How Buhari humilated Osinbajo's In-Law 'Awolowo'

Papa Awolowo was asked by
inquisitive Nigerian journalists
about his impressions on the
Buhari military regime, a few
days after the coup, Papa had
replied "the omens are still bad"
When the Nobel Laureate,
Professor Wole Soyinka, a.k.a
‘Bros Kongi’, cautioned the South-
West leaders on their enthusiasm
for a Buhari Presidency in
Thisday publication of January 4,
2007, he was speaking the minds
of many Nigerians who know the
truth about Gen. Buhari and his
ambition.
Nigerians are a politically volatile
people. It is the strength of our
socio-political existence. Nigerians
have shown from their history
that tyranny can never succeed
here. It is equally a known trait of
Nigerians that they have a
forgiven spirit when they see
repentance in the actions of any
of their erring sons and
daughters.
Gen. Buhari once ruled this
country after the coup of the
‘Beret’ Generals on December 31,
1983 for 20 months. While he has
defended some aspects of his rule
with all the emphasis at his
command, he has refused till this
day to offer simple apologies to
Nigerians on the tragic and
sadistic consequences of his
military autocratic rule.
A few days after he assumed
power, a manhunt for the political
actors of the second republic was
ordered by his regime under his
supervision. Many politicians at
that time either died in detention
or carried scars that they still
nurse from their long prison
incarceration till this day.
Three days after he assumed
power, an invasion of Papa
Obafemi Awolowo’s house at
Apapa, Lagos was ordered by the
Buhari-led military regime and
the space that Papa Awolowo
used in his house for Christian
worship was desecrated by the
invading soldiers sent by Buhari
and his men. Papa Awolowo
remains till this day one of the
builders of modem Nigeria. He,
along with Sir Ahmadu Bello the
Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa and Papa Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe had led Nigeria
to independence from British
Colonial rule on October 1,
1960.Though Gen. Buhari did
explain in later that the invasion
of Papa Awolowo’s house at
Apapa had been carried out by a
soldier he described as “a fifth
Columnist in our regime,” other
actions from Buhari in the same
year (1984) did prove conclusively
that he and his regime had been
uncharitable (with respect to his
person) in their treatment of one
of the founders of this country.
Though Papa Awolowo was not
detained, it is, however, true that
Gen. Buhari’s regime stationed
soldiers at Ikenne, the hometown
of the late sage, throughout his
rule. It was to intimidate the old
man. This, however, never
dissuaded Papa Awo from
speaking out his mind on national
issues whenever he felt he should
do so.
When Papa Awolowo was asked
by inquisitive Nigerian journalists
about his impressions on the
Buhari military regime, a few
days after the coup, Papa had
replied “the omens are still bad.”
When the Buhari military
headquarters that some governors
of the Unity Party of Nigeria
(UPN) led by Papa Awolowo in the
second republic had confessed to
obtaining kickbacks while in
government, Papa Awolowo in a
press conference, refuted the
claim and told the world the truth
about the distortion of Buhari
and his men inside Dodan
Barracks. The result of Papa’s
press conference was a dispersal
of detained politicians to remote
areas of the country and a total
cancellation of visits by relations
of these detained politicians for
the duration of the regime. Gen.
Buhari impounded the official
passport of Papa Awolowo and
denied the old man visits to his
doctors at Mayo Clinic, Rochester
Minnesota, USA for the years he
ruled Nigeria. Papa Awolowo’s
passport was only returned to
him with courtesies by Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida after the coup
of 1985 that had ousted Buhari
from power. Babangida had sent
Lt. Gen. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau
to return Papa’s passport with
apologies from the Nigerian
Armed Forces.
Many of Papa Awolowo’s
lieutenants were incarcerated by
the Buhari regime for no just
cause. The late Papa Adekunle
Ajasin, who as the governor of old
Ondo State never spent one
thousand naira from his security
vote throughout his rule, was
detained at old age for several
months by the Buhari rule. All
entreaties to get the old man
released from prison failed.
The late Chief Olabisi Onabanjo,
the Aiyekoto himself, was picked
up from the Lagos University
Teaching Hospital three days after
an operation by security
operatives during the Buhari rule
and sent to Bauchi prison. The
late Professor Ambrose
Mofolorunso Alli, Alhaji Lateef
Kayode Jakande, Uncle Bola Ige,
Chief Dele Ige, Dr. Wale Idris, Dr.
Femi Okurounmu, the late Ganiyu
Dawodu, the late Chief M.C.K.
Ajuluchukwu, Chief Mrs. Osomo,
Prince Yemi Adefulu, the late
Alhaji Agbabiaka and myself were
sent to long incarceration by the
Buhari terror rule.
Within six months of the Buhari-
led military administration, Papa
Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade
and the highly respected Emir of
Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero were all
dealt with by the Buhari regime.
Though not detained, these
traditional rulers were virtually
restricted to their palaces and
their passports seized. The
Buhari regime was to later state
that the measures were imposed
on the traditional fathers as a
result of a reported visit to Israel.
Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji
Abubakar Rimi, Chief Jimi
Nwobodo and some other
prominent politicians of the
second republic who were
detained by General Muhammadu
Buhari are alive to confirm the
fact that sometime in 1984,
security operatives from the Gen.
Buhari military stable had visited
detained politicians in their
various prisons to ‘brief’ them on
an alleged plan by Papa Awolowo;
Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade;
and the UPN leaders to effect a
coup in Nigeria before the
December 31, 1983 military
putsch and declare a Republic of
Oduduwa. The detained
politicians were told that the
alleged Awo-led coup was meant
to exterminate political leaders
who are not of the Yoruba stock.
Gen. Buhari is now being
painted as a lover of the
Yoruba nation. This is, however,
possible but not visible to many
judging from what is known
about the man and his ideas
when he was the Chairman of
the Petroleum Trust Fund,
established by the regime of late
Gen. Sani Abacha. Only a few
areas of the South- West saw
signs of the PTF operations and
these were due to the
unrelenting efforts of Chief
Akpata (Secretary to the PTF)
and the late Chief Rufus Giwa.
Chief Tayo Akpata’s pro South-
West stance is not accidental. He
comes from a family with long
held progressive tradition. His
brothers: the late Senator Olu
Akpata (a close friend and ally of
Papa Awolowo) and the late
Bankole Akpata a.k.a ‘Bankie
forever’ (former aide of the late
Pan Africanist Osagyfo Kwame
Nkrumah of Ghana) and himself
(Tayo), had contributed
immensely to progressive
opinions in the country.
I have not written the above to
deliberately smear Buhari with
my personal feelings against him
arising from what he did to me
when he was in power. I have
written the above to let the world
know some of the facts of history
that surround a former military
ruler who is now being presented
by some of our leaders as being
one of the most committed
democrats our dear country has
ever seen.
It will be wrong for me not to
admit that despite the crude
tyranny of the Buhari regime, he
(Buhari) is a man who is without
doubt strong willed and
committed to the anti corruption
struggle. It is, however, worthy of
mention that Buhari, who wants
to govern Nigeria as civilian
president, has refused since 2003
elections to recognize the Federal
Government headed by President
Olusegun Obasanjo. Since 2003,
Buhari has refused to attend all
meetings of Council of State called
by President Obasanjo. Buhari’s
refusal to attend these meetings
has been anchored on what he
called his frustrations over the
conduct of the presidential
election of 2003. Thank God that
he attended the last Council of
State meeting over the census
results. This is, however, for
understandable reasons.
Let me humbly submit here that
despite bitterness over the 1979
elections that had led to Alhaji
Shehu Shagari becoming the
President of Nigeria, there was
never a time that Papa Awolowo
had shunned all the meetings
called by Alhaji Shehu Shagari
between 1979 and 1983.
When President Shagari
honoured Papa Awo with the
award of the Grand Commander
of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, Papa was there with his
wife, Mama (Mrs.) Hannah Idowu
Dideolu Awolowo to receive it.
Papa Awolowo made all of us to
understand that Alhaji Shagari
was de facto and dejure President
of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. Papa Awolowo stated his
stand in the following words: “If I
refuse to honour President
Shagari’s meetings, it is not he
(Shagari) that I will be insulting.
It is Nigeria that I will be
insulting. I will never want
history to record me as having
insulted Nigeria.”
This is very instructive indeed.
Though there are now many ways
of judging who a progressive is in
Nigeria, it is strange that Buhari
is being rated a progressive while
Governor Umar Musa Yar’Adua of
Katsina State is being denied his
past as a progressive because he
(Yar’Adua) belongs to a camp not
embraced by some of our leaders.
Very soon, God will open the eyes
of all Nigerians to the fact that
Governor Umar Yar’Adua has
been a part of the Nigerian
progressive family for long. He
was one of the young men that
participated in the 1977 All
Nigerian Socialist Conference held
in Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria, Kaduna State, under the
auspices of Movement for People’s
Democracy” put together by the
late Comrade Ola Oni, the late Dr.
Akin Fadahunsi, the late Bala
Usman, Dr. Omafume Onoge, Dr.
Akin Ojo, Comrade Laoye Sanda,
the late Muhammadu Tukur,
Egbon Baba Omojola, Edwin Ike
Madunagu, the late Dr. Bade
Onimode, the late Josiah Sunday
Olawoyin, Professor Femi
Odekunle, Bassey Ekpo Bassey,
Arthur Nwankwo and myself.
Umar Yar’Adua was a known
member of the Mallam Aminu
Kano led Peoples Redemption
Party (PRP) during the second
republic. He was very close
politically to the late
revolutionary historian Comrade
Bala Usman.
As a senior lecturer at the
Kaduna Polytechnic, the leftist
leaning of Umar Musa Yar’Adua
was known to all the students who
passed through that institution at
that time.
It is, indeed, interesting that it is
Gen. Buhari, who is now the
political darling of some leaders
who in their history have been
dogged fighters of the progressive
movement in Nigeria. It is the
Nigerian people who have the
final say with their votes on who
they will want to see as their
president after the President
Olusegun Obasanjo led
adminstration. No matter what is
written by me and others, the
people will by the grace of God
express their choice of who their
rulers should be with their votes
in the April 2007 elections.
Culled from reubenabati.com.ng