SANI ABACHA, Nigeria’s Most Enigmatic Ruler part3

SANI ABACHA, Nigeria’s Most Enigmatic Ruler part2 click HERE

AS HEAD OF STATE

-HIS FIRST LADY:

 -His wife, Maryam (Mama Kowa), a fair-complexioned Shuwa Arab, also had her own fair share of power and authority. Mrs. Maryam was described as a humble and kind woman who was close to her staff, especially the junior ones. In his book, Inside Aso Rock, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji describes a First Lady who was ‘very particular about welfare that her kitchen was always opened to all. Younger officers scrambled to be posted to her office…..hardly did any birthday, marriage or similar ceremonies pass by without Madam’s support. She was indeed close to the Press Corps and members of staff in the Rock.’

Hajia Dr. (Mrs) Maryam Abacha.

-In addition to her pet project, the Family Support Programme (FSP), Maryam Abacha also saw to the establishment of a Ministry of Women Affairs (upgraded from the National Commission for Women), National Center for Women Development and the National Hospital, Abuja. She led a contingent of Nigerian women to the United Nations Fourth World Women Conference, Beijing, China in September 1995.

Maryam Abacha supporting her husband during a ceremony before he became the head of state.

An enchantingly beautiful woman, she gave a motherly face to one of Africa’s most tyrannically despotic regimes. When her husband died, she was visibly shocked at people’s reactions. Mrs. Abacha stated she did not know her husband was that unpopular. Talk of how power insulates you from reality.

STYLE OF LEADERSHIP

 It is quite interesting to know that despite the fact that he wielded incredibly vast powers, Abacha operated a complicated style of leadership, and he gave a free hand to all those working under him. He allowed them to carry out their duties without interfering (he was a master at delegating duties), disagree with one another and even debate during meetings (at a time, the Finance Minister, Anthony Ani and the Petroleum Resources counterpart, Dan Etete (who also argued and tussled with Buba Marwa, Lagos State Military Administrator) would blast themselves and argue in the cabinet meeting but Abacha let it all slide, or let me say he obviously enjoyed all the drama and all three served him till the very end).

Abacha himself very rarely spoke during the meetings, and when he did, it was almost in whispers, and aides said you had to strain your ears to pick his words. He was also described as a very attentive listener who enjoyed listening to others rant. Atimes, he dozed off during cabinet meetings or as his best friend Lt. General Jeremiah Timbut Useni put it: he seemed to sleep off during meetings but he was not asleep, he was listening. It was said: Abacha spoke softly, almost inaudibly, like in a whisper and you have to strain your ears to hear him. Perhaps this was a strategy, the strategy of a consummate wielder of power to get his listeners to truly listen…Some who know Abacha think he is a shy man but that may not be the reason for his near-whisper level of discussion. They think he is not a man of emotion, that he never really raises his voice even when he is angry but that he lets actions, not thunderous words, speak for him. Which is why some who don’t know him well, but who have listened to him talk softly are surprised by his tough guy actions. (Newswatch, 24th November 1997, page 10-11).

-Because of his calm exterior, many took him for granted and underestimated his capability, only for them to be stung and stunned by the devastating consequences of daring the Kanuri General. According to the late Abubakar Rimi who was Abacha’s minister of communications: ‘Abacha was the most patient man on earth. We would hold a cabinet meeting for three hours and he would not say a word….I am sure he understood what was happening. And also he cracked a joke one day and said that people shouldn’t bother if he was not speaking at cabinet meetings, that he was learning. Because this cabinet was made up of distinguished Nigerians, distinguished ministers and the amount of grammar they spoke impressed him a lot.’ (Newswatch, 1st February, 1999).

-A man who thoroughly mastered and applied the laws of power, General Sani Abacha was also described thus: ‘Now we have the real thing: Abacha….Abacha is a hammer without velvet…Abacha is a patient man, one who is willing to give you a long rope to tie yourself with. That stands him out as a long term planner and strategist. Which is why those who expect quick action from him often feel disappointed. Abacha’s tenacity, some call it obduracy, is evident in the government’s hand combat with the Commonwealth, Britain and the United States in the last three years. That no biting sanctions or no severer action has been taken against Nigeria is a tribute to Abacha’s ability to face his opponents eyeball to eyeball while dangling some carrots to African communities, and the former socialist states as a means of melting the solidarity block that was needed to drown Nigeria.’ (Newswatch, 24th November, 1997, page 14).

-Abacha did not also view threats to his grip on authority with humor. When MKO Abiola declared himself the President and went undercover. Abacha appeared on TV the following evening warning about political chaos and the police declared MKO wanted but he eluded capture for some days. Soldiers, mobile policemen with over 200 vehicles stormed his Moshood Abiola Crescent Lagos residence to arrest him on the 23rd of the same month. MKO did not know the gravity of the situation at hand. While entering the vehicle, he granted an interview to CNN and he stated that he was just being taken away for questioning and urged his supporters to be calm that he would soon be back. He came back to the same residence, but as a corpse. A month after Abacha joined his ancestors, the Aare Ona Kakanfo (Field Marshal) of Yorubaland would also join him, fuelling speculations that both were executed with surgical precision.

-By 4th of July, 1994, the nation had erupted in chaos. The oil workers union, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Employees (NUPENG) started a strike to press for Abiola’s release, and they were later joined by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN). For nine good weeks, they brought the nation to a grinding halt and Abacha became increasingly desperate as oil exports dropped and riots broke out sporadically. The Nigerian Labour Congress threatened, briefly joined the strike but was quickly won over by Abacha. Many Nigerians are yet to forgive late Comrade Paschal Bafyau, the NLC President at that time for the ‘betrayal’. By the middle of August, Abacha responded by firing the leaders of the petroleum unions, arresting them and sealing their offices. By the time the protests died down, over 120 street protesters were killed by government forces. -On the 25th of September 1995, Yoruba monarchs from Lagos State paid him a visit to plead on behalf of the imprisoned Bashorun. But Abacha told them Abiola’s case would have to follow the normal legal procedures, and he cannot interfere or grant any clemency until the courts decide MKO’s fate.

-The Treasury of the Nigerian nation was also not in the very best of hands under Abacha. For the finance minister, Anthony Ani, he once received a gift of $10 million (dude, that’s N1.6 billion naira). Why? He complained lightheartedly to Abacha that he was broke. When Ani wanted to deny this and that he did not return any money to the Federal Government in a publication, his story fell flat when Mohammed Abacha confirmed that indeed, his father instructed him to hand over the $10 million gift to Ani. And guess what? Ani was not the only beneficiary of the incredible gift. The Minister of Power and Steel, Bashir Dalhatu who would later marry and divorce one of Abacha’s daughters also pocketed his own ten million bucks.

Check out his goggles on the table…lol!

Now, that reminds me of the former Zamfara State Governor and presently a Senator, Sani Ahmed Yerima. When he was working with the Central Bank of Nigeria, he had to make withdrawals and take to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa under Abacha’s regime, he was given tips up to $10,000 for ‘taxi’. Senator Yerima was an Abacha boy who got rewarded with a sweet CBN job because of his loyalty but today, he has successfully metamorphosed, and in a country like Nigeria, anything is possible, anything goes. Just imagine someone ‘dashing’ you N1.6 million to ‘catch bike’. These are the exact words of Yerima: ‘When I was at the Central Bank, in the foreign exchange (department), I would take $800,000 to the Presidential Villa for the ECOMOG operations and sometimes the officer would dash me $10,000 or $5,000.’ Upon the sudden death of Abacha, many of these Abacha boys formed a new party, the All Peoples Party, APP (derisively called the Abacha Peoples Party), and for the smart ones among them, they still loom large today on Nigeria’s political scene.

-As it is with Nigerian leaders mouthing their crusade against corruption, Abacha initiated a government commission of inquiry to look into the activities of the CBN. Now referred to as the Pius Okigbo Report, the commission in October 1994 unearthed details on how a sum of $12.4 billion vaporized. Abacha did not or was not able to adopt the recommendations of the commission but how do you expect that to be done since he was part and parcel of the same IBB government?

-He also launched the War Against Indiscipline and Corruption and even instituted the Failed Banks Tribunal which critics dismissed as being targeted at bank managers from the Southwest. The same pattern would later repeat itself under Yar’adua when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (who had his own role to play under Abacha too) proceeded to purge the banking sector. By the way, I do not see Nigeria progressing with shallow-minded tribalism, infantile clan loyalty and the ethnocentric allegiances that many blindly hold. Such short-sighted mentalities do not make great nations.

-Even though Abacha was hailed as being non-tribalistic, members of his cabinet openly demonstrated this obnoxious trait. For instance, Alhaji Muhammadu Gambo, former Inspector-General of Police and the Coordinator of National Security under Abacha once openly stated that the North was more than willing to go to war over petroleum reserves in the southern part of the country. Gambo would later state while fighting the Obasanjo presidency in 2005: “Whatever you may say about General Sani Abacha, there was security during his time. Only those who were in politics and confronting him had problem with him and they knew the price they wanted to pay just like us now.” Talking of security, it is quite interesting to know that it was under him in August 1994 that the Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) was formed as an armed militant wing of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). The fact be told, bodies like these are the ones entrenching tribalism in the nation, clashing with rival gangs and carrying out raids. It is only in a broken-down nation where security means nothing that everyone becomes a warlord in his own abete, ruling like a Congolese rebel commander over a private army.

-Like other maximum rulers, Abacha was extra cautious and did not joke about his personal security. Most of the time, he was holed up in his fortress, the Aso Rock Presidential Villa and rarely travelled out of the country. He was comfortable in his cocoon and left General Diya, also a trained lawyer and an eloquent Odogbolu man, to do much of the travelling, holding press conferences and other functions. He was protected by three rings of impressive security made up of officials and operatives trained to take bullets for him, and trust me, they were fiercely loyal to the Head of State.

-These were the Strike Force (SF), Brigade of Guards (BGs) and the Military Police. Around the nation’s leader, these three concentric rings of brute force shielded him from the prying eyes of 120 million Nigerians.

-The Strike Force, derisively referred to as ‘Abacha’s assassination squad’ had its members trained in North Korea where Lt. General Jeremiah Timbut Useni visited them, Israel (teams of Israeli forces were in the country to train members of the squad, and between June 1993 and June 1996, there were fourteen major bombings in various parts of the country, with the Southwest of the Yorubas bearing the heaviest hit) and Libya, it was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Ibrahim Yakassai, a medical doctor (would later fall out of favour with Al Mustapha in 1997), and Ibrahim Umar (former deputy commander of the sophisticated who would later accuse Al Mustapha of orchestrating his exit and implicating him in the 1997 coup plot) while the Brigade of Guards and the Strike Force were both referred to as Al Mustapha’s army (Yakassai took orders from Al-Mustapha even though he was his inferior in the army).

-To be in Abacha’s good books, the Minister for Works and Housing, Major General Abdulkarim Adisa spoilt the Strike Force silly with gifts and was supergenerous with funding the unit. Although these were the three main visible rings of security, it has been estimated that the force marshalled for Abacha’s personal security alone was up to 3,000 men. The soft-spoken Al Mustapha, now with a death penalty hanging upon him (he was later freed in 2013), eventually became the most dreaded man in the regime with generals melting at the mention of his name and accused of being the brain behind the orgy of killings and bomb explosions around the terrified nation (on the 31st of May, 1995, the Kwara State Stadium on Ibrahim Taiwo Road in Ilorin was full, packed with excited citizens. It was the launch of the state's Family Support Programme, the pet project of the First Lady, Mrs. Maryam Abacha. The guests were seated and just minutes before the arrival of the First Lady and the start of the programme, a bomb went off. Explosions rocked the stadium, people ran in different directions in a yam-pepper-scatter-scatter fashion.

The Minister of Works and an Abacha ally, Major-General Abdulkarim Adisa who had come to receive the First Lady was so terrified that he dived into a very unlikely corner of the stadium for safety. After the explosions, Adisa, a 'shon of the shoil' broke into tears and swore to bring the perpetrators of the 'dastardly act' to book. This is 2014 and the perpetrators are yet to be brought to book.)

The graphic details of the torture, incarceration and harassment that many Nigerians faced in the hands of Abacha’s men are better left unveiled.

With his Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza al-Mustapha.

-General Sani Abacha made calculated moves to ensure that he remained in power for as long as possible. In 1995, he deceived the entire nation telling them that by 1st of October, a new plan of how he will leave office will be released. And so the nation waited. But while the nation hpped on empty air, Abacha was making deft background moves to ensure that he remained in power.

One day in August 1995, the Uromi chief and the first person to move a motion for Nigeria's independence in 1953, Chief Anthony Enahoro, received a telephone call while relaxing at his Benin residence that he was to appear at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa on the 7th because the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces and Africa's most dreaded military wanted to see him. Enahoro, a respected statesman, was a leader of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the largest pro-democracy group in the country and Abacha's biggest headache. In fact, Enahoro had been jailed the previous year during political unrest by Abacha. When Enahoro got the call, he did the usual: he would not go to the lion's den alone. He placed a call across to his ally, former Kwara State Governor and fellow NADECO chieftain, Chief Cornelius Adebayo and told him they should waka together to Aso Rock so it would not be a matter of na only you waka come. 

So the two chiefs were on their way and unlike before when they were delayed for hours without seeing General Abacha, they were instantly received in a matter of minutes upon arrival at Nigeria's most heavily guarded complex. They were welcomed into the sanctum sanctorumof Aso Rock, and lo and behold, they were face-to-face with Abacha. The maximum tyrant did not waste any time and he went straight to the point. Abacha told them that he was not too pleased with what he was hearing about the draft constitution packaged by the constitutional conference. Acting concerned, Abacha said that some provisions of the draft were capable of setting the nation on fire. He said that Enahoro's help was needed to move the nation forward. He said he would set up a committee of 40 wisemen who would review the draft constitution. He did not stop there: Enahoro would have to give his consent before he proceeded with the committee. Abacha explained the the '40 wisemen' would be from each of the 30 states and the FCT while the remaining nine would be made up of traditional rulers, members of the old constitutional conference and other stakeholders. Abacha finished his discussion saying: We need your experience in this thing, Sir. 

Enahoro was not moved but was surprised at Abacha's schemings. He did not lose composure as he told Abacha that he was always up for anything that would move Nigeria forward stating that the position of NADECO has already being  made known to the military regime. Nothing short of a sovereign national conference, the release of MKO Abiola, opening of closed press houses like Punch and Concord would settle the matter on ground. Enahoro also said he was surprised at the trial of Beko Ransome-Kuti, another NADECO chieftain by the Patrick Aziza-led military tribunal. At that moment, Abacha felt he had had enough and fired back, calling Ransome-Kuti a 'subversive'. At the end of the meeting, Enahoro turned down Abacha's offers, both parties disagreed and the meeting scattered. At about the same period, Abacha considered what was referred to as the 'French model', in which he would remain the C-in-C but there would be an elected or appointed civilian prime minister. Those in charge of drawing up this plan were given all the money they needed and even travelled to France on 'fact-finding missions'.

-Abacha fired Chris Ali from his position as Chief of Army Staff and his counterpart in the Navy, Allison Madueke, for reportedly holding clandestine meetings with members of the constitutional conference and other reasons.

-According to Lt. General Oladipo Diya, the former Chief of General Staff (CGS) and de facto Vice President, ‘the fear of Al Mustapha is the beginning of wisdom.’ For those who were perceived or confirmed to be the General’s foes, they were silenced by the lethal weapons of an assassin. During this time, Kudirat Abiola (4th June 1996), Pa Alfred Rewane (October 6, 1995), Alhaja Suliat Adedeji (14th November, 1996) and Toyin Onagoruwa were all murdered in cold blood. Alhaja Adedeji was a well-known Ibadan political activist and businesswoman. Although, her death is often linked to Abacha’s forces, the whole scenario becomes quite confusing when one realizes that she was actually on good terms with Abacha, and had collected a sum of N50 million to organize a rally in support of the dictator. She was even one of those who established the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) which encouraged Abacha to become a civilian president. (If you are wondering how the two met and how he cultivated his relationship with Adedibu also, remember that Abacha was the GOC in Ibadan.) There was also the unresolved daylight murder of an 80-year-old grandmother, prominent Abeokuta businesswoman, the third Iyalode of Egbaland and Nigeria’s first female industrialist, Chief (Mrs). Bisoye Esther Tejuoso OON (nee Karunwi) on the 29th September, 1996.

Chief (Mrs). Bisoye Esther Tejuoso OON (nee Karunwi)

-Others who also lost their lives in the spree of extrajudicial killings under Abacha include Bagauda Kaltho (Kaduna-based correspondent of TheNews), retired Navy Commodore Olu Omotehinwa and retired Vice Admiral Babatunde Muftau Adegoke Elegbede who was the former Chief of Naval Staff and a member of IBB’s Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. On the 19th of June, 1994, Elegbede was assassinated by unknown gunmen along the Gbagada/Oworonshoki Expressway in Lagos, he was hit with more than 70 bullets. If not for fate, people like the Afenifere leader, Senator Abraham Adesanya and Alex Ibru, former internal affairs minister and publisher of The Guardian would have been long dead.

Many others like Gani Fawehinmi and Beko Ransome-Kuti were flung into gulags while others like Professor Wole Soyinka negotiated with their legs and escaped via the famed NADECO route. Now, that is what I call one very bloody era. -The Strike Force had an army sergeant named Barnabas Jabila (also known as Sergeant Rogers) as its marksman and sharp shooter. On the 7th of December, 2001, he broke down in tears before the Oputa Panel in Lagos confessing thus:

“Please I ask for forgiveness. I felt more than remorseful because when I was doing it (killing), I thought I was working for the state. We were told by Major Al-Mustapha that those who we were asked to kill were enemies of Nigeria. We were made to believe that they were those people who wanted to divide the country.” He also stated that no operation was carried out without the knowledge and approval of Al Mustapha.

Rogers said he was sent to kill three times but succeeded only with Kudirat Abiola failing with Adesanya and Ibru.

-Then there was the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) headed by the notoriously brutal Col. Frank Omenka. He once asked for the full names of Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, a NADECO member and when the senator demanded to know why, Omenka retorted: “To know what to write on your grave. For if I have my way, I’ll line up all of you NADECO trouble makers, waste you with my bullets and dump you all in a mass grave. I’ll write: “Here lies the remains of the enemies of the state.” Then I will list your names. You see, I don’t believe in human rights. Quote me. There is no human rights anywhere; not in America not in Britain.” Omenka, who answered to a much-junior Al Mustapha, fled the country upon Abacha’s demise to Brazil and nothing has been heard of him ever since. O pare bi iso! -Major Hamza al-Mustapha was the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to Abacha. Al-Mustapha took his work very seriously, and his zealousness was quite visible. At a point, he even hired a marabout (spiritualist) who instructed Abacha to remove Ismaila Gwarzo as the National Security Adviser. Abacha never read any publications, forget the newspapers and magazines, he primarily relied on the information given to him by his security officers, Al-Mustapha and Gwarzo in particular. Al Mustapha is also a Kanuri man hailing from the Nguru District of Yobe State.

-Another Kanuri man that Abacha relied on for security is Zakari Biu, a deputy chief of police (Assistant Commissioner of Police) and Chairman of the Special Presidential Task Force on Terrorism (see pictures) who has been accused of covering up for the various terror plots in the country. Senator Christy Anyanwu told of how Biu gave her a stinging slap and subjected her to torture when she was accused of plotting a coup in 1995. Even after all the crimes he was accused of at the Oputa Panel, he was retained in the Police Force until Obasanjo fired him in 1999 and for the next 11 years, he quietly fought for his reinstatement into the force until 2010 when he was reinstated by the Police Service Commission and promoted to the rank of a Commissioner of Police even though his old mate, Hafiz Ringim was already the IG.

-Eventually, he was suspended in 2012 when Boko Haram suspect, Kabiru Sokoto escaped from custody. Biu was the Commissioner of Police and Head, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Police Zone 7 Headquarters overseeing Sokoto’s case. In a twist of events, Biu’s son, Tahir, working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was killed when bombs went off during the 50th Independence Anniversary Celebrations in Abuja in 2010. Soyinka says of Biu: “There’s no reason why somebody like Zakari Biu cannot be co-opted by the al-Qaeda because, obviously, he has no concern for humanity. He’s a complete brute. You know, he can torture. I can see Zakari Biu very happily strapping a bomb to himself and blowing up a passenger plane.”

Zakari Biu

-Al Mustapha, a major in the army, was so incredibly powerful that according to General Diya, he single-handedly reversed the decision of the Provisional Ruling Council to release MKO Abiola not once or twice but FOUR times. He was so powerful that not even state military governors (MILADs) messed with him. He decided who would see the C-in-C and even scheduled when the C-in-C is to venture out of the Presidential Villa. Abacha and others also respected him as it was believed that he was gifted with certain spiritual powers to the extent that the General himself consulted him for spiritual matters, turning Abacha into a recluse holed up in the Villa, cutting him off from the rest of the world, creating a new world for the late dictator. He would also arrange for spiritual marabouts from Niger, Chad, Senegal, Mali and other neighboring countries for ‘special’ spiritual sessions in the Villa.

-On the 13th of December, 1997, when Diya was almost killed in a bomb blast as he was about to board a plane, Al Mustapha was also fingered. General Diya was on his way to Makurdi, Benue State to attend the funeral ceremony of the mother of his Principal Staff Officer, Lawrence Onoja. Atimes you cannot but shudder at the chilling level of sheer evil in Nigerian governments. One of the men who planted the bomb died in the process while the second who survived would later die under questionable circumstances in while receiving treatment. Both of them were in Libya for an elite training on VIP protection and North Korea were they learnt how to handle explosives. Not long after the explosion (21st December), Diya was arrested with eleven others for allegedly planning to overthrow the General. By 28th April, he was already sentenced to death alongside others.

General Oladipo Diya goes on his knees pleading with Abacha. Abacha thereafter offered him tissue paper or what looked like a handkerchief to wipe off his tears.

Here is a video showing Diya on his knees begging for his life with General Abacha. Enjoy the full video here: (skip to 41.56 to see the major point of the whole drama:

-Al Mustapha and Useni were the last two officers to have seen Abacha alive. Maryam Abacha would later accuse Useni of killing her husband. On the 30th of January, 2012, after the longest criminal trial in the nation, Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court sentenced Al Mustapha to death. He had been in detention for 13 years. His brother at the court broke into uncontrollable tears following the judgment. His wife, Hadjia Afzat disagreed with the judgment saying it came to her as a terrible shock that her husband was framed up and the verdict was cooked up. Teninteni, tekisa n taatan. -Although he rarely appeared in public, his image was everywhere and you always knew who was El Jefe (The Boss). There were also countless plainclothed security operatives working assiduously to fish out dissenters and enemies of the Khalifa.  -The Recce (reconnaissance) units of the Nigerian Army proved to be very crucial to the success of the many coups in the past. Thus, when Abacha came to power, he ensured that there was the restructuring of the armoured units so as to decrease the risk of coup plotting that came with the Recce Units. As a result, the Recce Units 241, 242, 243 and 245 were relocated to relatively unknown locations like Nguru, Badagry, Monguno and Ikom. Cameroon and Chad might also have been factors behind Abacha’s decision to relocate these units. -Abacha would also disappear from the radar and no one would have access to him, not even the top officials of his government. As a result of his abracadabra acts, there were occasions when key members of his cabinet issued contradictory statements on policies. But if you have read the 48 Laws of Power, you will understand the significance of his disappearing acts.

-Abacha tolerated no opposition and brooked no dissent in any form. As for the Yorubas who formed a massive bloc of opposition against him, he dealt with them decisively, at the same time making their son, General Oladipo Donaldson Diya, his Chief of General Staff and de facto Vice President. Diya would later be roped in a coup attempt and escaped death by whiffs of the white patch of his hair. MKO Abiola was flung into jail and did not make it out alive. His wife was assassinated and the only paper Abiola was allowed to read in his solitary confinement was the one with the headline of his wife’s brutal murder. Suliat Adedeji, a businesswoman in Ibadan, Oyo State was also gunned down. When Obasanjo was becoming too loud and irritating, he simply locked up the former military head of state. -An interesting twist to the story is that there were some Yorubas who gave their support gidigba to Abacha. These included people like the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Abdulazeez Arisekola Alao (who got a $150 million contract to supply foodstuff and other commodities to the military) and the late godfather of Molete and the grandfather of amala politics, Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu. Arisekola, Adedibu, Dele Olumilua and even serving military officers like Colonel Ahmed Usman and Navy Captain Anthony Onyearugbulem were some of the most ardent supporters of Abacha and encouraged him to perpetuate himself in power forever and were organizing pro-Abacha rallies. Usman even said he was more than willing to remove his uniform and be the Campaign Manager for Abacha in various parts of Ebiraland and Yorubaland. Also, according to Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo, the deposed Emir of Gwandu, a number of traditional Yoruba monarchs, such as the Alaafin of Oyo endorsed Abacha’s aborted presidency. Some of these same traditional rulers were also invited by Abacha to watch the infamous coup video of General Oladipo Diya #AfricanLeadersAndSycophants.AToxicMixture