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President Buhari should apologise to Nigerians

By Patrick Dele Cole
02 October 2015   |   12:55 am
I KNOW that for many, the headline is all they would read and I will forever be vilified as an enemy of President Muhammadu Buhari. Those who can will inflate a simple request into my calling for the President to resign.
President Buhari

President Buhari

I KNOW that for many, the headline is all they would read and I will forever be vilified as an enemy of President Muhammadu Buhari. Those who can will inflate a simple request into my calling for the President to resign. President Bill Clinton apologised to the Indians and African-Americans for the way they had been treated by other Americans.

The Emperor of Japan apologised for his people’s behaviour during World War II. But why should President Buhari apologise for his 1983 coup?

Basically such an apology will wipe the slate clean and allow him to progress along the route he has chosen. As he has found out twice now the easy part of his job is getting the power. The difficult part, which has confounded all those before him, is what to do after getting the power.

The government of Tafawa Balewa did not have the problem of what to do after winning the election and got to power. It had won the election on a proper party manifesto based on the desire for independence and a clear idea of what to do with that independence. It is true that it needed a coalition of two political parties with not dissimilar manifestos and ideologies. They worked together until the elections of1965-1966 when a peculiar madness took over some soldiers and they struck in 1966.

I have read every single word of all the soldiers who staged the coup of 1966 and not one word justified the coup. They were merely copying other coups in Africa and Latin America. In 1965, our economy was doing rather well, jobs were plentiful, the schools were excellent, agricultural production was at its highest, oil revenues were beginning to trickle in: so all the rubbish written by Major “Kaduna” Nzeogwu and other apologists remain just that – rubbish.

The 1966 coup unleashed upon Nigeria an army that was young and inexperienced; with no tradition to speak of, an ambitious, ignorant young officers, pampered in Mons, Sandhurst and other military courses etc but lacking in the most basic philosophical foundation of those respectable institutions – the subordination of the military to the Political Authority. Compare the men they overthrew with the ones they produced: the Sardauna, Tafawa Balewa, Awolowo, Osadebey, Michael Okpara, A. C. Nwapa, Dr. Okoi Arikpo, Chief S. L. Akintola and Mbonu Ojike. Musa Yar’Adua, Aminu Kano, Dipcharima, Mbadiwe etc.

These men were replaced by – well you know them. These popinjays, these sorry reflections of what an officer and a gentleman should be, took the   fragile Nigerian political society and destroyed it. It had taken people like Herbert Macaulay, James Horatio Jackson, Thomas Payne, Dr. Ajayi Crowther, Da Rocha, Olorunminbe, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe etc –all drinking from the well laid open by the nationalists from1860 onwards, putting together the foundation of political life; for over 100 years putting together, amid fierce opposition, putting together the building blocks of democracy – the parties and their manifestos, freedom of the press, freedom of movement and religion and economic wellbeing and sustainability – cotton, palm oil, timber, groundnuts, cocoa, sorghum, millet corn, cassava, coal, tin, manganese.

By 1966, Nigeria was rich, as rich as India, had surpassed Malaysia, Ghana etc. This was what Kaduna Nzeogwu destroyed in a thoughtless melancholic coup mad move to set up what he called a coup to stop corruption. Which corruption? If Nigeria was corrupt in 1966, what do you call Nigeria in 2014?

There were political unrest in the West, 1964-66, between the Action Group and National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC), riots at Ife and Modakeke – some people were burned, Owegbe cult and its nefarious activities. Some ministers were reported to be fabulously rich. In the end, little was found to be true about their wealth or that what little wealth they had come from their office. Our political history and heritage were rich and dynamic – there were the Nigerian Youth Movement, NCNC, Calabar Ogoja Rivers Movement, Northern Elements People Union and Northern Peoples Congress.

True, some were ethnic parties but no one ethnic party can rule Nigeria. That is why Nigeria is a federation – a delicate balance between ethnicity, nationalism and political objectives. This balance was all unhinged by the 1966 coup. The impact was a pogrom in Northern Nigeria, widespread political instability in the rest of Nigeria and the attempt by the Ibos to secede. The result was a civil war.

The military ballooned from 30000 to nearly two million in four years; proper discipline was at best patchy, at worst minimal. The successors of the civil war settled to rule from 1970, the military stepped out of government in 1979. Four years later, General Buhari is back again in order that corruption must stop.

Now, if civil society had been allowed to grow strong with political parties, institutions and alliances since 1966, those institutions would have grown stronger. The loss of the chance to grow politically was catastrophic in geometric proportion. The first thing military governments do is to ban political activities. One year’s political inactivity is probably equivalent to 10 years’ loss of political experience times an indeterminate quotient.

Two years is equal to   twenty, three to probably 40. This is why each time we are allowed to participate in politics, we start all over again. We buy new registers to write names of party members. Who pays for the party? What will it stand for? Who will organise it?

It is no wonder that we have no internal democracy without which there can be no democracy. It is no wonder rich people seeking power are the kingpins of the parties. It is a misnomer to call the APC or the PDP a political party. They are SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) for the purpose of elections and hope to profit from their investments, some corruptly gained. They are the flight by night political adventurers about whom we know nothing except that they are bigwigs in the political party which is in the pockets of the governors who have hand-picked all the councilors, members of the state Houses of Assemblies, members of the National Assembly and federal ministers. How can there be democracy in such a set up?

What has President Buhari to do with all this? This is part of his legacy. He has ruled Nigeria as a military dictator and as such he, as well as all the military rulers, had harmed the progress of democracy irreparably. Specifically, President Buhari introduced draconian laws totally antithetical to human rights. He sent people to prison for 300 years, he imprisoned all politicians, he was head of NNPC and made little contribution to stop that runaway gravy train, the IOCs under his watch continued to bamboozle us as they still do today; he had people shot for possession of narcotics, Fela Ransome-Kuti was jailed for carrying $2000 as head of his 70-man band going abroad to play in a concert, soldiers were flogging civilians on the streets, people’s wives were forcibly taken by soldiers. I could go on. I ask him to apologise for all the above, including the 1966 coup, the annulment of M.K.O. Abiola’s election – they are all in the same continuum.

President Buhari is a personal friend with a lot of courage. I speak as a friend. That gap in the teeth could be seen more in smiles. People with a gap in their teeth when they smile seem to radiate an avalanche of mirth. Olu Jacob’s smile is as infectious as President Buhari’s that should fill us with hope not dread. Nigeria needs the strength of President Buhari but also his humanness – all of which he learned as Chairman of PTF. It is true that Nigeria is a difficult and frustrating place, it needs a firm hand but it does not need boots on its neck.

The President has to repair a broken economy, a broken electoral and political system with no internal justice and democracy. But the electoral system that brought him to power, despite all the reports of UN, EU, Commonwealth observers, was a travesty of a political system, financed and operated by corrupt political elite whose aim was merely to continue the unabated looting of the treasury. President Buhari may have stopped them at the federal level. At the state and local government levels, it is politics as usual. Let it be understood that Nigerians wanted Buhari to win. It is like reaching a desired place but getting to it by many wrong turns.

The therapeutic effect of his apology would be immense, his contrition magical. The President has leant how to be democratic. He still has to learn how to be political. An apology would be a first step.
•Ambassador (Dr.) Cole (OFR) is Consultant to The Guardian Editorial Board.

12 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    he should also resign while at it for ALL HUMAN RIGHTS attrocities committed under his military rule

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    I failed to see the point in this write-up other than, perhaps to draw undeserved attention to oneself, because nothing in the article justified what the writer demanded

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    Sir, thank you for your bravery in this article. What a new dawn and a new page in our history it would make should there be any attempt at apology by Buhari and others too. What a whiff of fresh breath that would be.

    Going back to the Oputa panel, wherein lies the intent behind setting it up in the first place. We are all witnesses to what a sincere apology from leaders could do for any country brave enough to attempt it. Japan is doing it, Germany, Rwanda, South Africa to mention a few and how such acts have succeeded in bonding and galvanizing the people and their productive spirit. What is Nigeria waiting for. Not only Buhari, each and every one us owe ourselves apologies from acts coup plotting, warfare, corruption, propaganda, ethnicity, bigotry, looting, murder, witchcraft, etc. Oh! what a great “change” that would effectively usher us. It has the potential to douse boko haram, massob, kidnaps, tribal/community clashes, ND militancy, you name them while whipping up long lost patriotism in the the present and upcoming generations.

    As for me, I use this great 55th independence anniversary of ours to tender my unreserved apologies for my bad acts in Nigeria, overtly or covertly, deciding to be the change that I so desire. May our leaders have the heart, courage and goodwill to do so unreservedly. I will save your article for posterity!!

    • Author’s gravatar

      Okpaba, having read the article itself and your impressive response with utmost self submission, I salute your fascinating reasoning. Same applies to the writer of this article whose expressed analysis with recommendations deserve commendable opinion by patriots in our nation. Having said that, the omission of. General Babangida as a culprit who ought to apologise for his unfortunate deeds has made the aspect of military negative incursion incomplete with respect to acts of sin against Nigeria.

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    NIGERIA,! NIGERIA !!, NIGERIA !!! and loudest N-I-G-E-R-I-A.!!!!! Nigerians are not happy, The silent majority are waking up. A country of OBJ’s childish playground. NIGERIA @ 55

  • Author’s gravatar

    They did not overthrow Awolowo. Please get your history right. It was Akintola they overthrew in West. Awo was in prison in Calabar.

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    Well there is not much to say after reading this but to offer condolences to u for the time u wasted in putting this together, It must have been pretty stressful. Too bad it holds no water

  • Author’s gravatar

    Si, I like and love your write up. As you said, it will be a good thing if our able president can do as you said by apologizing to Nigerians for the wrong the military has done to their father land. Nigerians will unassuming support and love the president for ever.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Well following your article phsychologically , I agree with you! The president should bring down himself after realizing what he did during his millitary regime ! It is of a great courage to apologize his past doings ! No body on this earth is perfect but what matters is realizing your mistakes and pleade for forgiveness ! Be rest assured that Nigerians are all watching , getting wiser everyday! Many Nigerians are citizens to other advance country . Then finally we are also good people with a good heart , forgiving and very passionate in our believes! Go for it Mr. President ! You will not hate the idea after all ! Kudos !

  • Author’s gravatar

    The jan and july 1966 coups were monumental disasters to this nation.Tha nation was growing economically as africa,s fastest and attracting heavy foreign investments.One could virtually say that the north had more agric tractors in 1965 than today and the eastern states that were africa,s fastest growing economy perhaps no longer remembers this economic history.Then came the thunder.It all points to the popular saying that psychic forces disturb africa.When they come near the promised land a big confusion develops and they are set backwards.We should all think about that popular saying and proffer remedies of national sustainability

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    “An apology would be a first step.” For Buhari as the President, that would be marvellous. But we all will need to follow in the apology for our individual and collective contributions in bringing Nigeria to this current sorry state. At any point, a people gets the kind of leadership they deserve, either good or bad depending on the overall mental atmosphere pervading the society. While the level of today’s corruption is much more monumental compared to the level of the 1960’s era, one cannot deny the fact that it was the fundamental corruption of the 60’s that set the tail spin we see today. Corruption is not only about stealing public funds, it also includes tribal/ethnic manipulations of state institutions to gain leverage in the political power equations of the nation. No one should deny the fact that our founding fathers nursed mutual ethnic/tribal misgivings towards each other. That is still the nation’s undoing till today. Every Nigerian issue is interpreted from a tribal lens including the Nzogwu coup of 1966. Yes we need to apologize to ourselves severally.