Nigeria: Between IBB And the Vatsas (2)

5 September 2006
opinion

Vatsa might truly have been guilty. But, the question Nigerians are, perhaps, asking themselves is, why didn't Babangida find a way of punishing him other than ordering his execution? The decision to execute, Babangida would want the world to believe, was collective but we do know that in a military regime, particularly the one Babangida headed, the man in charge, in this case, Babangida, had the last word on issues.

We must also not forget the bit from certain quarters about the haste that surrounded the execution. Two examples would suffice. Wole Soyinka, in the most recent in his series of memoirs, You Must Set Forth at Dawn, mentioned his visit along with Chinua Achebe and John Bekederemo-Clark to Babangida. The move, a Bekederemo-Clark initiative, was to seek clemency for Vatsa, a practicing writer and member of the Association of Nigerian Authors, to which the visitors, being writers, belonged. According to Soyinka who personally believes that Clark must have had foreknowledge of the 1966 Chukwuma Nzeogwu (Emmanuel Ifeajuna) coup, outcome of which must have scarred his memory, Bekederemo-Clark felt appalled by the constant spillage of blood within the polity. The issue of blood spillage in relation to a military career has been a long time concern of Clark. It is an important theme in his epic, Ozidi.

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