Whispering Drums With Maigani
by Musa Ibrahim
Ovie-Whiskey's verdict
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
1. MR JUSTICE BOLA BABALAKIN -Best remembered as the jailer of two journalists as DN4 reigned supreme; chairman of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry.
2.MR JUSTICE VICTOR OVIE- WHISKEY -
Ex-chairman of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) 1983, called upon to testify.
3. Judges, Counsels, Citizens, Attendants, Journalists, etc, etc.
ACT I: SCENE I - Lagos, Nigeria, November 1985.
Like his legal colleague Mr Justice Udo Udoma, ex-chairman of the Constituent Assembly that gave Nigerians its 1979 Constitution, Mr Justice Ovie-Whiskey has as much personality as a potato. You will never know when both men are laughing or crying because their countenance is always on a permanent fix. None of them is an exquisite work of nature when it comes to appearances and looks. But like everybody else, they were given a body, a birth place, a station in life and a chance to become whatever they wanted to be. Against what anybody may have to say, Justice Udo Udoma and Mr Justice Ovie-Whiskey are among the few lawyers with the finest legal minds Nigeria have and can ever boast of.And it is in recognition of their legendary role in the dispensation of justice that there have always been added national duties and assignments in their curricula. As chairman of the Constituent Assembly, Udo Udoma conducted the proceedings of the Assembly with maturity and a lot of authority and through his efforts, Nigerians finally got a taste of democracy based on a constitutional government.
In 1983, Ovie-Whiskey got an equally difficult and challenging assignment from ex-President Shehu Shagari. To head an election panel in a third world country used to military dictatorships, coups and counter-coups and in a country of over one hundred million with almost half of the population eligible to vote is by no means an easy task. Compounding his problems further are the rancours and tribal sentiments that have all become trademarks of Nigerian elections. That the 1983 elections took place at all was a victory for Ovie-Whiskey. What has further endeared Justice Ovie-Whiskey to me is the verdict he gave recently on 1983 elections, on ex-President Shehu Shagari and on the Nigerian populace as a whole.
Appearing before the Justice Bola Babalakin Judicial Commission of Inquiry, set up to probe the activities of the FEDECO with all the members of his family, the following exchanges took place between a counsel representing the Commission and Mr Justice Ovie- Whiskey:
COUNSEL: Would you say the 1983 election was free and fair?
OVIE-WHISKEY: Although it was much keener, it was the freest election ever held in Nigeria, according to our own assessment.
COUNSEL: What were some of the problems faced by FEDECO?
OVIE-WHISKEY: Part of the problem was due to the corrupt nature of the Nigerian and his lack of probity and inclination to make himself a marketable commodity in the hands of politicians...
COUNSEL: Did you at any point in time meet with Shehu Shagari during the period of the elections?
OVIE-WHISKEY: No, never. Although many people would want to persecute Shagari, he was a good leader. I will proudly say that if all leaders would conduct themselves the way that gentleman did during his tenure of office, this country would be a better place...
...
Probes and Commissions of Inquiry are daily features in Nigeria, but what is not a daily feature is forthright, frank and bold testimony from Nigerians before such commissions or panels. Often, when individuals are called upon to testify, they go to such panels with two things in mind. The first is to make sure they exonerate themselves from all forms of blame by buck-passing all their own personal inadequacies to some other devils. The second is to try and settle personal scores and grudges with colleagues by giving false and outrageous statements about such people - the case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
A fresh case in point was when Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, civilian governor of Gongola state for three months and general manager of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for more than a decade, was giving evidence before one of Idiagbon's former Legal Assembly probing the award of contracts in the Ministry of Transport from 1979-1983. When it came to finding out about shady deals at the Ports Authority, Tukur vigorously defended himself and claimed or pleaded lack of knowledge saying that the then minister for Transport, Dr Umaru Dikko, was the one responsible for all that was wrong with the Ports Authority - the corruption and the inadequacies that have been with the Ports Authority for God-knows how long! And to think Tukur had as much right and authority (if not more) as the Minister. So because of such misrepresentations and hypocrisy, nothing always comes out of probe panels in Nigeria.
Ever since the Shagari administration collapsed, there have been persistent cries from certain people in the country de- manding for the heads of the former President and some of his advisers. But none of these people have deemed it fit to enumerate what Shagari or any of his aides have done to warrant their wrath and venom. The vague charges are that Shagari was weak, or that his aides were corrupt. I wonder what these people will make out of the verdict on Shagari by Ovie-Whiskey. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, an individual has come out to make a testimony based on his conviction and conscience.
President Babangida and his regime. must take up the challenge. For no military regime in Nigeria has ever come out in defence of its citizens, and if a citizen of a country cannot be protected by its own government, then what is the essence of that government? The main problem with the Buhari regime was its inability to separate the wheat from the chaff. As far as they were concerned, every politician from 1979-1983 was corrupt and as far as they were also that concerned, the entire four-year period of civilian democracy was not only a failure but a sham and a waste of time. They were wrong.
The Babangida regime must view things differently. It must not only have the courage and the conscience to expose the bad and the ugly of the civilian regime, it must also have the conviction and the vision to expose the good of the regime as well as the positive contributions of individual politicians. It is said that if the truth is continuously locked away, nobody gets excited. The case of politicians must be dispensed with immediately - once and for all. We have had enough changes in leaders, now we want a change in direction. Away from probes and commissions of inquiry, away from jailed politicians and Shagari and away from fugitives, Babangida must lift up plans to house the homeless, feed the hun- gry and malnourished, clothe the naked and provide jobs for the jobless. These are the people the regime must reach out to, then and only then shall we have a new dawn.
