When Buhari's NSO Adviser Defended Shagari
Alhaji Mohamed Lawal Rafindadi was, until the coup, Nigeria's Ambassador extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Republic of Germany, appointed by ex President Shehu Shagari. Below, Dr Achim Remde, who witnessed Ambassador Rafindadi's spirited defence of the Shagari Administration writes on the puzzle posed by the man who is the current Director of the National Security Organisation in Nigeria. We begin with a self-explanatory letter written to the Editor of a West German newspaper by the then ambassador, dated October 6, 1983:
Dear Sir,
REJOINDER TO 'ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA: TEST AGAINST A BACKGROUND OF TERROR. AFRICA'S LARGEST DEMOCRACY WASTES AWAY'
Permit me to refer to a feature article entitled "Elections in Nigeria: Test against a background of terror. Africa's largest democracy wastes away" written by a certain Achim Remde and carried on page 6 of your widely-read newspaper of August 5th, 1983. I find it convenient now that the elections are over in Nigeria to return to Mr Remde's article which was not able not only for its glaring inaccuracies and contradictions but also for biased pre-judgement.
The author refers to Nigeria as "Africa's largest democracy", accepts that no political prisoners exist in Nigeria, that freedom of the press is accepted as a pre-requisite of Nigerian democracy and that inside our multi-party system is embodied institutionalize opposition which is still a rarity in many countries of the world today.
To make these eloquent indications on Nigeria's way of life and at the same time eulogise the attributes of dictatorships and tyrannical systems, as Mr Remde did, casts doubts on not only his journalistic credentials but also on his claim to be a committed member of the civilized system that has made the Federal Republic of Germany a hallmark of economic and political stability.
The suggestion that good choice would undermine the universal acceptance of the accepted fact that Nigeria is Africa's foremost democracy. The collective will of 65 million Nigerian voters, whichever way it went, should be the only way of deciding how Nigeria is to be run. This is democracy which a sage says is "the worst form of government" but which we must uphold until a better alternative is found. Mr Remde's alternative prescription for Nigeria is not democracy but dictatorship and anarchy. This to my mind should not have come from anyone from a country like the Federal Republic of Germany that knows no other form but democracy.
M. Lawal Rafindadi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
By Achim Remde
Despite Western Germany's basically detached attitude towards Africa, development in Nigeria is being followed with keen interest in Bonn, the capital, and Hamburg, traditional centre for trade with African countries. While diplomatic and economic observers still sit back and wait for an assessment of the situation, they are rather puzzled about one aspect: they find it impossible to assess the role of Al-Haji Muhammad Lawal Rafindadi, still accredited as Nigeria's ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany and now Director General of the Nigerian Security Organization (NSO).Not because of his doublefold function - his family still lives in the spacious ambassadorial residence in Bad Godesberg, a suburb, where most diplomats live - but because to them Rafindadi - since his appointment in 1981 has always appeared as a fervent propagator of the ousted Shagari regime.
When in 1983 a German journalist classified Shagari as "a second rate politician" and reported about election malpractices, Rafindadi had him banned from entering Nigeria and in a letter to the editor of the paper stated that "the Nigerian people have delivered their verdict and have once again confirmed through the ballot box that the destiny of Nigeria for the next four years should be better directed by President Shehu Shagari. Corruption and malpractice would only have damaged rather than enhanced Mr President's chance of re-election if they had been the distinguishing features of the Shagari Administration."
Thus, surprise was great when it was discovered that the author of this letter, after the December coup, was a member of the inner circle of the coup makers, the Supreme Military Council (SMC). Not only did Buhari and his men justify their intervention with election malpractices, but also with squandermania of the ousted Shagari administration.
In this context observers of the Bonn diplomatic scene recall that His Excellency Rafindadi had deeply impressed them by two things: first, upon his arrival in Germany he changed his ordinary Mercedes 280 official embassy car to a Mercedes 500 SEL, (being the only member of the Bonn diplomatic corps to drive this superb product of German craftsmanship) and, second, he used to wear ostentatiously a golden wrist watch decorated with small diamonds. Whereas people here wonder if he still wears the same watch in his present function, it is reliably gathered from embassy personnel that the car is still reserved for his exclusive personal use.
Many observers in Germany are convinced that the recent promulgation of a Press decree in Nigeria shows Rafindadi's handwriting, particularly as to the prohibition of "derisory reports about government office holders". It is well remembered here that Rafindadi went wild about a German press report before the Nigerian elections alleging that he had gone "underground" when a UPN delegation had come to visit Bonn.
