacrificed on the alter of political exigencies or lack of political will.
First we need to remind ourselves where we were coming from before the Oputa Commission was set up and why the Commission meant so much to us that we cannot allow the work that it did to be swept under the carpet. Posterity would not forgive us as a Nation.
Prior to the inauguration of the civilian government of President Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, 1999 the country had been ruled by the military for all but ten years since the country's independence in 1960. Gross human rights abuses and repression of political dissent characterised the years of military rule. Respect for rule of law and due process were abandoned for naked abuse of power. The press reported several cases of people being harassed, detained without trial, tortured, extra judicially executed, brazenly murdered, discriminated against and some forcibly displaced from their homes. Environmental pollution, degradation and wanton destruction of the ecology as a result of oil exploration activities were commonplace in the oil rich Niger Delta. Successive military governments enacted decrees aimed at curtailing the enjoyment of fundamental rights and liberties by the people.
The military regime's arrogation of judicial power and prohibition of court review of its actions significantly impaired the authority and independence of the judiciary. The regime of late General Sani Abacha was probably the worst on record in the abuses of human rights. It carried out widespread repression of human rights advocates, pro-democracy activists, journalists and critics of his government. Extra judicial killings, torture, assassinations, imprisonment and general harassment of critics and opponents were the hallmark of his administration. Amongst eminent Nigerians who were felled by assassin's bullets during his regime included Chief Alfred Rewane, Mrs Kudirat Abiola, and Mrs Suliat Adedeji. Unresolved murders include the cases of Rear Admiral Olu Omotehinwa, Admiral Tunde Elegbede, and Toyin Onagoruwa, first son of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr Olu Onagoruwa. There was also an assassination attempt on the life of the publisher of the liberal Guardian Newspapers. Eminent Nigerians including President Obasanjo were unjustly jailed for phantom coup.
The country also lost two eminent citizens, the former Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, Major General Shehu Musa Yar'adua and the winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election Chief M.K.O Abiola both of whom died in detention under mysterious circumstances. It was clear that by the time President Obasanjo was sworn in, he met a divided country whose past were littered with gross abuses of human rights, growing ethnic nationalism, devastated economy and poor international repute. The above scenario persuaded the new government that there was an urgent need to set up a Commission that will investigate the abuses, heal the wounds inflicted by past injustices and reconcile the nation so that a new nation founded on respect for human rights and the rule of law could be established thereby consolidating the nascent democracy that has been established. Critical in the mandate of the Commission was to establish the truth of what happened, find out the individuals and institutions that were responsible for those abuses and then restore the civil and human dignity of the victims of the abuses.
It was therefore not surprising that President Obasanjo inaugurated the Oputa Commission just two weeks into his administration. At the inauguration of the Commission, the President said: "The Investigation panel being inaugurated today is consistent with this Administration's policy of openness and transparency in the conduct of governments business as well as our determination to heal the wounds of the past and quickly put the ugly past behind us so as to continue to stretch our hands of fellowship and friendship to all Nigerians for complete reconciliation based on truth and knowledge of the truth in our Land."
The President further said that: "We want to reconcile all those who feel alienated by past political events, heal wounds inflicted on our people and restore harmony in our country. We want the injured and the seemingly injured to be reconciled with their seeming oppressors. That is the way to move forward." Most Nigerians saw the setting up of the Commission as the beginning of a process that would lead to the emergence of a society where the respect for human rights and the rule of law would be the norm. Consequently despite the inadequacies of the Commission ranging from the lack of an enabling Act of the National Assembly setting it up, lack of funds, lack of independence from the bureaucratic civil service as well as lack of competent secretariat staff.
The Commission set out to achieve its mandate with significant support from some civil society organisations and the international Community. Tribute must be paid to the Ford Foundation, Centre for Democracy & Development, International Institute for Democracy & Electoral Assistance, British Council and the German Embassy for the support that they gave the Commission without which it is doubtful if the Commission would have completed its work at all.
With the poor support and motivation by the government but a dogged determination by the Chairman and some of the Commissioners and determined staff the Commission proceeded to fulfil its mandate. It received over 10, 000 petitions mostly from the environmentally devastated Ogoni land where the poet and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and his 8 Ogoni kinsmen who were judicially murdered by the Abacha junta lie in their graves. The Commission with the help of the civil society held retreats, seminars and interactive sessions with all stakeholders in the country and went ahead to organise public hearings in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu. The public hearings for the first time brought to the bedroom of Nigerians the horrors of the past. No one in Nigeria could today deny that they did not hear about the horrible events of the past. The public hearings also provided a voice for the weak and helped the victims to unburden themselves of the agonies that they suffered.
At the conclusion of the public hearings the Commission set out for the difficult task of writing its report which it concluded and handed over to the government on May 28, 2002.
At the handing over ceremony the President named an implementation Committee of six persons headed by Mrs Elizabeth Pam who was one of the active members of the Oputa Commission. The government also set up a ministerial Committee headed by the former Minister for Information Professor Jerry Gana (now Special Adviser on Political Matters to the President) to study the report and recommendation of the Commission and advise the government on a white paper.
Unfortunately till date, 21 months after the report was submitted to the government, Nigerians have not seen the Oputa Commission's report, the white paper and the implementation Committee has not been inaugurated.
It would be recalled that the chairman of the Oputa Commission, Hon Justice C. A. Oputa while speaking at a forum organised by the Centre for Democracy & Development during the Commission's visit to London on 8 August, 2001 said: "... the aim was to ensure that all Nigerians had access to the Commissions recommendations to enable them to assess their implementation."
He further said that: "unlike past Commissions or panels, the recommendation of the Commission "cannot be thrown away" adding that the Commission already had enough evidence to make its recommendations, whether past leaders appeared or not."
Unfortunately again the Commission did not keep faith with the promise it made to the whole world in London. It did not release the report to Nigerians and the world at large before it winded down. The Commission in its wisdom but obviously contrary to its promise passed the buck of releasing the report of the Commission to the government that set it up.
For the purposes of emphasis, I will repeat what the President said while inaugurating the Commission on 14 June 1999. He said that: " The Investigation panel being inaugurated today is consistent with this Administration's policy of openness and transparency in the conduct of governments business..."
In line with his avowed commitment to openness and transparency in the conduct of government business we urge him to live up to his own words and as matter of urgency release the full Oputa commissions report, the governments white paper and inaugurate the implementation Committee with full powers and resources to implement the recommendations of the Commission. The President should remember that he owes that duty to the victims of gross violations of human rights, Nigerians who stayed glued to the televisions until the wee hours of the morning to watch the televised version of the Commissions sittings, the civil society organisations and the international community that supported the work of the Commission. People and nations are waiting and watching to see how serious we are as a nation and the sort of leadership that we have.
There is no reason why President Obasanjo should continue to delay action on the report. The issue of political expediency occasioned by his desire to run for a second term is now behind him as his second and final term has been secured. History now beckons on him to set his foot map on the sands of time by acting now and fast. The Oputa Commission report offers us an opportunity to come to terms with our gory past and the implementation of the recommendation would obviously lay the road map that can transform Nigeria into a united and democratic society where the rule of law and respect for human rights is the norm. If the past is not revisited and the evils of the past corrected, the ghost of the past would continuously hunt our nation and the necessary unity and cohesion that is needed for socio-economic transformation of the nation would never be found.
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