MKO Abiola, Susan Rice & a deadly cup of tea - By Femi Fani Kayode
Ambassador
Susan Rice was up until recently the American Ambassador to the United
Nations. Her long-standing aspiration of becoming the Secretary of State
for her country was dashed when the Republicans in the Senate started
sharpening their knives in anticipation of her formal nomination for
that position by President Barak Obama.
Sensing that her nomination would not scale through the Senate and
that she would not be confirmed as Secretary of State due to the role
she played in the cover up of the Benghazi affair in which the American
Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other American
citizens were murdered by a group of islamist terrorists, her nomination
was withdrawn.
Instead of Secretary of State, President Obama has now nominated
her for the position of National Security Advisor which is a job that
does not require Senate approval or confirmation. I wish Susan Rice well
in her new assignment but I am constrained to ask the following
questions and the people of Nigeria would like to have the answers. What
did she put in the tea that she served to Chief MKO Abiola on July 8th
1998 just before he died? She was one of the last people that saw him
alive, she served him some tea, he coughed violently, collapsed right in
front of her and her team and one hour later he was dead. What was in
the tea? Was it Abuja ''green tea'', Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Liptons or
some other more exotic brand?
Can someone please ask Susan Rice what her role was in the death of
MKO Abiola? Who sent her to do the job and who was she working for? At
that time she was Assistant Secretary of State for America in President
Bill Clinton's government. Was she acting on his direct instructions or
simply on the instructions of her boss and controller in Langley?
Chief MKO Abiola was the winner of Nigeria's freest and fairest
elections. That election took place on June 12th 1993. The following day
it was annuled by General Ibrahim Babangida. Shortly after that, as a
consequence of the sheer outrage that was generated by the annulement,
Babangida was compelled to ''step aside'' and hand over power to Chief
Ernest Shonekan. In what was clearly a strategic manouver he left
General Sani Abacha (his own Chief of Army Staff) behind to be the
Minister of Defence for the incoming administration.
A few months later Abacha toppled the Interim National Government
of Chief Ernest Shonekan which he had served and seized power for
himself. Abiola was arrested and detained. He was never granted his
freedom again. Four years later Abacha himself was murdered by forces
that are yet to be identified and General Abdulsalami Abubakar took
power. Exactly 30 days after Abacha was killed, those same forces that
killed him murdered Abiola as well in an attempt to ''balance the
equation''.
These are the facts and sequence of events. One thing is
self-evident and cannot be denied no matter which side of the divide one
may have been on in the June 12th
saga- certain questions must be answered. And some of those questions
are as follows. Who killed MKO Abiola? Who killed Sani Abacha? Who sent
the respected Chief Emeka Anyaoku (the Secretary-General of the
Commonwealth at the time) and Mr. Kofi Annan (the Secretary General of
the United Nations at the time) to meet with Abiola and ask him to
relinquish and renounce his mandate if he wanted to be released? What
was their response when Abiola refused to do so? What role, if any, did
officials of the Abubakar administration play in the murder of both
Abacha and Abiola? What role did the CIA play and exactly what
transpired in the room when Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice (as
she then was), Ambassador Thomas Pickering and two other faceless and
nameless officials from the American Embassy met with Abiola on that
fateful day. For how long did Ambassador Pickering give him mouth to
mouth resuscitation after he collapsed? Sadly instead of being revived
and released that day Abiola died in what can only be described
as mysterious and questionable circumstances.
This is all the more so because Abiola's security officer and the
man that was charged with looking after him and protecting him
throughout the time that he was incarcerated (an honest, upstanding and
courageous police officer by the name of ASP Zadok) told the Oputa panel
in 2002 that Abiola was ''hale and hearty'' and in ''very high
spirits'' just before going into the meeting with the Americans. He went
further by telling the panel that as he was about to enter Aguda
House (the premises where the meeting was scheduled to be held) with
Abiola he was asked to leave his principal, to step out of the premises
and to go and pick up another car from somewhere else by one of General
Abdulsalami's security officers. He promptly obeyed the order but half
an hour later when he came back he found Abiola in a terrible condition,
coughing violently, writhing all over the floor in pain and breathing
his last breath. Thirty minutes later he gave up the ghost.
Another question that needs to be answered is the one that
the respected columnist Mr. Gbolobo Ogunsanwo has dubbed as ''the
question of the missing one hour''. Permit me to explain. According to
the testimony that was given to the Oputa Panel by Major Hamza Al
Mustapha, who was General Abacha's Chief Security Officer, from the
first day that Abiola was arrested right up until the day that he was
murdered he (Al Mustapha) was in charge of his (Abiola's) security. Each
time Abiola was moved from one safe house to another he had to sign for
it. Each time Abiola ate his food or drank anything, his men tasted and
drank it before-hand. He went as far as to say that each time Abiola
went to the toilet he was made aware of it and that nothing happened
around Abiola or to him without his direct permission and the
involvement of his most loyal men. After Abacha was murdered and
Abdulsalami Abubakar became Head of State, Al Mustapha was still in
charge of Abiola's security and he still maintained direct
responsibility for his life, his well-being and his welfare right
up until the minute that he was murdered.
When Mustapha appeared before the Oputa Panel he exposed the fact
that in the entire period of four years that he and his team watched
over Abiola it was only in the one hour that he was killed that they had
no knowledge or control of what was happening to or around him.
According to him, Abiola was removed from the guest house that he had
been staying without his (Al Mustapha's) signature or knowledge and
without anyone seeking his permission. Simply put he was kept in the
dark about the whole thing. Secret orders were given to keep him out of
the loop, to take Abiola to a destination which he knew nothing about
and to ensure that none of the usual trusted food tasters and minders
were with him. The only person that accompanied Abiola from the old
guard of those that had watched over him for the previous four years was
ASP Zadok and when they arrived at Aguda House (the venue of the
meeting) he was conveniently sent on a meaningless errand by General
Abdulsalami Abubakar's Chief Security Officer and told to leave.
Hence for the first time in four years Abiola was left completely on his
own and he was surrounded by a coterie of strange faces who had no
genuine affection or empathy for him. He was with them for one hour and
during that hour not one of those that had watched over him, that
had secured his safety and that he had grown familiar with over the
entire four year period of his incarceration was with him. It was during
that ''missing hour'', when he was all alone and very vulnerable,
that he was poisoned.
Sadly by the time Zadok, who was undoubtedly loyal to him, returned
to the scene Abiola was already dying. The question is who gave the
order for Abiola to be brought to that meeting? Why did they keep Al
Mustapha in the dark about it? Why was Zadok sent to bring another
vehicle that was obviously not needed? That one hour, and what
transpired during it's course, holds the key to everything. It appears
that Abiola was lured into a trap by a group of smiling strangers who
did not wish him well and who had sinister plans for him. It was
like leading a lamb to the slaughter.
Given these circumstances I have no doubt that this was a case of
premeditated murder but the question is whose call was it and why did it
have to happen? What was the motive? Was it done just to ''balance the
equation'' as some said at the time or was it done in an attempt to pave
the way for an Obasanjo Presidency one year later? Could General
Olusegun Obasanjo have been released from jail and elected President if
Abiola had lived and if he had insisted on claiming his mandate? The
Nigerian people have a right to know the truth and it is about time that
those that have wielded power in this country for the last few decades
told them. The powers that be must appreciate the fact that they cannot
sweep things under the carpet forever and that one day, no matter how
long it takes, they will be held accountable by God and the Nigerian
people for the morbid, secret and oftentimes homicidal choices and
decisions that they made.
Yet the truth is that the military operates like a cult and we may
never get an honest answer from any of them about what really happened.
This is because there are very few Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar's in the
Nigerian military. Very few of them are prepared to break ranks with the
leadership and break the ''omerta'' code of silence like Abubakar Umar
did over the June 12th
election. Very few of them are prepared to call a spade a spade, speak
the truth, expose the lie and damn the consequences. Most of them
continue to spin the yarn and tell the lie that Abacha and Abiola's
deaths were both from natural causes and that it was just a coincidence
that one dropped dead on June 8th 1998, just 4 days before the 5th
anniversary of June 12th,
and the other droped dead exactly one month later on July 8th 1998. As
they say ''the secrets are embedded in the sequence of events, the
numbers and the dates'' and, in this case, the sequence of events, the
numbers and the dates really do tell an interesting and revealing story.
Yet no matter how hard they try to cover her up and silence her,
truth is stubborn and she cannot be drowned. She is like a pack of
straws that are held together and pinned down by an all-powerful hand at
the bottom of a river. As long as she is held at the bottom of that
river she cannot be seen or heard. Yet one day, in the fullness of time,
that all-powerful hand that seeks to supress her forever will get tired
and let go and at that point Lady Truth will happily float to the top
of the water where she will be seen and heard by all. It is in the same
way that one day, in the fullness of time, the pernicious and
perfidious verdict of "death by natural causes" or "act of God" that the
powers that be have claimed are the causes of Abiola and Abacha's
deaths respectively will be exposed for what they are.
The fact of the matter is that until these questions are answered
and justice is done Nigeria will not know lasting peace and she cannot
possibly achieve her fulll potentials. It is a spiritual thing. Abiola
gave his life that we may have a better tomorrow
yet we refuse to acknowledge it or to bring his killers to justice. We
are repaying his good with evil and the consequences of that are set out
in the Word of God. Whatever anyone may have thought of him as a
person, the fact remains that had it not been for Abiola's
sheer resilience, courage, steadfastness, sacrifice and gallant refusal
to bow before the Nigerian military and give up his 1993 Presidential
mandate we would not have democracy in Nigeria today. He was faithful to
his cause to the very last. In return for that the least we could do is
to ask the relevant questions, demand the appropiate answers and expose
the bitter truth. We owe MKO Abiola, his wife Kudirat (who was also
murdered) and all the other June 12th and NADECO footsoldiers and martyrs that much.
Femi Fani Kayode is a former Minister of Aviation
