By Owei Lakemfa

I WAS in the late 1990s, a frequent visitor to the home of pioneer film maker and veteran journalist, Dr. Ola Balogun in Yaba, Lagos. In late 1998 with the unfolding of another Transition Programme to civil rule following the death of General Sani Abacha, he raised with me the desire of former Inspector General of Police, Muhammadu Dikko Yusuf to establish  a political party. Could I assist in the development of the party programme, structure and manifesto?

On this day, Dr. Balogun was screening for me a film on the bloody 1954-62 Algerian War of Independence and how the French colonial intelligence infiltrated the cells of the resistance National Liberation Front, FNL. It was coincidental because MD, as the respected Yusuf was fondly called, was a sort of super spook in Nigerian history. Indeed, he was to me an intriguing personality. He was born a prince, but strived to identify with the commoners. He was an insider in the military regimes of Generals Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo, yet had the appearance of an outsider holding a mirror to these regimes. He served in conservative regimes, but had the image of a radical.

Image of a radical

In his prison memoirs, The Man Died, Professor Wole Soyinka made a favourable portrayal of an interrogator named only as Malam D. This interrogator was identified as MD. In 1975, as an intelligence officer, he detected a coup plot against then military Head of state, General Gowon. The plot and those said to be involved seemed so incredible that Gowon rejected MD’s suggestion that the identified plotters be interrogated. A few weeks later, Gowon was overthrown by the same people MD had identified. Ironically, he was one of the main beneficiaries of that coup as the executors picked him as the new Inspector General of Police.

In another irony, the new military ruler, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, a known conservative, decided to pursue a radical foreign policy. In this, MD with his radical predispositions, found himself in familiar territory. He is credited to have reached out to a number of radical elements in the country and mobilized them for the regime. The result on the foreign policy level, was a lionized Nigeria, leading Africa towards an independent foreign relations path in which against the expressed wish of the United States, the Organisation of African Unity, OAU recognized the radical MPLA as the legitimate representation of the Angolan people in their anti-colonial war against Portugal. This was further strengthened with the recognition of other radical liberation movements in then Potuguse colonies such as the FRELIMO in Mozambique and PAIGC in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde.

MD is also credited with winning many trade unionists like Pascal Bafyau, Paul Epuh, Armstrong Ogbona and Morgan Anigbo to the side of the regime while alienating the more radical ones like Michael Imoudu and Wahab Goodluck. This eventually led to a split in the Trade Union Movement and its subsequent ban by the military regime. After his retirement, MD joined the small but radical Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) founded by the late champion of the Talakawas (the poor) Malam Aminu Kano. There, he was at home with radicals like Bala Usman and Imoudu and writers like Chinua Achebe.

It was in the late 1990s that MD had quite some impact on the country’s politics. The then military ruler, General Sani Abacha, brooked no opposition. Those opposed to his regime were mainly in exile, prison, underground or dead. The rest trod with caution. In his brand of Transition Programme, Abacha licensed five political parties all of which were run by his lackeys. It was assumed that he would be returned unopposed as none dared challenge him. It was at this most repressive point in Nigerian history, that MD emerged to challenge Abacha to an electoral contest.

At first, many were skeptical; was this not a contrived challenge designed to give the Abacha transition from a military ruler to an ‘elected’civilian some credibility? Until today, there are those who hold this view. But what MD did in those days, was give some hope to those on ground who continued to challenge that regime. He told Nigerians that if the Abacha campaigners brought gifts of money, salt, rice or other commodity they should collect them, but vote against Abacha. MD was bold and fearless and many wondered why a regime that was so intolerant would allow him roam the country mobilizing against it.

It was while this contest was being awaited that Abacha died in 1998, and another military regime with its own Transition Programme emerged. It was at this point that Dr. Balogun approached me about MD’s desire to establish the Movement For Democracy And Justice (MDJ) as a political party that could contest the scheduled 1999 general elections. Although I was politically partisan, I was not inclined to being partisan to any political party. But given MD’s antecedents and Dr. Balogun’s insistence, I sat with the latter over days producing a paper on the MDJ. Shortly after, Dr. Balogun said MD wanted us to meet on the paper. He was his usual humble self. Made me feel at home. He discussed his vision and why he wanted to serve as elected president of the country.

MD went on to run for the Presidency. I watched from the side lines in 2003 as he squared off for the Presidency against two of his former colleagues in the Murtala regime; retired Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari. He was to become Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Chairman of the Liquefied Natural Gas Board and member of the Presidential Advisory Board under President Goodluck Jonathan. On Thursday, April 2, 2015, MD bid the world an eternal goodbye.