Out of sheer amnesia, some colleagues have continued to glorify the defunct military junta including the murderous Sani Abacha regime.
However, the survivors of the Abacha killer squad and the family members of the those who were shot dead or bombed for defending human rights and democracy are not likely to join in the celebration of the sadistic dictators that derived maximum pleasure in the execution and torture of citizens. As far as the survivors are concerned, those who canonise the murderers are dancing on the graves of patriots.
Notwithstanding the limitation of the rickety democratic rule, not a few lawyers are smiling to the banks. It is However sad to note that some lawyers have conveniently forgotten that under the years of the locusts, many obnoxious decrees ousted the jurisdiction of the courts and penalised citizens for challenging anything done or purported to have been done by discredited dictators and their minions. Decrees were promulgated with a retrospective effect for the execution of some citizens. It is on record that some activist lawyers were arrested and detained for defending the opponents of the military oligarchy.
Under the climate of fear that characterized military rule, critics were roped into phantom coup d’état while activists were charged with treasonable felony. Dele Giwa and Bagauda Kauto were bombed while Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor (Guardian newspaper), Kunle Ajibade (The News magazine), Chris Anyanwu (TSM publisher) George Mbah (Tell magazine), and Ben Charles Obi (Weekend Classique) were jailed by special military tribunals for publishing stories that were said to have embarrassed the dictators and their family members.
In marking General Babangida’s 85th birthday anniversary, President Tinubu has said that his 8-year rule left “enduring marks on Nigeria’s political, economic and geographic landscape.” That was a regime that pauperised the people with the World Bank inspired Structural Adjustment Programme and made corruption the directive principle of state policy.
In particular, the Pius Okigbo Panel indicted General Babangida for the criminal diversion of $12.2 billion out of the $12.4 billion in two dedicated accounts in the CBN. His comrade-in-arms, General Sani Abacha, was reported by the Transparency International, to have looted between $3 billion and $5 billion in the CBN during his despotic reign.
While it is legitimate to criticise the neoliberal policies of the Bola Tinubu administration which has increased the number of multidimensionallly poor citizens from 133 million to 141 million, colleagues should refrain from glorifying the fascists who subjected the Nigerian people to terrorist attacks, brutal assassination, prolonged detention and mass poverty in the midst of plenty.
