Apart from Abacha's quest for power, he remains one of the greatest leaders Nigerians had ever had. He made a lot of policies towards perpetuating himself in office, which any other leader would wish if they have the wherewithal. From the foregoing, it is clear Abacha was never different in the crop of leaders we already have in terms of the quest for power. We shall in this article x-ray the leader's policies that made him a responsible leader.
First of all, let's define responsibility. Responsibility can be defined as the acceptance of the role that your position or office assigned to you in good fate or accepting your role in the occurrence of a thing. In whichever the case, you must be ready at all time to discharge your duty or take a blame if anything goes wrong. That is responsibility.
Now, what makes Abacha fit into the definition above. That is what many people may be thinking or saying right now. Abacha may not fit in if you scale him with western scale but in Nigeria, he is definitely at the top of the list.
Major General Sani Abacha came into office when there was uncertainty in the polity of Nigeria. An unelected civilian had been handed over the seat of power of this great country like Nigeria. Of course, you and I know the deadly implication to the country at that time of instability.
An election that was acclaimed the most free and fair in the annals of the country was annulled and the supposed office was handed to an inexperienced civilian. Abacha was just handy in saving the country from an impending calamity. Far from his taste for power he was just on time in that trying time.
Deep into his regime, he made a lot of political decisions that indicate he had Nigeria in mind. He clamped down on corruption, especially the fraudsters that were destroying the image of the country abroad. The likes of Ezegos, IKBs, Otokos and so on are testimonies to that. These were people who had questionable wealth. This shows that he made sincere efforts to cleanse the country of bad eggs.
Abacha in showing his dedication to the course of Nigeria was the only leader to have implemented a national reconciliation document. It was the document from the then National Constitutional conference that led to the present six geopolitical zones. Although it didn't solve the problems, it was a step in the right direction. If previous and subsequent leaders we had were as sincere as Abacha Nigeria would have been very close to overcoming their problems.
Gen. Sani Abacha in showing his level of responsibility took a stand when the whole world was bullying Nigeria, trying to interfere in our sovereign right. They tried to force him to release a murderer in the person of Ken Saro Wiwa. He looked the world in the face and said, leave us alone, we are a sovereign nation. Among the decision he took then was his order to boycott the African Cup of nation which our dear Super Eagles were the defending champion.
The then host, South Africa could not guarantee the safety of our delegates because of a diplomatic row between the two leaders. Nigeria was faced with ban threat, but the strong leader was more interested in the lives of our innocent footballers, officials and spectators.
He maintained his ground and we were finally banned. The present leaders would have allowed the sport men and administrators to their fates. This is one of the things that made America one of the greatest country in the world. The life of one citizen means the world to them.
Abacha in trying to ensure equity created one state each in all the geopolitical zones. This he did to douse the agitation from some zones that their zones were being marginalized in terms of a number of states. He was the true definition of federal character. If he was still alive and stayed a few years in office, the level of hatred we are experiencing would have been at the minimum
It is pertinent at this point to note that Abacha's quest to perpetuate himself in office was born out zeal to get the country working. There was a case of mistrust as at that time. Nobody, according to him was qualified enough to carry the country to the promised land.
- This article is a way of letting the people know that is contrary to what we learnt growing up, Abacha have a good side. He is just a human. I don't see the reason he is seen as the worse leader. The man is a hero but just a victim of circumstance. His death placed him at the level his enemies got the better part of him.
You must be logged in to post a comment.