I ran into trouble with Buhari over ex-Gov Alli’s security vote – Ex-journalist John Africa
On July 31, 2011 · In The Gallery

By Simon Ebegbulem, Benin

Goodnews Eche (aka John Africa), a former journalist, was a confidant of the former governor of the defunct Bendel State, the late Prof.Ambrose Alli. He was features editor and later political editor of the state owned Nigerian Observer. John Africa was one of those who initiated the formation of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) being one of the key figures in the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, where he met the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. As a journalist in Observer, he achieved popularity due to his ability to forecast pool results then. Today, that power is still with him. In this chat, he recalls his coverage of the late Alli administration and describes the incarceration of the former governor by the Gen. Muhammadu Buhari military junta as wicked, adding that the action led to his untimely death. He discloses how he was pressured by the military to implicate the late governor. Excerpts:

Background
I had a humble background and I had always loved to be a journalist or a lawyer. However I became a journalist. I went to University of Lagos and later University of Benin. I worked in the Nigerian Observer as a reporter and later political editor. Later, I went into business.

I was the chairman of the Contractors Union of the OMPADEC. OMPADEC headquarters was moved from Lagos to Port Harcourt. But government was frustrating the commission with funds, sometimes we fought the government to force them to release money. I was not only the chairman of contractors, I was also the chairman of the consultants body. I had the opportunity of meeting important people including President Goodluck Jonathan who was an assistant director in OMPADEC then.

What we call NDDC today is part of the things we negotiated with government. The then leadership of OMPADEC mismanaged the commission’s funds, leading to contractors being owed huge sums. This led to demonstrations. When Gen. Abacha died and Gen.Abdulsalami Abubakar came in, he set up a commission of inquiry and also made efforts to pay the contractors. Aluko committee was saddled with the responsibility to identify those to be paid. Half of the money was released and some of the OMPADEC contractors received their money. But government could not pay all the money promised to the contractors.

I have seen you spoke passionately about the 1983 military intervention which led to the incarceration of the then former governor of the defunct Bendel State, the late Prof. Ambrose Alli, who you covered as a journalist. Can you tell us some of those things you knew about him?

Prof. Ambrose Alli was a very humble man. At the time he won his nomination as governor, he did not have money as a professor. He rented a house in Edebiri Street in Benin City. I was close to him and did all I could to project him in the media before he won election to become governor. When Buhari overthrew Shehu Shagari, even though I did have any official position in his (Alli) cabinet, I was one of those very influential during his administration. I remember that when Alli was arrested and incarcerated with a number of other Nigerians, there were a lot of allegations levelled against them.

One of them even involved me. There was a time some journalists came from Lagos to interview Alli but, because of his busy schedule, they were not able to see him. And the journalists knowing that I was also a journalist based here, they approached me for assistance. I tried to talk to the governor on their behalf. I booked an appointment but it was not possible for them to see him that day.

But because they had spent several days in Benin, they ran out of funds. They could not even pay their hotel bills. So I told the governor they needed to be helped. The governor agreed but said he did not have money to give them. I told him to find money and that security vote was meant for things like this. He now sent me to the office of the Secretary to the Government. I went there and met a gentle man. I told him the governor needed money to take care of some journalists.

He prepared a voucher and made me to sign. I took the money and went to give Alli who in my presence gave the money to the journalists. When the Buhari government came in, that was one of the charges levelled against him and his political adviser, Patrick Eche. Eche knowing I was very close to the governor must have asked them to go and ask me about the money.

I was the features editor then in Observer. So they came to my office to ask me. I told them that I was the one who signed for the money. But they told me to deny because it was like the instruction Buhari gave them was that they should look for things to nail the sacked civilian governors. I told them I would not be able to deny. But they threatened to lock me up.

Sensing danger, I agreed to say I did not sign for the money. So when I got there, I saw Patrick Eche, Alli’s adviser, an innocent man being incarcerated. When they gave me paper to write and deny, I could not deny.

I wrote in the paper that I signed for the money. The officers saw it and became very angry. They held me for two hours thinking of what to do with me. So while I was waiting and they were not saying anything to me, I strolled to where I parked my car without looking back and drove away. They held Eche for two weeks even after I told them I signed for the money. If you look at what Buhari did to people then, you will know that he does not have some of those qualities that people are crediting him with. He was determined in his injustice to ensure that these politicians were jailed. You saw the way some of these politicians were convicted for eighty years and even more than that.

Buhari is not a democrat. The Alli I knew was not a corrupt person. Many years after Alli left government, you can see his house. It is a modest bungalow built with the N3,000 loan he applied for as a professor before he became governor. When he applied for that loan, New Nigerian Bank was not eager to grant it.

But when he was declared governor, Alli said it openly, and I was a witness, that had he not become governor, the loan he had been battling for over two years would not have been approved. It was that money he used to build the only bungalow he had in Benin City. But he was one man that will not keep malice. That is the kind of person he was and that is the kind of person Jonathan is from what I know of him. But I was discouraged from joining partisan politics due to what I saw during the Alli regime. There was so much deceit, falsehood and people who did not believe that government should work for the people.

You said you have premonition that the nation may break up in 2014.

God tactically brought Jonathan from his humble background to take the mantle of leadership. And in the vision I had about the presidency of Nigeria, Jonathan’s ascendency was made possible by God. And God has said since Jonathan is the chosen one, righteousness must begin from his family. Going by that, the war against corruption is half won.

If the president is incorruptible, you cannot blackmail him. If the president is a man of justice, it is easy for the inspector general of police to follow, ministers will follow. And from the vision I had, there should be constitutional amendment that will make it possible for a president to run a single term of five years. With that, everybody will make sacrifice and that will make it easy for the presidency to go round. The tension arising as a result of succession will die down.

The Boko Haram problem or militancy are products of injustice even though their resort to violence is evil. You do not get justice with injustice. There is no justification for violence, only dialogue can bring peace to the nation. I started seeing vision as a young person in secondary school. Once, the Lord revealed to me that if Jonathan fails, then this country will break up in 2014. So we need to go into prayers to ensure that Jonathan gets it right.

There must be social transformation. Except there is what we call social transformation, politically, economically and socially, we will not be able to galvanize the unity, the force that is required to develop our country. Jonathan should have a government of integration. He should bring all the groups on board so as to have a sincere and total reconciliation.