Major Hamza al-Mustapha, the Chief Security Officer of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, may not be most people’s idea of a hero, given the widespread belief that, in the words of the Nigerian Tribune (September 2), he was “the pointman of a regime which debased human dignity and abused human rights.” Even then his 12-year incarceration, mainly over the murder of Alhaja Kudirat, wife of late Chief MKO Abiola, seems to have attracted much public sympathy to him.
Obviously this public sympathy is not due to the length of his trial alone. In addition, the man has apparently been a good student – master is probably the more accurate word – of propaganda. This much is obvious from the way he seems to have succeeded in diverting public attention away from the charge he faces since the resumption of his trial last month.
That his claim of a grand conspiracy to bury “June 12” by hanging the murder of Kudirat on his neck - or by even killing him - because he knew too much about the conspiracy is so much drivel should be pretty obvious from the fact that his trial was never meant to be secret. On the contrary, it couldn’t have been more open. As for killing him he, of all people, should know, as a self-styled spy-master, that doing so after he’d already said so much would have amounted to shutting the gate after the horse had bolted away.
All of which makes it truly amazing how many otherwise sensible and intelligent people seem to believe so much in his conspiracy theory that they apparently think behind his smokescreen there must be a fire.
People, for example, like the editors at Newswatch, the otherwise respectable pioneer of weekly newsmagazine journalism in the Nigeria. In its August 11 edition, the magazine ran a cover story on the resumed hearing of the Kudirat case before the Lagos High Court, Igbosere, on August 1. In the story, it said former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, “, is said to be working hard to ensure he (al-Mustapha) remains behind bars.”
Sources, it said, “told Newswatch that Abubakar allegedly visited Lagos on July 12, and held a meeting with Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, and Hafsat Abiola, daughter of the late Abiola, in furtherance of this objective.”
I don’t know about Hafsat, but I know Newswatch did not talk to Abubakar to verify the allegation. Chances are it also did not talk to Asiwaju Tinubu. However, it didn’t even have to talk to Abubakar to see that it was unlikely he would sit in the same room with Hafsat to discuss anything when it was well-known that she had accused him in an American court, not too long ago, of killing her father.
As for Tinubu, Abubakar did indeed once sit down with him to discuss al-Mustapha’s trial. But this was when the Asiwaju was governor. And, far from asking for al-Mustapha to be jailed, Abubakar’s plea was for his release or speedy trial. Tinubu, I can confirm, told Abubakar quite rightly that it would be politically suicidal at the time for him to enter a nolle for the accused given the prevailing sentiments in his constituency over the murder of Kudirat.
Two weeks ago, when I first wrote on this al-Mustapha’s repackaged old song, I concluded that his conspiracy story was essentially fiction dressed as fact. However, I did not elaborate. Instead, I said the elaboration was a subject matter for another day.
Last weekend, the press reported Abubakar as responding to questions from reporters about al-Mustapha’s allegations during his Sallah visit to Government House, Minna, in the company of General Babangida, with an answer that he was preparing his response and they will hear from him at the appropriate time. This, I thought, was an opportunity for the elaboration I promised. Hence this piece.
“I am,” Abubakar reportedly said, “not making any political statement; when a general prepares for battle, he makes programme and plan. My plan is on and you will hear of it at the right time.”
Reading those remarks I thought the general misspoke not only because generals don’t do battles with majors even in an army like Nigeria’s where, as a former army chief, General Salihu Ibrahim, once said, “Anything goes.” The former head of state also misspoke because one needed little more than the most casual attention to the way al-Mustapha had turned himself into a chatterbox to realise that he had, by talking too much, since given his game away.
“Many officers,” he told the Lagos State High Court at his resumed hearing, “wanted to become Head of State, but God gave me the wisdom and I assisted General Abdulsalami Abubakar to become president. But this is the price I am paying for my loyalty and assisting him.” So, there.
What al-Mustapha did not add, but what was inadvertently revealed in an interview by his former orderly, Sergeant Kyari Gadzama, in last week’s Sunday Sun, was that he probably fancied himself among those “many officers” worthy of succeeding his departed boss.
al-Mustapha, said the still loyal Gadzama, “could have taken over power at that time because he was eminently qualified by the Military Act, But he was not greedy and he chose to hand-over to General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Nobody could have challenged him if he had taken over power. Now he is paying for his loyalty.”
Clearly, al-Mustapha suffers from delusions of grandeur; among others, the delusion that Abubakar, as the greatest beneficiary of his presumed grace to anoint a head of state after his boss died, owed him a huge debt for life. However, far from returning his grace, Abubakar, in al-Mustapha’s self-delusion, pretended he was helpless to do anything about his trial for the murder of Kudirat. Worse, the general even wanted him jailed for it!
The role al-Mustapha played as Abacha’s CSO in the dehumanisation of President Olusegun Obasanjo as a coup convict under Abacha’s gulag, is well known. So also is Obasanjo’s well known vengefulness in spite of his self-declaration as a born-again Christian upon his release from prison in 1998. To expect that anyone, even Abubakar who played a vital role in Obasanjo’s return literally from hell to glory and power, could stop Obasanjo from getting his pound of flesh once he became president in May 1999 was like expecting hell to freeze over.
It was, therefore, not surprising that in September 1999, barely three months into office, he gave the go ahead for al-Mustapha and several others, including Sergeant Barnabas Jabila Mshelia, aka Sgt Rogers, the alleged marksman in several alleged extra-judicial killings under Abacha, to be prosecuted for sundry crimes, including the murder of Kudirat.
Sgt Rogers soon became the star state witness against the others. It eventually transpired that Rogers was never tried for any crime. Instead, he was surreptitiously recalled back to army duty in 2005, possibly earlier.
This led to widespread public bewilderment and suspicions that the trial of al-Mustapha and co. was, to begin with, more political than a drive for justice. The bewilderment and suspicions have been fuelled further by the fact that all except al-Mustapha have since been discharged by the courts.
al-Mustapha, as I said at the beginning of this piece, is hardly most people’s idea of a hero. Certainly, he isn’t mine. But then even a villain deserves speedy trial and al-Mustapha’s has been anything but speedy.
There are lawyers like Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, who say al-Mustapha has only himself to blame for the delay because of his antics in court, among which was his allegation that a judge in the case had asked for a N10 million bribe to set him free. This is not to mention the innumerable adjournments he’d asked for; 49 at the last count, the senior lawyer said in an interview with the Daily Trust (May 11).
Osinbajo should know if only because for six years he had personally prosecuted the case as one time Attorney General of Lagos State in which the murder of Kudirat took place.
Even then 12 years seems a long time to try anyone for conspiracy to murder. It’s time the courts set him free or convicted him so that, his antics notwithstanding, he may quickly be granted a presidential pardon having languished in jail long after all his other co-accused for the conspiracy to murder Kudirat, among other crimes, have been discharged.