On June 9, 1998, the day he was to be retired from the army by late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, fate instead intervened to make General Abulsalami Abubakar the head of state when Abacha suddenly died.
Before then, General Abdulsalami endured a torrid time under his boss. His was said to be under round-the-clock surveillance physically and electronically. The decision by General Abacha, who had survived several coup attempts, to sack top military officers of which Gen. Abdulsalami was top on the list was thought to be to enable Abacha to advance his plans for transmuting from military to civilian president.
But it never happened and what we do know was that Gen. Abdulsalami took over under inauspicious times for Nigeria following the death of Abacha. And the situation was made even more so when a month after, the assumed winner of the June 12 elections, Chief M.K.O Abiola, who was in detention then, also died.
It was under these tasking circumstances that Gen. Abdulsalami as Head of State steadily guided the ship of state and implemented a transition programme that returned the country to civil democratic rule within a year in 1999.
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Thus, the civilian democratic dispensation we practice today was mainly due to the steadfastness and principled commitment of General Abdulsalami. Up until the time of his had fate not intervened, General Abacha, who was in absolute and unchallenged control of the military and political process in Nigeria, would likely had succeeded in his plans to transform himself from military to civilian leader.
Most of the political elite then had shamelessly and opportunistically caved in and some of them were even collaborating with Abacha in his plans to throw the country into what was certainly a potential political crisis. Others in the name of fighting for democracy had cowardly turned tail and scampered to their bolt holes abroad living it up and sending news releases of their “struggle”.
It was Gen. Abdulsalami who opened the political space and allowed those who were cowering in fear in Nigeria and those who cowardly fled abroad to return and participate in the democratic process. The general literarily had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death to restore democracy in Nigeria, thus making it possible for political parties and their candidates to contest and win the elections ushering the civilian dispensation we are now in.
Gen Abdulsalami is a demure man. He is not given to flippancy and garrulous self-glorification about his sterling role in the restoration of democracy in Nigeria. He has not talked publicly about his travail under Abacha as Chief of Defence Staff. He has not even granted interviews about the enormous personal and official pressures and challenges he encountered while trying to keep his promise to return Nigeria to civilian rule.
He has not talked about pressures mounted on him by some opportunistic political players to renege on his commitment to install democracy within one year. Nor has he talked about pressures by some of his closest colleagues and others at large to ban certain politicians with heavy political and moral baggages from participating in the political process. If he had succumbed to such pressures, certain political figures strutting around the political stage today would not have made it.
However, behind the demure outlook of the infantry general lies a keen, sharp mind especially as regards political and social developments in Nigeria. As a soldier and statesman who had faced and been involved in some of the most trying challenges in this country, the general had cause to recently lament the current hardship in the country when he hosted the Niger State branch of the Campaign for Democracy (CD) in his Minna residence.
He said: “The hardship in the land is getting out of control. Everybody is crying of this hardship and it seems to be getting out of control; people cannot afford three square meals, the issue of transportation, the hike in fuel, the hike in school fees for the children and the lack of funds in everybody’s pocket is making life difficult for everybody.”
General Abdulsalami’s statement was not made out of context. Many top Nigerians have made similar statements on the situation in the country. The latest of such high profile statements came from Iba Gani Adams, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, who pointedly advised President Bola Tinubu to review some of the harsh policies in order to avert a looming social catastrophe in the country.
These statements are not mere idle talk; they represent the real situation in Nigeria under President Tinubu. I recently gifted a senior civil servant N5000, rather hesitantly because I thought the amount was too small for a man of his status. I was however surprised when teary-eyed he told with the money I had given him he was going to purchase grits from maize flour and mix it with “kulikuli” to serve as meal for the next three days for his household. This is as graphic a reality as it is under the Tinubu administration which General Abdulsalami talked about.
Whatever aura President Tinubu came with has now evaporated. An overwhelming number of Nigerians do not now believe or trust his words of exhortation that his “economic reforms” will improve Nigeria’s economic situation. And it is made worse by the fact that President Tinubu is neither a listening nor empathetic president. His reply to the statements by General Abdulsalami, Aare Gani Adams and Nigerians generally who are suffering under his harsh policies was: “There are no free bears any more”. Apparently, the only “free bears” available now are exclusively reserved for him and his “Baba so pe” associates who dare not to tell him the true situation of things in the country.
If a personality as esteemed as General Abdulsalami and who is not given to flippancy can come out and voice his mind in the manner he did on the true situation in the country, then we need not be told that the president has lost it.
When statesmen like Gen. Abdulsalami made bold to make such telling interventions on existential issues in the country, then President Tinubu is better advised to take heed. This is the simple, plain truth contained in the message of the General.
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