By Ugoji Egbujo

It was on the 31st of December 1983 that he erupted. His fellow countrymen took the shock with hope. He spat righteous indignation at their captors before they were corralled into jail.  Hospitals had become mere consulting clinics, he told us. And we agreed. He could no longer tolerate our predicament. Some cheered, innocently.  It all seemed so patriotic.

He pronounced our democracy too strife-ridden to live, he seemed a good omen. Politicians had abandoned leadership for thievery and frivolous living. Squandermania! He sounded like Solomon. Later, we had clarity. He was clowning. He was an impostor. Now, we have even more clarity. He was a thief.

But in Nigeria leaders can be everything and yet, deities.  This is only in the interest of national unity. They are all fathers of the nation.Every leader, no matter how despicable his rule, manages to hang onto, and retire into,  some greatness.  Prime Minister Cameron can think whatever he likes. We, Africans, respect our elders. We can’t let ridicule come near our esteemed leaders.

They are not fantastic rogues. Cameron doesn’t understand our uniquely complex system. We can’t prize ourselves out of that slavish sentimentality.

That is why we can rail at Western countries for hoarding monies our leaders have siphoned from our treasury, but we can’t come home and call a spade a spade. How can we call our dear Sani Abacha, the creator of Bayelsa State, a thief?

When our Attorney General saunters into the United States we will be told that the breakthrough is the fruit of President Buhari’s determined diplomatic forays.  We are always there to be told things. And his integrity will be the reason why this chunk is being returned now. America had cringed when the tranche handed to Jonathan in 2015 was flagrantly abused.  It was given to Dasuki to fight the insurgency. Buffoonery, we have been told, drains the political will to save, and promotes profligacy.  But what exactly causes Abacha-type compulsive looting of a communal treasury?

When he revealed himself to the nation after the 1983 coup, Abacha, flew the flag of rectitude.  Ten years later, the Abacha who stepped in to ease out  a  confused Shonekan was the caricature of rectitude.  He was shadiness, goggles and all. When he mounted the saddle, he no longer talked about corrupt leadership. Corruption had since become cultural.

The malignancy -advance fee fraud(419) – had metastasized. Who would believe that it was under the puckered noses of the sanctimonious military redeemers that our senior government officials  learnt to rent their offices to 419 fraudsters?  Foreigners were regularly shepherded  into the boardrooms of our Central  Bank and  the NNPC by  fraudsters  who freely played government officials in broad daylight.

When Abacha met substantial political opposition following the military’s refusal to honour Abiola’s election, he embraced Mobutu-type brutality.  He told us he was instilling discipline. Political opponents who didn’t succumb to intimidation were assassinated in broad daylight. Regime’s agents murdered randomly to make those it threw into dark dungeons develop some sense of gratitude.

Musa Yar Adua’s ambition was considered disproportionately large, so he was served the regime’s “kill and dry” (poison). When all flames of dissent appeared extinguished, many had scurried into holes in exile; ‘the great one’ began a metamorphosis into ‘the indispensable one’.

When Abacha died on June 8, 1998, a beleaguered nation let out a gasp of relief. The cup of a Mussolini  reign had passed it by. He had lured 2 million youthful minds into servitude. Avaricious elders had joined timid men in yearning earnestly for bondage. Some intellectuals suspended reason and elected to be senior slaves.  They joined in identifying that singular head the cap could ever fit. 2010 was the year he would have herded us into his paradise.

Many who had bragged that an Idi-Amin could  not happen in Nigeria went limp when General Malu started  wearing Abacha’s  badge on his military uniform.Caring wives of military officers had started instilling the prudence of   wearing  Abacha’s face on the chest into the heads of  their prideful husbands.  Fawning was loyalty, and the wisdom of the time.

After he swatted away a Sultan with reckless ease, no traditional ruler would have been absent at his coronation –“The giver of life and death of Nigeria”.  But since his death we have been confronted with the fullness of  his nakedness. The bible warned us about false prophets. Taciturnity and dark glasses had masked so much.  Tribunals for every failed endeavour had painted the picture of a  no-nonsense, anti-corruption crusader and turned courageous men into  servile wimps.  Men and women genuflected and fawned uncontrollably and needlessly. When the husk was discarded, only stark  depravity remained.

Abacha, the Great, stole much more than all Nigerian  bank robbers put together since 1914.  He didn’t steal?  O yes, he is still innocent. But how did our money end up in his accounts? To have gathered those billions of dollars when crude  prices were relatively low, Abacha must have stolen compulsively and omnivorously.

When Lawrence Anini, the Great, held Benin banks in utter contempt and breezed in and out of their vaults, he received commensurate opprobrium. Anini was baptized, king of thieves.  But how much did he really steal?  And how many did he even kill? Does he deserve that title? Anini who always let market women have some crumbs to scramble for; who never pretended to be anything other than a robber.

Abacha had,   while announcing the 1983 coup, with a face that hid nothing,  described himself as a protector and promoter of national interests. It is possible he hadn’t been afflicted by gluttony then. Who knew we would all be living witnesses to his transfiguration into a multi-billionaire (dollar) while in military service. Had we extended our naivety to bestowing GCFR on  Anini,  I suspect he would have declined, honorably. He was less dissembling, infinitely less gluttonous and definitely less bloodthirsty than many others.

Yet, when we laid our hands on Anini, we put him to death, by firing squad. He was truly a nobody. We lynch pickpockets daily.  And save thieving politicians for adulation and deification.  Abacha the Great,despite the stone-hard evidence of repatriated  billions of dollars, has not been prosecuted. An Agege woman would scream ‘O ma seoo!’ at that perfidy. But Abacha was a great man. He retains his 4 stars.

Perhaps he is being maliciously vilified here.  He hangs onto the big  title,  GCFR. His name continues to adorn national monuments. He is innocent until proven guilty.  Have all others been prosecuted? So his supporters are willing to lapse into self immolation if justice stepped in.  Justice can’t afford to be selective. So a timid nation trudges on with vertiginous moral confusion.

I was a student in the military school when Abacha came on radio to tell the nation how corrupt politicians had bled the country into coma. Military instructors in school had told us then that death could not save any soldier from the consequences of  gravely irresponsible  or criminal behaviour.  We always believed our military instructors. Posthumous court-martial  session was dramatized,  and we were left to absorb the awe of military discipline. So why haven’t Abacha’s shoe and cap been brought before a panel?

Fela was right. “Authority stealing pass armed robbery”. “But you no go hear dem shout Thief ! Thief!  Thief!  You no go hear dem  shout Rogue! Rogue! Rogue! …”

“We must do something about this nonsense!”