By Osa Mbonu-Amadi, Arts Editor

It may appear easy to write on subjects like the story of Abacha – stories which are already well-known by people. But in reality, writing such a popular story is one of the most tasking of endeavors. First, the author has to bring into the story some aspects that were unknown to many, otherwise, it becomes the proverbial effort to reinvent the wheel.  Second, the author must ensure that he gets all his facts right, given that most of the facts of the story or subject are well-known by people and already in the public domain. The book, “Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s most powerful defence minister and head of state” by Adebayo Adeolu, published by Kraft, falls within the category of such popular stories.

For instance, from this book, we gain the insight that fetishism was most scandalously rife in the military and seat of power, and most likely still is, till today. The reader reads how Babangida, Abacha and others made themselves hostages to marabouts and so-called seers by frequently consulting them and believing whatever they were told: “…he (Babangida) actually wanted to stay till 1995, thereby making it ten years in office as allegedly already predicted to him by one seer…,” the author writes about Babangida on page 39.

On page 47, the author brings to the fore something else many people may not have known. Through an authorial comment, he portrays the late Gani Fawehinmi as not being a “just man who did justice”, contrary to what many of us believed about Gani: 

“Gani Fawehinmi, the radical human right lawyer who often acted screaming his head off when criticizing the army had during the launch of his book, titled June 12 Crisis called on the military to kick out the illegal interim government. Gani had often fought against injustice but many times, he was not really a just man who did justice, you could not even go to his chambers and photocopy anything from an old newspaper or magazine. He behaved as if the right to information belonged to him alone, he often over worked his staff and almost made them slaves in his office. He found it easy to always criticize others and condemn their actions but he was just like most men in Nigeria. He made lawyers work round the clock, Mondays to Sundays. His composure and mannerism had been at odds with many in the silk profession, denying him the post of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for many years.”

Is this author’s assessment of Gani Fawehinmi correct? We leave the reader and all those who know the late fiery human rights lawyer well to make up their minds on that.

From page 50-51, we also learned something new: That Abiola agreed to Abacha’s proposal to send names of people he wanted to join Abacha’s government. “He (Abiola) later claimed that some of his supporters and those within who were to be members of his cabinet like Baba Gana Kingibe and Jakande asked that they cooperate with Abacha or risk losing out to political rivals. Who would not hesitate to join the new government?

According to the author, “Abiola eventually said anyone who wanted to join or participate in the Abacha government was free to do so if appointed by the regime. Kingibe’s reaction was that he had spent a lot of money during the political campaign and would like to get his resources back by serving in the government.”

Justifying Abacha by blaming Babangida, the author writes: “The election was done by Babangida, but he also cancelled it. This was a new government and they were not in power because of Abiola, The June 12 election and mandate was dead for good. General Ibrahim Babangida never wanted Abiola as president so he single handedly cancelled the election. Dragging the name of others into the matter and blaming others had been one of his manipulative tendency to get sympathy and the public to love him again.”

Then, the author courageously moves in to claim legitimacy for Abacha’s government: “The Abacha government became credible and legitimate through Chief Abiola’s nod by having the likes of Kingibe and Jakande in the new cabinet along with his inner caucus members of the SDP such as Solomon Lar, a former governor, Abubakar Rimi, Jim Nwobodo etc. the selection of these key figures soon put an end to the agitation of the June 12 mandate and Chief MKO Abiola soon faded into the background with the June 12 mandate ended.”

In chapter 12, from page 92-98, the author discusses the alleged coup to overthrow Abacha widely accepted as a phantom coup. Many people would think it is already an established fact that Abacha used Bamaiyi to create the phantom coup and then lured Diya and the rest into it. But the author distances Abacha from it and believes there was actually a coup planned to oust Abacha. He writes on page 98: “General Sani Abacha made a move to talk to some of the conspirators before they decided to speak to him. It was at this point that they should have realized the plans they were making already leaked but it seemed they were all confused and disoriented in their focus.”

But there are counter narratives. For instance, Dare Babarinsa, in “Old truth and the Bamaiyi tales”, published in The Guardian of April 5, 2017, has this to say about the Abacha phantom coup: “The day Diya and the generals were paraded before television cameras as they were marched into the military tribunal demonstrated the absoluteness of Abacha’s power. Here were the creams of the military; Diya, General Olanrewaju, General Abdulkareem Adisa and some of the younger officers like Colonel Soda and Major Seun Fadipe, were brought in in handcuffs and leg chains. In a brief but bold remark before the military tribunal, Diya asked: ‘Where is Bamaiyi? He is the planner and the masterminder!’ …Diya alleged that while the generals, including the commander of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, came to him to talk about their desire to remove Abacha, Bamaiyi was playing the role of the traitor. He allegedly was carrying a tape on his body supplied by Abacha henchmen.” Even the author confirmed this statement from Diya on page 102, though in a different quoted statement.

The death of Abacha, the climax of the story which the reader should obviously look forward to as a result of the information on the grapevine that Abacha was poisoned by an apple given to him by an Indian prostitute, was uneventfully and most briefly dispatched with by the author on page 115 in less than 200 words:

“By Sunday June 7, 1998, the chairman of the Palestinian movement; the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat made an unexpected stopover in Nigeria during his trip to Morocco and met briefly with General Abacha at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. Arafat inspected a guard of honour mounted by the Brigade of Guards and as he was about leaving, a tall Israeli or American who was with him extended his hand for a handshake to General Abacha who obliged him. Getting back to the car, the Head of State felt funny but continued with his activities while Arafat’s plane departed for Morocco.

“He returned to the villa at 6pm and was still hale and hearty but within nine hours, it seemed the poison had taken effect. By 4am, the General was dead. The Head of State had been poisoned and since no autopsy was done, most people just speculated but such high-profile assassinations are known and popular till date with the CIA, KGB, M15.”

Adebayo Adeolu, by writing this book the way he did, has no doubt stirred hornet’s nest. He should expect brick bats and fires hurled at him as more people read this highly controversial book.