No laughter please, we are Nigerians
By Elizabeth Ohene
If people cannot rejoice over the vindication of their good names, what else can they celebrate?The latest ruling from the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria is surprising. Here they have demonstrated their magnanimity by releasing 250 people from detention. An action guaranteed to win them a lot of friends and good wishes from even their critics.
Then they announce that there should be no celebrations by anybody for the releases. No parties, no gathering of people to congratulate the released detainee, no outward demonstration of happiness to see a loved one who has been incarcerated for nine months.
The natural instinct will be to celebrate and these politicians and their dependents and their followers and those who believed in them surely had a lot to be thankful for.
It is not only that the bread winners for many homes had been returned safely, even more important a reason for rejoicing should be the fact that they have been declared honest, and dedicated public officials.
Or have they not? From December 31, 1983, the whole world was told repeatedly that all these politicians were corrupt, inept, criminally negligent and had in many ways brought Nigeria to its present sorry state. That was why they were in jail, and there they will stay until they prove that they are not guilty of any crimes against the state.
It cannot be the best of feelings to have hanging over your head, allegations of corruption, thievery and causing the collapse of a great nation like Nigeria.
Hearing it said, these were no longer allegations, they were facts for which there were concrete evidence. Thus the cloud of shame that hangs over the detainees was quite thick. So bad was it all that it was deemed appropriate to keep these people in Kirikiri Prison - the country's maximum security prison which houses the most hardened and dangerous criminals.
As one eminent commentator put it, "some of these politicians deserved to be in Kirikiri far more than the armed robbers who inhabit it normally".
If after all that, you are released on the grounds that, "those who are innocent will not spend a day longer than necessary in jail" (Head of State, Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari) then surely you have every right to conclude that you have been given a clean bill of health. A state of affairs which cannot be claimed by even Maj-Gen. Buhari and his colleagues. For they have been in government and nobody has put them in jail and asked them to stay there until they prove themselves innocent of all possible crimes. But even they are claiming purity and integrity which entitles them to seize power, and rule Nigeria.
Here, however, are politicians who have gone through a trial by ordeal and emerged clean, surely they have cause to celebrate, and with greater cause to celebrate are their families and those who believed in them. They should be hugely relieved that they have not been betrayed and should be entitled to some thanksgiving.
So how come the Federal Military Government will not allow even the customary 'welcome home' gathering for the released detainees?
Here are politicians who have gone through a trial by ordeal and emerged clean, surely they have cause to celebrate and with a greater reason to rejoice are their families and followers. They should be hugely relieved that they have not been betrayed.
A number of reasons occur to this writer. Some people in authority currently in Nigeria are most uneasy about the kind of crowds that would gather to demonstrate their loyalty and continued belief in the released politicians. These same people must be equally anxious that the other side of the story does not get told. For the past almost ten months, the world has only heard the FMG's version of things and they have shown a distinct displeasure with any politician who has attempted to contradict or challenge them. Might it be that the ban on celebrations is aimed at preventing any intrepid politician from putting his/her case to the people?
Was it just embarrassment which made the authorities drive off the crowd that had gathered at the gates of Kirikiri Prison to welcome the detainees? Or was if fear? - 'From Prison to Government House' being quite a regular feature in African political history, are the FMG worried that these politicians can still move the crowds or even more worrying, from their point of view, that the people still love and want them?
There is, of course, no other possibility that the FMG sincerely believe that the released people have nothing to celebrate because far from having proved that they are honest and clean, their being released owes more to luck and having friends among the FMG and also for the delicate balancing act that was involved in compiling the list of those to be released.
If this latest possibility has any grounding, then the FMG will have to accept that they have done incurable harm to Nigeria. The danger that has been repeatedly pointed out (and been ignored by the FMG) of making it possible for rogues in public office to claim the comfort of political victimisation cannot now be averted. Those who have been tried and jailed by the military Tribunals have all rejected the competence of the Tribunals and insis- ted on their innocence, the public reaction to the release has been one of skepticism it is all too pat, even the number 250, did the FMG want a round number?
Even more baffling is the ban on celebrations. If people cannot rejoice over the vindication of their good names, what else can they celebrate?
One would have thought that the FMG, having been so anxious to prove to the world that they are a sane and matured group who by their action of December 31, 1983 had prevented the emergence of a Master-Sergeant Doe or Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings in Nigeria would want to emphasise the fact that far from being sadists, they are very much alive to the feelings of the people. Why do they not want their good points to be emphasised?
Or could it be that the FMG simply want to emphasize the sombre and austere nature of their regime? Is the banning of celebrations a reinforce- ment of Maj-Gen. Buhari's aversion to what he described picturesquely as 'squandermania'? After all, if he decreed against the celebrations of the nation's 24th year anniversary, why should he encourage celebration on an individual basis why should the politicians be allowed to go back to their evil ways of conspicuous consumption and be allowed to throw all night parties? But then surely these people have proved that what they have is their own and were all legally and honestly acquired. Can't a person spend his own legally acquired wealth his own way? What is Nigeria coming to, if people cannot even show their happiness without the threat of retribution? Is the day coming soon when one would need a permit to mourn?
Some other people have pointed out that much of the measures taken towards the economy's recovery bear a most uncanny resemblance towards the measures that Alhaji Shehu Shagari had announced as the blueprint for his second administration. The same blueprint which was drawn up by the committee headed by Shagari's then newly appointed Minister of Finance Alhaji Adamu Ciroma.
The Buhari group having drawn on this programme rather heavily for their ten months are a little embarrassed by the plagiarism, seeing they have not given the required credit to the source of their borrowing.
Or could it be that the FMG had simply decided to release a number of detainees to mark the 24 anniversary of the attainment of nationhood in an amnesty? That would not be new, even in biblical times, prisoners were being granted amnesty to commemorate special occasions and every government is entitled to that prerogative.
If the detainees were released on an amnesty and not because they have proved themselves innocent, the FMG then deserve the gratitude of those released, even if those whose relations are still being held deserve to be told what a detainee needs to do to qualify for amnesty.
Whichever way you look at it, there is something distinctly unsettling about the banning of celebrations of the released detainees.
As the father remonstrated with his elder brother in the parable of the Prodigal son, in the Bible, should I not rejoice when this your brother has been lost and found, and we might add in this case, has been condemned and vindicated?
