A Season Of Penitence And Apologies
BY ALABI WILLIAMS
HAVING waited in vain for government to initiate a gesture of genuine reconciliation and appeasement over past illegalities and grave injury done to their persons and to the collective psyche of the people, some notable Nigerians have seized the initiative in a spirited attempt to reconcile with their pasts and with old foes. These attempts are isolated, few and far apart when compared with the huge amount of injustices against persons and against the state. But it does show that there is no running away from genuine and total atonement by Nigerians for the sins of the past.
It could be in any form, whether on the individual basis as has been demonstrated in recent times or that government will officially put a tag on those who have abused Nigerians and Nigeria, with the aim of arousing forgiveness from the people. That is, people have to be compelled to tender apologies for past mistakes and misdemeanour. That could go a long way in healing the land. Otherwise, every new year will continue to add to the long list of wickedness and hurt.
Nigeria is country where too many people have been hurt, and are still being hurt. There is a history of persons, families and ethnic groups who are yearning for justice and vengeance. For instance, since the political disturbances of the First Republic, deep wound have been left in the hearts of persons and their families. Deep cleavages have divided the people against one another. On and on, the story has not changed.
In the South West (old Western Region), political differences created brick walls separating old allies and their supporters. The situation was poorly managed, to the extent that it resulted in serious crisis with attendant loss of lives and properly. That crisis was not resolved in a court of law, as has been the case with politically motivated mob violence. Majority is always right, while those who suffered severe losses were left to mourn their bruises. The principal actors became political enemies and were never reconciled, even as the First Republic collapsed. Their families and followers continued to harbour hatred towards one another.
The northern region suffered losses during the January 15, 1966 coup when their revered political leaders from the region were felled by bullets. That loss was painful and the region calculated that the only way to assuage it was through revenge. That took place on January 29, 1966 when the northern elements in the military staged a counter coup. The idea was to pay back those who were thought to have something to do with the earlier coup, or those who failed to do any thing about it, by way of ensuring that the culprits were punished.
Before the civil war in 1967, almost every group nursed one political animosity or the other against their fellow country men . There was suspicion and fear, arising from the contest for political supremacy. Eventually, hell was let lose as Nigerians who settled in places outside their original abodes were marked for attacks. Eventually, people were summoned to return home. Particularly, the Igbos were summoned to return home as their safety outside the eastern region could no longer be guaranteed. Efforts were made to reconcile the political differences among the key protagonists. But the issues involved were very deep. Ethnic pride and petty rivalry combined to fuel mutual distrust. The Nigeria civil war (1967-70) was clearly the physical demonstration of the deep divide between the people. The war was brutal and painful to all sides. Lives were lost and property were lost and destroyed.
After the war, there was an attempt to reconcile the returning people who had failed in their bid to separate from Nigeria. It was a painful return in a matter in which the returnee had little or no choice. Having been defeated and forced to surrender, there was the psychological wound which time is not sufficient to heal. Added to this, is the material loss in investments built across the country. What about the policy of marginalisation, which is quietly applied to deny qualified persons access to places where they can be put to use on merit
When the military came on board to administer civil governance, it was a strange political system which had been imported to the African continent. It was a deadly game in which the replacement of one set of leaders was carried out through a substitution by elimination process. Many soldiers have lost their lives through coup plots. This loss of personnel is at a huge cost to Nigeria because military officers are trained and sustained with public funds. Such wastage is yet to be calculated for the purpose of demanding apology from those who have participated in such bloody coups. Nigeria demands an apology.
Again, through such plots, military officers gain access to public funds without any prior knowledge in the art of managing common resources of the people. Over the years, soldiers have subjected the economy to gross mismanagement and outright pilfering. This abuse has not been thoroughly investigated with the hope of recovering such stolen resources back into the national coffers. Only the loots of the Abacha household have been contested. What about the others
The most damaging of these abuses is that done to the rights of the people. Human rights abuses in the country have been diverse and horrifying. For instance, during military governments, the media is often prevented from doing its job. Using the various decrees, the government would limit the application of the people's fundamental right to know how their government is being run. The bombing of Dele Giwa is one outstanding case of such abuses against the media. Giwa was a fearless Nigerian journalist who was set to re-branding the practice in the country. His writings were fierce and non-compromising. The fire-brand nature of his commentary soon stepped on toes suspected to belong to people in government. Eventually, Dele Giwa was killed via a parcel bomb in a manner that suggested a state sponsored assassination. That action hurt the people of Nigeria who were witnessing such dastardly act for the first time. It hurt the colleagues of Giwa who initially felt the plot could be unravelled. Gani Fawehinmi took the matter to court and was ready to take on the powers that be. The court system frustrated his moves. Today, Dele Giwa's family is still waiting for justice to be done, in order to heal their grave injury. The family lost a gem and protector, the mother is still waiting. The media family is still waiting for justice to be done.
The civil society has also suffered in the exercise of its right to determine how it is governed. The military tradition has no place for the opposition. It deployed every available resources to ensure that pro-democracy activists are hounded and punished. In that process, the entire civil society has been hurt and is waiting to be appeased. Principal individuals in the civil society have been abused, maimed and killed. Here, we have a long list of Nigerians who at one time or the other have been abused. Wole Soyinka spent 24 months in solitary detention in 1967 for attempting to broker peace between the federal government and the seceding Biafra. He was not tried. Saro Wiwa was hastily tried in a tribunal and sentenced to death along with his Ogoni kinsmen. Gani Fawehinmi has spent substantial days at various prisons across the country as guest of the military governments. Chris Anyanwu spent time at the Kaduna prison for unsubstantiated offences, Beko Ransome Kuki saw hell in the hands of soldiers. Femi Falana also saw hell, for challenging military authorities. These abuses came to a head when Gen. Sani Abacha decided to create a special military unit for eliminating perceived and real opponents of his misrule. Pa Alfred Rewane was assassinated in his Ikeja GRA home for no other offence than that he used his resources to advance the course of multi-party democracy. The man preached good governance through paid media advertorials. That was his offence. Kudirat Abiola was shot in the head by military marksmen who ought to use their skill to protect the territory of Nigeria. She died, leaving behind her children who are still hurting. Chief MKO Abiola died in detention where he was a guest of the federal government. His death was a huge loss for millions of Nigerians who admired him. His large family and dependants have missed him. What about his vast business empire which has evaporated into nothingness This man who preached reparation has lost everything, and no one is out there to preach about his losses.
This catalogue of abuses and losses beginning form the First Republic to 1998 beckoned for redress and punishment. Redress for those whose rights have been violated and trampled upon. Punishment for those who grossly violated the rights of others and made them to suffer without justification. At that time, Olusegun Obasanjo had himself just been liberated from prison where he had been served a very raw deal by the Abacha government. He was substantially sober to realise that a lot was unjustly done in the past, and that genuine reconciliation was needed to heal the wounds and re-unite Nigerians.
In June 1999, President Obasanjo put together an eight-man Human Rights Investigation Panel which was charged with the assignment to examine cases of human rights abuses since 1984. Why the time frame was put at 1984 was perhaps, to make it convenient in terms of volume of work which the panel will be saddled with if it were backdated to 1960. But as it turned out, Nigerians who suffered aggravated damages had to go beyond the 1984 time frame to locate their injuries. For instance, the Igbo demanded for three trillion naira as reparation for the losses Ndigbo suffered during the civil war.
The idea really was to heal the wounds in a manner that was likened to the South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a post-apartheid fact-finding commission which apportioned blames and secured remorse from all parties which played roles in the days of apartheid.
Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, chairman of the panel, which was later named a commission promised to heal the wounds and reconcile aggrieve people with those who tormented them. He said; "We will ascribe blames, but we will try to heal the wounds of the nation. We want to see that the wounds of the past are healed. In a way, justice must be done to the victims, and justice must be done to the society at large. An eye for an eye will leave every body blind, that is the central philosophy behind our work. Primarily, we are not a court of law, we make recommendations to the government and the government will now make decisions whether people should be charged to court, whether people should pay reparation."
That was the mandate and the understanding at the setting up of the commission. Nigerians were enthusiastic, that there was going to be an opportunity for them to ventilate anger and seek redress. At the close of the submission of memoranda, the commission received 1,500 memoranda from members of the public and it chronicled the very worse of abuses anybody could imagine. To the extent that, Justice Oputa, no minding his long years of service in the judiciary was shocked at what Nigerians can do to one another. He said, "sometimes, I feel worried when I read contents of the memoranda. I ask myself, did all these occur in Nigeria. I'm sure if you read some of the memoranda you will feel like crying."
That was how serious the matter was, until some people who didn't want to be questioned over their pasts decided to take the commission to court over its Constitutional validity. From that point, it already appeared that some past actors are not ready yet for any reconciliation. Particularly, former Presidents Mohammed Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida refused to appear before the Commission. Justice Oputa equally decided not to force them to appear because of what he called, "the need to nurture and consolidate the nation's nascent and fledging democracy." According to him, the pains of an ensuing prosecution might traumatise the polity.
However, the HRVIC concluded its investigations and submitted its report to President Obasanjo. The president decided to sit on it, apparently, for fear of stepping on toes and perhaps, to sustain the present level of peaceful co-existence. For according to Justice Oputa, "If the nation were to embark on criminal prosecution, we may find that few people would be spared. It is absolutely necessary for us to quickly lose the dark and bleak chapters of our history to avoid confrontation with erstwhile powerful forces now sitting on the fence and waiting for opportunity to stage a come back."
That opportunity has come, and these people are still not remorseful. Prof. Wole Soyinka has asked IBB to apologise to Nigerians for wasting their time , money and many lives in prosecuting his fake political programmes which ended in June 12, 1993.
While it has become clear that the present government does not have the will to open the HRVIC report for public scrutiny, and does not intend to provide opportunities for genuine reconciliation, some Nigerians have already started to humble themselves before those who nurse anger towards them.
Gen. Yakubu Gowon is an exemplary statesman in this regard. He goes about trying to heal wounds which his actions while in government, decades ago may have caused. He has explained the reasons why the civil war became inevitable and has apologised to all who were affected. He has apologised to Soyinka over his detention during his (Gowon's) days in government. Gowon attended the burial service of late Gen. Joseph Garba, one of his closest lieutenants who staged the coup which ousted him from office. He is a peace loving statesman who goes about spreading true and genuine reconciliation.
Former president Shehu Shagari has also expressed love and forgiveness for those who staged the coup that ousted him from office. That coup was very upsetting for some of the politicians who got a raw deal from the military government of Gen. Buhari. For instance, Umaru Dikko is yet to forgive that government for attempting to smuggle him home from the United Kingdom in a crate. For that, Shagari has shown sufficient magnanimity. It was Shagari who also granted state pardon to Gowon and Odumegwu Ojukwu during the Second Republic.
Until recently, Buhari and Babangida could not see eye to eye , because of the feeling of guilt and anger after the coup which transferred power to the IBB boys in 1985. Many survivors and families of coup victims are still full of rage and anger against those who executed their love ones.
There is a lot of anger in the land and it is difficult to predict what will happen next, particularly, when some culprits are still going about without the slightest show of remorse. The situation now is not better than it was during the military days, more crime is being committed and many people and communities are asking for justice. People are aggrieved in Odi; as there is anger in Zaki Biam. People are mortally injured in Kano as there is pain on the Plateau. Why is it so difficult for president Obasanjo to open old wounds and bring the culprits to book; why is it difficult for there to be genuine reconciliation in Nigeria
