Comment
Nine Wasted Months
The problem really is that for many of these people, it is nine months too late because they never should have been put into custody in the first place and this has been nine months of undeserved suffering and humiliation. Their only crime really being that they were brave enough to offer themselves for leadership.
The ritual rounding up and incarceration of all politicians after every time the army seizes power has meant that one of the considerations to be made by prospective political office seekers is that of whether they are pre- pared to spend an indeterminate period in the country's maximum security prison at a future date. This is a reality that has nothing to do with whether they acquit them- selves competently and honestly while in office, once the military stage a coup, prison is the next port of call, or in the case of a lucky few, exile, for all civilian politicians. The trauma of the prison experience means that there are increasingly a number of very worthwhile citizens who shun public office and are most unwilling to offer whatever talents they have to the services of the country.
The consequence is that, the nation does not get the benefit of such able people and others, much less able and less, dedicated get into politics and leadership by default. The other fall out from this state of affairs is that, this fear and the inevitability of prison hanging over politicians while in office, becomes a numbing and restraining factor and limits the dynamism with which they should tackle problems if the nation is to advance.
Undoubtedly, this certainty of prison must make some office holders feel a particular urge to amass wealth as quickly as they can and to hide it as far away as possible before the day arrives.
It surely must be wrong for the psyche of the country that such a high proportion of the people to whom the younger generation look for inspiration, have spent some time in prison. This must detract from the deterrence nature of and the fear of prison that is required as a healthy horror-inducing institution in the society.
The colonial powers resorted to the imprisonment of nationals and discovered to their cost that it had the unin- tended effect of turning the freedom fighters into the heroes of the nationalist movement. Those who fought for independence did not mind going to jail and they emerged from the prison walls to the acclaim of the nation. Now, serving one's country has become a crime punish- able regularly by imprisonment without charges and blanket abuse.
Many of those being released will emerge with their nerves broken, their homes disrupted and their self- confidence shattered. It is very small comfort to them that they are now being told that they are not thieves and rogues after all.
Predictably, it is the Federal Military Government that is being congratulated for its magnanimity, but why should people be imprisoned for nine months when they have contravened no laws and be released without any apologies of compensation for wrongful imprisonment?
There is no doubt but that most of these people should never have had to spend one night behind bars were it not for the sadistic pleasure taken by the military in exercising brute force over the civilians they overthrow and the use of these situations to settle personal scores.
For example, the FMG has never been able to explain satisfactorily why the Ikemba of Nnewi Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was arrested and detained. There were 19 national vice-chairmen of every party and yet, he was the only person who was detained because he was national vice-chairman of the NPN. Nobody had ever suggested that he had had access to public funds or had behaved improperly in any way, and yet he has had to spend nine months in jail. It will be very difficult to shake off the feeling that vindictiveness and personal score settling had a lot to do with the wholesale imprisonment.
Is it any wonder therefore that some politicians now elect to remove themselves away from the country once there is a coup, and not join the quiet walk to the prison as lambs to the slaughter and go through the trial by ordeal which starts on the premise that you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent?
It being Nigeria, the maps and calculators will undoubtedly be out to put a 'federal character' analysis on the 250 released people and those who are still being held. For every Ojukwu, an Adamu Ciroma would be found for balance, and even more animated speculation about why a particular person was released and another was not released. That is an inevitable consequence of the secret nature of investigations and the Tribunals that the FMG says it has been conducting.
The FMG has spent the past nine months expending a lot of energy on those who had been overthrown from power and on 'fugitives' to the extent where it has been in serious danger of forgetting the sufferings of the ordinary people. The hunger and shortages have meant that the jailing and persecution of the politicians now elicit only huge yawns from the people.
The hope should be that the release of the 250 detainees will mark a realistic turn in the attempt at governance of the FMG and an end to the pathetic actions of the past nine months.
