Daily Independent Online.
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Wednesday, July 07, 2004.
Abacha, not as bad as people portray him — Malami
If there is anything Alhaji Shehu Malami cherishes so much,
it is the fact that he holds a national award. “You missed my national
honour when you called my name. I hold the honour of OFR (Officer of the
distinguished Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria). I am very proud of
that”, he mildly rebuked the interviewer. Malami, Nigeria’s first
High Commissioner to post apartheid South Africa, is urbane and debonair but
also a man of culture. For somebody who has seen it all in government and
public service, he has now quietly retired to his roots in Sokoto State. A
scion of the all-powerful Sokoto Caliphate, Malami holds the traditional title
of Sarkin Sudan of Wurno, a position, which makes him a prominent member of the
Sultanate Council. Having gone back home, the Sokoto Prince insists that he is
now apolitical. Convincing him, therefore, to comment on political issues was
akin to driven the proverbial camel through the eye of a needle. But try, we
did and the result was this exclusive interview in his country home in Sokoto,
a day after the grand finale of the bicentenary anniversary of the Sokoto
Caliphate. He fielded questions from Ikechukwu Amaechi, Group
Politics Editor. Excerpts.
Apart from your
stint as Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to the post apartheid South
Africa, not many Nigerians know much about your public career even though the
name Shehu Malami rings a bell. So, how did you clinch the plum job in spite of
the fact that you were neither a career diplomat nor worked in the Foreign
Affairs Ministry?
As you said, I was
the first Nigerian High Commissioner to the Republic of South Africa. Dr. Tunji
Olagunju, the current High Commissioner, succeeded me. So, it is my greatest pleasure
to be given the opportunity by General Sani Abacha to be the first Nigerian
High Commissioner in South Africa. And there is a story behind my appointment.
When Dr. Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he came to say thank you very
much to General Ibrahim Babangida and to Nigeria, for all the assistance given
to not only South Africa but also the whole of Southern Africa in order to
liberate the region from the clutches of apartheid. When Mandela came, Chief
Emeka Anyaoku, who was then the deputy secretary general of the Commonwealth,
introduced me to him at the Hilton Hotel, Abuja. I still have the picture three
of us took at the Hilton after he was released from prison. Subsequently, I was
going to South Africa for various conferences and at one time, I was a member
of the governing council of the World Economic Forum, which used to hold its
conference in Geneva and Mandela was often going there and other Southern
African leaders too. Even before the lifting of the sanction on apartheid, in
1991, there was a Commonwealth conference in Harare, Zimbabwe. By then, Emeka
Anyaoku had become the secretary general of the Commonwealth. He invited me and
I went all the way to Harare in 1991. So, after that, I became more and more
interested in going to Southern Africa.
But before then, in
1987, there was a conference on Southern Africa, again held in Harare, Zimbabwe
and I went together with Anyaoku. He challenged me that I know Europe and I
didn’t know Africa. That was when I started getting interested in the
region and close to people, and I maintained contact with them. Even when we
were in the Constitution Conference Commission, there was one conference that
took place in South Africa, so I told Sani Abacha that I was going for the
conference and he said, oh, when you see Mandela, give him my regards.
Therefore, when he
was going for the presidential inauguration of Mandela in 1994, he said that I
should go with him and there he saw the calibre and number of people I knew and
how I was received and when we came back, he said, please go and be our High
Commissioner in South Africa. That was how I became Nigeria’s High
Commissioner to South Africa.
But there is
this general impression that there was no love lost between Mandela and Abacha.
That impression seems to run contrary to the rather chummy picture you have
just painted of their relationship.
Abacha and Mandela
worked together very well initially. The cordial relationship only broke down
after the hanging of the Ogoni people and Mandela called us barbarians. The
interesting thing is that Sani Abacha appointed me High Commissioner to South
Africa but as you know, you have to get the permission of the country to which
the ambassador is accredited.
So, we sent for
permission from Mandela for him to accept me as Nigeria’s High
Commissioner to South Africa. He was away to the United Nations for the celebration
of the 50th anniversary of the UN. He came back to South Africa and then left
for New Zealand for the Commonwealth summit. He was in New Zealand when the
Ogoni people were hanged and he called us barbarians and Sani Abacha said,
well, “what do you think of a man who was in prison for over 27 years,
the man is mental”. So, that relationship broke down from then on until
the time when it got better for me to take off and assume duties as
Nigeria’s High Commissioner in South Africa. So, although I was appointed
in September 1995, I didn’t resume duties until June 1996.
How were you
able to manage such a dicey diplomatic situation considering the fact that the
relationship between both leaders never really improved until Abacha’s
death?
I was Nigeria’s
High Commissioner from 1996 to 1999 when I left. It wasn’t easy because
it was an enormous responsibility. When I first arrived in South Africa in June
1996, although I knew Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and so many other people before
then, in fact, I gave Mbeki dinner in Geneva in October 1991 but I never
accepted to be in South Africa for anything, not even to go on a visit because
apartheid was still on. But I have since then maintained my relationship with
Thabo Mbeki. So, what happened was
that, though I knew all these people before 1996, they did not find it fit to
accredit me. It took me from June 1996 when I arrived in South Africa to August
for them to schedule the presentation of my credentials. Meanwhile, the
tradition in South Africa is that until you present your credentials to the
President, you cannot attend any official function. So, from June to August, I
could not go to any official function.
But what I did was
to mobilise Nigerian professionals in South Africa. There were many of the
professionals - architects, doctors, lawyers, lecturers, name them. There
is no university in South Africa that you won’t find Nigerian lecturers
and students. Meanwhile, while I was trying to get to know people, I could not
attend any official function and Mandela’s word in South Africa was law
and so anybody who was in good terms with him was in good terms with everybody
and vice versa, and his influence also spread to the rest of the world. Because
nobody in South Africa then would like to speak to a Nigerian government
official, all that period, nobody was able to speak to me.
But the day I
presented my credentials, he (Mandela) changed his mind completely. All he said
was, you (Nigeria) are the leaders of Africa, you are our brothers and sisters
and we reserve the right if you do anything wrong to tell you off. But after
that, Mandela himself became Nigeria’s ambassador and he was speaking
very highly of Nigeria. Mandela, as you know, is a very good man; he became our
ambassador to the whole world.
In a recent
interview we had with Chief Tom Ikimi, the former Foreign Affairs Minister, he
accused Anyaoku of precipitating the suspension of Nigeria from the
Commonwealth. You were close to
Anyaoku then and even now and you were Nigeria’s High Commissioner to
South Africa then, so you were in a position to know what actually happened.
Could Ikimi’s allegation be true?
I didn’t know
what actually led to the suspension. All I know is that when the news leaked
out to Mandela in New Zealand that the Ogoni people were about to be hanged or
that they had been hanged, he made frantic efforts to speak with Sani Abacha on
the telephone to find out what the situation was. He could not get through to
Sani Abacha. He called Alhaji Alhaji who was our High Commissioner in England
then but who was also in New Zealand for the conference. He begged Alhaji
Alhaji to “please contact my leader”. In spite of their
disagreement, all the time, Mandela called Abacha my leader. He even addressed
General Abdulsalami Abubakar like that. He would always ask you, how is
Abdulsalami my leader? So he told Alhaji Alhaji, “please can you get me
my leader to speak to”? And again, Alhaji Alhaji tried to get Abacha but
couldn’t. So Mandela told him; “Go and get me Tom Ikimi”.
Ikimi took an inordinately long time to see Mandela who was then under
tremendous pressure to criticise Nigeria.
So, that was how he
lost his temper and when they went for the conference, he started abusing
Nigeria. I didn’t know what actually led to the suspension but this
aspect I am telling you now, I know very well. I heard it both from Mandela
himself and Mbeki. So, I don’t know in details what actually led to the
suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth.
You better talk to
Anyaoku; he may be able to tell you. But Anyaoku is my great brother. I have
known him for many years.
I was going to
ask you, what kind of person is he? Could he possibly be the quisling that
Ikimi tried to portray him as?
I just told you he
is my good brother. Do you expect me to tell you he is a bad man? All I know is
that he is dedicated to Nigeria, he is one man who is very proud of his
Nigerian citizenship and then he is recognised all over the world. I am very
proud that he is a Nigerian and that he is my very good friend.
You worked very
closely with General Abacha. Many people hold the view that his was the most
fiendish regime that ever ruled Nigeria. So, what kind of person was he?
Well, it is a
matter of opinion. But I can tell you one incident. When he arrested Shehu Musa
Yar’Adua for the first time, a member of his (Yar’Adua’s)
family, M.T. Usman who was formally Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of
Works (he is now the Turaki of Katsina) and we were together in the
Constitution Conference Commission came all the way from Kaduna to see me. I
was staying at the Sheraton Hotel and he came and said, please, I know how
close you are to General Sani Abacha. I want you to please help me to ensure
that he (Yar’Adua) was released and that evening, I had an appointment to
see Abacha and I went with Sule Hamman who is alive. Hamman is one of the
leading lights of ANPP. I think he is the campaign manager for General Buhari.
He was also there at the Constitution Conference Commission with me and I took
him that evening to see Abacha. After discussing so many things, I told Sani
Abacha; “Sir, Shehu Yar’Adua has been arrested and his father is
like my father. Sir, Yar’Adua is my junior boy in school like Buhari
also. Sir, you are the fountain of honour. You have arrested him and you have
every right to do so, but please temper justice with mercy. Sule Hamman also
chipped in a word, “please sir, you have heard what Sarkin Sudan has
said, sir, please, it will be good if you could consider releasing
Yar’Adua.”
Abacha didn’t
utter a word. I took quite a long time to plead with him. Sule Hamman supported
me and he didn’t say anything. But just as we were coming out, he
accompanied me to the car, and I told him again, “Your Excellency, I have
spoken to you about Yar’Adua. What do you say?” And he said, thank
you, leave it for me.” And he got Yar’Adua released the following
day. Yaya Kwande is a living witness. He was a great friend of Shehu
Yar’Adua, and he (Yar’Adua) sent him all the way from Kaduna to
come and thank me for the part I played in making sure that Abacha released
him.
So, Abacha
couldn’t have been that bad. He may have done some wrong things but there
was also something good about him.
As an insider,
what was Yar’Adua’s sin for which he was arrested and subsequently
killed in prison?
Well, at the time,
they said he travelled to the US and Europe and in all the conferences taking
place, he asked the military to leave for civilians to come back. That was a
little of the background.
Was Abacha
really interested in self-succession?
I don’t know.
I never discussed with him. But I told his very close friends that he should
not succeed himself. I told Abdulsalami who fortunately is still alive. I told
the late General Ibrahim Gumel. I told these two that Abacha should not succeed
himself and I believe some of my opinion filtered to him. But I never discussed
the issue with him and he never told me that he wanted to succeed himself.
But you will
agree that his five-year rule, of which you were a prominent member, pulled
Nigeria back several years and diminished us as a people?
Opinions are
different. I may say yes, I may say no. But you are now going into politics,
which I told you I wouldn’t go into because I am not into politics. Sani
Abacha was my very good friend and I will never ignore, abandon or deny him. I
cannot at this stage say that he is not my friend.
