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Olusegun Obasanjo
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Human rights activist, lawyer and
journalist, Ayo Opadokun, relives his multifaceted experiences in life in this
interview with BOSEDE OLUSOLA-OBASA
Has it always been your dream from
childhood to be a lawyer?
I think so but I don’t know what came
over me though that I chose to first study mass communication. But I remember
that I was inspired by my father who didn’t go to school but he was very
ambitious. He learned to read and write and even spoke English. I saw that he
had the habit of purchasing and reading Iwe Iroyin Awon Yoruba.
Whenever he left it, I read the newspapers to the extent I got really
interested such that when Daily Times was being sold for one kobo, I
used to save a part of my allowance to buy it and read.
As earlier as 12-15 years old, I
already had good understanding of events in our country by reading. We were
living in Offa, Kwara State then, but later went to Kano State. In Kano, I
learned short-hand and typing and later had opportunity to train in a teacher’s
training college. Right from Form Three in the college, I already made up my
mind on the kind of life I wanted to live. I was committed to becoming a
journalist first and then a lawyer. But my dreams were fulfilled at God’s time.
In the years that I would have been admitted into the University of Lagos to
study mass communication, I was one point less than the eight points entry
requirement.
The point I had could have conveniently
given me a slot to study law, which was three points but I wanted to first
study mass communication. So, I decided to re-enter for the course. Those days,
mass communication had the highest cut off point. Those days, you didn’t need
to lobby anyone once you passed. The year after, I received my admission letter
via telegram to study mass communication and I came out with Second Class
Upper. Much later in 1983, I enrolled to study law. Papa Obafemi Awolowo was
one of the two persons that signed my admission letter for the law school,
which had to be signed by senior lawyers. The other person that signed for me
was Alhaji A. F. Razak.
How did you develop your relationship
with Pa Awolowo?
As the head of the PUNCH opinion
poll, I believe that leaders of the Unity Party of Nigeria had been reading my
bylines and were fascinated. I don’t know what they discussed with Pa Awolowo
but two of them L. A. Omisade from Ife and Alhaji King from Kano were assigned
to speak with me. I was invited to come and see him and I sat at the table with
him. The executive made a case for the need for better organised research arm,
so I was appointed as the party’s senior research and publicity officer and
subsequently I rose to be director.
Could you relive your days as a
journalist?
I worked at PUNCH newspaper in
1979. I was appointed then to head the opinion poll unit. We used scientific
approach to verify public opinion as was done in Europe. We found out people’s
views on matters of importance to the public. Dr. Idowu Sobowale was my
external consultant then. It was about precision in journalism. Before then, I
was with The Herald Newspaper in Kwara State. After Tunde Idiagbon and
Muhammadu Buhari’s coup in 1983, Pa Awolowo asked Chief Ebenezer Babatope and I
to go to Tribune and start doing something there.
It was at that point that I enrolled
for law. Some of my friends wondered what was wrong with me for wanting to
leave journalism to go and study law. They thought that I was belittling the
profession but I knew my lifestyle – I knew that I would remain a critic,
seeking to right the wrongs against the Nigerian people. I knew that I could
not guarantee that government would patronise anything that I would be engaged
in. I knew that I needed an independent source of income that will not put me
at the mercy of the government and law provided me that platform. I know my
right, I can utilise my knowledge to help other people while earning a living.
Are you now saying that you prefer law
to journalism?
I have difficulty responding to that.
That is because they are both important. All I know is that I am first and
primarily a reporter before being a lawyer.
In your days as a reporter, which
report do you consider very challenging?
I remember a feature story I wrote
while at The Herald about Dr. Olusola Saraki and his water gesture to
people in the community. The theme of the story was based on my observation,
which revealed the political and not charity motive behind his giving water to
the people. There was inadequate water and he used to give out water using
tankers, but the story opened up Saraki for who he was. That was during the
military regime, Saraki was very angry because of the story. I got to know that
he placed surveillance on me. I could have been eliminated for that story or
dismissed except for the intervention of some people. The story put me on the
side of reality of ’write and be damned.’ The Libertarian Theory of the press
says publish and be damned. Truth is regarded as sacred, while comments are
free.
Were you a politics reporter?
Yes, my interest has always been to
cover politics. I was there when the Unity Party of Nigeria organised its first
conference in Lagos, among so many other landmark events.
As a politics reporter, how often was
your byline on the cover page?
It wasn’t so often. The gatekeepers had
parameters for determining which story made it to the cover. I must have
clocked two and half years in The Herald before I wrote my first cover
story. Newsroom managers in those days were not educated but they were really
skilful on the job.
What’s your purpose for choosing to be
an activist?
My parents, both Christians had impact
on my choice. My father was a Baptist Church leader for many years. My mother
was the president of women missionary society for about 15 years. I was born by
parents, who were traditional protectors of the rights of the poor; that had
its own impact. Besides, they were people who never pandered towards an
unprincipled position. In 1978, my father insisted that priests in the Baptist
church then must upgrade educationally to be adequate with the development in
the lives of the congregation.
They were given an option to opt out if
they couldn’t meet up with that requirement and it was ratified by the council
of the church. There were a few people who were against the move and at a
point, the police had to come to the church to keep peace. Those who were
against the move were sad that my father was bent on sending the pastor away,
but my father stood on his position because he understood that it would be to
the advantage of the point being made. I learnt from my parents to be able to
defend whatever I did. I follow the mandate of the Bible that I should be a
voice of the voiceless.
You appear to be someone who loves to
be beside great people (Like Awo and MKO Abiola), how do you get this done?
I don’t think I have any extra thing that
I have done. I only have the grace of God to stand for what is right. I don’t
mind the consequences when I decide on standing for the right thing. The fact
is that people often find me acceptable. I have been so lucky, and I often act
as a bridge builder. Looking at National Democratic Coalition, when Ibrahim
Babangida annulled that election, every effort to make him change his mind
failed.
The election was in June 1993, so I sat
down and thought and I became persuaded that if nobody did anything about the
matter, children after us would feel disappointed in us. So I decided that
Nigerians must stand up, I went to Papa Adekunle Ajasin in Owo to discuss how
we could have a platform of different groups and people that would speak up
against the annulment. I told him the implication and that he would have to
come to Lagos. We were able to establish a broad-based political platform which
we called NADECO. Afenifere called an emergency meeting with me and approved my
submission.
People from South South, South East and the Middle Belt also lent
their support. This done, Pa Ajasin and I decided to co-opt retired military
officers into the group. That is why the first meeting was held in the Ikeja,
GRA home of Major General Adeyinka Adebayo. I spoke with the Campaign for
Democracy, the CDHR and we all collaborated to form what was known as NADECO.
With my role, it was not a surprise that I was appointed the chief scribe of
the coalition and there was a directive that I should be the only one to speak
on behalf of the organisation. That was decided at the first steering committee
meeting, especially because we were under a military regime. So, I was declared
wanted. That was in 1994. I had to go underground for five months. I was later
detained for the first 24 months.
In other words, you are saying that
NADECO was your brainchild…
I won’t say that. It will be an overtly
ambitious assumption. The truth is that so many groups were trying to do so
many things around that time. What God used me to do was to coordinate them to
form a whole. At our second meeting, we had MKO Abiola in attendance and he
agreed with our position.
Principally, he agreed to, once he assumed the
position as president, bring about a government of national unity by convening
a sovereign national conference to respond to the national question. The
meeting was at the instance of a committee of three and the name NADECO was
arrived at. It was Pa Anthony Enahoro that fine-tuned the suggestions on what
the name should be and it became NADECO.
Do you recall your first meeting with
MKO Abiola?
I really had nothing doing with him
until when he wanted to run for the presidency in 1993 precisely. I had only
been looking at him from a distance. Maybe he was told that he couldn’t have a
successful campaign without the Afenifere group. I was told that he had gone to
see Mama HID Awolowo in Ikene and that he had gone to see Pa Ajasin in Owo. So,
we were asked to draw up the Awo creed. After he had done some rounds across
the country, I received a call from him.
He said that he wanted me to be close
to him. I remember that one of his wives, Mrs. Doyin Abiola, also invited me
and some other people to discuss the political campaign. The work was done. As
part of my commitment to principles, when the election was annulled, I got
closer to Abiola. We cultivated each other and I found that he was genuine in
what he was doing, only for the jackboots to arrest, detain, humiliate,
prosecute and killed him for reasons still unknown till date. That black spot
will remain eternal in the history of Nigerian military.
You looked forward to seeing Abiola
become president. Can you recall your mood when you learnt about the annulment
of his election?
I recall clearly. The first public
speech on the annulment met me in the palace of the Ooni of Ife. There were so
many traditional rulers who were there for a meeting and the Ooni wanted me to
play a role there. The meeting had not started when the announcement came at
about 12 noon. I was not only devastated; I felt that Nigeria had lost an
opportunity to fashion out nationhood. We lost the chance to respond to our
divine destiny as the leader in the black world. I felt totally and personally
cheated. My expectation had been corroded by evil intention and action of a few
military jackboots. They are so contemptible of the Nigerian people and I felt
that it was not good.
If you still feel this way after two
decades, how then do you feel still seeing IBB around?
I see him as a man that would have been
the luckiest person, who could have used his office to give the country the
best, but he chose the option of serving personal interest and in the process
lost what he thought he had. If he had allowed the victory of Abiola to stay, I
believe that Nigeria would have been highly rated in the comity of nations. It
was very hard for Nigerians to bear. Abiola lost the election and his life.
Do you believe he should have forgone
the mandate and saved his life?
Unfortunately, I don’t. I believe he
did the right thing. He stood for what he believed in. It was a sacrifice he
paid. If he had not, he most likely would have been forgotten. He is no more
now but he has succeeded in keeping his name alive as the martyr in Nigerian
politics. It is his killers that must account for their actions, no matter how
long they live. All the things that they have gathered will be taken away from
them.
Do you believe in the national
conference as being muted by President Goodluck Jonathan?
Well, for me, between an agenda for a
national restructuring and 2015 presidential election, my priority will be the
convocation of a sovereign national conference. As to whether Jonathan is
sincere or not, I believe that people have a right to be cynical because we
have seen so much in the political sphere. I will continue to watch, we will be
fools not to choose to watch and see whether he means it or not. We were here
when Sani Abacha came in and observed that people were indifferent, he promised
to organise a national conference, and later conference with constituent
powers, which is the same as sovereignty.
But when we saw that decree, it was
clear that he would appoint all the principal officers, he would nominate one
third of the staff membership, that the military had been given the right to
amend, rewrite, subtract, add to the resolutions of the conference. So it
became obvious that he didn’t mean it, he just wanted to buy time. During
Olusegun Obasanjo’s time, he filled the seats with his choice of members, but
behold, we later discovered that the most important reason for the conference
was to support his intention for tenure elongation.
And when people kicked
against that purpose, the conference collapsed. So, people must be cynical, but
I still think that we should give it another try under Jonathan. The most
suitable constitutional arrangement for our kind of country is a federal
constitution, which must be established by the people. That was the basis on
which the 1960 constitution was fashioned but less than five years, the
military took over and they have infiltrated our constitution. Nigerians must
utilise this opportunity to subscribe to their own constitution. President
Jonathan has to show that he is genuine.
Do you see NADECO outliving its
founders?
Yes, as long as the country remains the
way it is, NADECO will be relevant. Our agitation is for the convocation of a
sovereign national conference.
How much of your time does your family
have seeing your kind of schedule?
I would say that I have not scored a
distinction in that aspect. I am on the average. The role that God has used me
to play has deprived my children of the opportunity to hold on to their father
as they would love to. I can tell you that in spite of the efforts we make, it
has been God’s mercy that has helped me to satisfy the aspiration of my wife
and children. I am not such a fantastic father because I was not really
available when they were being raised. I must give credit to my wife; she is a
Christian and has done a yeoman job in nurturing the children. Whenever I am
around, I provide parental care and guide.
In one of the instances, you were
detained for two years, how was the experience like?
That was the first one; I was
rearrested again in 1998. I was in Ikoyi prison when Abacha died and I was
released. The prison is a leveller. Once you are there, you are not in control
of yourself; the warder is in control of you. The habitual prisoners are kings
and presidents of the cell. You are not in control, they can come and pull you
out of your cell to another prison and nobody would explain anything to you and
you must not say no.
To make matters worse for people like me, I was not
prosecuted. I was detained for political reasons. In my detention warrant, they
didn’t state the date that I would be released. You are just there, that
can be more depressing, and you don’t know when you would get out.
What they did to us occasionally could
be very dangerous, we were being moved around – I spent about 15 months in Kano
prison and later I was taken to Kuje prison in Abuja, where I spent
another five or six months. When I was first arrested in 1994, I was taken from
Ikoyi to Kano.
My experience is that Nigerian prisons are not designed for
correction, it hardens prisoners. Prisoners get so bad that when they are
released, they tell warders to retain their ration because they will soon be
back, they can no longer integrate into the society. There is need for a
radical reform in the prisons. About two third of people there are on awaiting
trial. The money said to be spent on prison is not showing at all.
During Abacha’s regime in 1998 that you
went back to the prison, did you ever think that you’d regain freedom?
I had two sets of thoughts in my head.
In a way, I had intelligence report on what was happening in government. I was
of the opinion that I could be taken to a far distant prison like in Yola or
places with bad climatic conditions, abandoned there or eliminated. I knew that
Abacha was a very ruthless man. When I was released from Ikoyi prison in 1998,
I was convinced that I would never be released if Abacha had not died.
I was
told that he said that I was stubborn and that he thought that I had learnt my
lesson from my first ordeal. I was sometimes invited by the State Security
Service officers on insurgency to answer some questions. It was around 12 to 1
am and when I gave my answer, the officer got angry and ordered me to be taken
back to the cell. They asked me where NADECO got funding from.
When on that day, two SSS officers
brought my release warrant and I was told I would be leaving, they pleaded with
me not to let other prisoners know about it. But I had to tell my confidant in
the prison. But the awaiting trial guys got to know and it caused uproar. I
wanted my money back from one of the prison officers but he had spent it.
I was
however able to get N10 and took a kabukabu back to Offa. The SSS guys
wanted to give me a lift to Abuja but I refused. I went to sleep at the home of
Chief Olu Akerele, then the bureau chief of the Concord newspaper. The SSS men
actually wanted me to come and see Abacha but I didn’t want to go though I
didn’t tell them. I simply rose up very early the next day and told Akerele
that I was leaving for the garage. I refused to go and see him, why should I
see him?
You seem to have some personal dislike
for Olusegun Obasanjo…
I would say it once again; he is an
unpleasant complex of a man. Here is a man God gave very rare privilege but he
redirected himself. He failed to use his opportunity to paint his name in gold.
Before he assumed office, he was aware of a group called New Generation, which
had passion for seeing a turnaround in the power sector.
The group was made up
of professionals and blue chip companies, who had the blueprint of how to make
it work. They met with him before he got into office and promised to ensure
that they had opportunity to revive the power sector. But he slept over it for
so many months and years. He started the independent power project but it was
not properly done.
We were talking about 2,800MW for a
country as big as Nigeria. In education, he refused to go beyond five per cent
budget despite the hues and cries and despite UNESCO’s 1976 recommendation of
26 per cent budget for member nations. Why is it that Nigeria cannot provide
effective medical care for people?
Obasanjo’s project on that also
failed. Rich people are airlifted to go for medical treatment, but the poor
people are dying because they can’t afford N5,000 treatment. Obasanjo cannot
pretend not to know that James Ibori had been stealing state funds, he never
did anything. He was allowed to run for election despite the evidence brought
to court on his convictions home and abroad.
My problem with that man called
General Obasanjo is that perhaps he had a round table with God where he was
told that he will live for 200 years, otherwise, he shouldn’t have done some of
the things he did in office. How can a man in a public office in Nigeria build
a private university? Where did he make such fortune?
Source: The Punch
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