Tinubu: A Betrayal of the NADECO Ideals – By Lloyd Ukwu-

Posted by admin Articles, Columnists, Lloyd Ukwu, NNP Columnists Saturday, April 4th, 2015

By Lloyd Ukwu | Port-Harcourt, Nigeria | April 4, 2015 – The June 12 1993 presidential election won by Moshood Abiola was adjudicated the freest and fairest election in Nigerian history. Lamentably, the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida annulled the election. In place of Abiola, he appointed Ernest Shonekan to head an interim government. The Shonekan government wobbled under its own weight of illegitimacy, inherent weakness and lack of moral authority. It finally collapsed when General Sani Abacha, the Minister for Defense in the interim government, shoved aside Shonekan and seized power.

The majority of Nigerians, including those in the United States of America were appalled by the annulment of the June 12 election and the continued military rule under General Abacha. They were determined to force out the military and install the winner of the June 12 election, M.K.O. Abiola, as president. This resulted in the formation of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) by a number of prominent Nigerian politicians. Facing swift persecution inside Nigeria, NADECO Abroad was created.The NADECO Abroad was led by Chief Anthony Enahoro. Other overseas branches were created. Chief Ralph Obioha led the NADECO-USA, Chief Raph Uwechue, the NADECO-UK and retired General Cornelius Adebayo, NADECO-Canada. Washington DC, the capital of USA, was the hotbed of the NADECO-USA opposition to the Abacha government.

As the Counsel General of NADECO-USA, I incorporated the NADECO-USA and donated my law office in downtown (Central Business District) Washington, DC for five years as the headquarters of NADECO operations in Washington, DC. Chief Ralph Obioha spearheaded the NADECO-USA drive to oust the Abacha regime and establish democracy in Nigeria. Among other things, he addressed the US Congress, traveled extensively and gave series of speeches. He solicited and garnered recognition and help from different countries of the world. Other senior members of NADECO, including Bola Tinubu and John Oyegun lived in the Washington DC area and were also very active in the campaign to dislodge the Abacha government and install the winner of the June 12 election as president. The military junta of General Sani Abacha fought back. It unleashed a wave of terror on NADECO and other prodemocracy activists. In Nigeria, he hung playwright and environmental activist, Ken Saro Wiwa, and the Ogoni 9. Abacha was a brutal, murderous and barbaric dictator. But then Abacha was a product of Babangida’s scuttling of the June 12 elections. But then it was General Mohammadu Buhari’s overthrow of a democratically elected government of Alahji Shehu Shagari that set the stage for Babangidaism.

With the mysterious deaths of both Sani Abacha and Chief MKO Abiola, most of the members of oversea NADECO ended their exile; they returned home. It boggles the mind that anyone that fought, under the auspices of NADECO, against the Abacha military dictatorship can ever support Buhari for the presidency. After all, Buhari, in some respect, was a more ruthless dictator than Abacha. By whatever stretch of the imagination, Buhari is not qualified to lead a democratic Nigeria. His credentials and antecedents speak against him. His antecedence shows clearly that, for years, he subverted the ideals NADECO stood for and fought for: democracy, rule of law, fundamental human rights, freedom of worship, etc. In his desperation for power, he, in 1984, ousted President Shehu Shagari from power, thus, brutally truncating the nation’s nascent but thriving democracy.

Now, he wants to benefit from democracy; he wants to be a democratically elected president of Nigeria. The backing of Buhari’s presidential ambition by some former NADECO members is tantamount to a pat on the back for Buhari; he is being rewarded for shooting his way into power and committing atrocities; jailing, maiming and killing of the innocent. It sends a dangerous signal to the younger military officers: that it is okay to plot coups, trample the constitution, and kill, maim and jail Nigerian citizens, for you will be rewarded for it. So, if Abacha were alive today, and is running for president of Nigeria, the likes of Tinubu and Oyegun will have no compunction in sponsoring his presidency. After all, all Abacha did was to follow in the footsteps of Buhari: seize power, hold Nigerians in submission to the gun and kill and maim. Buhari in one respect is worse than Abacha – he overthrew a democratically elected government, Abacha did not. In other countries of the world, like the USA, people honor their war heroes. Lamentably, in Nigeria, we seemed poised to honor a coup plotters and brutal killer.

The support for Buhari by the likes of the Tinubus and Oyeguns is inconceivable. It is a betrayal of the NADECO cause. Tinubu and Oyegun are turncoats. They are making mockery of the post June 12 struggle for democracy and social justice that led to the establishment of democracy in Nigeria. They are desecrating the memory MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, Ken Saro Wiwa and many of those that died in the struggle against Abacha’s military tyranny and the institution of democracy in Nigeria. But then, it is obvious that the motivation for their dalliance with Buhari is avarice, grasping avarice. Tinubu has a personal stake in the Buhari’s presidency. He is scheming for the office of the Vice President. His protégé, Yemi Osinbajo, is Buhari’s running mate. In the 2011 presidential election, Tinubu did not ally with Buhari because the Buhari presidential campaign refused to meet his condition. Tinubu demanded that Buhari’s running mate, Tunde Bakari, write and sign a post-dated resignation letter, stating that if Buhari is elected president, he, the Vice President, will resign and relinquish the office of the Vice President to Tinubu. There are speculations that Tinubu, this time, is supporting Buhari because Osinbajo, a Tinubu acolyte, wrote and signed a post-dated resignation letter, stating that if elected the Vice President, he will, in three months, resign his post to make way for Tinubu.

Tinubu rode on the coattail of MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, Ken Saro Wiwa into power. He paid little lip service to NADECO and dumped it for his selfish ends. Today, the same Tinubu is asking APC voters to disobey electoral laws with impunity by voting and remaining in the voting unit in direct contravention of the law. And his cheerleader SANs, Fashola and Osibanjo instead of calling him to other, are cheering him on. It is a coded language for violence. Tinubu is telling the youths to stay and unleash mayhem on fellow Nigerians. He wants to swim in their blood (again) to power.

Bola Tinubu has shamelessly betrayed the ideals that NADECO stood for by supporting the very persons that it was meant to fight. Buhari presidency has nothing to offer Nigerians. His political party, the APC talks about change. Yes, of course, they will bring about change but it can only be retrograde, destructive change. Evidently, Nigerians can see through him. No wonder, they have, in the past, rejected him three consecutive times. This time around, despite his deliberate and frantic attempt to recast himself as a democrat with respect for the rule of law and tenets of democracy, Nigerians will reject him again.
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Lloyd Ukwu, an international lawyer, writes from Port Harcourt, Nigeria
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