Collins Onyenze
30 August 2004
opinion
The onus lies on the President to remove the circus tag on the commission .
DID President Obasanjo and his administration set-up the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) determined not to implement the reports, or could they not help themselves? This is the question many meaningful Nigerians are asking. Nigerians who gave their time and efforts to the success of the commission must be worried that the President has kept quiet and allowing the Oputa Panel report gather dust in the archives.
The question of intentions of this administration is all the more poignant because the President promised that there will not be business as usual. By this he meant doing away with wastage of public funds and the usual system of engaging Nigerians with taxpayers money with nothing to show. President Obasanjo promised to heal the wounds of the past and that prompted the setting up of the HRVIC a.k.a Oputa Panel.
The commission concluded its report about three years ago. This commission comprised of Nigerians of high integrity and headed by Justice Chukudifu Oputa, toiled as they moved from one part of the country to the other. The commission worked within its terms of reference and indeed, the old man, Oputa must be regretting at the non-implementation of the commission's report which he and his members lost sleep to produce.
Public interest
Given the genuine interest shown by Nigerians while the commission lasted, many are anxiously expecting the implementation of the report. Reconciliation of all Nigerians was one promise President Obasanjo intended to keep at the setting up of the commission, and the aim of the commission was to reconcile those injured or seemingly injured with those who allegedly injured them. Little wonder Nigerians have consistently urged the President to implement the report of the commission or at least read the report. In the view of most Nigerians, the President should not only read the report, he should publish the white paper.
Nigerians are yet to know the content of the report and its recommendations. They know a lot is involved in the commission's report and of course have the right to know the content of the report lest it becomes another Okigbo Panel report which the President recently claimed not to have set his eyes on and even asked anybody in possession of the report to make it available for him to buy. But in the event that the President has forgotten, the current SGF, Ufot Ekaette served in the Okigbo Panel.
As for the Oputa Panel, it was simply different from other commissions govern-ments have set up. This com-mission was designed for Nigerians to be involved. The open system of hearing which, it adopted was designed so that Nigerians would listen to complaints and be the judge and the jury. The commission's proceedings were all embracing, entertaining and exposing.
Nigerians would not have known what happened in the past but for the commission. The misrule of the past was brought to the fore. Nigerians became better informed of their past as well as got to know the intentions of their leaders, some of which had hitherto been hidden from them. The fact that lbrahim Babangida and Muhamadu Buhari both past heads of governments refused to answer questions relating to their administrations provided Nigerians better opportunities to judge them. And that the President himself came to the commission to deny knowing what happened to Fela's Kalakuta Republic was all the more exposing.
Court cases
The reasons for not reading and publishing the report of the HRVIC will not suffice in a single answer, but several stitched together. Several commissions have been set up in the past and their reports never saw the light of the day. The singular reason this government will adduce for non-implementation of the Oputa Panel report will be the court injunction brought against reading the report of the commission by Babangida and Buhari who refused with disdain, the invitation of the HRVIC, where then lies the morality or justification for obeying the court orders obtained by the two former dictators. Nigerians will not buy that excuse for the non-implementation of the panel's report. Several new cases where government had interest have been entertained and determined by the courts. Babangida and Buhari's cases should not be viewed differently. The two men, not Nigerians, view themselves as "sacred cows", even as their stinking past stares all in the face.
President Obasanjo should take a stand now and remove this sacred cow' thought in our minds or he would at the end of the day fail to keep a date with history. To read, publish and implement the report is an inalienable obligation owed Nigerians by President Obasanjo and his administration. The generality of Nigerians have rightly urged the President not to handle the commission's report like he is doing with his other promises of bringing sanity to Nigeria. Yes, the President promised to banish corruption, revive NEPA, strengthen the economy and accelerate growth, but Nigerians are yet to see the actualisation of these promises. This promise of healing the wounds of the past, which he already started with the setting up of HRVIC must be kept.
The onus lies on the President to remove the circus tag on the commission and make it become a reality show, for HRVIC is his baby. President Obasanjo's inaction will leave people to conjecture that he must have been indicted by the commission's report. Even if the report did not indict him for the destruction of the Kalakuta Republic, the non-reading and also non-publication of that report, is in itself an indictment for the man who set up the commission.
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