The evils that men do always come back to bite them. It seems that Nigeria have turned into a garbage of eternal vacillation of public parade of one ugly public outburst such as corruption infested governments to Al-Mustapha and the gangs of loose canons – "the rambos" "the untouchables" "the godfathers" "the dirty Harry" that committed atrocities in the name of preservation of gluttony and power. The skunks are now coming off the woods to party and finally, the 15 years of political, social and economic domination by the oppressive Nigerian military has come to light.

If you are privy to the parade of the imbeciles that have appeared before the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’s Human Right Violations Investigation Commission sitting at Lagos, you must be sick in the stomach for what was being said. The illumination of the terror train of Abacha era is finally being revealed in a piecemeal to the Nigerian peoples’ consumption. The bunch of Captain Flinches (a character in the Treasure Island – the parrot) have been talking off their heads, pointing fingers, indulging in self-denials, seeking public appeasement and exoneration, con artists at their best, weak and sissies that destroyed Nigeria.

Listening to these morons, one would think that these bunch that ran Nigeria in the mid to late 1990s from their bedroom toilets as if the country belonged to them, or as an inheritance from their grandfather, never thought about the consequence of the consequence of the consequence, a futuristic principle of order. According to Futurist principle, they are the first – order, second – order and third – order of thinking. At this writing, the main purpose of the Oputa commission seemed to be muddled. Is it a fact finding commission without teeth that can only generate report to the Chief Executive of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or a South African-like Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where morons would air their dirty linen and the aggrieved public would be asked to forgive and forget?

Would the public confession affect the private citizen’s ability to bring lawsuit in the future against those who maligned and are behind the evils perpetrated against them and / or members of their families? Clarity needs to be established before the end of the commission’s life span. However, we hope that the commission is not another ploy by which the Nigerian President, an ex-military officer, would exonerate his comrades in arm at the detriment of the citizens who may have a legitimate claim against those that usurped the instrument of government for their personal and selfish ends.

The much-anticipated titan of who is who among the Abacha’s tyrannical and despotic government has finally flaunt their ugly faces in the public, while attempting to wash there bloody dirty linen. So far in the hearing, the major players whose names were most frequently invoked before the Commission were: Lt. Gen. Oladipo Diya, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Lt. Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi, Isaila Gwarzo, Lt. Col. Ibrahim Yakassai, Gen. Jeremiah Useni, Lt. Gen. Patrick Aziza, Maj.-Gen. Bashir Magashi, Maj.-Gen. Chris Garuba, Brig.-Gen. Sabo Mohammed, Maj.-Gen. Abdulkaren Adisa, Col. Frank Omenka, Sergeant Barnabas Jabila alias Rogers, Major Argungu and Major Murmuni. However, these names were not mutually exclusive, whereas those names were conspicuously missing should pardon the writer for the omission, after all, they have every right to be recognized.

Like Lady Macbeth, the Abacharites are paranoid and delusional. According to the verbose compliant emanating from the Oputa Commission, these people engaged in a scotch earth tactics as they sought, trailed, planted bombs, harassed, pistol-wipe, tortured and to the extreme killed those who opposed their style of leadership. At the onset, it seems that people like Sergeant Roger and Al-Mustapha have turned the Oputa Commission into a circuit for competition on who would sing the most loudest of how the mischievous and wicked inner workings of Abacha’s government operated. Then came the cacophony of middle aged generals attacking one another and extolling themselves as victims of Abacha’s cleansing.

The people need to have both parrots undergo psychiatric evaluation. The Oputa Commission should be taken very seriously, and as such, the things that were said should be taped and archived so that those outside the corridor of power at the time and the historians would be able to dissect, record and preserve the information that comes out of their mouth. An esteemed Psychiatrist, who has no legal or personal interest from what transpired during the Abacha’s infamous reign of terror, should be employed to evaluate them. He or she must be given an absolute freedom to conduct this evaluation without pressure or interference from any quarter.

Secondly, both Roger and Mustapha should be given lie dictator tests. This test would help to ascertain the truthfulness of what was being said. The way both miscreants are carrying on before the Oputa Commission, one would think that everything that they claimed to have happened was in accordance with the prescription of authority contained in their position or office. A lot of things has been said, countered or denied. An element of legitimacy devoid of fallacies should be installed so that those who appear before the Commission would be taken seriously.

Third, the Nigerian government may have to adopt its own version of Miranda law. In this case, it could be called the "Giwa Law." It should be read to those who appear before the Commission prior to being queried. Giwa law should read thus:

Fourth, so far in the Commission proceedings, the public has not learned how the few putrid military elite emptied the public treasury. The closest that such revelation came from Maj.-Gen. Bamaiyi when he accused Lt. Gen. Diya of bankrolling the 1997 coup d’etat at a cost of N 9.1 million. The Commission attorneys must follow up on this revelation, especially regarding the source of the money. We all know that Nigerian military elite could not save N 9.2 million or earn such amount throughout the duration of their service. This leaves us with two possible sources – stolen or foreign intervention. Next time the Commission seats, the lawyers that were privileged to appear before it should ask, "where is the beef?" – the peoples’ money stolen and stashed away in foreign bank accounts.

At this point in the proceeding, it seems that Roger and Mustapha are in control of the proceeding. The government must take control by establishing a better guideline. So far in the proceeding, we have come to understand an already known secret that the Abacha henchmen modeled their idea of government to North Korea and Libya style. A shortsighted paragon whose goal was to destroy the Nigerian people and its economy by installing terror. We have learned of how senior officers bowed and knelt down pleading for mercy before their junior officer. According to news report Maj.-Gen. Adisa argued that "if I did not beg him (Al-Mustapha) I could have been killed. I have no shame or apology for begging him. I did it to save my life. At least I am alive and useful to some people now … he who fights and runs away live to fight another day." The last sentence should have read, he who fights and runs away lives to enjoy the illegally accumulated wealth while in office.

The way these elite officers are behaving reminded this author of Jerry Rawlings’ first coup in Ghana. When he was apprehended, he stood up like a man and a soldier and proclaimed his participation in the coup of which he was accused of master minding. He was prepared to die which again, was one of the unwritten consequences about coup failures. In Nigeria, they buckle down, lie flat on the floor and plead for mercy – an unmanly characteristic.

In hindsight, these miscreants are not better than the German Nazis and the gas chamber. We hope that those torture chambers, the videotapes made by Abacha’s inner circle that is emerging from camera into the public domain and other instruments used by the Abacharites should be preserved as part of Nigerian history. The information generated from the Commission should serve and guide future governments on how far the country has come and how much the citizens would value a better government and not tolerate abusive leadership.

Also exposed were the internal workings of the most dreaded Abacha instruments of oppression, the Special Force and Strike Force. It was a common knowledge that these executioners were trained in Libya and North Korea, both world pariah states. It was unfortunate to read about how these imbeciles talk about their nefarious activities as if it was a natural phenomenon. The most frequently used adages are "eliminate," "coup plotters," "use of original silencers," to mention but few. It is unconscionable that a few individuals were able to hold the entire population of over 100 million hostages while those who should have done something to end the sufferings of the masses stood aloof.

The government must make it its number one priority to locate members of the death squad so that their minds would be decontaminated. Al-Mustapha must be compelled to provide their list and their possible domiciles. These people are dangerous and may pose a long-term problem to the nascent democratic government of Nigeria. One could imagine what would happen if these trained assassins engage or join forces with groups at the other fringe of cultural, religious and political decency and oppose to a civilized government, resort to violence in order to achieve their goal, which they could not attain through democratic process. Could one imagine what would happen if the Islamic fanatics of the northwest Nigeria hire these trained death squads and use them as instrument of terrorism against non Moslems or critics of the Islamic fundamentalist movement in the north? Or imagine what would happen if foreign governments that have interest in creating chaos in Nigeria hire these people to destabilize Nigeria? It is no secret that Libya leader nurses the ambition to unite Africa under the umbrella of United State of Africa in which he would be installed the ultimate and the undisputed leader? Every sane Nigerian should not forget that these people were trained in Libya and South Korea and thereby should posse greater concern to the government.

Moreover, Lt.-Gen. Oladipo Diya (rt.) must be joking when he argued that the Nigerian people loved the government led by Gen. Sani Abacha. What the retired Lt. General and the number two man under the gruesome regime of Abacha failed to comprehend was that the Nigerian people were looking for emancipation from the hand of the evil genus and his puppet installed civilian government. Anything that gets rid of those nemeses was welcomed at the time.

Finally, one thing that the Oputa Commission has attained thus far was that it has exposed the degree of cowardice among the Nigerian military. The way those ex-military officers that appeared before the Commission were crying and clowning in the public shows the shortcomings in the training. But, one thing stands out; the Nigerian military is corrupt morally, spiritually and arguably unpatriotic. The events of the past fifteen years have shown that the Nigerian military elite was more preoccupied with the mutilation of the nation through money laundry and fattening their foreign bank accounts than the general good of the people. One therefore, wonders how combat ready that they were if the national boundary is aggressed today. If their performance in Liberia and Sierra Leon theatre were to be used as the carrot for judging their combat readiness to defend Nigeria, then it was pitiful and dismal at best. It would go a long way before the Nigerian people would trust their military again, meanwhile they should keep on singing, as we are all ears.

The writer is an avid watcher of political affairs