THE OPUTA PANEL THOSE WHO MAY NOT ATTEND

THE OPUTA PANEL: THOSE WHO MAY NOT ATTEND

The Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, otherwise known as the Oputa Panel, christened after the Chairman, a respected retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is one of the numerous institutional mechanisms put in place by the Obasanjo presidency to help the nation in the inevitable process of self-rediscovery, healing the painful wounds of the recent past which were cruelly inflicted on the State and peoples of Nigeria by a long list of military dictators, by hoping to put the past behind us through the process of exposing the shortcomings of those dark years and letting the skeletons out of our national cupboard. In the particular case of the Oputa Panel, the declared objective was, amongst other things, to focus on the incalculable human rights violations that were wantonly dolled out to a society that was unduly inebriated and callously debilitated at the point of a gun, all in the name of governance.

Unlike similar institutions that have been established elsewhere to effect general national healing and the ‘coming to terms with the ugly past’ of societies that had recently suffered culpable horrors and other human tragedies, the Oputa panel was inexplicably not designed for such lofty assignments. For example, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which we commonly but wrongfully associate the Nigerian model with is, in many respects, dissimilar. For a start, the Oputa Panel was neither expected to be a truth-seeking or truth-enforcing body. Secondly, it was neither mandated as a reconciling body nor performs as an accusatory institution. So, it has really been difficult for some of us to say for sure, technically speaking, where the philosophical and operational ancestry of the Oputa Commission is located. The best inference that could be drawn, so far, is that it is an administrative fact-finding body. Then what? Anyone who followed the activities of the Archbishop Desmund Tutu led South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission proceedings will certainly not fail to notice the seriousness that attended its establishment, inauguration, operation, and the general official commitment to its success within the parameters of its rather wide mandate. It could summon parties, hold irresponsible parties in contempt of its orders and also grant amnesty to parties wherever it thought it necessary for the unearthing of the truth.

No matter the view one has of the Commission’s Reports and Recommendations contained therein, one thing no one can validly dispute is the fact that the ‘Truth Commission’ has shown the way to the inevitable process of reconciliation that South African would have to undertake if the ‘rainbow nation’ as envisioned by Nelson Mandela (the Madiba), is ever going to be realized. I was privileged to have been in South Africa when the several volumes of the reports were being released. I recall it was a very difficult moment for many people, especially black activists, who felt that the Commission did not act like a regular court and punish all those who confessed to several gory acts of barbarism as motivated by apartheid. There were very active debates among the intellectual class and the bloodied ‘MK’ veterans of the anti-apartheid struggles about the ultimate utility to the society of the mountains of revelations or reminders that came up. There was however the consolation that it was, at least, a foundation upon which the future democratic South Africa would be built as it revealed the unlimited wickedness of people of all races who were involved, as well as the ‘parity of evil’ amongst both the oppressed and the oppressors and the seemly evenly distributed foibles of man. At the end of the day, everybody benefited and the nation of South Africa laid a solid moral foundation for coming to terms with her rather shameful past: apologies were made and forgiveness rendered, wherever it was possible.

Back in Nigeria, no one can say this for the Oputa Panel. Typical of the nations’ uncanny ability to counterfeit most things that have been successfully designed and implemented elsewhere, we ended up with a ‘home-grown commission’ that was jurisdictionally castrated and its objectives deliberately obfuscated. I could not immediately tell for what purpose the Commission was established, going through the enabling law. Merely taking evidence of human rights violations and documenting them was a project any well-equipped journalist could have very successfully carried out. But the nation needed an authoritative reflection on the evil years of military dictatorship when all manner of evils were possible. The philosophy of similar bodies elsewhere has always been to effect certain fundamental changes in the psyche of a people that have gone through harrowing experiences like the type the soldiers inflicted on our people. In all respects, following the massive violation of human rights, the distortion of values and the contamination of national ethos that took place, the Nigerian society, needed something that would help to heal, rectify and prescribe possible preventive measures against future recurrence.

I was pretty convinced in my mind that with moral and intellectual institutions like Rev Kukah and others on the Panel, the body would definitely find a way around the legal straight jacket in which the enabling law places it and do something demonstrably good at the end of the day. And to the credit of the men and women constituting the panel so far, it has actually succeeded in canalizing massive public confidence to itself in spite of the obvious materials and jurisdictional limitations the government placed on it. There can be no better evidence of some of the Panel’s success than in the damning revelations the Mustaphas, Diyas and other good-for-nothing-generals have made to a perplexed nation. Evidently, the "why’, the "who" and the "how" of the ruination of Nigeria became a little clearer to victimized Nigerians. To a reasonable extent, the Panel provided very rare platform for many miscreants to craftily attempt to whitewash their eternally soiled records in the process of the destruction of Nigeria all in the name of military rule.

That is why it remains a tragedy that the three military rulers who are the principal dramatis personae in the vandalization of Nigeria did not avail themselves of the golden opportunity to use the panel to help redeem a bit of their tattered reputation. Buhari, Babangida and Abdusalam, the threesome that wasted Nigeria in an evil relay is not only contemptuous of the Panel, but indeed challenging the legality of the body. Midnight lawyers, eh? To hear that these men who destroyed the Rule of Law, probity and public morality in Nigeria and forcefully enthroned anarchy are now laughably dwelling on misguided legalism in the vain attempt to avoid the Panel tells a lot about the shortness of our memory. Such shameful and condemnable conducts give the lie that the military has gone on recess from politics in Nigeria, much less, abandoned their vain mentality of invincibility. It is instructive that at a season that Gen. Abdusalam (rtd.) was denigrating the laws of the land, indirectly humiliating the civil administration and mocking our commitment to national reconciliation and the credibility of the national project, that he could go into the military high command in the barracks as reported in some national dailies recently and be conferring with serving military commanders as if he was still in charge or that he in fact holds the key to the survival of the new civil regime. It is further instructive that the same government which is unwittingly embarrassing our inchoate democracy by blocking AVM Aikhomu and others form exercising their legitimate right to travel, did not find any of the overzealous sekuritate who could sniff any danger in a retired general holding meetings with serving officers in the barracks at a time the same general is in the news for sundry allegations! Why, why and why?

I am unable to subscribe to the needless call that the three past military dictators should be forced to honour the invitations of the Oputa Panel. They need not attend. They have probably already admitted, without exception, all the allegations leveled against them, including the cold-blooded murders of the likes of Dele Giwa and MKO Abiola, human rights transgressions, looting of the treasury, clogging national development and countless other moral turpitude. The Nigerian people are free to duly enter a public default judgment against them. In any case, one who had wantonly rejected the rule of law at his whims when others were in his court ought not to be heard complaining when the same law catches up with him. IBB that killed Orkar and several brilliant officers on account of coup attempts and even ‘attempts to attempt’ coups must know what the law is all about. These characters, no doubt, still continue to live in the illusion that they are the law’s alter ego or that they are the kingmakers of the present tenants at Aso Rock. The fact, which they must contend with, is that things may not always continue to stay this way. As a matter of fact, it is a privilege, which they really do not deserve, to be asked to come forward before the nation and tell what they know about the failure of the Nigerian State, a crime for which their hands are infinitely dripping with blood.

Nobody should therefore lose any sleep that these rascals are defiling the Panel and are refusing to appear as law abiding citizens. They will not be doing anything new in Nigeria if they successfully stay away from the Panel whose job so far has been wading through the heap of mess they, as illegitimate leaders, created. Their collective contempt of the Oputa Panel only clearly shows the real characters behind the khaki these villains wore: anarchists, ignoble deviants and irredeemable moral disasters. It is also a clarion call to all lovers of liberty and democracy that it is not morning yet in the wait for deliverance. Now, they are feeling cool undermining public opinion. After all, there is no public warrant of arrest issued against them. Neither has there been any "charge" made out against them, legal processes, on proper evaluation, are courtesies they do not deserve. It would require a fully developed moral personality to, by himself, upon reflection, realize his errors and openly seek forgiveness from his victims. By the time a person starts knowing that he or she has erred, it is a good sign that his cognition is waxing strong. But these are not the features of our past dictatorial leaders. And that explains Lucifer’s perpetual incorrigibility and, of course, his condemnation.

Cambridge, MA, USA.

September, 2001