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Obasanjo's Prison Note launched

Echoes of President Obasanjo's three-year sojourn in prison during late Gen. Sani Abacha's regime pervaded the launch of his new book, “This Animal Called Man,” last week in Lagos. Gen. Obasanjo received swell acclaim for the effort with a reviewer describing him as one of Africa's greatest philosophers.

Obasanjo's work which is a combination of philosophy, theology and an excursion into human pysche, was a worthwhile product of the solitude offered by his imprisonment.

The book, launched at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos, had Chief Sonny Odogwu as chief launcher. Odogwu, the publisher of Post Express, bought 3,000 copies for N1.5 million for distribution to schools and libraries.

THE foundation of Nigerian problems is political and the solutions to Nigeria's problems must start from the foundation. Whether we go back to 1914, 1952 or 1960, we have to go back in the process of soul searching and identification of how, when and where we have wronged ourselves. I strongly believe that we need a Reconciliation Conference to clear the ground. It should be composed of the genuine representatives of the Nigerian peoples and should include all the living participants in the pre-independence politics. The objective should be to openly discuss allegations and accusations founded or unfounded of one group's mistreatment, abuse, disappointment, injustice against another across the board concluding in explanations, apologies, forgiveness and total clearing of the air. There are myths and realities of what had happened in the past, which we pass down from generation to generation. Let the myths be exploded and the realities understood and accepted with explanations where necessary, apologies where desired but without recriminations and with complete reconciliation. Nothing should be swept under the carpet. All matters tabled should be discussed and nothing should be hidden, covered or disregarded once it is genuinely and seriously raised by an identifiable group. I will consider 1952 or thereabouts as the ideal starting date. But on no account should we go back to 1914 because no Nigerian could in part, directly or indirectly be held responsible for events from 1914 to 1952. The Reconciliation Conference should end with the adoption of a reconciliation document, listing all the points raised and how cleared. With the muck of the past cleared, we should have a new clean foundation for our political framework and constitution.

My brief experience with the Nigeria Unity Organisation proved to me how very useful such a conference held in good faith and without bitterness but to clear the muck can be. There had always been allegations, stories and accusations of what Yoruba leaders and people have done against Ibo leaders and people and vice versa and these have been handed down. The most serious allegations was dated about 1952 when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the NCNC claimed to have been robbed of victory in the West. Chief Sam Mbakwe was honest and courageous enough to raise these allegations in Ibadan in 1995. When Chief M.A. Akinloye, one of the principal actors explained in detail what transpired, Chief Sam Mbakwe said, "We now understand what happened and if I were you, I would have done exactly what you did". There is no better way of understanding and clearing the air of myths and realities of our past political relationship and interaction. These in twisted and perverted forms continue to be passed down to foul the political air. I may not accept the blame for what my late father had done but I can give a sincere apology on behalf of my father if it is proved to me that my father had acted wrongly. Although the political parties of the past are defunct, the perception was that the leader of a political party acted more to favour his ethnic group or tribe who were normally the majority in the party he led. Those ethnic groups or tribes are not defunction.

There are allegations or accusations founded or unfounded leveled by the Yorubas against the majorities and vice versa. The free discussion and explanation of these issues are bound to make for healthy future political activities. The Reconciliation Conference may last a few weeks or months but not years. In the first instance, it should be given not more than six months for its deliberations and activities. So much have taken place on the political, economic and social planes since 1966 that are shrouded in secrecy and darkness and the truth of which much be made known to us. Much of the unknown and the unravelled came with the night operations of the military to supplant the constituted authority or the government of the day. Let the truth be known. "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). The knowledge of the truth has a way of unchaining the mind and liberating the soul and the body. In this regard, knowing the truth must not imply or involve retroactive laws, charges or punishment. No individual or group should be retroactively charged, no retroactive laws. The spirit and the atmosphere of reconciliation, which must be engendered by the Reconciliation Conference, should not allow for recriminations and retroactive law and charges.

As a complement to the Reconciliation conference, must be a Truth Commission to ferret out and establish the truth in all areas of our past political, economic and social lives that may be requested for or raised by Nigerians or by the Commission itself and considered by the Commission to be germane and inextricably relevant to its work, its mission. And the expansion of our knowledge of the truth should guard us against repeating the same mistakes in the future. And if people know that the truth of their action and re-action may be made public they may be more circumspect, prudent and transparent. It must be a judicial commission composed of men and women of integrity and courage and empowered to summon witnesses and request for documents. It should have the power of committal for contempt of the commission. The commission must seat in public subject only to its own decision to seat in camera where it is considered absolutely necessary to do so. And yet, the press must representatively be in attendance and directed on what aspect of the proceedings in camera must not be made public yet and the period of embargo must be specified.

I see 1966 as a watershed date and a possible, suitable and convenient starting date for the Truth Commission but on no account should it go beyond 1960. The Reconciliation Conference should, to my mind, substantially take care of most of the issues before 1966. The commission may be established and be seating concurrently with the Reconciliation Conference but it will require months if not years to do a thorough job. Its essential findings must be published and made available to Nigerians and to those who want to learn from it. The Reconciliation Conference and the Truth Commission in the Nigerian way may be one of Nigeria's useful contributions to lasting solution to political problems in multi-national societies in Africa and elsewhere.

The third leg of our stool for solid and firm political foundation for our sustained take off is a possible amendment to our Constitution to take account of some of the clearly articulated concerns. This cannot be established until the Reconciliation Conference has completed its task. But it does not necessarily have to wait for the completion of the Truth Commission. The Assembly should be made up of freely elected representatives of the people with ten per cent being reserved for professional and trade that cannot participate in free general elections. Another ten per cent should come from the Reconciliation Conference elected from among its members. The Assembly should be free to elect or select its own chairman and work out its own working and operating procedure. It may break the issues to be deliberated upon into two minor issues requiring only a majority vote for a decision and major issues requiring only major vote for a decision and major issues requiring a two-third majority vote of those present who form a quorum for a decision. Approving the operating procedure of the Assembly will be regarded as a minor issue requiring only a simple majority. But the issues of revenue allocation, constituents making up the federation - thirty-six states or six zones are major and must require near consensus to take decisions on them since once the decision is taken by a Sovereign Assembly, it becomes part of the constitution. For devolution of power, balance and stability, I prefer six zones to be the basis of our federating units.

I will suggest five items, which may be regarded as novelty, which I believe that our recent experiences, and experiences from other lands dictate. One, I will like to see a clause for self determination and self-determination process included in the constitution. I had always thought that a self-determination clause in a federal constitution would be disintegrative and disuniting. But when I listened to the Ethiopian experience and model, I was persuaded and enchanted by it. It makes the federation a true federation and strong both at the constituent level and at the centre because all have a stake and to be out is to be a loser. If a component unit passes all the conditions and stages which are normally stringent and which also involve the rest of the federation, then it has a case worth considering for self-determination. A self-determination clause will always make the operators of the constitution conscious of the need to preserve the spirit and the letters of the constitution. My sounding in Ethiopia was that all like it and it seemed to be working well. I also believe it may stem the tide of constant threat of secession at every point of our national crisis. Divorce is allowed in marriage but every marriage does not end in divorce. In most cases, the fact that divorce is a possibility increase the desire to make the marriage work on both sides. And if one party desires divorce, he or she has to satisfy the conditions laid down for it.

Two, a clause for integration and integration process is to make room for the conditions and the basis on which other states or components of other states may have to satisfy to join and be integrated with a thriving Nigerian federation. I see it as a necessary corollary to the self-determination clause. And no country or state should feel agitated or threatened about such a clause in our constitution if we can insert self-determination clause, we should be able to include integration clause. The process must be democratic in both cases and on all sides.

The third clause is to deal with the issues of coup d'etat. Once the genie of coup is released out of the bottle it become virtually endemic until the tradition, culture and convention of non-military intervention can be recreated and developed within the military and the society as a whole - it will take generations rather than years. Coups cannot be dealt with by legislation alone but it can be fought against in the heart and mind of the people. It is unfortunate that what is normal in the experience of Nigerians who will be about forty years old at the end of the century is military administration.

Pre-disposition to coup must be fought from many directions - psychological, political, social and legislative. The psychological will involve giving warning against coup and constitutional offense three times a day - morning, mid-day and night on all broadcasting media and channels and in all newspapers and magazines. The political should include anti-coup lectures as part of training for all military men and non-support, non-fraternisation and non-co-operation pledge and lectures for all politicians at all levels. Social action should include effective stigmatisation, constitutional, and legislative offenses should be made a non-time-barred offense written into our constitution, into all our laws and in our hearts. Recent developments have shown that if the members of the nuclear families of constitution breakers, coup makers and their accomplices do not goad them on, their inclination may not be strong and they surely savour and glow in the pleasure of the benefit of the acts of the heads and members of their family. For the offence against the constitution, the officer, his accomplices, his supporters, his co-operators and their families must be held liable for life.

The fourth clause, I will strongly recommend for inclusion in our next constitution is a compulsory nine-year free education for all Nigerian children. One of the greatest dis-service that almost all administrations have done to Nigeria since 1979 is to progressively uneducate the Nigerian children to the extent that we have more illiterates in 1998 than we had in 1960. Part of the result is glaringly seen in the prison in the number of young offenders and criminals and it is heart breaking. The advantage to the nation of putting all her children through a nine-year course of formal education will be tremendous politically, economically and socially. Education is the most important factor of breaking the cycle of poverty. Political education and awareness can be better given to literate citizenry than illiterate ones. A nine-year course of formal education should make the recipient better able to manage his or her personal affairs and contribute to the society than the fellow who has no opportunity of the formal education at all.

The fifth clause is the elimination of capital punishment. Death sentence must be constitutionally abolished. I know that there are strong feelings for preservation of death sentence including quranical and biblical support. What we now know of cruel torture in the so-called investigation by law enforcement agents, official killings nicknamed “Operation Damisa,” judicial murder, bloodthirsty leadership and injustice, oppression and corruption at the highest level of the executive, at all levels of the judiciary and by all law enforcement agents make it absolutely unsafe and suicidal to entrust the power of death of a Nigerian into the hands of any of these, now and in future. I prefer we should err on the side of saving lives rather than on the side of destroying innocent lives.

Let me illustrate the level of miscarriage of justice with the case of Sani and Umaru in Yola prison serving life sentence for the murder of an Adamawa State politician carried out by hired assassins. The leader of the group of hired assassins who perpetrated the crime happened to be in Yola prison for another offense while I was there. He confessed to me that he led the assassins because they were hired by a political opponent and that Sani and Umaru knew nothing let alone participating in the crime. Yet they were both sentenced to death by a fire arms tribunal and their lives were spared at the eleventh hour by a special appeal to the governor of the state and they were serving life sentences by the time I left Yola for offense they had not committed. We must stop devaluing life and begin to treat it as God has created it - sacred. Life sentences with stringent reprieve conditions may be instituted for offense that now carry death sentences.

There are many cases all over the place like that of Sani and Umaru where due to lapses and/or corruption the wrong people have been sentenced to death and the sentence carried out with the real culprits unarrested let alone being charged. I cannot fail to bring to remembrance the fact that Abacha and his clique manufactured a non-existent coup and secretly tried and sentenced fourteen people to death. If not for national and international outcry and outrage, he would have carried out the sentences. No mindless and mad Nigerian leader must be given that sort of opportunity again.

Our economic system cannot be anything other than a market economy. But in our own situation, we must not saddle the market with the function it cannot perform. Some essential factors of the market for effective regulatory and distributory functions are absent with our level of development. So, to abandon the economy to non-available and non-functioning market forces is to destroy the economy. The market must also do what it can but it must be masterfully and prudently helped by management from the government in a non-conspicuous, over-bearing and disincentive manner. Rather government must do everything to provide conducive atmosphere and environment and encouragement for investment and particularly foreign investment. Without investment, production and growth, there can be no development and poverty can neither be alleviated nor eradicated. We need massive foreign investment of about five billion dollars annually to get the economy up again. I believe that with the right policy in place under a democratic umbrella with dynamic leadership, trusted and supported nationally and internationally with corruption put under check, this objective is achievable.

In summary, I remain convinced that on the political plane, it is the political elite who pollute the atmosphere and infect the ordinary people. Left alone by themselves, Nigerians are good to themselves and among themselves. Regardless, I will not write off the Nigerian political elite because people can change. Apostle Paul, as a Judaist, thought he was right in persecuting Christians. However, after the road to Damascus' conversion, other than Jesus Christ, he became the greatest contributor to the spread of Christianity.

On the social front, our focus of organisation, planning and execution should be 'community and communality.' We had tended to believe in 'the bigger, the better'. We have learned the lesson and virtue of 'small but effective.' Whether in the rural, semi-rural or urban centres, our unit of deliverance of social services should be on the basis of the community with the community participation and involvement. There is a lot to say for and to do with respect to political and economic activities on the basis of the community. The Nigerian man is the object and subject of his environment. We must start to scatter and sow the seeds of truth and awareness of our problems definitely without recriminations. We must sow seeds of understanding, consideration, apologies and forgiveness where hurt has been inflicted and seeds of reconciliation and new beginning on genuine basis of brotherhood, equality, equity, good governance, justice and human rights for the common good on which unity, harmony, peace, progress and prosperity can be firmly built. If evils emanating from our hearts have tended to separate us, let goodness emanating from the same hearts draw us together. Man is capable of both evil and good and Nigerian man is not any different in this regard and our efforts in prayer and work must be for the grace of God to abound to bring forth the good in the Nigerian man and woman for the improvement of the Nigerian situation.

Nigeria was taken captive by conspiracy of deception, oppression, corruption and injustice all for greed and selfishness - and it needs liberation. And nothing liberates and enlivens like knowledge, enlightenment and the Spirit of God. "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). "Where the spirit of the LORD is, there is freedom" (II Con 3:17). Nigeria is too fragile and the situation is too dangerous for anything but the truth and justice and too small for anything but brotherhood and sisterhood. And the world is moving so fast that it may leave us behind.

I remain very hopeful that with enough crop of patriotic, well-meaning and Godly men and women striving relentlessly and selflessly for the good over darkness in our country and through divine intervention, deliverance and guidance, the great potentials of Nigeria will be actualised. One good day of heavy downpour will make the grass start growing again. The alternative is unthinkable. We need critical mass of people across the country praying and working to prevent some Nigerians from thinking the unthinkable and making the unthinkable happen.

Soon after he was released from his 25-year jail term by the General Abdusalami Abubakar regime, having spent just three years, President Olusegun Obasanjo released above title, "This Animal Called Man". The book made some impressions. Coming from a man who could be said to have seen it all. Once at the top as a former Head of State, and later at the bottom when imprisoned for conspiracy in a coup plot during the regime of late Gen. Sani Abacha. After three years in various prisons, Obasanjo, by providence, became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In his scintillating piece of work which whoever must have read would not agree less, Obasanjo did a critical dissection of the whole essence of man, the vanity of life and above all, that power is transient. Significantly, having been left more or less incommunicado without due cognizance of the fact that he was a former head of state, Obasanjo became close to God. In the prisons, he understood the words of God like a true Christian. His prayers could move mountains and believers alike would definitely agree that the walls of Jericho can again be brought down with Obasanjo's mode of praying…….

Following President Obasanjo's endorsement of the convocation of a national conference, elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, yesterday declared that holding the conference is no longer in question, but rather it was now a matter of when the conference would take place and the issues to be discussed at the conference. He posited that the failure of the country was in large part due to the perennial tensions and conflicts among its nationalities. He recommended that the new constituion emerging from the conference must allow each region, which he suggested could be 18, have its own flag, and that the membership of the Nigerian union is only an additional, and not a replacement of the natural allegiances of those ethnic nationalities……

Addressing squarely the question of secession Chief Enahoro noting president Obasanjo's observation in his book, " This Animal Called Man", where the president stated that any future constitution of Nigeria must provide for a right of secession. Chief Enahoro concurred with the president on this issue, remarking the president's thought on the issue recognises that short of brute force, there is no way that the different nationalities can be kept together in the long term. He however observed that if the nationalities are treated fairly, there is no reason for agitation to secede. " Our expectation is that in the new union of Nigeria in which all nationalities are treated fairly, no nationality will have cause to wants to secede. It is nevertheless prudent that provision should be made for this possibility, however remote it may seem at present."……

“NIGERIAN MUSE” THANKS PROF. ‘SEGUN GBADEGESIN FOR BRINGING THIS EXCERPT TO OUR ATTENTION