By Dr. Philip A. Ikomi  | NNP  |  March 16, 2014 – It is hard to sit down quietly while Sadiq Abacha, the son of a Nigerian dictator who died in action; and as a result, the fortunes of Nigerians changed for the better, engages in revisionism. If he does not know it, the country under our current and most of its previous leadership has been giving a free pass to all its former military dictators who should have faced judicial trials, for the fact that they overthrew elected governments, immediately after a return to civil rule. Nigeria, unfortunately unlike many other countries that have had military dictatorships in their past history, has left untried, the military perpetrators who ruled her. For instance Argentina tried the generals that ruled her in years past so that they could have a better future where an elected government is not just seized by the military. The trial of Abacha’s chief of security, Mustapha, has only just ended. Sadiq’s father was one of the worst dictators by many accounts. He sent death squads after a number of prominent Nigerians for just asking him to tread softly and give Nigerians a better government. He imprisoned many others, including General (Retired) Obasanjo. Among those who were killed in those heady Abacha dictatorship years were Madam Tejuosho, the head of the market women in Tejuosho market, Lagos; one of the wives of the winner of the 1993 presidential election, Moshood Abiola; Chief Alfred Rewane, and others.

In 1993, after the election of Moshood Abiola was dismissed by the self appointed dictator president Babangida who walked into the sunset because he was compelled to do so as most of his officers would not continue the illegality of ruling Nigeria, Abacha came in and took over the mantle of dictatorship. He could have arranged for the winner of the election to be returned to the presidency or at worse, arrange for another election within a given short period of time. Instead, Abacha kicked out Ernest Shonekan, and then went on to run the affairs of the country as if he were running his own private corporation, importing the worst grades of petroleum products that caused explosions and killed a large number of Nigerians. He left Nigerian universities with poor funding only to go to the United States to fund an academic chair at New York University, and to launder the Nigerian currency into foreign bank accounts. He had ruled for five years and there was no end in sight. Thus when he died, there was a nation wide sigh of relief. That his death was followed immediately with the arrangement of an election to return the country to democracy by the ensuing Abubakar administration, further cemented one’s inference that Abacha’s dictatorship was out of tune with the aspirations of most Nigerians. Thus it is quite troubling that Sadiq Abacha should come up with so called achievements of his father during the five years his dictatorship lasted.

But more troubling is the recommendation that Abacha should be honored in a centennial celebration of Nigeria. Not only is the recommendation an insult to Nigerians, more importantly, it shows the present administration to be insensitive to controversial areas in the Nigerian political set up. If Nigerian leaders cannot walk away from their past illegal leaders who committed crimes against the Nigerian Constitution, then Nigeria will never be a great nation. Those leaders are constantly being celebrated and incorporated in state institutions instead of being made to face justice for their constitutional breaches that brought them into power in the first place. If past military dictators continue to be so honored and made a part of our government for their so called “experience in governance” then Nigeria will continue to be in the penumbra of illegality and that is a shame.

Capt. Philip A. Ikomi, Ph.D.

Retired Airline Captain and I/O Psychologist

Posted by admin on Mar 16 2014. Filed under Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists, Philip Ikomi, Presidency, Sani Abacha (1993-98). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry