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CAN IBB REALLY GO FREE? By It has been said, over and over again, that IBB destroyed the Nigerian economy and looted our treasury. It has been said, though loud and clear, that IBB is responsible for the gruesome murder of Dele Giwa. Whether these allegations are true or not, they are some of the burdens IBB have to carry for the rest of his life. On the murder allegation, each time the Nigerian people are to know exactly who masterminded what happened to Dele Giwa on that very fateful day, IBB is wont to seeking court orders to bar the Nigerian people from ever knowing the truth about the most sadistic murder ever perpetrated in Nigeria.
Can IBB continue to hide behind court orders and injunctions? Sans doubt, the looming legal drama between the two most powerful political Generals of our time will prove whether IBB is truly above the laws of the land. While the objective here is to reverberate a wakening gong to galvanize all conscientious and right-thinking Nigerians to stand up and demand accountability from IBB and those who abetted the military to destroy Nigeria and loot our treasury, it is also to reflect on the gruesome murder of Dele Giwa and whether the true identity of the mastermind and perpetrators will ever be known.
Albeit President Olusegun Obasanjo has been unable, whether due to unwillingness or cravenness, to take on the self-proclaimed evil genius and make him amenable to the law, every right-thinking Nigerian, both at home and abroad, continues to bemoan why nothing has been done to get IBB and his disciples to render full account of their stewardship while in a despicable service to our nation. Since coming to power Obasanjo has looked the other way in the matter of our looted funds, especially when the name, IBB, is mentioned. Instead, Obasanjo has concentrated all our efforts and resources in the persecution and prosecution of the Abachas and their trusted cohorts, in what has become a personal vendetta and reprisal against the Abachas. Every Nigerian knows that the Abachas are not the only ones who looted our treasury. Every Nigerian knows that the Abachas are not the only ones who destroyed our society. Every Nigerian knows that the Abachas are certainly not the only ones who murdered fellow Nigerians.
It is public knowledge that IBB looted our treasury without mercy. It is public knowledge too that IBB stashed his loots from the Nigerian people in foreign banks. It is public knowledge too that IBB has emerged as the most powerful person in Nigeria today. Why and how has one man become so powerful that every one is afraid of him? The reason is very simple! IBB is the richest man in the country today. How did he become so super-rich? How did he acquire his wealth? Would all his salaries, remunerations, and perquisites while in the Nigerian Army, even if untouched and placed in the most lucrative investments in the world, account for his sumptuous wealth today? Do not ask me! Go and ask President Obasanjo!!
Since Obasanjo continues to look the other way when it concerns the recovery of our looted funds from those who misruled and treated the Nigerian people with insouciance, maybe we need to ask him to take us to the place where IBB built his manufacturing firm. Maybe we need to ask Obasanjo to show us the financial markets where IBB invested and made his billions.
Maybe we need to ask Obasanjo to show us the will IBB parents used to bequeath him their wealth. Maybe we need to ask Obasanjo to present to the Nigerian people all the records of IBB’s billion dollars lottery winnings.
Even though IBB remains an enigma in our society, everyone seems to be singing his praises and harping on how he is this and that. What is very revulsing, and dejectingly so, is how so many Nigerians can be so fooled to get amnesia of what happened to them when IBB was in power. It is very sad that Nigerians have forgotten so soon that IBB orchestrated most of the problems besetting Nigerians today. It is very sad that Nigerians continue to prostrate and kowtow to IBB when they know too well that he destroyed our country. Only in Nigeria, and perhaps other third world countries, can past dictators and looters flaunt their stolen wealth with impunity.
Some Nigerians continue to talk of IBB’s goodwill and all of that. What goodwill? The Structural Adjustment Program (SAP)? What goodwill? For leading the country into the depth and unfathomable abyss of economic depredation and social depravity? What good will? The June 12th episode? What goodwill? For single-handedly annulling the 1993 Presidential election results supposedly won by Chief MKO Abiola? What good will? For looting Nigeria of billions of dollars? What and where is the goodwill that people are talking about in IBB? Verily, IBB remains an enigma to Nigerians because he is a riddle cast inside the mystery of our economic devastation and looted funds.
Why do Nigerians continue to glamorize and canonize IBB? What peculiar qualities does IBB have that make people to think he has what it takes to save Nigeria? Was IBB not in the realm of affairs in Nigeria before? Has IBB not ruled Nigeria before when he had absolute power? What did he do? What were his achievements? What did he bequeath upon Nigerians when he left the government to luxuriate himself in the comfort of our looted funds in Minna? IBB retired to his Minna Empire and left Nigerians in abject destitution, crippled economy, looted treasury, annulled election results, and the satanically sadistic Abacha.
Looting Nigeria into unfathomable abyss of economic depredation is not the only thing IBB and his followers did to Nigeria. IBB did much more. It is public knowledge in Nigeria that IBB is the prime suspect in the dastard murder of Dele Giwa. Since the life of Dele Giwa was ominously snuffed out of him through a parcel bomb, IBB has done one thing or the other to thwart the proper investigation of the matter. During the Oputa Panel hearing, IBB had the opportunity to present his version of the story and clear himself. He did not do that. Instead, he defiantly stood up the panel, rushing guiltily to hide behind a court order baring Oputa Panel from enjoining him to testify.
“A clear conscience fears no accusation.” If so, why is IBB so peeved and always going to court to seek injunctions? Everyone knows that murder is a serious offense, and anyone thus accused has and deserves every right of redress through a fair and unprejudiced hearing and adjudication in a court of law.
However, IBB’s resolve to hide behind court orders in constructed attempts to truncate justice is a strong protestation of guilt and attempt to divert and possibly suffocate justice in this matter. While IBB must know that all Nigerians are not obtusely gullible, it should be noted, at this very juncture, that his shameless and incessant petitions to suppress the truth about Dele Giwa’s murder have given radiance to his insincerity and raised the level of suspicion of the people apropos who is actually responsible. The various actions and court order requests have suggested that IBB really has something terrible to hide. Commonsense should tell the people that IBB is not buying time by his senseless request for self-implicating court orders. Instead, he is playing games with the Nigerian justice system in a demented zeal to run from justice.
When it comes to the matter of the murder of Dele Giwa as it relates to IBB, one can only say that justice in Nigeria is not only blind, but also dumb and stupid. If the court thinks that IBB, the alleged mastermind of the gruesome murder, has rights that must be protected, what happens to the rights of the aggrieved family of Dele Giwa? Should the courts not be wise enough to grant them fair measure of justice by making sure that every suspect in the case is thoroughly investigated? Can IBB continue to shield himself from the law by hiding behind court orders? The foregoing questions may not be successfully answered until Obasanjo can boldly implement the recommendations of the Oputa Panel report, which has amply indicted IBB in the death of Dele Giwa.
As was expected, IBB, in his usual maradonic guile, has gone to court in an effort to stop the Federal Government of Nigeria from publishing or implement the recommendations of the Oputa Panel report, contending that it has been politicized. The interesting question here is was the murder of Dele Giwa not politicized from the very beginning? Was the circumstance of Dele Giwa’s death not politicized? Was the manner of the horrific murder of Dele Giwa not politicized? Is politics not about power and control? Was Dele Giwa’s murder not related to his resolved to expose abuse of power and control? Was Dele Giwa not about to expose some powerful drug barons? Any man who thinks he is above the law of the land is suffering from a self-delusion of imbecilic grandeur. When IBB refused to appear before the Oputa Panel to testify, he claimed doing so would grant opportunity and penchant for people to assail his dignity.
This time, he is going to court to bar the Nigerian people from ever knowing what happened to Dele Giwa, saying the matter has been politicized.
Since Obasanjo went from prison to become the President of Nigeria, which was made possible by the mysterious and welcome death of Abacha, IBB has tried to bully and box Obasanjo to the corner. This time, Obasanjo has mustered enough courage to withstand IBB’s intimidation. He has picked up the fighting gloves by employing the services of a renowned archenemy of IBB in the pursuit of truth in the murder of Dele Giwa. Obasanjo has gone to hire a man who has a score to settle with IBB in this particular murder case. He has hired Gani Fawehemi, a man of distinguished legal luminary and scintillating courtroom prowess to be the government’s prime legal counsel in IBB’s suit to prohibit the report of the Oputa Panel.
Albeit some legal pundits and analysts are arguing about the moral as well as political justification and ramification in Fawehami’s acceptance of the case, Obasanjo must be commended for overcoming his erstwhile pusillanimity to take on a man that many Nigerians consider to be the richest and most powerful person around today in our society. Should Obasanjo be able to hold his own against the dubious “maradonism” and enormous wealth at the disposal of IBB and force a proper and thorough investigation of the unsolved mystery of the murder of Dele Giwa, he will be setting the right tone and sending the message that our leaders are not above the law after all. Obasanjo will be laying the foundation for our future leaders that anyone who commits a crime against his or her fellow man or woman must answer to the law, no matter how well placed he or she may be in the society. Whether the square off by these two highly sung political Generals is an attempt to pull a wool over the face of the Nigerian people as one of the concatenating events leading to the 2003 election is a thing we must watch out for, but whatever the outcome, Nigerians will remain the avid spectators and the ultimate judge.
IBB Must Not Go Free!! June 2002
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