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Shagari's attempt at falsifying history By
It was about 22 years ago when the military administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over power to Alhaji Shehu Shagari in a controversial manner occasioned by the 12 2/3rd polemics. Whereas Awolowo challenged the award of victory to Shagari in the law court, it was obvious that the administration of the day was intent on swearing in Shagari as the next president of the country. Travel back in time and contemplate if you will, the unfolding events few months before the presidential elections in 1979. Obasanjo, a Yoruba man, was the Head of State. He appointed Sunday Adewusi another Yoruba as the Inspector General of Police and Alani Akinrinade, a Yoruba as the chief of army staff. Those with discerning minds knew that there was no way Awolowo, leader of the Yorubas, would become the President in a country where Hausa-Fulani interest held sway. Obasanjo confirmed this feeling when he announced that the best candidate might not win. Divert a little and compare Babangidas arrogant assertion in 1993 that he knew those that would not take over from him and you might agree with me that the engineering of elections in Nigeria is a strange art. Shehu Shagaris election in 1979 was a fait accompli. I was therefore bemused when Shagari asserted in his new autobiography that 25 per cent of the voters in 13 states voted him into power. Before the 1979 election, Shagari was not a familiar name to many people. His greatest ambition in life then was to become a senator. Some feudal predators masquerading as elder statesmen thought otherwise and zeroed on him to become NPNs presidential candidate. That was how Shagari became our president, and the rest is history. But Shagari tried to re-write history. In his recent autobiography, he claimed to have won the 1979 and especially the 1983 elections as a result of proper planning and hard work. Hard work indeed! We all remember Verdict 83 and the tissues of lies that were emitted from NTA Channel 10 under the loquacious Walter Ofonagoro. Modakeke, an NPN stronghold now in Osun State, turned out votes that were about four times more than the voting population of the town. In Ondo State, Omoboriowo claimed to have won the governorship election instead of Chief Ajasin. Of course the enlightened people of Ondo State knew they didnt vote for Omobiorowo and they said it loud and clear. After the 1983 election (or conquest) Nigeria bore all the scars of a dazed survivor. The atmosphere was tense and everyone knew that the country was sitting on a keg of gunpowder with Shagari and his rampaging team lighting and smoking away their cigarettes. Everybody knew that Shagaris days were numbered as the people were ready to face him head-on before the military came calling. Rather than pouring venom on the military for overthrowing his regime, Shagari ought to thank them for saving his regime the disgrace of being overthrown by civilians. Umaru Dikko, Shagaris campaign manager during the 1983 election, was an entertainers delight. He, it was that promised Nigerians that the NPN would not only win by land-slide, it would also win by sea-slide and air-slide. What an amazing battery of political erudition! By his assertion, Dikko was actually giving Shagaris zonal commanders (as he called his zonal campaign managers) a road map to election rigging. Nobody sympathized with him therefore when he was later bundled into a crate in London, end route Nigeria. Those who break the rules are invariably broken by the rules. The meticulous laws of life ensure that at the appropriate time, everyone dances to the musical rhythm of Karma. Had the "crating of Dikko succeeded. Nigerians would have shown him the number of people, with eyes sunken in graveyard hollows, eating from dustbins, contrary to Dikkos assertion that all was well. Whilst Shagaris hatchmen were busy assaulting our collective psyche, Shagari looked on helplessly like an incapacitated father who lacked the strength to control his obstreperous children. That was why his administration stank to high heavens. To every complicity however, there is a definite and dear price. Like a wolf stalking a flock of sheep, the military, equally a greedy class, bade time and sprang a long-awaited coup at a time the victim was most vulnerable, using Collin Powells later theory of overwhelming force with minimum damage. Nigerians jubilated on the streets when Shagaris government was sacked, although this jubilation soon gave way to regret when it became clear that we had exchange monkey for baboon. Shagaris latest effort to rewrite history is at best a pet delusion, a tale to be told to small children along with other fairy tales. His administration was in fact the housefly that laid the maggots that have now become monsters in all aspects of our lives. Shagari should blame no one but himself for his misfortunes during his tenure. As a mortal, he has the right to make mistakes. History may forgive him if he accepts responsibilities for all the events that transpired between October 1979 and December 1983. Some of us may forgive him even though he punctured our dreams, but our bruised minds will not permit us to forget the wasting away of our generation.
Mr. Ige is a structural engineer and sent this in from Lagos
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