The Abacha in Lagos
By Yinka Odumakin
AS the remains of Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti laid in state at his Imaria residence that fateful evening in 2006,Mr Olisa Agbakoba(SAN) beckoned to me and said: “Beko is cold in there. I recall all our struggles all over Lagos to have democracy. Now look at what those we handed the fruits of our struggle to are doing to us”.
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (2nd left); National Leader, All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (2nd right); APC Chairman, Lagos State Chapter, Alhaji Tunde Balogun (right) and Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa (left) during APC Stakeholders meeting at the Party Secretariat, Acme Road, Ogba, on Tuesday, August 14, 2018.
Some years after, Agbakoba openly expressed frustration when in an interview with a national newspaper he asked if there was much sense in our fight against the military if it was to have those who now preside over us .
He was not being frivolous as he led the Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, in those heady days when we confronted the Abacha dictatorship alongside veterans such as Chief Gani Fawehimi, Mr Alao Aka-Bashorun, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, Comrade Baba Omojola, Dr Osagie Obayuwana and Mr Femi Falana.
Worthy crusaders
There were other worthy crusaders in our midst like Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi,Sina Loremikan,Olusegun Mayegun,Omoyele Sowore, among many others. We confronted tanks, we faced bullets from Abacha’s troops; we counted over 365 dead bodies on Ikorodu Road in Lagos on July 7,1993 when the dreaded General rolled out the tanks against protesters.
Buhari vs Atiku: Nobody will stop PDP from going to court – Secondus
It can only be a painful experience to now see those who were openly in bed with tyranny or those who pretended to be part of the struggle but were working with Abacha and actually sold his script to MKO Abiola, now messing up the democracy we risked our lives for. That is the reason Agbakoba would talk like the mother of the late Dr Tunji Braithwaite who asked, five years into Nigeria’s independence after watching the misbehaviour of politicians: when will this independence end?
It was the kind of frustration that made Malawian workers under the iron rule of Kamuzu Banda to troop out in protests with one placard screaming: “Better the colonialists”. A very tragic story of how unintended consequences afflict human affairs at every turn .
Those tragic historical figures always pretend to be what they are not to cash in on the struggles of the people in order to gain power and become who they really are once they get power.
They are like that Pastor in one joke whose belief was not in Jesus Christ but was preaching only to earn a living .One day he was teaching faith to his congregation, telling them to call on Christ in all situations. As he raised his hand telling his listeners that when tribulation comes they should not fear, the ceiling fan hit his raised fist and the man who was saying: “Call on Jeee…”, ended up shouting: “Sango oooo!”.
Political warlord
The above best explained what happened in Lagos last Thursday when the “Free Lagos Movement “ scheduled a press conference for Lagos Airport Hotel. Shortly before the commencement of the event, thugs loyal to a political warlord in the state stormed the venue, shooting sporadically into the air. Sadly they were joined by men of the Lagos Police Command who cruelly said citizens of Nigeria who live in Lagos have to seek police permission to hold a press conference in a hall. In Lagos the headquarters of the pro-democracy movement ?
Abacha came alive in Lagos again last Tursday. The first time he resurrected in the city was in 1999 when thugs rough-handled Chief Gani Fawehinmi and smashed his car as he left the premises of a court where he had gone to ask for an order that then Lagos Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, must be compelled by the court to explain his academic qualification. The terrible experience did not stop the gadfly from pursuing the matter to the Supreme Court.
The Gani spirit is what the “O to ge Lagos” needs ahead of March 9 governorship election. The brutal experience of last Thursday should galvanise the movement to wake Lagosians to break free in the governorship election.
The message to “Free Lagos Movement” is the same to Ndigbo in Lagos who were largely disenfranchised on February 23rd by thugs and vandals loyal to APC in Lagos .They have come under serious harassment in various parts of the state after the presidential polls. I can’t remember the number of calls I had to make to the police to move and save Ndigbo in different areas. In a direct call to the Commissioner of Police in Lagos last Wednesday, I intimated him that we received a report that a serving member of the House of Representatives was allegedly harassing Igbo in Ojodu Area. The CP admitted he already received the report and already asked the Area Commander to do something. It does not appear that the man has been invited till date just as those who burnt Igbo votes in Okota live on television are still free.
I recall in 1999 how an Igbo man came to Senator Abraham Adesanya in a bus he owned branded in AD color. He said it was his way of expressing gratitude for what his Yoruba neighbors did for him during the civil war. When he return from the East after the civil war, his Yoruba neighbours handed him all the rents they collected on his property during the war. He used that vehicle to campaign for Tinubu’s election.
The challenge before Igbo is not to surrender to this intimidation. They must troop out on Saturday to join other well-meaning Lagosians to say “Enough is Enough “ with their PVCs !
That enviable spirit of Lagos which made Chief Obafemi Awolowo to support Chief Ernest Ikoli in the Nigerian Youth Movement election against the Odemo of Isara whom he saw as a better candidate must be preserved .
Why must Lagos be freed? I have read some ignoramuses arguing that Lagos under APC is working and I scoffed at their idiocy. A state with an eight of Nigeria’s budget should today be like Dubai if the last 20 years have been under a people-friendly leader like Alhaji Lateef Jakande who governed the state for four years and have “Jakande Schools” and “Jakande Estates” named after him by the appreciative people all over the state almost 40 years after leaving office. Jakande never spent N1b in any year. It was in 1984 that the state budgeted N1b that Buhari struck. After 20 years of civil rule, Lagos has only about four model schools. Dr Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State in eight years built 54 world class model schools!
Group backs Sanwo-olu for Lagos
The “change” that has taken place in Lagos in the last 20 years is the number of personal high-rising buildings.
Affliction of Lagos
The governorship candidate of the PDP in Lagos on Saturday captured the affliction of Lagos recently when he said: “In the last 20 years, Lagos has spent some N7 trillion, and we are asking what have we got for N7 trillion? Are we getting value for money?
“Out of that N7 trillion, there is a private company that takes a percentage of that N7 trillion, and we are asking, for what purpose?”
Tinubu, of course, responded to the fundamental issue of freedom in a Baba Suwe fashion: “Those who said they wanted freedom should go and learn tailoring and vulcanising and we will do freedom for them later. They do not have the people. He was in the contest for the first and second times. He is in the contest for the third time. He will fail again.”
Tinubu said Lagos must deliver at least three million votes for the APC during the 2019 polls. “Here in Lagos, we must maintain a strong outing for APC, a party of progress, development and economy. We must differentiate between a developmental economy and a container economy. We will not accept to get Nigeria corrupt again”.(I almost fainted there).
Lagos would develop greatly and Lagosians would live in great happiness if the leakages into private pockets are blocked and Lagos money works for the people of Lagos .The meaning of “freedom” should therefore be loud with all vigilance .
This is the imperative of “O to ge”!(Enough is Enough !)
Source:https://samueljackson12.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-abacha-in-lagos.html
AS the remains of Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti laid in state at his Imaria residence that fateful evening in 2006,Mr Olisa Agbakoba(SAN) beckoned to me and said: “Beko is cold in there. I recall all our struggles all over Lagos to have democracy. Now look at what those we handed the fruits of our struggle to are doing to us”.
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (2nd left); National Leader, All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (2nd right); APC Chairman, Lagos State Chapter, Alhaji Tunde Balogun (right) and Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa (left) during APC Stakeholders meeting at the Party Secretariat, Acme Road, Ogba, on Tuesday, August 14, 2018.
Some years after, Agbakoba openly expressed frustration when in an interview with a national newspaper he asked if there was much sense in our fight against the military if it was to have those who now preside over us .
He was not being frivolous as he led the Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, in those heady days when we confronted the Abacha dictatorship alongside veterans such as Chief Gani Fawehimi, Mr Alao Aka-Bashorun, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, Comrade Baba Omojola, Dr Osagie Obayuwana and Mr Femi Falana.
Worthy crusaders
There were other worthy crusaders in our midst like Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi,Sina Loremikan,Olusegun Mayegun,Omoyele Sowore, among many others. We confronted tanks, we faced bullets from Abacha’s troops; we counted over 365 dead bodies on Ikorodu Road in Lagos on July 7,1993 when the dreaded General rolled out the tanks against protesters.
Buhari vs Atiku: Nobody will stop PDP from going to court – Secondus
It can only be a painful experience to now see those who were openly in bed with tyranny or those who pretended to be part of the struggle but were working with Abacha and actually sold his script to MKO Abiola, now messing up the democracy we risked our lives for. That is the reason Agbakoba would talk like the mother of the late Dr Tunji Braithwaite who asked, five years into Nigeria’s independence after watching the misbehaviour of politicians: when will this independence end?
It was the kind of frustration that made Malawian workers under the iron rule of Kamuzu Banda to troop out in protests with one placard screaming: “Better the colonialists”. A very tragic story of how unintended consequences afflict human affairs at every turn .
Those tragic historical figures always pretend to be what they are not to cash in on the struggles of the people in order to gain power and become who they really are once they get power.
They are like that Pastor in one joke whose belief was not in Jesus Christ but was preaching only to earn a living .One day he was teaching faith to his congregation, telling them to call on Christ in all situations. As he raised his hand telling his listeners that when tribulation comes they should not fear, the ceiling fan hit his raised fist and the man who was saying: “Call on Jeee…”, ended up shouting: “Sango oooo!”.
Political warlord
The above best explained what happened in Lagos last Thursday when the “Free Lagos Movement “ scheduled a press conference for Lagos Airport Hotel. Shortly before the commencement of the event, thugs loyal to a political warlord in the state stormed the venue, shooting sporadically into the air. Sadly they were joined by men of the Lagos Police Command who cruelly said citizens of Nigeria who live in Lagos have to seek police permission to hold a press conference in a hall. In Lagos the headquarters of the pro-democracy movement ?
Abacha came alive in Lagos again last Tursday. The first time he resurrected in the city was in 1999 when thugs rough-handled Chief Gani Fawehinmi and smashed his car as he left the premises of a court where he had gone to ask for an order that then Lagos Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, must be compelled by the court to explain his academic qualification. The terrible experience did not stop the gadfly from pursuing the matter to the Supreme Court.
The Gani spirit is what the “O to ge Lagos” needs ahead of March 9 governorship election. The brutal experience of last Thursday should galvanise the movement to wake Lagosians to break free in the governorship election.
The message to “Free Lagos Movement” is the same to Ndigbo in Lagos who were largely disenfranchised on February 23rd by thugs and vandals loyal to APC in Lagos .They have come under serious harassment in various parts of the state after the presidential polls. I can’t remember the number of calls I had to make to the police to move and save Ndigbo in different areas. In a direct call to the Commissioner of Police in Lagos last Wednesday, I intimated him that we received a report that a serving member of the House of Representatives was allegedly harassing Igbo in Ojodu Area. The CP admitted he already received the report and already asked the Area Commander to do something. It does not appear that the man has been invited till date just as those who burnt Igbo votes in Okota live on television are still free.
I recall in 1999 how an Igbo man came to Senator Abraham Adesanya in a bus he owned branded in AD color. He said it was his way of expressing gratitude for what his Yoruba neighbors did for him during the civil war. When he return from the East after the civil war, his Yoruba neighbours handed him all the rents they collected on his property during the war. He used that vehicle to campaign for Tinubu’s election.
The challenge before Igbo is not to surrender to this intimidation. They must troop out on Saturday to join other well-meaning Lagosians to say “Enough is Enough “ with their PVCs !
That enviable spirit of Lagos which made Chief Obafemi Awolowo to support Chief Ernest Ikoli in the Nigerian Youth Movement election against the Odemo of Isara whom he saw as a better candidate must be preserved .
Why must Lagos be freed? I have read some ignoramuses arguing that Lagos under APC is working and I scoffed at their idiocy. A state with an eight of Nigeria’s budget should today be like Dubai if the last 20 years have been under a people-friendly leader like Alhaji Lateef Jakande who governed the state for four years and have “Jakande Schools” and “Jakande Estates” named after him by the appreciative people all over the state almost 40 years after leaving office. Jakande never spent N1b in any year. It was in 1984 that the state budgeted N1b that Buhari struck. After 20 years of civil rule, Lagos has only about four model schools. Dr Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State in eight years built 54 world class model schools!
Group backs Sanwo-olu for Lagos
The “change” that has taken place in Lagos in the last 20 years is the number of personal high-rising buildings.
Affliction of Lagos
The governorship candidate of the PDP in Lagos on Saturday captured the affliction of Lagos recently when he said: “In the last 20 years, Lagos has spent some N7 trillion, and we are asking what have we got for N7 trillion? Are we getting value for money?
“Out of that N7 trillion, there is a private company that takes a percentage of that N7 trillion, and we are asking, for what purpose?”
Tinubu, of course, responded to the fundamental issue of freedom in a Baba Suwe fashion: “Those who said they wanted freedom should go and learn tailoring and vulcanising and we will do freedom for them later. They do not have the people. He was in the contest for the first and second times. He is in the contest for the third time. He will fail again.”
Tinubu said Lagos must deliver at least three million votes for the APC during the 2019 polls. “Here in Lagos, we must maintain a strong outing for APC, a party of progress, development and economy. We must differentiate between a developmental economy and a container economy. We will not accept to get Nigeria corrupt again”.(I almost fainted there).
Lagos would develop greatly and Lagosians would live in great happiness if the leakages into private pockets are blocked and Lagos money works for the people of Lagos .The meaning of “freedom” should therefore be loud with all vigilance .
This is the imperative of “O to ge”!(Enough is Enough !)
Source:https://samueljackson12.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-abacha-in-lagos.html
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