Comment
Glib Denial Not Enough
What is very worrying is that within a period of eleven months, it should be possible at all that Nigeria should have descended into the category of countries about whom such fabrications could be made.
A government that sets out to conduct its affairs in the dark invariably lays itself open to speculations, innuendoes and rumours. When the Federal Military Government of Nigeria decided that they would decide how much the nation could know about the trials of the civilian rulers of the overthrown regime, the first step was taken to destroy public confidence in the integrity of the FMG.
If they do not want people to know the details of how the politicians cheated and looted the country, a state of affairs that would indisputably justify the coup in the public eye, how can anyone hope to find out what is currently going on in the country?
To reinforce the suspicion of cynicism, the FMG then introduced the Press Gag decree, Decree No 4, making it impossible for the hitherto enterprising Nigerian press to report on or investigate the activities of the government.
Members of the regime then proceeded to intimidate and harass those sections of the Press that had not been suitably impressed by the draconian measures and were still attempting to keep a sense of perspective. After the jailing of the two "Guardian" journalists and their continued incarceration, despite widespread condemnation, the message has not been lost on the rest of the press that the FMG will go to any length to keep their activities away from the public.
When those who have a stake in the success of the country are thus debarred from effectively reporting, the outside world whose interests are largely mercenary, are left to forage and plunder at will. It was not for nothing that the British government did not find room for a single non-British journalist to accompany the Task Force during the Falklands war. For, despite official suspicions, journalists are intensely nationalistic and can be relied upon to treat stories about their nation with the caring and understanding they might not extend to "foreign stories". It is a little late in the day therefore for the FMG to be decrying 'biased foreign press reports aimed at ridiculing Nigeria.'
Rumours about a foiled coup plot had been circulating in Lagos for some time, and so had been other rumours about secret trials of people alleged to have been involved. Members of the FMG probably heard these rumours themselves. The press heard the rumours undoubtedly. However, Decree 4 meant that they could not even ask for official clarification or denial without risking jail terms.
All that however, does not dispel the reality that military interventions, like Gen Buhari's, do tend to invite other coup attempts, and if Gen Buhari and his colleagues are to be judged by the same yardstick they used to measure others, then it must surely be open season in the Nigerian Armed Forces for coup plots.
If Gen Buhari intervened to stop suffering and economic hardship, that has increased tenfold, and other members of the Armed Forces are possibly as nationalistic and awake to what they see as their duty to put a stop to the suffering.
There are other people in the Forces who have no interest whatsoever in intervening in the political process and who do not see their role as political rulers. These are people who entered the forces because they had chosen soldiering as a profession and not as a stepping stone to political power. Such people now see their professions being cut short because they have expressed different opinions or have refused to accept political positions.
Others have had their professional progress delayed or stopped as people who are junior to them but were involved in the December 31, 1983 coup are being rewarded with promotions and political appointments.
There are not many options open to an officer or other rank in the Nigerian Armed Forces today who simply wants to pursue his professional career, without getting identified in the public eye as being part of the ruling elite. Some such officers and men also surely have a right to want to protect their careers and their actions should not be interpreted as political or subversive.
It is not enough for the Press Secretary of the FMG to issue a glib denial that The Observer story is untrue and false in every detail, nor is it convincing at all to latch on to what must be rather colourful journalistic details like 'underground firing range' to cover a blanket denial.
The charges are too serious to merit pooh-poohing at a lowly level and it must be very worrying to Gen Buhari and his colleagues that they have brought Nigeria to the group of countries about whom there can even be speculation of secret trials and secret executions. Maybe the number is wrong and it was not 42, it may be the ranks of those involved were wrong in the telling and maybe the sight of the executions was wrong.
Major-General Tunde Idiagbon, the Chief of Staff and the official spokesman of FMG has on occasion found time to call international press conferences to put on show a champagne bottle specially labelled for Chief Adisa Akinloye, when it came to something as serious as the summary executions or otherwise of 42 Nigerians, the denial is left to Wada Maida the Press Secretary who, competent at his job though he might be, is not a member of the Armed Forces.
The explanations if any ought to come from the Commander in Chief Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari himself or the Chief of Staff Maj-Gen Tunde Idiagbon or at the very least the Chief of Army Staff Maj-Gen Ibrahim Babangida.
