By Dele Sobowale

“In times of victory; prophets are unnecessary distractions” – Trevor Roper, in The Last Days of Hitler.
(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 204).

When Abacha died on June 7,  1998, the world changed suddenly for a lot of people. But, for one man, Major Al-Mustapha, the world as he knew it for over four years, as Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, came to a disastrous end.

For a man who headed our intelligence outfit, it was shocking that he failed to understand that he was in mortal danger. So, on Sunday, July 12, 1998, I had published the article below on this very page. If, I may say so myself, the accuracy of the prediction, after the death sentence passed on Mustapha amazed me. Read on.

When hunters become the hunted
“Beware! When Fortune would elect to trick a man, she plots his overthrow by such means as he would least expect”. Alexander Pope, 1342-1400.

MAJOR Al-Mustapha, the feared Chief Security Officer, CSO, to the late General Abacha was removed from that exalted office, on June 9, 1998, two days after the death of the man who gave him the power of life and death over others. The sack of his colleague, Gwarzo, as National Security Adviser, took a while longer, but it was inevitable.

Thus in less than one month, the two most feared, most ruthless, and most powerful men in government, after Abacha, had turned from being hunters; they are powerless. They have joined the ranks of the hunted. [And they will be hunted down –especially Mustapha].

Al-Mustapha at the Lagos High court Igbosere Lagos

Nigeria is now a country where “a man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies” (Oscar Wilde, 1856-1900, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 48). And, these guys have made powerful enemies within the military and among the civilian population from the Sokoto Caliphate to Abiola Crescent to Ogoniland. For them life has become one desperate gamble –given their young age.

“There are no desperate situations; only desperate men” (Josef Goebbels, 1897-1945, Hitler’s Chief of Propaganda, in the dying days of the Third Reich; see VANGURAD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 38). Gwarzo and Mustapha have just joined the ranks of the world’s desperate men, people who at the heights of their political power forgot that nothing is as ephemeral as political power in Nigeria and fortune’s favours never last.

They have given the lash to others; if they remain in Nigeria, instead of running away like cowards, they will feel the lash themselves the rest of their lives”.

Already, the pack of hunting dogs are on their trail. Col. Umar (rtd) had opened the hunting season with Gwarzo by demanding for a probe on how Gwarzo spent N12.5 billion on security in one year. Fortune’s honey is about to turn sour for a man who dished out sorrow to millions of his fellow countrymen [and women]…Like most others, intoxicated with great power, he least understood that “Fortune with a slight turn of her wheel brings men from joy to sorrow” (Pope).

Gwarzo will have company in Al-Mustapha, if they ever meet again officially. Mustapha meanwhile will be welcome back to the barracks with as much enthusiasm as a giraffe or gazelle which falls into the clutches of a pride of hungry lions…

Too many Colonels, Brigadiers, not to mention Major-Generals, who had trembled before Major Mustapha would be too glad to have him to kick around now that he has fallen from glory. Again, Pope must have had such a man in mind when he wrote the line: “Fled is thy joy and comes thy bitter hour”. Now he will re-learn what he forgot in his four and a half years as CSO that a Major salutes a Lt-General first and always….

Still, it is life back in the barracks which must prove most threatening to Al, Mustapha, who was once called the “Lion”; probably because he had all the armed forces at his beck and call to unleash against anybody he wished. Now, the world will soon know how tough the man is, when all alone (and he will be alone, you can bet on that), he must face one by one people he had tormented when vested with great powers.

“A man in a suit of armour needs not be brave” (Gustave Flaubert, 1812-1880, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 24); especially when others are unarmed and defenceless…

The days of reckoning are here for those who ignored history and plunged headlong into the cauldron which transient power represents”.

That was in July 1998. Then in September 1998, in a piece whose date cannot be traced, I wrote as follows about Al-Mustapha. “Unless, he follows the footsteps of Karl Omenka, his cowardly and boastful subordinate at the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, and runs away, he will be lucky, once arrested, as he will be, to see his bedroom again or to share the same bed with his wife”.

I even sent him a copy –despite the fact that the man had me arrested and detained four (4) times. The reader might wonder why I would do that for someone who should be regarded as an enemy. The answer is simple. The inspiration to prophecy comes suddenly and the person entrusted with the revelation is powerless about discharging the message; otherwise he wakes up like Jonah in trouble.

TWO LAST LINES  FIRST ONE.
Not because Boko Haram threatened or because some thoughtless northern groups have called for Al Mustapha’s release, but because it is divinely ordered; that is why he will not die by hanging. Eventually, he will be pardoned – to return to a ruined life – spent mostly in loneliness; and still looking over his shoulders for the vendetta seekers after his life.

The man who once called all the “movers and shakers” of Nigeria to his village to launch a development project; and gathered N800 million in one day (about N40 billion today’s purchasing power); will find only a few people waiting to welcome him. He has become “day-before-yesterday’s” man. Prison actually saved his life – otherwise he would have been assassinated years ago.

SECOND ONE
Jonathan has more to fear from his “friends” than from his perceived “enemies”. The Judases in Aso Rock are waiting for an opportunity. As Napoleon, 1769-1815, had warned all leaders coming after him: “Better a declared enemy than a doubtful ally”. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 48).

A word, which as usual they ignore, is sufficient for the wary.
On February 7, 2012, the Managing Director of Shell announced that 140,000 barrels a day is stolen from Nigeria. That’s stale news. Nigerians know that already. What they don’t know is who steals the oil. Wait for the answer.