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Mid-Week Essay
The Death of Uncle Bola IgeMobolaji E. Aluko, PhD
Burtonsville, MD, USAWednesday, December 26, 2001
IN MEMORY OF UNCLE BOLA IGE
The Cicero of Esa-Oke“All the birds of the air
Fell a-sighing and a-sobbing
When they heard the bell toll
For poor Cock Robin”Stanza I
Introduction
These have been three awful days. To say that I was stunned when I heard the news direct from my good friend Professor Sola Adeyeye of “Uncle Bola” Ige’s death would be an understatement of this now-almost-dead year. To say that the death of one or more “officials” - elected and unelected - in President Obasanjo’s government was totally unexpected would be my only lie of the year 2001.For over two months now since reading my political tea-leaves anew, I have had this omen, this premonition of a unique kind of coup in Nigeria. God knows that I have told a number of people about it: a desperate “coup” to cleanse the land of impunity, in which the military will not take over, but rather a SIMULTANEOUS set of killings all over Nigeria would occur that would stand constitutional order on its head. Then there would be no guide as to who would take over the federal reins of government - and it would become “Look me, I look you”: in Yoruba vernacular, “wo mi, nwo e.”!
But that premonition did not include Uncle Bola. Not this soon, anyway. Nevertheless, to the extent that the killing of the highest elected executive officer would be a coup, then the killing of the highest unelected executive officer - as an Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the land should be rightly regarded - is a coup of some sort.
Stanza II
The Death and Burial of Cock Robin
I do not know why, but immediately I heard the dastardly news, it was this popular English Ballad (and classic whodunnit nursery rhyme) that came to my mind: “The Death and Burial of Cock Robin”, better known as “Who killed Cock Robin?” (See Stanza VII below).““Why should Ige whose precious life was spared by Abacha's hit squad have to be killed under a supposed democratic regime of which he was the chief legal officer! What an irony of life!", lawyer Femi Falana pointedly asked. We ask too: Who could have killed Uncle Bola in his bedroom on Xmas Day minus two, December 23, 2001, during this Obasanjo regime, just like Chief Alfred Rewane was killed during the Abacha regime on October 6, 1995? The differences here of course are that 1995 was during a military regime, while we now have a civilian, supposedly democratic regime. Rewane was a private official, while Ige was the highest unelected law-enforcement officer of civilian regime. Rewane was no friend of Abacha, while Ige was the closest thing to a friend that Obasanjo has, I mean tight, tight friends.
Surely, Ige’s death could not have been his “democratic dividend.”
Let me get personal here. I did not know Rewane personally, but Ige was my “uncle” in the Yoruba sense, with whom I was on good speaking terms, having had at least two one-hour face-to-face meetings with him right here in Washington DC, one just BEFORE his presidential candidacy in AD and the other just BEFORE his joining the Obasanjo regime. His image stands before me as I write, his sweet sonorous voice with exquisite diction, both in English and in Yoruba. House mate of my father in graduate school in England in the mid- to late 50s, Christian god-father of the brother born next me, his wife Auntie Tinuke a “senior” of my mother in the same high school. So I take this death very personally, just as I am sure that President Obasanjo will now have to take it “very personal”, as General Malu is wont to remind him.
Yes, Obasanjo would also take the death of his long-time friend very personal, to the point of weeping. Ige - the only cabinet member outside Adamu Ciroma who dare look Obasanjo in the eye and tell him off, as so often he should be.
Wicked irony: On Wednesday, December 19, Chief Ige had just turned in his letter of resignation from Obasanjo’s cabinet, effective March 31, 2001, simply because he wanted to stick around for the Bakassi judgement in February as a fitting “send-off” to himself, and to better face his new UN Law Commission appointment.
I wish he had done it one year earlier. “Man proposes, God disposes.” The good that you must do, do it quick, for you know not what tomorrow brings.
Stanza III
Who killed Cock Robin? I said the sparrow
With my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin
Who saw him die? I said the fly
With my little eye, I saw him dieWho killed Ige?
No, it was not with a crude bow-and-arrow, but with a single modern bullet to the chest right in his bedroom, Uncle Bola was killed, with his family (Federal high court judge wife Auntie Tinuke, son Muyiwa and others) first carefully separated next door (how sensitive of the killers!), only to return to see him eventually bleed to death on his way to the hospital.
The “sparrow” here could have been a long line of so-called “enemies” - Ige had a long list - but I will speculate only on two major ones here, and let the gloating others - those wicked few who would not mind him dead, but who have no stomach to do the dastardly deed themselves - go for “lack of evidence”:
Stanza III.1
Immediate suspects are some of the Osun State protagonists.
This case boils down to this: Immediate cause? A reprisal killing stemming from the recent killing of one State Representative Odunayo Olagbaju of December 20, 2001. Remote cause? Political succession ambitions.Let us unfold starting with the remote cause, which has an obvious parallel with what is going at the federal level. Current Deputy Governor Otunba Iyiola Omisore alleges that back in 1998/1999 he agreed to be Deputy Governor only on the understanding that his then candidate rival and now Governor Adebisi Akande would serve only one term (till 2003) as Governor of Osun State. Since then, however, he further alleges that Chief Bola Ige has vowed that his friend Governor Akande should go for a second term. So the Akande/Ige team have been doing everything to discredit him through allegations of fraud, etc., including attempts to poison and/or kill him, he claims. And Osun indigenes have taken sides in this bloody feud, as others near and far look on helplessly.
A Deputy Governor's Dilemma
April 24, 2001, Allafrica.comQ: But we understand that the governor wants to go for a second term and there was an agreement that he was to go for just a term?
A: May be that was why he chose to the murder/assassination plot. But there was an understanding that he would have only a term while I take over after his first term. But that is not even the issue because I am not even interested at what happens after today. Let us finish this one for now, when we get to the bridge we will cross it. I don't think this is an issue. But for any body to have thought that this is the only solution to the problem, then it is very grave. >>> Read More
We get ahead of ourselves, so let us set the stage here: Bola Ige was once Governor of Oyo State October 1979 - October 1983. Osun State was carved out of old Oyo State on August 27, 1991 during the Babangida regime as one of his many handover delay tactics. During Ige’s tenure, present governor of Osun State Chief Akande was at first his civil servant Secretary to the State Government (SSG), at a time when Ige’s present Federal Minister colleague in Obasanjo’s cabinet, Internal Affairs Minister Chief SM Afolabi was his Deputy Governor. A political rift between Ige and Afolabi then caused the latter to resign from the UPN and join the NPN opposition camp, leaving Akande to be appointed to complete Afolabi’s term as deputy governor for the last 18 months or so of Ige’s governorship.
What a maze of actors!
Enter 1983, when the NPN, with Dr. VSO Olunloyo as its gubernatorial candidate, manage to unseat Ige from his UPN governorship via rigging, amidst a serious political crisis in the nation. Shagari wins a second term via a “landslide” presidential second-term election, following which a bandwagon effect occurs after that first presidential, in a (now reversed) series of elections. Within three months, a “gun slide” ensues: Buhari’s military takes over, and every one sits at home for the next 15 years, to watch Buhari, Babangida, Shonekan, Abacha and Abdusalami Abubakar in that order thoroughly mess up our country.
Fast forward to 1997 to early 1998: Omisore is most favored gubernatorial candidate of Osun State for UNCP, one of the five party “fingers of Abacha’s leprous hands,” and an alleged henchman of the military regime, and a known friend of Major Al-Mustapha.
Let me be frank, and become guilty of taking sides: I do not know Omisore from Adam, have not been even paying much attention to him. I have since asked and asked - and I am yet to find a SINGLE person, including most non-political people, who has a single GOOD thing to say about Omisore. He is described variously as a crook, a thug, a “419er”, a bagman, a thief etc., but I have no independent evidence. In fact, I am told that Chief Michael Ani (the former finance minister under Abacha) once got him “detained” privately at Aso Rock for allegedly “491-scamming” him, until some Ile-Ife and one “Yoruba” Elder begged on his behalf! The next time Omisore was detained, it was Major al-Mustapha who vigorously worked to get him released. They had been working together, and presumably have been working together ever since.
Yes, yes, yes, the same al-Mustapha of the Seargent Rogers fame, killers of Rewane in his bedroom, and of Kudirat Abiola and co! Does that toll a bell?
And so I asked: “if everybody knew this, how the heck did Omisore get to be an AD deputy governor of Osun State?”
The answer comes: lack of party principles and a failure of leadership! Omisore is awash in money, from exactly where no one is sure I am told, and when “the man died” in June 1998 - Abacha that is - and a new political whistle was blown by Abdusalami Abubakar following Abiola’s death in July 1998, Omisore switched from the (now banned) UNCP to the (new) AD, using his money generously to fund AD’s campaign, to help him snag the gubernatorial spot in Osun anew. Alarmed that such a shady person might get the governorship uncontested - but not principled enough not to accept his money - the AD, with Ige as prime mover, desperately recruit the reluctant Bisi Akande as candidate, and persuade “young” Imisore to bide his time for four years and agree to be Akande’s Deputy Governor until Akande completes just one term: “Just one term, omo, and iwo la fi se! You are the man in 2003.”
Apparently a trick to douse an impatient man, and under-estimating Omisore’s tenacity, the rift between Akande and Omisore begins almost immediately, both political and financial rifts, with Akande’s friend Ige naturally in the middle of them. By this time of course, the 1998 D’Rovan Hotel event - in which Falae is picked as AD presidential candidate over Ige by Afenifere stalwarts - is of course history, with Akande (a member of the D’Rovan voting “elders”) solidly in Ige’s camp then and now.
A further complication: Ige’s presence in Obasanjo’s cabinet has always been seen as his way of getting back at those mainline Afenifere members who would not make him a candidate despite years of faithful Awo-political-clan service. More lately, he has also come to be seen more ominously as Obasanjo’s way of securing a political beach-head in Yorubaland and ostensibly a second presidential term in 2003 - a Yorubaland which soundly rejected Obasanjo’s 1999 presidential candidacy in favor of Falae. Some would say that Ige literally died in Obasanjo’s service.
Thus we have on the federal level: Obasanjo’s self-succession plans. On the state level: Akande’s self-succession, or more accurately, Omisore’s desperation at his own ascension.
These events have ever since been the Archilles heels of Yoruba politics, the “crack in our wall through which the proverbial gecko crawls”, a gaping failure of Yoruba elders’ leadership. For when the elders of a town split into two - just as when a father and mother are at each others throats - the family/town becomes dysfunctional. In Yorubaland, the two elders are called Afenifere and YCE, with Ige the official Deputy Leader of the one, and the moving spirit of the other.
For example, if Omisore does not have ENTHUSIASTIC supporters in the main Afenifere wing, he does not let on: at worst, what he has in the mainline Afenifere are people who are not totally unhappy about Akande’s Osun problems - or maybe feel helpless about it, knowing Ige’s influence there - hoping that those problems would drive Akande back into the mainline Afenifere fold.
The battle was joined, the signs of impending blood and bloodshed were there for the non-clinical eyes to see.
Fast forward first to Thursday December 6, then in particular to Monday, December 10, when in the premises of the State House of Assembly in Osogbo,
“…hired thugs … wielded cutlasses, guns, cudgels, charms and other dangerous weapons… several people were wounded, while property belonging to the state government and the ruling Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the state were damaged. Among the injured were members of the state assembly and some legislative staff. The Chief Press Secretary to the State Governor, Mr. Lani Baderinwa was also attacked and his official car smashed. In all, about 10 vehicles including that of the Majority Leader of the assembly, Mr. Olaolure Hussan were similarly damaged.”Enter Saturday, December 15: the Ooni decides to give Mrs. Stella Obasanjo the chieftaincy of Ife - Yeye Oranmiyan. [ “What for?,” some of us Yoruba would ask? “What the heck for? Just because she is Obasanjo’s wife? ” These monarchs are part of our problem.] Anyway, the ever-loyal Ige is present at this investiture of the very First Lady, and Omisore and Akande are CONVENIENTLY abroad - one (as usual) in London, the other performing Lesser Hajj (for the umpteenth time.) There is implicit and explicit declaration of Ooni support for Obasanjo’s self-succession - and by implication, Akande’s self-succession. Omo Ife Omisore’s own Oba shows his hands as to who he supports - and it is reported that 500 angry youths surround Ige in the premises of the Aafin Oba (palace) for six hours to terrorize him, breaking his glasses and knocking off his cap. And actually making the old man cry - probably because he thought he would die on that very day at the Aafin.
Then the following Wednesday, December 19, right in front of his home, Honorable Odunayo Olagbaju, ex-Ife, is hacked to death in front of his Mo-ore home, a home situated right across from a police station. On Thursday, December 20, the local Ife AD Chairman, was stabbed to death, while the Deputy Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly Moses Gbotosho, escaped death by a whisker after being attacked with machetes.
Just three days later, on December 23, 2001, Ige is dead in a pool of his own blood.
There is the Yoruba saying that we must be thankful to God for an otherwise deadly event that visits us but that only succeeds in lifting our cap - “Iku to fe pani, to si’ni ni fila, ka ma dupe.” That is to say that a fair warning has been given (by the gods) when an assault only removes your cap and does not lead to death. Premonitions, premonitions!
Maybe Ige was not thankful enough after his cap-felling near-death experience of December 15? Swaggeringly careless?
Such miscalculations! As the Yoruba will say, “Ati fi nkan kerekere gba nkan nla” - We have used a “small thing” to get an unimiginable, unmanageable “big thing”, a monster out of a mouse!
But what did Omisore say in an interview BEFORE Ige’s murder about Ige’s Ile-Ife treatment?
Culled from Tempo Magazine of December 27, 2001 published four days before Ige's assassinationQ: Will you not blame this escalating crisis on the leader of your party and Afenifere?
Omisore: No, I cannot. In the last few months, Akande has been abusing the leaders of Afenifere, so, where do we start from? He has abused and insulted the leaders. He is a nonentity. There were facts that he was at one time mad. He is "Alawoku" and there is no way he can be totally cured of the madness in him. Recently too, Bola lge came on radio here to insult me and my family. That is his last one. He was beaten yesterday, the people of Ife beat him up and he was crying like a baby as they removed his cap and his glasses. It took the intervention of SSS men and some of us, we had to beg the mob, to free him. He was disgraced out of Ife, he had to be dressed like a woman to get out of the town. That is to show that Bola Ige does not command any respect again in this state. Q: Chief Bola Ige was beaten at Ife? Is the attack not traceable to you, and why do you think such an ugly thing happened?
Omisore: He has offended Ife people. If he insults me, he has insulted my people and they have the right to react.
Q: So they were fighting on your behalf?
Omisore: They were fighting for their own son, and they have the right. Ife has been marginalised in this government and they have the right to react. The people are not happy, they provided about 50 per cent of the votes that got Akande into power. When he came to Ife, he told them that the more they vote the more would their gains be. They were then asking him at Ife if what he had done is what they deserved to be given, it was, just a spontaneous reaction. I had to beg them because what the people wanted to do was more than that. If he is wise, he must not come to Ife again.
Q: You said there won't be peace in the state until the wrongs are corrected....?
Omisore: (Cuts in) Yes, until the murderers are brought to book. You know there was no peace in Egypt until the Israelites were freed, it is not a matter of brick-stone or threat, it is a matter of natural recourse. There was an attempt to murder. Blood was involved, naturally, the blood will not let peace reign in the state. I had been keeping quiet, just watching them. Now, they went to the House of Assembly to start embarrassing me. The House started the whole crisis, I wasn't around. If I wanted to plan my own, this state will just be in ruins, I don't want to do anything that will destroy my reputation in this state. Everybody knows me in this state and I have a good reputation among the people.
Q: How will you describe the role of the state's House of Assembly in the entire crisis?
Omisore: It is so unfortunate. There are cases in courts and I don't want to say anything about them. One thing is clear though, they are fighting themselves. Where there are bad eggs, the good ones will want to neutralize them. I think they are doing justice for themselves, it is too early to comment on them.
Q: How true is the talk that you've switched romance over to the PDP?
Omisore: The people saying this are blackmailers. I am not a small fry in AD so, why would I suddenly leave. I belong to the core Afenifere, Akande does not. My leaders know that I am not in PDP. I am for AD.
Q: Don't you see the attack on Chief Ige as an embarrassment to the Yoruba race.
Omisore: Bola Ige is a traitor in Afenifere. He has abused and embarrassed leaders of Afenifere, so, it is nemesis that is catching up with him. He is the 'Akintola' of our time. What Akintola did to Awolowo is what Bola Ige is doing to Adesanya and the Yoruba people.
“The “Akintola” of our time!” And we know what happened to Akintola!
This quote reminds me of the recent Osama bin Laden tape: the “smoking gun” of September 11 that every one is asking for.
Who the heck does this Omisore think he is, and how was this monster created in Yorubaland? And can Deputy Governor Omisore be arrested for “incitement to kill?” Not likely, for Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, that dastardly constitution that causes our nation pain, that President Obasanjo protects like a hawk, gives Omisore (and 73 other elected officials) immunity to let him act with impunity and to intimidate the Nigerian citizenry:
Section 308.
- Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Constitution, but subject to subsection (2) of this section -
- no civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against a person to whom this section applies during his period of office;
- a person to whom this section applies shall not be arrested or imprisoned during that period either in pursuance of the process of any court or otherwise; and
- no process of any court requiring or compelling the appearance of a person to whom this section applies, shall be applied for or issued:
- Provided that in ascertaining whether any period of limitation has expired for the purposes of any proceedings against a person to whom this section applies, no account shall be taken of his period of office.
- The provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to civil proceedings against a person to whom this section applies in his official capacity or to civil or criminal proceedings in which such a person is only a nominal party.
- This section applies to a person holding the office of President or Vice-President, Governor or Deputy Governor; and the reference in this section to "period of office" is a reference to the period during which the person holding such office is required to perform the functions of the office.
For crying out loud, how does 308(2) tally with 308(1)(a)? Please tell me how Deputy Governor Omisore can be touched, with this confusing Section 308?
For God’s sake, we must not only amend this section, but we must abolish the Deputy Governor’s position in the Constitution, and/or let each state determine for itself who will succeed the Governor in his or her absence. Witness all the unnecessary Governor/Deputy Governor tensions in Lagos, Jigawa, Osun, Abia States, etc. IN the meantime, let us ensure that NO PARTY forces a Deputy Governor on any gubernatorial candidate. Let the man choose his deputy, and not have a snake under his pillow.
One more thing: if money-bagism to get into posts must stop in Nigeria, then it must stop in Yorubaland!
Immunity, real or imagined, of elected officials; impunity by such elected officials, timidity of the electorate; political chicanery from all sides - and alarm that the military will return if the citizenry does not play intimidated. These are what currently rule our country.
Did I say amend? We must ABOLISH this 1999 Constitution as we convene a Sovereign National Conference to forge a new compact between the peoples and nations of Nigeria.
Stanza III.2
Remote suspects are the byzantine eliminationists of the Arewa genre
Obasanjo may pretend not to know it all he wants, but now that his friend Ige is dead, he should know that he is in a fight for both his political and physical life, ensconced as he is in Aso Rock, surrounded and besieged by the very Arewa people who put him there, as a Token Black Yoruba. Despite his bluster, he senses some strong fall in support, hence his desperate acts towards “Terzace” - self-succession in Hausa, reminiscent of Abacha. The “smuggling in” in Clause 80 in the Electoral Law 2001 is just a tip of the ice-berg.The people who surround him are the same ones who betrayed Abiola, or who arranged the “levelling-ground” dual-elimination of Abacha (following his self-succession plans) and Abiola to fulfil some self-defined “higher purpose” , master opportunists of chaos and intrigue. They are still very much around in Obasanjo’s verandah of power, angels of death.
Ige has borne the brunt of criticism in Obasanjo’s government, criticisms particularly of the Arewa type. And remember that the same kind of tactics used to kill Rewane - a la Mustapha - is what is used to kill Ige. Yes, the same al-Mustapha, who is a friend of Omisore.
Before you scream “Lies!”, you only need to read articles in Hotline (by Kotangora and others), or Wada Nas on Gamji.com to see the venom that has been directed at Bola Ige from up North, particularly since the release of Dr. Faseun and Ganiyu Adams of OPC, action put at the feet of Ige and Inspector of General Musiliu omo Smith of Olowogbowo. Or just read Balarabe Musa, and think that Ige was the epitome of all of what was evil in the South-West. One Ishaq Alhassan Quaranmata recently called Ige “Nigeria's Minister of Darkness” and wrote that “So far, the most scathing indictment of Bola Ige came from, surprisingly, his own party, the Alliance for Democracy, AD, which likened what happened to him with death. The party's Chairman Ambassador Yusuf Mamman while commenting on the issue said, "I don't capitalize on people's misfortunes. I don't celebrate death, I celebrate life. It is a very sad end." [http://www.gamji.com/NEWS96.htm ] Another piece called him a “tribal zealot.” Even the mild mannered Sanusi Lamido Sanusi says that “the North is angry” at people like Ige, accusing him of referring to the Fulanis as the “Tutsis” of Nigeria. Or the one who characterized Ige as the “Jungle Minister”?
Read all about this frighteningly virulent Northern Ige-bashing on Gamji.com, where Nigeria’s North meets South in Cyberspace.
There is a particular attention that one must point: the long diatribes by one old foe of Ige’s, one virulent Dr. Ibrahim Siddique of the Arewa think-tank Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training, CEDDERT, in Zaria. [See his virulent articles in article 1; article 2 article 3 ]. This is the same Dr. Siddique, a senior lecturer and head of the department of political science and international studies at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, protégé of Dr. Bala Usman, Siddique who was quietly arrested a week ago Wednesday, December 19, on suspicion of sending anthrax to some people at ABU. His arrest resulted in the following news flash posted on CEDDERTS website:
NEWS BULLETING: DR. ABUBAKAR SIDDIQUE MOHAMMED ARRESTED
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19 2001
AUTHORIZED BY YUSUF BALA USMAN, PH.D.
THE CENTRE FOR DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH AND TRAINING (CEDDERT)Dr. Abubakar Siddique Mohammed has been arrested by the Nigeria Police, when he reported at its Plateau State Headquarters at 3.00p.m. on Wednesday, 19th December, 2001. Dr. Mohammed is being arrested ostensibly in connection with an allegation that he and others have sent anthrax by mail to one Mr. Zadock, in an envelope sent through the courier service of the UPS. The enveloped is said to have contained both the signature and address of Dr. Mohammed! In side the envelop is also a packet contained the booklet written by Alhaji Abdulkarim Al-bashir, titled: The Ethnic Politics of Borishade and Babalola Against the Rule of Law and Progress in Ahmadu Bello University [see article . It seems likely that this arrest of the Director of Research of CEDDERT and the Head of the Department of Political Science at the Ahmadu Bello University is going to be used to send Dr. Mohammed to jail. This is not only because of his role in the preparation and distribution of this booklet by Al-bashir, but, primarily, because of his earlier writings, bringing out the support that the present Nigerian Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Chief Bola Ige, a powerful member of President Obasanjo's government gave to the Rwandan genocide, and the threats he made that the Fulani in Nigeria will suffer the same fate. This was brought out and carefully documented in Dr. Mohammed's booklet titled: Chief Bola Ige and the Destabilisation of Nigeria . The persecution of Al-bashir and Dr. Mohammed is part of the onslaught the regime has launched to perpetuate itself in power at all costs. This has involved its criminal rigging of the Electoral Bill, its threats against state governments who dare challenge its rigging of the bill, and its crude muzzling of any attempt by alternative PDP presidential candidates, like Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, to use the radio to campaign and to offer Nigerians an alternative to General Obasanjo. This anti-democratic muzzling and legislative rigging by the Obasanjo regime is going to face stiff opposition by Nigerians .Dr. Abubakar Siddique Mohammed and Alhaji Abdulkarim Al-bashir's harassment and persecutions are just broadening and stiffening this democratic resistance.
But that certainly cannot be why the sparrow killed Cock Robin, could it?
Or this: After once joining President Obasanjo in stating that those who oppose Sharia should go to court, devout fellow Baptist Christian Bola Ige’s last major legal statement was that under his Federal watch, the Muslim adulterer Hajiya Safiya Husseini Tungar Tundu will not be allowed to be stoned to death under Sokoto’s Sharia Law. That is, no matter what the Maliki School of Sharia of Sokoto State says about the atavistic plan to stone a self-confessed adulterer to death in a supposedly secular Federal Government of Nigeria that Obasanjo presides over. For once, the Minister of Justice Ige makes a firm statement about a cancer in our midst. Better late than never.
But that certainly cannot be why the sparrow killed Cock Robin, could it? Or would his death be simply be assigned - with a wink and a knowing nod - to the result of a man fighting Allah’s Sharia law?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I recently told a friend, particularly after the outrageous Electoral Law bill was fraudulently delivered by the National Assembly leadership and President Obasanjo that I was going to write a Monday Quarterbacking essay with the pointedly accusatory title - “Where is Uncle Bola in all the Injustice in Our Land?” He said, “Please write it quick.”
I am a bit late. It will now never have to be written for “the man died.”
‘Nuff said, but you make your own judgement, but if the killers must be found, nobody must be immune from suspicion. Certainly not the Arewa. Looking for the proverbial “sparrow” in the case of Ige must extend beyond Osun State - to Kaduna State and environs.
It is these kinds of virulent, unrelenting demonizations, careless inciting statements, that lead to assassinations. The kinds of careless, inciting writings, and talk that even President Obasanjo himself has been recently engaged in, that calls my own father Prof. Sam Aluko “senile” for criticizing him and daring to compare his economic policies with Abacha’s, that characterizes Ojukwu as “mad” for expressing Biafran nostalgia, that tars all ASUU university lecturers as morally bankrupt and club-crawlers simply for asking that past agreements with government be implemented. Careless, uncouth, unpresidential talk that lead to byzantine assassinations, careless talk that must stop, starting with Obasanjo himself.
But let me end this Arewa section quickly: the Yoruba say that “Death caused externally will not kill you unaided by death from the inside.” “Bi iku ile o pani, t’ode o le pani.” So despite the possible Arewa factor in the matter, the Yoruba factor contributes the more potent cause.
Stanza IV
Who'll toll the bell? I said the Bull
Because I can pull. I'll toll the bell
Who'll dig his grave? I said the owl
With my spade and trowel, I'll dig his graveThe famed Scottish poet John Dunne (1572-1631), once wrote that
"No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
We all must toll this bell, for it is for us it tolls. For once again, if the Chief Law Enforcer of the land can be killed in his own bed, by so far “unknown assailants”, who then is safe? Is it us?
Who’ll dig Ige’s grave? His grave had been dug by all the governments before and including Obasanjo’s. Dele Giwa was killed in his home on October 19, 1986, and up until today, his killers have not been found. Alfred Rewane was killed in his home (October 6, 1995) by “unknown assailants.” Sergeant Rogers and Al-Mustapha sang before the Oputa panel about the killers of Rewane and Kudirat Abiola (killed June 4, 1996) and others, and yet no convictions have been meted out. In fact, recently, only recently those held in connection with Rewane’s death had to be released for “lack of evidence”. Abacha (June 8, 1998) and Abiola (July 7, 1998) were killed “mysteriously”, and their killers are yet a mystery. Nine policemen and soldiers were killed in Odi (November 1999), but rather than find out the specific killers, the whole town was razed - under Obasanjo’s watch. Nineteen soldiers were killed in Gbeji/Zakin-Biam environs, but rather than go through the trouble of finding the actual killers, seven villagers were attacked by soldiers (November 2001), paid for by Nigerian taxpayers and with our resources.
“Kill a soldier, face disaster”, president Obasanjo says, a twist to prior antics. “Try to kill me, a soldier, face disaster”, Abacha must have said. Little difference. Ask Odi. Ask Gbeji/Zaki-Biam.
The nation has been shouting about lack of security, about state police, etc. but the 2002 budget has 13.59 billion Naira for Internal Affairs (including police), but N10 billion of it for ID cards, not to talk of N53 billion for an Abuja stadium to seat 60,000 people! What kind of priority are we setting for ourselves?
So my conclusion is that the Government dug Ige’s grave, don’t ask me which in particular. Nothing tangible has been done to beef up traditional policing in the country, and President Obasanjo’s dependence on soldiers to keep law and order is counterproductive in our present “democratic” dispensation. His friend Ige - and Chief unelected Law Officer is the latest victim of that neglect.
“J’accuse:” I stand President Obasanjo accused. I do not expect him to have solved this insecurity problem in two-and-a-half years of his presidency, but one would have hoped to see TANGIBLE movement towards its solution: more policemen in strategic cities, more police patrols on foot, by bicycle, by car, by helicopter, ANYTHING.
We have seen NOTHING, just a quick rush to the army whenever mayhem occurs or is threatened. So why the heck are we not “kuku” in a military regime if the military has to rush to every civil unrest?
“J’accuse Aremu”, for what will you now do that your friend our Uncle Bola is gone? Will you regret your contribution to the Electoral Act 2001, and ask for its withdrawal? Will you re-prioritize your 2002 Budget to reflect greater need for security? ? Will you let us talk to forge a nation out of our country of nations in a Sovereign National Conference? Will you travel the world less - no need now that the world knows that our homeland security condition is horrific - and face our domestic problems more? Will you continue to be trapped at Aso Rock, or break out to free the country from its evil grip? Will you now listen to advice - or continue stubbornly to the next disaster?
“J’accuse, Aremu!” But I am waiting with baited breath for your next moves. Please no more “dey kampeism.”
Stanza V
Who'll be the parson? I said the rook
With my little book. I'll be the parson
Who'll be chief mourner? I said the dove
I'll mourn for my love. I'll be chief mournerShall it be a Christian prayer that the parson will say - or one from the Koran - at Ige’s graveside? Will the “rook” be a Christian reverend or a Muslim Imam? Will the little book be the Bible or the Quran?
It is always so easy: a man dies, and we who know him a little from afar all mourn, and write what we know about him. Just as I am doing.
But then we turn on our beds to our husbands and wives, and carry on with life. But that was somebody’s husband who was killed, who she shall see no more. Somebodies’s father, who they shall see no more. Somebodies’ friend, who they shall see no more. Somebodies brother, and benefactor, who they shall see no more.
They are the chief mourners.
Can you imagine that for the rest of the natural lives of these chief mourners, on every December 23, instead of preparing for the annual celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they will be remembering the shocking death of their loved one?
Can you imagine?
But the nation must mourn the continued death of innocence in our country, where our leadership continues to act with impunity, because of a feeling of immunity, always counting on the people’s timidity, making them desperate. When the law does not protect, then the people become desperate, and take laws into their hands.
I have often wondered: If to be governor and deputy governor is to be a PUBLIC SERVANT, or to be a congressman is to be a public servant, then why must we MAIM and KILL to become SERVANTS? It must mean that all but myself know that in Nigeria “public servanthood” really means “private lordship”, the quick way to fame and fortune in an almost god-forsaken land, hence this desperation for political position by all means necessary.
Stanza
Who'll sing his dirge? I, said the Thrush,
As I sing in the bush, I'll sing his dirge
I mourn for Nigeria - and for Uncle Bola. At 71, he did not die young, but this was not the way to die!Sun re o, Uncle Bola! May God’s mercies be with you! May you rest eternally in the Lord’s bossom! May we meet you there at Jesus’ feet!
Stanza VII
The Death and Burial of Cock Robin [or more popularly known as “Who Killed Cock Robin?”]
[Written probably as satirical political verse; First collected in ‘Mother Goose’s Melody’ written around the year 1765]Who killed Cock Robin?
I said the Sparrow,
With my bow and arrow.
I killed Cock Robin!Who saw him die?
I said the Fly,
With my little eye.
I saw him die!Who caught his blood?
I said the Fish,
With my little dish,
I caught his blood!Who'll make his shroud?
I said the Beetle,
With my thread and needle,
I'll make his shroud!Who'll dig his grave?
I said the Owl,
With my spade and trowel,
I'll dig his grave!Who'll be the parson?
I, said the Rook,
With my little book,
I'll be the parson.Who'll be the clerk?
I, said the Lark,
say Amen in the dark,
be the clerk.Who'll be chief mourner?
I, said the Dove,
I mourn for my love,
I'll be chief mourner.Who'll bear the torch?
I, said the Linnet,
I'll come in a minute,
I'll bear the torch.Who'll sing his dirge?
I, said the Thrush,
As I sing in the bush,
I'll sing his dirgeWho'll bear the pall?
We, said the Wren,
Both the cock and the hen,
We'll bear the pall.Who'll carry the coffin?
I, said the Kite,
If it be in the night,
I'll carry his coffin.Who'll toll the bell?
I said the Bull,
Because I can pull.
I'll toll the bell!All the birds of the air
Fell a-sighing and a-sobbing
When they heard the bell toll
For poor Cock-Robin.