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… How Abacha added Bayelsa to State Creation List, by Major Al-Mustapha
By Wisdom Oniekpar Ikuli
Saturday 8th June, 2024 makes it exactly 26 years after the death of an outstanding General and National Icon that is erroneously described as the worst leader that Nigeria has ever produced or that ever ruled Nigeria.
When I was wallowing in ignorance as a young man, I joined the bandwagon and chorus that vilified and demonized General Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s 7th Military Head of State, not knowing he was actually a God-sent messiah to the Ijaw Nation.
In 2010, I decided to embark on a self-imposed adventure to dig deep, to find out whether truly General Sani Abacha was the worst Head of State that ever ruled this country.
In the course of my research and investigation, I traveled to Kano State precisely to the Nasarawa GRA residence of the General where I had meetings with his widow, Her Excellency Hajia Maryam Abacha, Alhaji Mohammed Abacha and other members of the family.
It was the family that arranged for me to visit Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to General Sani Abacha at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison.
Her Excellency personally told me that Major Hamza Al-Mustapha as the CSO was one of the closest persons to her husband, the Late General, thus he had more information about her husband including information that had to do with his leadership and governance of the country.
On arrival in Lagos, I was received by Alhaji Nasiru Mustapha who is the elder brother of Major Mustapha, who thereafter took me to Kirikiri Maximum Prison where Mustapha was imprisoned.
The protocol at the prison was not easy. Every visitor for Major Hamza Al-Mustapha was required to submit five(5) Passport photographs that were sent to the offices of NSA, DSS, NIA and other service areas to keep tag and account for all visitors to Mustapha.
When I was finally ushered into the visitor’s room, I was super excited to meet one of the most outstanding, most intelligent, most resourceful and I can even say the bravest young officers that the Nigerian Army (NA) has ever produced.
While we were talking Mr. James Danbaba, the former Lagos State Commissioner of Police that was arrested alongside Mustapha by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar regime walked in and they saluted each other in a special regimented way. They were full of life.
Mustapha told me how his visitors were restricted to only five(5) daily, but that while General Olusegun Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo was in same prison during the Abacha regime, they never restricted his number of visitors. He noted that whenever OBJ, as he is fondly called, had visitors, that he usually wore old clothes (rags) and different legs (pairs of bathroom slippers) to create negative impression that he was suffering in prison.
In the course of our discussion, Mustapha revealed so many things to me including the deep love and plans that General Sani Abacha had for Ijaws which Her Excellency Hajia Maryam Abacha told me in my earlier encounter with her.
He told me two things that touched me and sank very deep. He said “when you leave here, go and meet Brigadier General Cletus Komena Emein and ask him how he became Military Governor of Niger State, whether he knew anyone or ever lobbied anyone for that exalted office. He said that Abacha insisted that an Ijaw man must be appointed a Military Governor and when he inquired Cletus Komena Emein was the highest ranking Ijaw military officer then so he ordered that he should be relieved his assignment as the Head of the DIA and he was announced as Military Administrator of Niger State”.
He also said that “the forces against the creation of a homogeneous Ijaw state were too much and they were very powerful and that was the reason General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida who created states twice could not create Bayelsa State because of fear of those forces.
Mustapha went further to say that when the State Creation and Boundary Adjustment Committee submitted their report to General Sani Abacha that the name of Bayelsa State was not among the states to be created. He stated that when members of the committee left the Aso Rock Presidential Villa on that memorable 30th September, 1996 which was the eve of the 1st October State Creation, that Abacha used pen (Biro) to write Bayelsa State in the list and that the 1st October, 1996 broadcast and subsequent creation of Bayelsa State alongside other states took everyone by surprise and sent shock waves everywhere”.
He then asked me to “challenge anyone with a contrary view to go to the headquarters of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and get the script of that broadcast to confirm that General Sani Abacha truly used pen (Biro) to write the name of Bayelsa State”.
Beyond the information and accounts by Her Excellency Hajia Maryam Abacha and Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, I interviewed so many other persons including top military officers and also visited some military formations/institutions to scout for information which resulted to the publication of my book ‘General Sani Abacha And The Contemporary Ijaw Nation’.
General Sani Abacha was a victim of grand conspiracies of the West and the Media.
Abacha was like Col. Muarmar Gaddafi of Libya who detested and vehemently opposed western dominance of Africa. He detested the exploitation of African countries by the United States of America and her allies like United Kingdom, France and others.
Abacha is one leader that never bowed to the West because he knew that the West needed Africa more than Africans need them, because they survive on raw materials from Africa. Diamond, gold, crude oil and gas, lithium, uranium and others that make those Western countries super rich are gotten from Africa.
Sadly, multitudes misconstrued the good intentions of General Sani Abacha.
Despite several economic sanctions Dollar was stable and the Nigerian economy was booming under his regime.
Abacha who was the voice of minorities detested the divisive, deceptive and distractive concept of WAZOBIA that recognized only Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo in a country with over 350 distinct ethnic groups and tribes that were hitherto independent nations, empires, emirates and kingdoms before the Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates by Sir Lord Fredrick Lugard in 1914.
Abacha who was a minority from Kanuri in Borno State but whose parents settled in Kano State detested the dominance of other tribes by the Hausa-Fulanis, Yorubas and Igbos and it was for the above reasons that he created the six(6) geopolitical zones including the South South under whose umbrella the six(6) geographic Niger Delta states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers States are working together to champion and project a common front under the BRACED Commission.
The creation of the geopolitical zones actually helped to whittle down the overbearing influence and powers of the three(3) dominant tribes in Nigeria.
It was my research that actually revealed the good intentions of General Sani Abacha and his remarkable achievements. Many Nigerians do not know that it was Abacha that built the famous Gwarinpa Housing Estate which is actually the biggest in the whole of West Africa.
Many do not know that he was the one that constructed the famous artificial Jabi Lake in Abuja. He constructed several roads, bridges, hospitals, power projects, military institutions and so many others. He was also the one that established the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) now PTDF and appointed General Muhammadu Buhari as its chairman.
Abacha was indeed a God-sent messiah for Ijaws who were exploited, impoverished, neglected, abandoned, marginalized, deprived, oppressed, suppressed, repressed, subjugated and relegated to the background.
Abacha totally disagreed with the disdainful, shabby and shameful way and manner Ijaws who own well over 75% of the crude oil and gas wealth that is used to run the country since 1956 that crude oil and gas were first discovered in commercial quantities and qualities at Oloibiri-Otabagi in the present day Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State were treated.
He decided to give Ijaws a separate Political Identity and a Vocal Voice with which Ijaws can speak and even shout so that the world will know about the intolerable injustices that the Federal Government, International Oil Companies (IOCs) and other bigger tribes were perpetrating against Ijaws.
Abacha incurred the wrath of the gods when he created Bayelsa State. Enemies, oppressors and aggressors of the Ijaw Nation know that they are perpetrating evil against Ijaws. They know that the crude oil and gas wealth that is used to run the country and also enrich others are gotten majorly from Ijaw land. Their fear has been the reaction of Ijaws if they are given powers and a Vocal Voice which is the major reasons they deliberately refused to create a homogeneous Ijaw state.
When Abacha created Bayelsa State on 1st October, 1996 some National Dailies (Newspapers) drew a cartoon of a monster that was coming out of the ocean. They used the monster to depict Ijaws who have been given a homogeneous state and a seeming freedom.
While we are all entitled to hold different opinions especially regarding the growth and development of Bayelsa State, the truth remains that the Ijaw Nation is no longer where it was many years ago before the creation of Bayelsa State. Beside serving as the Jerusalem and Home of Ijaws all over the world, the state has continued to play a coordinating and a unifying role for Ijaws. It has remained as the symbol of our Ijawness.
Today, the Ijaw Nation prides herself as one among the less than 10 ethnic groups and tribes out of the over 350 ethnic groups and tribes that have ruled this country.
Bayelsa State has not attained the expected greater heights, but it is a fact that the state is not stagnated.
Apart from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I have never read or heard about any perfect human being whether dead or living that satisfied everyone that encountered him or her. So, while some Nigerians regard General Sani Abacha as the worst Head of State that Nigeria ever produced, for me, he remains one of the greatest things that ever happened to the Ijaw Nation.
Moving forward, it is important to note that there are leaders in Nigeria that were worst than Abacha in all ramifications, but the difference is because they are alive, while Abacha is dead and we all know that the dead cannot defend themselves which is one of the ironies of life.
I wish to conclude this piece by appealing to the Government of Bayelsa State to declare today (June 8) a public holiday and make it annual memorable day where lectures, rallies and other great events shall be organized to commemorate and celebrate the life of General Sani Abacha who proved to be a true friend of the Ijaw Nation. We shall use same events to do evaluations and reevaluations about successes or the otherwise.
*MSC Wisdom Oniekpar Ikuli aka Mirror and Conscience of Society sent in this piece from Yenagoa
