The December 31, 1983 coup (3) Ebenezer Babatope Mr. Longe’s letter did bring it vividly home to me that my days as a free man were numbered. I was quite clear in my mind that my arrest was only imminent and a matter of time. There were several reasons why I had felt that way. In the first place, I had been put in the bad books of the new military ruler, General Muhammadu Buhari with my article in the Sunday Tribune of September 19 1982, where I had stated that he was planning a coup to oust the civilian administration. The Sunday Tribune made matters worse (though the paper had acted with all honesty of purpose) by re-publishing the article on January 15, 1984. In several countries of the world where democracy is given a free reign, such an article would have earned both the writer and the newspaper deserved honour for their foresight and sound professionalism. For Nigerians under Buhari, however, it was a signal to bring down the sledge hammer fast on the writer. I soon discovered that General Buhari was a man with unforgiving spirit. On January 25 1984, he ordered the immediate arrest of Haroun Adamu of the Punch group of newspapers and formerly the Managing Director of the Triumph group of newspapers in Abubakar Rimi’s PRP administration in Kano. As Haroun Adamu revealed after his release on August 31 1985, he had met General Buhari at the Jumat prayers on Friday December 30, 1983 (a day before the coup). As he (Haroun Adamu) moved forward to exchange pleasantries with Buhari, the General turned away murmuring “we shall meet”. Haroun Adamu had written an article very early in 1980 calling for the retirement of those he called redundant and tired military officers. General Muhammadu Buhari’s name had featured on Haroun’s list. Haroun must have hastened his own march to prison by a front page editorial which appeared in the Punch newspaper about January 23 1984, and in which the military authorities had been called upon to appoint a seasoned and experienced civilian as the country’s Prime Minister. Even if the suggestion did not go well with the military rulers, it could have been ignored. Secondly, I had through my political activities offended a few retired and serving senior military officers over the years. Since 1966, when I started my active political life (then as a student – politician at the university of Lagos), I had disagreed ideologically with the military as an establishment holding political power. General Olusegun Obasanjo and myself were not in the best of terms. We used to be good friends in the early days of the Murtala/Obasanjo regime – a friendship that guaranteed my sitting beside him in Angola in February 1976 when the ruling MPLA of Augustino Neto had celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of its foundation as a liberation movement. The honeymoon was over when I had cause to violently disagree with his sudden round about turn in his handling of some of the radical policies initiated by his predecessor, late General Murtala Mohammed…. In July 1976, when the Speakers Society, University of Lagos published its journal Lagoon Echo in a special edition entitled “one Year of Murtala/Obasanjo Regime”, the General simply signed me off as a worthy associate. I was then a very active member of the radical organisation that published the Lagoon Echo. One of its editions had carried very incisive criticisms of the regime – a very unpleasant stance to the sensibilities of General Obasanjo and his colleagues. We both went our different ways until our paths accidentally crossed again and the General was able to have his way on August 25, 1978 when he signed my dismissal papers alongside other university staff consequent on the April 1978 students demonstrations in the country. Two university Vice-Chancellors – Professor Jacob Ade Ajayi (one of the finest scholars I have had the opportunity of working with) and Professor Iya Abubakar were removed from their positions. Eight left-wing university staff – Comrade Ola Oni, Bade Onimode, Laoye Sanda, Akin Ojo, Omafume Onoge, Edwin Ike Madunagu, Benedicta Madunagu (Eddy’s wife), and I were dismissed from our university positions having been accused of trying to promote insurrectional violence with the students’ protest. Three weeks after “The great purge”, I was announced by Chief Obafemi Awolowo as the Director of Organisation of the then newly formed UPN. The platform was then set for five years of disagreements between me and General Obasanjo over strictly ideological matters. My apprehension of the danger posed to my freedom increased with the comments of General Obasanjo on the 1983 coup. In an interview with a foreign magazine, the General was quoted to have suggested that the security situation would be considerably enhanced if all West African countries were ruled by the military. He was also quoted by the foreign magazine to have been emphatic that Nigeria could not afford the luxury of going to the polls every four years to elect civilians to power. There were also many friends of mine who had the firm belief that the General would want me put behind bars. When I returned from prison, I was told two stories that should be stated clearly for posterity. Some of my friends led by a journalist and social critic once visited General Obasanjo in his farm at Otta in Ogun State to plead with him to assist in getting me released. My friends reported him saying that he knew nothing of my incarceration and had no hands in my ordeal. He was however, quoted to have commented off guard, “let him die in prison”. At another time my auntie had visited the General in his farm along with some of her friends. She pleaded with him to intercede in my case. My auntie told me that Obasanjo’s reply was an attempt to cover up his bewilderment that such a nice lady could be a relation of such a “radical”. These were some of the stories told to me from which I could decipher Obasanjo’s attitude towards me. I wish to put it categorically on record that I have no bitterness of any kind against the person of General Obasanjo. I respect him as a self-made man. I admire his natural intelligence and humble background. His accomplishment as a soldier is a tribute to his career. But I detest with all the marrows in my bones, his style of governance, ideologically and otherwise. He ruled Nigeria under an atmosphere of a rabid fear of the “North” and compromised vital national interests as a result. He told some untruths in the accounts he gave on his governance of Nigeria. Ideologically, he was, and I believe he still is, an arch capitalist. He, however, has always been consistently in support of liberation movements in Africa. He is genuinely committed to that cause. It is not a surprise that he has risen to the very top in such an area. I nurse no ill feelings against him. Thirdly, I incurred the animosity of some other officers of the Nigerian Army by my March 9 1981 lecture at the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru in Plateau State. I had been invited to deliver a lecture titled “The Politician” to an assemblage of top armed forces personnel, civil servants and industrialists who were attending a nine month course in Public Administration at the Institute. In my three hour lecture, I attacked the concept of military intervention in African politics and concluded that the military “politicians” had not performed better than the civilians whom they had often overthrown. It was a controversial lecture and it was obvious from the manner of questions asked by participants that the lecture had touched on their sensitive feelings. The lecture was attended by late Brigadier Ibrahim Bako (killed in Abuja on the day of the December 31 1983 coup while on his way to effect the arrest of President Shehu Shagari), Brigadiers Atom Kpera, Jeremiah Useni, Garba Duba, and veteran sports commentator, Ishola Folorunsho among several others. I had made spirited efforts to see General Tunde Idiagbon (then Brigadier) at Dodan Barracks about my case. I was always assured by one Major Wole Ohunayo, the Military PRO that something positive was being done about the release of my passport. Nothing was “being” done. Major Ohunayo was only being a good PRO. TO BE CONTINUED...
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 13:36:36 +0000
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