Ambassador Susan Rice was until recently the American Ambassador to the United Nations. Her long-standing aspiration of becoming the Secretary of State for her country was dashed when the Republicans in the Senate started sharpening their knives in anticipation of her formal nomination for that position by President Barak Obama.
Sensing that her nomination would not scale through the Senate and that she would not be confirmed as Secretary of State due to the role she played in the cover up of the Benghazi affair in which the American Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other American citizens were murdered by a group of islamist terrorists, her nomination was withdrawn.
Instead of Secretary of State, President Obama has now nominated her for the position of National Security Advisor, which is a job that does not require Senate approval or confirmation. I wish Susan Rice well in her new assignment but I am constrained to ask the following questions. Was there anything in the tea that she served to Chief MKO Abiola on July 8, 1998 just before he died? She was one of the
last people that saw him alive, she served him some tea, he coughed violently and one hour later he dropped dead. Was it Abuja “green tea’’, Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Lipton or some other more exotic brand?
Can someone please ask Susan Rice what her role was in the death of MKO Abiola? At that time, she was Assistant Secretary of State for America in President Bill Clinton’s government. Chief MKO Abiola was the winner of Nigeria’s freest and fairest elections. That election took place on June 12, 1993, but it was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida. Shortly after that, as a consequence of the sheer outrage that was generated by the annulment, Babangida was compelled to “step aside’’ and hand over power to Chief Ernest Shonekan. In what was clearly a strategic manouver, he left General Sani Abacha (his own Chief of Army Staff) behind to be the Minister of Defence for the incoming administration.
A few months later, Abacha toppled the Interim National Government of Chief Ernest Shonekan which he had served and seized power for himself. Abiola was arrested and detained. He was never granted his freedom again. Five years later, Abacha himself was murdered by forces that are yet to be identified, and General Abdulsalami Abubakar took power. Exactly 30 days after Abacha was killed, those same forces that killed him murdered Abiola as well in an attempt to ‘’balance the equation’’.
These are the facts and sequence of events. One thing is self-evident and cannot be denied no matter which side of the divide one may have been on in the June 12 saga- certain questions must be answered. And some of those questions are as follows. Who killed MKO Abiola? Who killed Sani Abacha? What role, if any, did officials of the Abubakar administration play in the murder of both Abacha and Abiola? What role did the CIA play and exactly what transpired in the room when Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice (as she then was), Ambassador Thomas Pickering and two other faceless and nameless officials from the American Embassy met with Abiola on the very day that he was meant to have beeen released. Sadly instead of being released on that day he dropped dead in what can only be described as mysterious and questionable circumstances.
This is all the more so because Abiola’s security officer and the man that was charged with looking after him and protecting him throughout the time that he was incarcerated (an honest, upstanding and courageous police officer by the name of ASP Zadok) told the Oputa panel in 2002 that Abiola was ‘’hale and hearty’’ and in ‘’very high spirits’’ just before going into the meeting with the Americans. He went further by telling the panel that as he was about to enter Aguda House (the premises where the meeting was scheduled to be held) with Abiola, he was asked to leave his principal, to step out of the premises and to go and pick up another car from somewhere else by one of General Abdulsalami’s security officers. He promptly obeyed the order but half an hour later when he came back, he found Abiola in a terrible condition, coughing violently, writhing all over the floor in pain and breathing his last breath. Thirty minutes later, he gave up the ghost.
Another question that needs to be answered is the one that the veteran journalist and respected columnist, Mr. Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, has dubbed “the question of the missing one hour.’’ Permit me to explain. According to the testimony that was given to the Oputa Panel by Major Hamza Al Mustapha, who was General Abacha’s Chief Security Officer from the first day that Abiola was arrested right up until the day that he was murdered, he (Al Mustapha) was in charge of his (Abiola’s) security. Each time Abiola was moved from one safe house to another he had to sign for it. Each time Abiola ate his food or drank anything, his men tasted and drank it before-hand. He went as far as to say that each time Abiola went to the toilet he was made aware of it and that nothing happened around Abiola or to him without his direct permission and the involvement of his most loyal men. After Abacha was murdered and Abdulsalami Abubakar became Head of State, Al Mustapha was still in charge of Abiola’s security and he still maintained direct responsibility for his life, his well-being and his welfare right up until the minute that he was murdered.
When Mustapha appeared before the Oputa Panel, he exposed the fact that in the entire period of four years that he and his team watched over Abiola it was only in the one hour that he was killed that they had no knowledge or control of what was happening to or around him. According to him, Abiola was removed from the guest house that he had been staying without his (Al Mustapha’s) signature or knowledge and without anyone seeking his permission. Simply put he was kept in the dark about the whole thing. Secret orders were given to keep him out of the loop, to take Abiola to a destination which he knew nothing about and to ensure that none of the usual trusted food tasters and minders were with him. The only person that accompanied Abiola from the old guard of those that had watched over him for the previous four years was ASP Zadok and when they arrived at Aguda House (the venue of the meeting) he was conveniently sent on a meaningless errand by General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s Chief Security Officer and told to leave. Hence, for the first time in four years Abiola, was left completely on his own and he was surrounded by a coterie of strange faces who had no genuine affection or empathy for him. He was with them for one hour and during that hour, not one of those that had watched over him, that had secured his safety and that he had grown familiar with him over the entire four year period of his incarceration was with him. It was during that “missing hour’’, when he was all alone and very vulnerable, that he was poisoned.
Sadly by the time Zadok, who was undoubtedly loyal to him, returned to the scene Abiola was already dying. The question is who gave the order for Abiola to be brought to that meeting? Why did they keep Al Mustapha in the dark about it? Why was Zadok sent to bring another vehicle that was obviously not needed? That one hour and what transpired during its course, holds the key to everything. It appears that Abiola was lured into a trap by a group of smiling strangers who did not wish him well and who had sinister plans for him. It was like leading a lamb to the slaughter.
Given these circumstances I have no doubt that this was a case of premeditated murder but the question is whose call was it and why did it have to happen? What was the motive? Was it done just to “balance the equation’’ as some said at the time or was it done in an attempt to pave the way for an Obasanjo presidency one year later? Could General Olusegun Obasanjo have been released from jail and elected president if Abiola had lived and if he had insisted on claiming his mandate? The Nigerian people have a right to know the truth. The powers that be must appreciate the fact that they cannot sweep things under the carpet forever and that one day, no matter how long it takes, they will be held accountable by God and the Nigerian people for the morbid, secret and oftentimes homicidal choices and decisions that they made.
Yet, the truth is that the military operates like a cult and we may never get an honest answer from any of them about what really happened. This is because there are very few Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umars in the Nigerian military. Very few of them are prepared to break ranks with the leadership and break the ‘’omerta’’ code of silence like Abubakar Umar did over the June 12 election. Very few of them are prepared to call a spade a spade, speak the truth, expose the lie and damn the consequences. Most of them continue to spin the yarn and tell the dirty lie that Abacha and Abiola’s deaths were both from natural causes and that it was just a coincidence that one dropped dead on July 8, 1998, just four days before the fifth anniversary of June 12, and the other dropped dead exactly one month later on July 8th 1998. As they say ‘’the secrets are embedded in the sequence of events and the dates’’ and, in this case, the sequence of events and the dates really do tell an interesting and revealing story.
Those that continue to spin that lie and continue to conspire to hide the truth will pay a heavy price for their murderous deceit either in this world or in the next. The most filthy and despicable creature under God’s sun is the unrepentant and compulsive liar and he or she that bears false witness, that sheds innocent blood and that seeks to kill, jail, maim, defame and destroy the innocent in the name of the state.
The fact of the matter is that until these questions are answered and justice is done, Nigeria will not know lasting peace and cannot possibly achieve her full potentials. It is a spiritual thing. Abiola gave his life that we may have a better tomorrow yet we refuse to acknowledge it or to bring his killers to justice. We are repaying his good with evil and the consequences of that are set out in the Word of God. Whatever anyone may have thought of him as a person, the fact remains that had it not been for Abiola’s sheer resilience, courage, steadfastness, sacrifice and gallant refusal to bow before the Nigerian military and give up his 1993 presidential mandate we would not have democracy in Nigeria today. He was faithful to his cause to the very last. In return for that the least we could do is to ask the relevant questions, demand the appropiate answers and expose the bitter truth. We owe MKO Abiola, his wife Kudirat (who was also murdered) and all the other June 12 and NADECO footsoldiers and martyrs that much.
Freedom Afric
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