Pawns in a game of wills
There is in prison in the UK the one Nigerian who was convicted along with the Israelis in the Dikko kidnap affair, he was sentenced to 14 years jail. The coincidence in the numbers is striking at the very least.Right from the start, Kenneth Clarke and Angus Patterson were caught up in "circumstances outside their control". There was always a sense of the unreal surrounding their ordeal and as it all came to a climax in a Lagos courtroom last Monday, the feeling must have persisted that what was unfolding inside the court was a charade and the "real thing" was happening outside.
When foreign journalists and diplomats talk about Nigerians being a 'proud people', it is sometimes difficult to decipher if it is meant as a compliment or as criticism, and one cannot help but feel that there is a sense of patronising behind it. However, as all who have dealt with Nigeria can testify, pride, certainly, is a very copious commodity among the people and much of the greatness stems from that fact.
Whatever you do, therefore, don't put Nigeria or Nigerians in a humiliating light. In other words, don't make them look like donkeys, and if you do, you or somebody will pay for it.
The jailing for 14 years each of Angus Patterson and Kenneth Clarke is basically just that: a message, a very clear one that nobody, but nobody, can make the giant of Africa look like a fool.
Those were heady and emotional times in Nigeria - May 1984. Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon were the fire-spitting all- conquering heroes who had toppled ex-President Shagari and were intent on showing the former politicians exactly "where power lay". The Nigerian Armed Forces were the biggest, the best, the all in Black Africa.
They had decreed that all privately- owned jets would be grounded. The private jet issue was an emotional one. To read the press, the private jets were a symbol of the corruption and profligacy that had characterised the preceding four years. At that moment, "private jet" was a bad word, not to be uttered in decent company and if they had been seized, banned, grounded or whatever, nobody was asking questions.
In the midst of all that and the stringent security measures said to be in operation at the country's airports, with all the land borders sealed, (this was the time when custom officers were extracting pound notes virtually from the wombs of would-be female travellers), when gun-totting soldiers were very visible at the airports and putting the fear of Allah into terrified citizens, in the midst of all that, a plane, one of the "private jets" was spirited out of Murtala Mohammed Airport.
For the moment, let's forget about the wrangle over who owns the plane, etc, but can you imagine the headlines in the British Sunday newspapers if that plane had reached the UK, having been spirited out of Lagos, the account of the commando-style operation, the ineptness of the Africans, "how four of us took on Nigeria and won" etc. Doubtless, intrepid writers would have evoked the spirit of the "Entebbe Raid" and all other such exploits. It certainly would have been hard for Nigeria to take. The picture of the bumbling, loud-mouthed but inept giant was intolerable.
So when a Hawker Siddley 125 with registration number G-LORI, under the command of two British pilots, took off from Murtala Airport, without any contact with the control tower, while "the airforce officer on duty at the tower and air traffic controllers stood surprised", something desperate had to be done - and it was done.
Frantic efforts were made to contact the Accra control tower in Ghana to help intercept the plane, and the Nigerian Airforce scrambled some of its jets in hot pursuit of the absconding plane piloted by Captain Mike Howard and a woman co-pilot.
But the plane made it out of Nigerian airspace without incident and Captain Howard, believing himself to have accomplished Mission Impossible, is said to have sent a message to the owners of the plane, Shirlstar Container Transport Ltd, with headquarters in Piccadilly in London, to the effect that "...the aircraft departed Lagos airport at 17.45 GMT, Saturday 19 May, and crossed Nigerian territorial airspace boundary at 18.05 GMT same date, and landed at Abidjan airport, Cote d'Ivoire at 19.45 GMT same date..." and proceeded to give notice that he had discharged his obligations...
From there, however, diplomacy took over, with the Nigerians pouring on all the pressure. The British Embassy in Abidjan, landed suddenly with a crisis, took the position that this was a British-owned and registered plane, piloted by Britons and they should all be allowed to go home. Enter the hostage syndrome. Nigeria arrested Kenneth Clarke and Angus Patterson, the engineers who had been asked by Captain Howard to service the plane, and when their colleague Barry Glover, who worked with them at Bristow Helicopters, protested at their arrest, he was also arrested for his troubles.
It was at this stage that the British diplomats struck a deal. The Nigerians wanted the plane returned with the two pilots. It was agreed the plane would be sent back but not the pilots, with the unspoken understanding that the arrested engineers will be released.
Back to Nigeria therefore the plane went and eventually Mr Barry Glover was released when the Nigerian authorities were convinced that he did not touch the plane. The hope then was that after a decent interval, when ruffled feathers and bruised pride had been calmed, the two engineers will be released.
Then came the Dikko kidnap attempt and Kenneth Clarke and Angus Patterson became genuine pawns in the diplomatic chess game that ensued. Suddenly, Nigeria's pride was at stake again, the spectre of the inept giant reared again and there was the urgent need to demonstrate that nobody can push Nigeria around and quite conveniently, the two engineers were already in place to serve as bargarining chips.
There are a few worrying aspects of it all. There is the clear feeling, particularly in Britain that the severity of the sentences and even the very trying of the two men had a direct relationship with the Dikko affair and that the sentences had a clear political message.
If indeed the Nigerian judiciary has allowed itself to deliver a political judgement, the consequences would be tragic. For if they would deliver a 'political judgement' which happens to please the government, the day they try to make an apolitical judgement that might displease the government, they would find themselves on a collision course for the government will justifiably be peeved by the inconsistency.
There was the presiding judge talking about "very serious crimes against morality and social order" and it was hardly what the two had been charged with, in case any such law exists on the Nigerian statute books.
Then of course, there is in prison in the UK the one Nigerian who was convicted along with the Israelis in the Dikko kidnap affair. He was sentenced to 14 years in jail. The coincidence in the numbers is striking at the very least.
The Patterson-Clarke episode is one of the left-overs from the Buhari-Idiagbon-Rafindadi regime where bravado and egotistical considerations ruled national decisions.
Obviously what the Nigerian authorities would have liked was the presence in the dock of the two pilots who spirited the plane out and/or the officials of Shirlstar Containers Transport Company of the UK, the owners, who according to the judge, "wanted the aircraft by fair or foul means.”
If it has been established that Shirlstart indeed owned G-LORI, then it is of course a moot point whether they could conceivably "steal" what is their own.
There is the reality also that it was not the two pilots and/or Shirlstar that were on trial and it would be grossly unfair that Nigerian frustration at not laying hands on them should be displayed in the treatment of Kenneth Clarke and Angus Patterson.
Maybe on sober reflection, the Nigerian authorities might even decide that there is absolutely no point to "grounding all private jets" if they are only to remain on the tarmacs at various airports in Nigeria and go to ruin. The Nigerian Treasury certainly gains nothing from their deterioration
Most, if not all, those planes bear foreign registration marks and as has been shown by various civil suits being instituted, their ownership is even doubtful. Many of their Nigerian "owners" had not finished paying for them or have turned out not to have been the owners at all. Someday, therefore, if the planes ever leave Nigeria, they will be repossessed. Surely it is time to quickly establish their true ownerships and if any of the Nigerian owners is shown to have broken any laws, he should be prosecuted, and the planes put to some use.
Planes are not the single most expensive things that are owned by individual Nigerians - some people own ships and yachts.
The Patterson-Clarke episode is one of the left-overs from the Buhari- Idiagbon-Rafindadi regime where bravado and egotistical considerations ruled national decisions. The proper place for such left-overs is the dustbin. To attempt to rehash it and serve it up as has been done will only cause extreme indigestion and leave a terrible aroma.
The President, Major-General Babangida, told Sir Geoffrey Howe on his visit that the Patterson-Clarke case was being dealt with by the judiciary and he could not interfere, and that is most proper.
Now that the judicial process has left such a terrible odour, it is perhaps time for the President to intervene to clear the atmosphere. It might not be true, but the feeling persists that the two men are being used as pawns, and the severity of the sentences tends to confirm this feeling.
There is no reason why Gen. Babangida should allow himself to be cluttered with the mess created by his predecessors. It is up to him to correct an obvious injustice.
