A whole lot of discourse seems to be taking place these days especially with the fast approaching Nigeria general elections which obviously has been full of uncertainties. Some of us, without a doubt, cannot stand the hogwash surrounding Nigeria’s political environment and when one considers a nation that is now fifty years old with such enormous human capital and abundant natural resources, it’s worth the weep.
I have stopped political talk for now, even though I have been called a political junkie. But though we all engage in politics one way or the other, since politics seems to play a role in every thing that we do in life. However, the kind of politics one is talking about is when two good friends are opposed to each other perhaps for a candidate or a politician who is more likely to be on one’s favor.
My case is very unique and I do believe so. And Austen Oghuma whom I have known for over twenty-five years is quite different from his political views, also.
In December of 1985, my brother, Dominic, had visited home from Los Angeles and had asked if I knew Dele Giwa, the founding member of Newswatch magazine. Of course, Giwa, then, was a media elite and had changed the ways and means of the media with his colleagues at Newswatch –Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed and Ray Ekpu – discovering how to run a free press, a press free from doctoring with the ideal of an effective press and an effective democratic fabric, one of several reasons they left their respective assignments at the bases where censorship was tolerated, destroying every aspect of civil liberties in any organized society.
Meanwhile, the reason my brother had asked for Giwa was that Oghuma and my brother had gone to school in Los Angeles and he had gotten news that Oghuma had joined Newswatch, and that he looked forward to seeing him during his brief visit home. One weekday, when we felt like poking around the Lagos metropolis, my brother and I decided we should check out the Newswatch complex and say hi to Oghuma whom I never knew from Adam until my brother tabled a gist about him when he breezed in from Los Angeles. It was quite fun then riding on the Apapa-Ikeja Expressway when clogging was beside the point and part of the nation’s traffic congestion. In fact, Apapa-Ikeja was the freest motorway back then.
When we got to Newswatch, we waited at the lobby until Oghuma returned from his lunch break. Never knew this guy my brother talked about. As Oghuma walked in while we waited at the lobby and my brother spotted him, the Yankee slang and jargon popped out loud: “What’s up, man?” How’s life been treating you, man?” “How’s LA, man?” “LA is good, man!” “Life is good, man.” “What you been up to, man?” “I miss you, man” and things like that.
At that time, I figured out in whole that America was a wonderful country and “seeing is believing” which goes with the phrase “come and see America wonder.” “Come and see America wonder,” “this is real, man!” “No joke, for real!”
My brother spent about four weeks that 1985 Christmas holiday period and went back to Wonderland, leaving Oghuma and myself to sort things out; that is, if politics should be our game, not knowing that both of us (Oghuma and I) would one day check out like Andrew (Enebeli Elebuwa) as in that Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) commercial when the Muhamad Buhari-Tunde Idiagbon military juntas wrestled power from the people followed by a bastardized, corrupt, Ibrahim Babangida military regime.
Nigeria did not collapse economically and wasn’t that bad even though the military juntas took over the affairs of state. And quite interestingly, it was when the Maradona of Nigeria politics, Babangida, had surfaced to dribble his friends and foes which eventually destroyed the country in its entirety that concerned Nigerians figured out Babangida was real evil as bribery and corruption became institutionalized.
The military juntas weren’t in our way when Oghuma and I started hooking up at some joints in Lagos; and at his Alagbon Towers’, Ikoyi residence. Of course, we discussed politics during the Babangida “Evil Genius” era, and we insisted a military dictatorship was not the best political option for Africa’s most populous nation. That with Nigeria’s capacity, military regime in all aspects should be a no go area in terms of affairs of state, and in a normal environment democracy is the key to all organized societies.
The military would not let go. The civil sector, has, by the day, become weak and powerless; and by just so, helped the military juntas sustain its power. Babangida was just full of it. He had made his best friend and colleague, Mamman Vatsa, a mystery, and then considered the best intellectual power house within the scope of the military juntas; and we who were “bloody civilians,” name the khaki bastards called us, in a confused and panicked civil structure that could not send the uniformed juntas back to the barracks where they belonged. However, we did not have much in our possessions on the grounds of a censored press from the barrels of the gun.
And yet, that did not stop the buoyant Nigeria press from lashing at the military juntas on cases grand and small regarding accountability, transparency, freedom of speech and assembly as seen in all organized societies, and democratic fabrics.
It was during the Vatsa mystery that Giwa and his colleagues –Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed and Ray Ekpu – at Newswatch had teamed up with other fine journalists of the day to investigate the Babangida’s brutal regime with the eye of a microscope. Every now and then, Oghuma and I would table a discourse about a bastardized regime which deliberately destroyed a nation, and henceforth, the country would never be the same again.
Sometimes, Oghuma and I would hang out down the street at Ikoyi Hotel, sipping lager as local politics becomes the order of the day. We had not taken sides yet since there were no political parties. A political party was forbidden according to the doctrines of the military juntas and no particular candidate to endorse by way of affiliation. We were just good friends and no issue of the day kept us apart since we both loathe the idea of military regimes; and also, disliked the fact that the juntas had denied we the people, what they called bloody civilians, the right to run the country the way it’s done in civilized societies. Babangida was the problem we all had for the fact that he has been part of every military coup in the country. Babangida had pursued the highest position within the military by savagely axing all that came along his way, a desire for the Machiavellian theory that the end justifies the means. Babangida had eliminated many on his way to the top and continued to do so while still a dictator.
Austen and I talked much about the ills of dictatorship as we frequented Ikoyi Hotel which was down the street from his Alagbon Towers home. Most times at the lobby of Ikoyi Hotel were stream of Lebanese men who were all of a type. They were thickly moustached, pot-bellied which is evidence of good living the Nigerian way, cigar-smoking bookmakers; sometimes carrying canes and talking big – all about gambling and money-making opportunities. They ran the casinos. They were the economic barons of the military juntas.
Austen who had not been used to the flamboyant Kora people as they were called said he could tell from their moves that they had power and could shake anything around. Of course, they did. They stuffed the pockets of the military juntas with cash just to quiet them on the rules and regulations, and or ordinances as the case may be regarding operations of the slot machines, lottery and a series of gambling activities which they controlled with impunity, evading all forms of taxes.
Though the Olusegun Obasanjo-led military juntas had banned all sorts of gambling activities in the country, the Kora went underground briefly until the restrictions was relaxed when the Shehu Shagari administration succeeded the Obasanjo-led military juntas. The Shagari administration, the most corrupt in that era, had assembled a gang of culturally, mischievous corrupt politicians – Umaru Dikko, Augustus Adisa Akinloye, Ali Baba, Joseph Wayas, and uncountable rogue politicians – never seen before in the nation’s history which eventually ushered in a welcomed military drums of Mohammad Buhari-Tunde Idiagbon juntas calling that batch of another period of dictatorship an offshoot of the Murtala Muhammad-Olusegun Obasanjo military regime.
The nation’s problems had just begun. From triumph to turmoil. Buhari, former GOC of the 3rd Armored Division would be flown from the North to take over the affairs of state. Idiagbon, former military Secretary and who was much around on the ground would be made Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters (second-in-command). The Buhari-Idiagbon military juntas destroyed all aspects of civil liberties. All sorts of draconian laws became the order of the day. Nevertheless, and of course, with a panicking Nigerian public, the Buhari-Idiagbon-led military juntas were too hot to cool down. They were the one so many Nigerians were waiting for – not only to deal with the cast of corrupt politicians from the Shehu Shagari regime they had just toppled, but a long awaited relieve from the mess of Shagari’s regime that brought economic woes to the country; the no nonsense tough military brass that will bring back sanity to the nation, the military couples that will put together a whole set of new rules -- War Against Indiscipline and all that. In fact, the first military regime to slam journalists and assassinate citizens by way of firing squad for drug trafficking even when there was no decree that prescribed such draconian laws by the time the alleged crime was committed.
Things had gotten so bad Nigerians wanted change immediately no matter who that would be to redeem the nation from Shagari’s mess. The Buhari-Idiagbon of “Andrew, don’t check out, please stay and let’s rebuild our country” was too tough an act for the military couples in their quest to have every Nigerian to queue at the post office, the banks, the “mama put” joints, the talking Ebute Ero Market Women, and even the buses, was typical of having too much to chew because of the couples’ recklessness. While they were playing that tough kid stuff and had to procrastinate on a whole bunch of their proposals to purge the military starting from Babangida for series of scandals and drug trafficking, they never knew their culprit (Babangida) who would destroy the country in its entirety had his own plans and would strike first and quick.
But still: How did the Buhari-Idiagbon regime go down the drain so fast. The public execution of three drug peddlers – Barthlomew Owoh, Lawal Ojuolape and Bernard Ogedengbe – from a retrospective decree sent shocking waves to the international community. The oil barons and business magnates of the day did not like the approach starting from Moshood Abiola who had been very close to Babangida, and who allegedly had sponsored the 1983 coup that killed the Second Republic. And not too many liked the kind of disciplinary measures the Buhari-Idiagbon regime had introduced to the country. “It’s too harsh,” some would say. For in stance, the random questionings, interrogation and oftentimes slamming of important personalities including top-notch businessmen. Dantata, Bako Kontagora, Amali Sokoto, Isyaki Rabiu, Haruna Danda, and many uncountable others were victims of Buhari-Idiagbon’s reign of terror.
The juntas also ransacked Obafemi Awolowo’s Park Lane, Apapa home looking for evidence on the grounds of “security risk” from its promulgated Decree Number two, to slam the founding member of a fabricated republic. And the juntas had also promulgated Decree Number four specifically for journalists to prevent the unofficial fourth arm of government from reporting news that would be embarrassing to the government. Pressed by critics and the international community that Decree Number four specifically for journalists was too harsh and that even though as juntas, and with a decree specifically targeting journalists, they are adding more insult to dishonor. The juntas refused to listen. They chose the kick ass authority attitude. Buhari-Idiagbon’s too-harsh handling of the Nigerian masses was what did them in notably on the first victims of Decree Number four which had slammed Tunde Thompson and Nduka Iraboh. Despite all this, there was however, one contradictory footnote in all the decrees concocted in pretence to fix the nation’s avalanche of problems.
Babangida, former Director of Army Staff Duties and Planning was Chief Of Army Staff during the Buhari-Idiagbon harsh times would topple the duo, outsmarting them on the hunch he would be next on the duo’s list of drug traffickers and allegedly kingpin of the drug cartels. Babangida striked. He did outsmart the Buhari-Idiagbon duo. How Idiagbon was persuaded or compelled to pay homage to Mecca considering his kiss ass attitude and what was at stake while he watched Babangida very closely, beats me. Babangida took back all of Buhari-Idiagbon's draconian laws and repealed the death penalty decree on drug trafficking.
But anyway, the gun barrels did not stop Austen and I from talking politics and hanging out as usual. We had no qualms for the fact we were ordinary citizens, not noticed to have raised any false alarm. Babangida would be more dangerous, deadlier than his predecessor and would eventually bring the nation to its knees. In what would be Babangida and his boys – Joshua Dogonyaro, David Mark and John Shagaya – the nation will never be the same again.
To be continued…
Nude man and performer Grace Jones. Image Douglas Kirkland. Circa. 1980
