FEATURE ARTICLE

Zaiyol Karl  (EMAIL)

Terrorism, Obasanjo and Assassination of Bola Ige - back to reality

hile the violent exit of Chief Bola Ige is rather pathetic and a mournful event, Nigerians should never let emotions becloud their judgments in assessing security situation in the country. This problem may be deeper than security issues. From the humanitarian standpoint, one's sympathy and prayers may normally go to the family of Chief Bola Ige for the tragic loss, but it would be inherently idiotic to extend the same gesture to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Such a terrorist government does not deserve anybody's sympathy over cases of aggression directed against it, unless, one can clearly establish that, neither the government nor its agents, did not set in motion, the tragic chain of reaction, that has inadvertently overpowered and consumed it. The covert role of the Federal Government in Tiv/Jukun crisis is still fresh in our minds to accord it any benefits of doubt.

In the Tiv/Jukun crisis, it was Warlord General Danjuma, who zealously dispatched Nigerian Army from Yola in support of Jukuns to kill Tiv people in Taraba State. Though, this illegal military activity was promptly brought to the attention of the Federal Government through Vice President Atiku by Tiv leaders, it was frontally dismissed by the Government as false. Two months later, 19 soldiers who were equally illegally deployed were caught by the Militia, and killed. When this became an embarrassing scandal, Obasanjo weighed in on the Benue State Governor, with quid-pro-quo arrangements, to agree that, he had requested for the Army to be deployed in Benue State and Taraba border to clear illegal road blocks. While the Governor wiggled, Obasanjo openly but illegally dispatched more soldiers from Yola, with US supplied Dynamites and Helicopter Gun-ships to kill farmers and destroy Benue State, under operation code-named "Operation No Living Thing". This operation was code-named by the Federal Government Security Council in Abuja, and soldiers on assault of farmers proudly displayed it on their uniforms, according to BBC News report. Is this the kind of operation a responsible government will undertake against its own unarmed citizens, and its own farmers? Perhaps, Mr. Obasanjo and Warlord T. Y. Danjuma import their food from US and elsewhere overseas, but honest Nigerians who neither believe in official high-living nor corruption in high places still depend on food produced by Benue Farmers to sustain their lives. And that alone would have been enough reason for Mr. Obasanjo to spare lives of those farmers who were neither directly nor indirectly involved with the Militia and the killings of the 19 soldiers. Instead, he took joy, in a terrorist fashion, in destroying Benue State, the state that, both his governments (1976-1979 and 1999 -?) have never contributed to its development.

Like in Odi, Obasanjo gave Benue State Government ultimatum to produce the Militia who killed the soldiers, but within hours, his soldiers were in Zaki-Biam for "Operation No Living Thing". This brings us to the terrorist propensity of Obasanjo and his administration. The tactics of ultimatums are closely associated with terrorism; if the man habitually takes refuge in ultimatums to terrorize Nigerians, then he is a terrorist. Terrorism is defined in elementary terms as "use of terror to enforce demands", (Kidney, 1993). The key word in this definition is "demand". According to President Jefferson, Terrorism is "Government by intimidation", (Dictionary.com). Based on these definitions and Obasanjo's presidential profile, vis-à-vis his actions in Odi and Benue villages following his ultimatums, one can reasonably conclude that, he (his government, if you will) is a terrorist. In each case, natives were thoroughly terrorized, intimidated and brutally killed by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

This explains why the Government of Nigeria itself is a threat of a higher order to the security of Nigeria than any threats posed by tribalists, separatists, Jihadists, and a myriad of others. Given that, Mr. Obasanjo has a history of taking side and violently fueling local feuds for political expediency, one can justifiably seek to know, the role of the Federal Government in the on-going Osun political brouhaha, that progressively degenerated into hooliganism and allegedly sent Uncle Bola to the ecosystem. Specifically, what role did Ige personally play in that feud? Was he a peacemaker or a violent supporter of one group like Danjuma in the Tiv/Jukun crisis? When assassinations of the AD local Chairman and state legislator in Osun were widely reported, there was silence from the Federal Government, and Obasanjo's trip abroad was still on schedule. But when Mr. Ige suddenly paid homage to the ecosystem in a similar fashion, Obasanjo called off his trip in a haste, and gallantly mobilized government security apparatchits to fish out his assassins. Why was the government so unconcerned over assassinations of the other two men? And why did Obasanjo not call off his proposed encounter with Mr. Mugabe in Zimbabwe as a result of their assassinations? Surprisingly, Mr. Obasanjo dispatched security operatives to fish out the assassins of Mr. Ige but not those of the other two men, but since when have Nigerians placed more value on one life than two? Answers to questions like these may definitely explain both the role of the Federal Government in the Osun crisis, and why Obasanjo and his administration are a bigger security threat to Nigeria than even Sharia.

While Mr. Obasanjo's apologists may disagree with my characterization of him as a terrorist who is a deadly security threat to Nigeria, his personal involvement in local squabbles and selective administration of jungle justice clearly attest to my contention. Examples of such instances abound. In Odi, he dispatched soldiers to destroy the village because militants in that village had allegedly killed some police officers. That operation left 385 Villagers dead and a burnt out village. In Benue State, he dispatched soldiers to destroy the entire state because area militia had allegedly killed some illegally deployed soldiers. That operation destroyed 14 villages and left almost 1000 people dead. In Cross River State, the militia had reportedly killed 5 police officers and one police inspector in November 2001. No soldiers were dispatched to fish out the militia and to destroy the state in this case. In Osun State, a Lawmaker was allegedly killed by mobs, and no soldiers were dispatched to fish out those mobs, and to destroy villages in Osun. In Ibadan, Bola Ige was assassinated, and police, not soldiers, were dispatched to fish out his assassins, and soldiers were deployed to prevent counter-killings, but not to destroy Ibadan. In Lagos, OPC has over the past two years killed unspecified number of police officers and burnt out police stations, and no action was taken. No soldiers were deployed to destroy Lagos. Under Obsanjo's administration, this is the type of justice system we have in Nigeria, one that targets Odi and Benue to be destroyed for what essentially is not an offense in Ibadan, Lagos, Calabar, or Ile-Ife. While Al Mustapha is still languishing in a high profile security prison in Lagos on circumstantial charges arising from his peripheral association with General Abacha, Ganiyu Adams, who gained notoriety as a police killer and mass murderer of Nigerians in Lagos is still a free man in Nigeria.

Logically, if you destroyed a whole village just because some law enforcement officers, were killed in that village, then, you would accordingly destroy the whole city, if a Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, the Chief law Enforcement Officer of the Country is assassinated in that city. One would expect that, instead of American supplied Dynamites and Helicopter Gun-ships, Mr. Obasanjo would accordingly deploy soldiers, this time, with French Exocets and American Precision and Laser-Guided Missiles to fish-out Mr. Ige's killers in Oyo State. Why then did he not send soldiers to destroy Ibadan and Oyo State? How are the petty police officers killed in Odi more valuable to the Nigerian Government than the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Nigeria? Can he now explain why he destroyed Odi and 14 villages in Benue State? This assassination, as bad as it may be, has effectively exposed the tribalistic and vindictive nature of the man, Obasanjo, and his killing agenda in the minority regions in Nigeria. Why is the killing of a law enforcement officer by minority groups bitter than the killing of law enforcement officers by Yorubas?

What you sow is what you reap. The assassination of Chief Bola Ige is clearly a by-product of government's actions around the country. Any tears Obasanjo might shade over the incident are purely hypocritical. Mr. Ige was no saint, neither was he a democrat; he was essentially a sophisticated turncoat in the Nigerian political power game, who often times abandoned his wisdom and legal acumen for selfish reasons. As Minister of Mines and Power, he was embroiled in serious financial improprieties he could not explain, and was abruptly reassigned to the Justice Ministry in a rather shroud manner, and his accusers were disingenuously dismissed from government service without due process. He was a member of the cabinet that approved the destruction of Odi by the Nigerian army, and never protested even if he disagreed with the majority decision to so. As a Chief legal adviser to the Federal Government in his capacity as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ige was a member of the National Security Council that approved and code-named "Operation No Living to Thing" to destroy Benue State, against constitutional provisions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What was his advice to the Federal Government on this issue? He abandoned his legal wisdom as Benue was leveled by the Nigerian Army on orders of General Danjuma disguised as President Obasanjo. On each controversial issue in Nigeria, Ige turned one way, as Nigeria burned the other way; from Sharia to treatment of Abacha family in Lagos, to Al Mustapha, to Ganiyu Adams, you name it.

Sad as his death may be, facts still need to be told. When Oputa panel clearly indicted General Danjuma over his warlord activities in the Jukun-Kuteb conflict, as the man behind the melee and, the main supplier of arms and munitions for the destruction of the Kuteb people, what was Ige's advice to the Federal Government? Ige could not even advice Government to dismiss General Danjuma from office to demonstrate Government's support for the Oputa panel, and its integrity and commitment with respect to reconciliation and human right issues. What was his position when Obasanjo corruptly used his office and public funds to bribe his way to impeach Dr. Okadigbo as Senate President? Of course he abandoned his legal acumen and political wisdom, and turned the other way, as the heavily bribed Senate impeached Dr. Okadigbo to pave way for authoritarianism. I vehemently disagree with those who now call him a polyglot, exalt posthumously, and seek to canonize him as a moral Giant in the Nigerian political lexicon. A moral Giant would never have served in such a vindictive authoritarian administration. He would have resigned in protest as well as in perseverance of his integrity, the rule of law, and the democratic tradition.

Now, just as the Nigerian Government hypocritically questions what went wrong with Mr. Ige's security detail, so are the Odi and Benue villagers questioning, what has become of the Nigerian army, that, instead of defending them as citizens of Nigeria, they are routinely deployed by the Government to kill them. What then is Mr. Obasanjo's definition of security? I guess, he is aware of the popular saying that, "you cannot eat your cake and still have it". If he does not believe that, ordinary Nigerians who voted him to power are not entitled to any security of life and property, then what security does he expect members of his administration to be entitled to? Of course, a Government that snuffs out the public, tramples on the rule of law, and kills wantonly in an ostentatious display of power, invites aggression including assassinations of its members. Such is a natural reaction, but when it reaches its crescendo, it represents a spontaneous demonstration of a society at work, with a more devastating impact than a military coup. Elsewhere in the world, when there is no security for the general public, there is similarly no security for the government, and Nigeria can never be an exception.

While Government sympathizers have posited in a variety of media outlets that, this kind of assassination is new to Nigeria, they have conveniently failed to point out that, more Nigerians have died in the hands of Obasanjo than they ever did in the hands of any one man in history. Within thirty (30) months, Obasanjo has killed more Nigerians than all Presidents and Heads of State, from 1914 to 1998 combined. He is the first President to convert Nigerian Army into a state police, and the first, to deploy Army to kill Nigerians and destroy their villages. He is also the first to franchise Nigerian Army to his Defense Minister in support of a tribal war. These other new developments introduced in Nigeria by Obasanjo Administration should similarly be recorded as new and unique in the history of Nigeria. Is there any wonder, that his opponents have decided to inject assassinations in his own terrorist system? Until this criminal gang disguising as government is voted out, Nigeria will never see peace, and will consequently end up in a military rule. -

My two cents-