Muhammad Al-Ghazali
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"We cannot solve today's problems using the mindset that created
them." - Albert Einstein Were Nigeria a different country, the incredible attempt to distort or rewrite the nation's history over the weekend by First Republic Minister Mathew Mbu could have been dismissed with a wave of the hand. We could have attributed it to old age or its diminishing effects. But Nigeria is not just another country. Here, we run a special risk. A great majority of Nigerians, including the elites, are highly gullible. They have also refused to liberate themselves from primordial sentiments critical for healthy national cohesion and development since independence. Besides, our partial and self-serving media leaves me with no other option than to respond to Mbu's deliberate falsehood shrouded in mythical statesmanship. Nigeria is probably the only place in the world where atheists, animists and free thinkers masquerade as men and women of God with reckless impunity and are actually taken seriously. It remains a paradise for kalo-kalo politicians without shame, and leaders with messianic delusions. They frequently deploy the ethnic or regional card at will, and also use it frequently to overwhelm our senses of sound reasoning with deadly effect. Even so, I never imagined that the day would come to share the same opinion with the former aviation minister in the Obasanjo administration, Femi Fani-Kayode, on an issue of crucial national importance. Fani-Kayode's account of the gruesome murder of Nigeria's pioneer Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa by a gang of cold-blooded murderers posing as patriots in 1966 tallies with all previous accounts I have read in the past three decades on that sad and painful epoch of our political evolution. History has always fascinated me. It not only mirrors the past, but gives a clue on what to expect in the future. History, and its exact documentation, is not a trivial matter. It is too weighty a subject to be left to the liberty of discredited leaders or the ranting of Lilliputian politicians. Unlike humans, history revels in its own immortality. It documents our triumphs and tragedies long after we must have retired to the grave. Historical accounts, whether in written or oral form, illuminated the rise and fall of past empires and republics, and the foibles of potentates foolish enough to believe they are God. Only fools fail to learn from history. And while not suggesting that the elderly Mbu is one, only he can explain why he claimed in the interview published by The Nation last Sunday that Balewa died from an asthmatic attack rather than more credible accounts that suggest that he was felled by assassins. Even more baffling was the timing of the revelation. Why did it take more than 44 years to come clean with the disclosure? I was, of course, a mere toddler when Balewa was assassinated, but I can easily recall the pain and anguish his death, along with that of the Sardauna and other top military brass, caused my parents who lived in Kaduna at the time. Their frequently told accounts of what transpired on the infamous night of January 15, 1966 ignited a burning desire in me to unearth the truth about the murders. Even before I earned my first degree, I had already read virtually all there was to read about the two brutal military coups of 1966, and the bloody civil war that followed from accounts of foreigners and Nigerians alike. My search for the truth led me to well-researched accounts of foreigners like A.H.M. Kirk Greene (Crisis and Conflict in Nigeria), D.J. M. Muffet (Let Truth be Told), De St. Jorre (The Nigerian Civil War) among numerous others. I also took time to read the voluminous and detailed theses of Nowamagbe Omoigui, as well the jaundiced stories of some of the principals as well. They include Obasanjo's (My Command) and Ademoyega's gymnastics with truth and logic called "Why We Struck." All these while, it never escaped my mind that one act in particular preceded all the others and set the stage for the tragedy in motion we love to all Nigeria. But a lot of water has also passed under the bridge since 1966. To his eternal credit, Gowon was magnanimous with his famous 'No Victor, No Vanquished' declaration after the war, and the deliberate policy of the three 'R's' (reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction). Despite the failings of our leaders, Nigerians actually behaved well by not acting true to the stereotypes projected by the world. We did not behave like savages after the war. They made a bold attempt to move on with their lives without becoming hostages to the events of 1966. I have no intention to be rude, but Chief Mbu's regrettable attempt to beatify Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna and the bloody criminals that unleashed the chain of tragedies from which the nation is yet to recover is the height of irresponsibility and insensitivity to the families of the victims of that tragic night and the millions that perished during the civil war. Even more regrettable was the hint at partisanship. Mbu admitted that his prognosis for the cause of Balewa's death was predicated on third-hand sources! He wants Nigerians to believe the laughable suggestion passed on to him from the renowned poet and Biafra sympathizer Christopher Okigbo from accounts provided by no other person than the murderer in chief - Ifeajuna! How incredible! But Mbu was at least graceful enough to issue a disclaimer, albeit unwittingly. He admitted that both Okigbo - who perished in the war fighting for Biafra; and Ifeajuna - who was summarily executed by Biafran leader Ojukwu for high treason, were his bosom friends. No further evidence of his bias is necessary, but great irony was that he claimed in the same interview that he was a confidant of the late Prime Minister and even warned him about the impending coup! So, how much did he know about the coup in which only the highest ranking Igbo military leaders and politicians were spare? How much information did he pass on to the late Prime Minister? Still, like I warned at the beginning, Mbu's expose should not be taken for the hallucination of an old man in the advanced stages of senility. It is also not the vituperations of another punch-drunk politician that does not know when to retire from the public space. For evidence, we must interrogate his claim that the cold-blooded murderers of 1966 actually intended to hand over to late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Just how they expected the rest of the nation to meekly accept the extra-constitutional imposition was left to conjecture, since Nigeria, even in those turbulent times, was not exactly a fiefdom. Mbu dedicated significant parts of the interview to issues about zoning that suggests that his sympathizes are with the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. No one in his right mind can deny the president his constitutional rights. But before we do so, elders like Dr. Mbu must realize that for Jonathan to exercise those rights he needs a Nigeria in one piece. It is bad enough that the naked ambitions of a few have hopelessly polarized the nation. What we don't need is a return to the dark days of 1966. Our leaders and people who claim to be elders must know that they have a special role to play for the peace and prosperous co-existence of all Nigerians. Even among social miscreants and armed robbers, there are people whose words are capable of string emotions for the wrong reasons. In their primitive tussle for power, we cannot stop them from lying to each other. But they must do so with decorum. They should watch their tongues for the collective good. |
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