SANI ABACHA, Nigeria’s Most Enigmatic Ruler part 6

SANI ABACHA, Nigeria’s Most Enigmatic Ruler part 5 Here

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WEST

-His regime was under intense pressure from the West for the non-democratic nature of his junta and he made moves to ensure that his image was shored up on the global stage and that the pressure was reduced to the barest minimum. In May 1995, this led him to grant an extensive interview to CNN about the political corundum in Nigeria. He also hired consultants and experts in America and paid them millions of dollars to improve and rebrand his image.

-He was also on good terms with a number of American legislators like Oklahoma republican Senator Jim Inhofe, who came visiting him in 1997 on behalf of The Family (The Fellowship), a secretive but highly influential evangelical Christian group with which he would later do business and enjoy a political relationship. The Family is so secretive that it has no website, holds no public fundraising and all paper used during meetings are destroyed. The group however, holds just one event every year, the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, and every single US President from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama have taken part. They both discussed political issues and Inhofe later told Abacha:

”Mr. President really, yeah, I’m a member of the U.S. Senate but I didn’t come over here as a senator. In fact, I came all the way across the Atlantic and down to Sub-Saharan Africa to tell you that in the spirit of Jesus, we love you.”

-Abacha also cultivated a relationship with Senator Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun of Illinois. She remains to date the first and only African-American woman elected to the US Senate, the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator in an election and also the first and to date, the only female Senator from Illinois, same state with President Obama. She attempted to run for the US Presidency in 2004. In 1996, despite the US government sanctions against Nigeria, she embarked on a private trip and met with Abacha. She did not alert, notify or record her trip with the US State Department, the White House or even her own Chief of Staff who resigned in protest. While in Nigeria, Abacha used the opportunity to send a letter endorsing Clinton’s re-election, which turned out to be a great embarrassment for the White House.

Thereafter, she defended Abacha’s human rights record before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the US Congress in May 1996 where she referred to Abacha as a ‘longtime fighter for human rights’. She was criticized but she responded with a stout defence and had a total of seven trips to Nigeria but never met with people like Ken Saro-Wiwa. She defended the Nigerian junta saying that relative to what happened in other parts of the continent in terms of abuses is like ‘opening the refrigerator, seeing an elephant and complaining that a jar of jam is missing.’ In 1998, she lost her re-election bid, the first Illinois Democrat to lose in 20 years and the only Democrat to be removed that year. President Clinton thereafter made her the US Ambassador to New Zealand.

Abacha’s friend: Senator Carol Moseley Braun.

-He was also friends with Reverend Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan who came on solidarity visits. He even named a street after Louis Farrakhan but the name was changed after Abacha’s death.   -While the West wanted to make Abacha look like a Kim Jong-il, he also did all that was possible to also show his own resistance. In 1996, Nigeria boycotted the African Football Cup of Nations. Why? South Africa, Nigeria’s main rival on the continent, was the host. He tried to also rally round and get the support of the other nations in West Africa. No doubt about it, Abacha had the clout and tremendous influence especially in West Africa. It was the same South Africa that attempted to solve Nigeria’s hydraheaded problems in 1995.

Mandela sent Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Thabo Mbeki (then the Vice President) to act as emissaries. Abacha was not impressed. He would eventually clash with South Africa over the killing of Saro-Wiwa and his kinsmen.

-Abacha did not have a cosy relationship with France mainly because of the latter’s role in the Nigeria-Cameroon Bakassi Peninsula dispute in 1994. Abacha believed that the French government was posing a serious threat to Nigeria’s security and stability by its aggressive actions. He believed French troops were already marshalled to Cameroon in case of the eventuality of a war. France denied this saying all that was sent was technical military assistance as based on a previous France-Cameroon defence agreement. At about the same, French troops were carrying out manoeuvers in Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) and Benin Republic, and Nigeria did not find this funny at all. While Abacha and his officials preferred a peaceful solution to the Bakassi debacle via bilateral talks and negotiations, France pushed Cameroon to bring the issue before the UN Security Council (of which France remains a Permanent Member) and to table the case before the International Court of Justice at the Hague.

-After the assassination of Kudirat Abiola at the age of 44, his government announced a $45,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of her killers. Abacha blamed terrorism and the increasing crime rate in the country for her assassination.

Mrs. Abiola was with her assistant and driver on the streets of Lagos, while in her white Mercedes Benz, they were attacked by six (some say three) men in a vehicle driven by Mohamed Abdulof, who rained bullets on them with a Belgium-made FN P90 submachine gun/compact assault rifle which is quite unconventional (see pictures and videos on the gun in action). 

The F-90, submachine gun/compact assault rifle used was used in killing Kudirat Abiola.

Her driver was shot and he died while her personal assistant, Michael Adesina was unhurt. She died from gunshot injuries to the forehead. She was rushed to the Eko Hospital after the attack. Before the killing, Kudirat Abiola had complained of threats to her life and that she was being trailed by unknown men. In May 1996, a month to her killing, she was arrested and detained briefly for possessing publications that were deemed critical of the Abacha junta.

Made in Belgium and described as a selective fire personal defence weapon, it is compact but highly efficient.

Named for 1990, the year it was made by FN Herstal, the weapon is ideal for vehicle crews, support personnel, special forces and counterterrorist teams. Weighing 2.6 kg and just 50.5 cm long, it is in use by the US Secret Service and its standard variant is not available to civilians. It has an integrated reflector sight system, back-up iron sights, fully ambidextrous control meaning it can be easily used by right or left-handed shooters and can fire 900 rounds per minute to a maximum distance of 1,800m.

Picture shows a disassembled PS90 (The standard P90 disassembles into similar main components), showing the major component groups: 1. trigger group, 2. barrel and optical sight assembly, 3. butt plate, 4. magazine, 5. bolt carrier and recoil assembly, 6. stock body and trigger. The firearm was indeed designed to kill: The P90 was designed to have a length no greater than a man’s shoulder width, to allow it to be easily carried and maneuvered in tight spaces, such as the inside of an armored vehicle. The weapon overall has an extremely compact profile—it is the most compact fixed-stock submachine gun to be made. The P90 requires minimal maintenance, and it can be disassembled quickly and easily. The P90 utilizes the small-caliber, high-velocity 5.7×28mm cartridge. The P90 can be fitted with a sling for greater ease of carry, and since the weapon has a fixed stock (as opposed to having a collapsing or folding stock), it can be quickly deployed when needed. It is in use in 40 countries of the world including Nigeria where it is employed by the State Security Service (SSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

-For some, Abacha was an independent ruler who shunned the West and was leading Nigeria to the Promised Land. Well, sorry to burst your bubble. It was his collaboration with the same West that propped him in power for the five years. The Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell, played a very significant role in the Abacha government. With petrodollars oozing from the nozzle of Shell, Abacha consolidated his grip over the military. Activists from Ogoniland condemned the support and the warm rapport between Shell and the Abacha government but what did they get for all their shouts: the Goggled One gagged them. Who can ever forget the brilliant Kenule Saro Wiwa? He called for more autonomy for his people and more compensation for Ogoniland but how did the Nigerian leader respond? Crushingly.

- Armed troops stormed his area and arrested him and eight others on subversion charges. Before you could spell Ogoni, they were all hanged. But one thing was that before they were killed, Owens Saro-Wiwa, the brother of Ken-Saro Wiwa approached the Shell boss in Nigeria, Brian Anderson, on three occasions, for him to intervene in Saro-Wiwa’s case. According to Owens, the Shell expatriate told him it was ‘difficult but not impossible’ and that Shell could help demand for clemency only if the Saro-Wiwa-led campaign against Shell would cease. Anderson denied ever making such offer, even as other human rights group also approached the oil giant on the matter. Here comes the masterstroke, just a few days before Ken-Saro Wiwa was killed alongside others, Shell announced a natural gas joint venture with the Abacha government. Guess how much the deal was worth: over $4 billion. After the executions, Shell insisted that it was no concern of theirs if a military junta decides to execute people. Shell had a warm, cosy and mutually-beneficial relationship with the Abacha regime and for a nation that makes over 85% of its money from crude oil, there was no way he could have funded his five-year terror on Nigerians without the billions tumbling in from oil sales.

-Well, it must be stated here that that was not the first time a multinational like Shell would have a nice relationship with the government (even though the masses had to bear the brunt most of the time). In October 1990 when Babangida was in power, there was major demonstration against Shell in Ogoniland, which promptly called on the government for assistance. IBB’s government responded, mobile policemen were drafted to the area and by the time the smoke cleared, 75 Nigerians lay dead and about 500 houses were destroyed. The crackdown was so brutal that the government set up a commission which submitted that the mobile policemen showed ‘a reckless disregard for lives and property.’ They were branded ‘kill-and-go squads’, and till this point, as you are reading this, many Nigerians still urinate in their pants at the mention or sight of a MOPOL. When the people of Ogoniland erupted again in 1993 in protests, Shell simply called in the troops, and what followed was indescribable savagery termed by the military as ‘wasting operations’. The Niger Delta is still very much militarized, as if it is a war zone. You see, when I read and write about stuffs like these, I know that the problem of Africa is much deeper than what many of us think or acknowledge.The Niger Delta is still as messed up as hell right now, not minding the fact that a shawn of the shoil is at the helm of affairs. But as a professor once said: The Nigerian government is a shell. Shell is the government. An interesting quote considering the fact that the oil minister herself was once an executive with Shell. Don’t let us even go into the oil spills. Enough of that, we continue with Gumsu’s father. -In 1997, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka was charged with treason by the Abacha government. He was accused of being involved in a series of ‘mysterious bombings’ of several Nigerian Army installations. The punishment was death penalty but before Abacha could act upon it, ‘he kindly took his leave of the world.’, to use the words of WS himself

-COUNTRIES VISITED

-Abacha’s first visit outside Africa as the Head of State was to the G15 Summit in New Delhi, India in early March, 1994.

-Abacha was a man who preferred the shadows rather than hug the limelight with the glee of a celebrity. As the Head of State, he was reluctant to travel either within or outside Nigeria unless it was absolutely necessary. He managed to visit the following countries in his lifetime: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, UNITED KINGDOM, TUNISIA, SAUDI ARABIA, GERMANY, RUSSIA,

With the swagger of an emperor, Abacha arrives Tunis, Tunisia on June 6, 1994, to attend the 30th summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

-SIERRA LEONE

Sierra Leone ‘s President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (C) is flanked by his Nigerian counterpart Sani Abacha (L) and Guinean President Lansana Conte (R) during a ceremony held in Freetown 10 March to mark the return of Kabbah after more than nine months of exile imposed by a now-toppled military regime. Abacha helped bring Kabbah back to power and he is here in Freetown marking the victory.

-UNITED KINGDOM

-SOUTH AFRICA

-CHAD (Where he met with Muammar Gaddafi on planning his self-succession shortly before he died).

- TOGO

Meeting with former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in Togo.

MARRIAGE, FAMILY & CHILDREN:

-On the 15th April, 1983, an article in the Democrat Weekly recounted the days of Abacha as a young Brigadier in the army, his experiences during the civil war and how he met his wife:

Sani Abacha neither drinks nor smokes and talks with a gentle, strong voice. It is not difficult to see that the man is an extremely cautious personality. Before the discussion started he had specified that he did not want questions on the coup and politics. And so when, during the chat, he felt a question brushed the forbidden area, he chuckled gently, reached out with a finger and touched the pause button of the recorder. When later he was asked what made him fall in love with a girl called Maryam whom he married on December 4, 1966, Brigadier Abacha chuckled shyly, looked down at the centre-table and slowly said 'She was in those days....I don't know what to call it. She looked a simple, natural, straightforward girl.'

-Surviving the 20th Century: Social Philosophy from the Frankfurt School edited by Judith Marcus, pages 184-185. 

-Abacha got married to Maryam Jidah in 1965 (some records indicate 1966) and they raised ten children together (seven sons and three girls). One thing with the Abacha family, like it or not, is that all of his children are very cute and good-looking. You can’t take away the cuteness.

Abacha and Maryam in their youth.

1-IBRAHIM ‘GAJI’: According to Binta Yar’adua, Shehu Yar’adua’s wife in an interview with Tell published in July 2000, there were some issues regarding Ibrahim ‘Gaji’ Abacha’s paternity. She said: He is Shehu Usman, Sarkin Musa from Funtua district in Katsina. And he happens to be my father. He was the district head of Funtua , and one time, a cabinet minister in Sardauna’s government. He happened to marry Maryam. He was a minister. I think in the middle of 1965. And Shehu’s father (Yar’adua) had nothing to do with my father’s marriage to Maryam.” When TELL pressed her further about the speculated issue of paternity, she replied: I wouldn’t know. I don’t know. He could be my father’s son. He could be Abacha’s son. I don’t know…I wouldn’t say it’s forceful marriage because it didn’t look like it was a forceful marriage….maybe about two years. One and a half or two years Ibrahim Abacha was born in our house. (TELL, July 3, 2000, p 14-17).

To put this issue in proper perspective, it is good to understand that Abacha jailed Shehu Yar’adua who eventually died in Abakaliki Prisons. On the 17th of January, 1996, a presidential jet ferrying the son of the late maximum ruler, Ibrahim Abacha crashed at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, just minutes before landing. He perished alongside Julie Osolukoya, his girlfriend, Aliko Dangote’s (read all about Dangote here and how he also escaped near plane crashes) younger brother (Bello Dangote) and eight other friends which included Onieba Dan Princewill, Audu Baba, Abubakar Abdullahi and Lema Ibrahim. They were coming from Lagos. Although some fingers were pointed at the late Head of State, the United Front for the Liberation of Nigeria (UFLN, formed in 1996 and classified as a terrorist group, now believed to be inactive) claimed responsibility for blowing up the aircraft. TELL would also publish a damning article on 15th February, 1999 that the plane crash that killed Ibrahim was based upon Abacha’s orders, and that in itself is a very controversial claim. That aside, Ibrahim has been described as a most humble and kind personality. Upon his tragic death, Maryam Abacha was shattered and had to leave for Saudi Arabia where she stayed temporarily, prayed, meditated and sought for consolation in her faith and God. The Ibrahim Sani Abacha Vocational Centre in Maiduguri, Borno State was named after him.

The late Ibrahim ‘Gaji’ Abacha.

2. MOHAMMED: The best known of the Abacha sons, Mohammed was incarcerated alongside al-Mustapha after his father’s death by the Obasanjo presidency but his mother was said to have consulted with powerful traditional rulers in the north to prevail upon Obasanjo. He was later released and denied having any deal to return any money to the Federal Government. He made attempts in 2011 to be the Governor of Kano State under the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) but lost. Reports indicate he may run again in 2015 and he is steadily becoming a strong political voice. He is married with five kids to two ladies: Fatima and Samira. At a ceremony in Bayelsa State to honour his late father, he was given a new Ijaw name: Izonebidou-owei..

Alhaji Mohammed Abacha. Please note that all of Abacha’s sons attended the Nigerian Military School (NMS) Zaria with the exception of Abba and Mustapha (see below for their pictures).

Mohammed Abacha and Major Hamza al Mustapha during their trial.

Mohammed is a free man while al-Mustapha had a death penalty hanging upon him but was later freed.

Painting shows Mohammed Abacha and wife

A true son of his father: President Olusegun Obasanjo (right) presents an award to Alhaji Mohammed Abacha, who receives it on behalf of his late father, former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, at the Nigerian Army Colour presentation parade at the Eagle Square, Abuja, on Monday, March 19, 2007. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

Lawal Wada Nas and Mohammed Abacha. Photo credits: Lawal Wada Nas.

3. SADIQ: Nicknamed Damu Sarkin Hakuri, he is described as nice, calm and patient.

Sadiq Abacha.

Sadiq Abacha. Sadiq Abacha with his wife Huda Khaloud on their wedding day. COURTESY: OVATION

4. MAHMUD: He is Abacha’s 4th son. (Steve Job, thanks a lot for clarifying this!) He got married on the November 15th, 2013, to his heartthrob, Hamama Mohammad, the daughter of Alhaji Mahammad Ahman Abdulmulah. The wedding fatiha took place at the National Mosque, Abuja after Friday congregational prayers on the 15th.

Abacha’s fourth son, Mahmud at the wedding of his brother, Sadiq. Mahmud was the one who presented the bride’s ring to the groom.

5. ABBA: A fan of Keri Hilson , he attended Command Day Secondary School, Ibadan, Oyo State where he finished in 1987.

Abba Abacha.

 6. ZAINAB: Mohammed’s younger sister and a carbon-copy of their mother, Hajiya Zainab Lado was married in 1999 to her father’s minister of power and steel, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu.

Hajiya Zainab Lado, Abacha’s daughter.

The wedding, a classic talk-of-the-town, was attended by the glitterati and high-class clique of Nigeria, but the union ended in a divorce. The marriage produced a child.

Zainab, Abacha’s daughter.

Zainab turned not a few heads during her father’s reign when she had her own office designated as the Office of the Daughter of the Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Not too long ago, she had her second marriage, with Senator Yakubu Lado.

 7. GUMSU (FATIMA GUMSU aka G_sparking): Of all of Abacha’s children, Gumsu is the most sociable and visible. Quite jovial and funny, she responds with maturity to people on Facebook and Twitter who pour vituperations upon her family. That is not an easy thing to do…lol! She tweeted recently: The buttocks are like a married couple though there is constant friction between them; they will still love and live together.

Gumsu.

Abacha’s daughter, Fatima Gumsu with her husband in Cameroon.

And she can be quite vocal too, she tweeted: Masses too sabi support bad things. Make them suffer. No be them support GEJ last year say bcos he is christian? Let them face it too!

Gumsu with her husband on the Bosphorus (Istanbul Strait, Turkey) in 2013.

Gumsu is happily married with kids to Mohamadou Bayero Fadil, one of the richest and most powerful men in Cameroon where he may emerge as the President in future. If that happens, Gumsu will become the first Nigerian woman to become the First Lady of another nation.

She is a big fan of Brymo (play Brymo’s Good Morning for her if you want to make her day…lol!) Anita Baker and eLDee. I know some readers are boiling already but facts are facts. #SingingBrymo….lmao!!! Her words:Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. Is there anything cruel or do I say evil that has not been said about him?? Or about us his family? I truly cannot be bothered. God knows best. Time will tell. I Just love facebook…My dear comment on what? When u feel u have said it all? ..I can only laugh as I was an insider but u weren’t ..keep airing ur points I actually enjoy de reading part. He is my dad u know so I would rather listen than talk. All i know is no one is a SAINT. All this does not matter now. As it is ur opinion u just gave as an individual. To u he was a failure to some he is a hero. That’s life for u. I will as I said not go into all this..as it may turn dramatic eventually, he at least left a huge foreign reserve and pegged the dollar.. And yes possibly he had pple around him that did not help matters..the picture they presented to him was most times negative and untrue…while in actual facts critical attention was needed. He was very aloof not a very social figure at all But I thank God for his life and for the discipline he instilled in us….There are so many others that never made an impact..dem only chop clean mouth. But dem de on ground cos they are alive. I think the biggest issue here is that he passed away..end of discussion. I rest my case.

8. RAKIYA: She is popularly referred to as Mami. She got married in Kano in August 2009.

Rakiya with her groom on her wedding day in 2009. Photo credits: Gumsu Sani Abacha.

Dele Momodu with the three Abacha girls: (L-R) Zainab, Rakiya and Gumsu.

Standing in their father’s shadow: The Abacha Girls.

9. ABDULLAHI ‘MOGLEE’: In September 2012, he was splashed on the pages of Nigerian newspapers when one of the suspects, a telephone operator in their house, arrested for stealing her mother’s jewelry stated Abdullahi gave him the gold to sell and use the money to get him cocaine in Sabon Gari quarters.

He also accused Abdullahi of almost killing him when he refused an earlier directive. However, Abdullahi has emphatically denied having anything to do with the robbery incident, he was even in Abuja at the time but believed that the suspect named him believing that it would be easier to make Abdullahi an easy target. He is a fan of Lady Gaga, Liverpool FC and George Galloway, a British politician with anti-Zionist stance. He studied History at the University of Maiduguri, Borno State.

Abdullahi Abacha at a much younger age. Cute face and chubby cheeks! His nickname is Moglee (after the Jungle Book character which he loved so much as a young boy). CREDITS: ABDULLAHI SANI ABACHA.

A young Abdullahi dons a red cap.Here, he is with his brothers Sadiq and Mahmud with a couple of cousins. CREDITS: ABDULLAHI SANI ABACHA.

Young and casual Alhaji :D CREDITS:ABDULLAHI SANI ABACHA.

Moglee in a relaxed mood :) CREDITS: ABDULLAHI SANI ABACHA.

With a friend. CREDITS: ABDULLAHI SANI ABACHA.

Abdullahi Abacha.

10. AL MUSTAPHA ABACHA: Nicknamed Musty, he was born while his father was still the head of state, Al Mustapha is the last child of the Abachas. He was named after Abacha’s late elder brother, Mustapha Abacha. On 7th December 2011, the 17-year-old Al-Mustapha was shot by armed robbers while at the home of his sister, Zainab, in Kano State. He was shot by one of the robbers who saw him making a call for help on his mobile phone and left for dead. He survived the ordeal.

Abacha’s last child, Al Mustapha.