For the second time within a few weeks after I broke my rule not to publish responses to my column which are more than 300 words long I feel obliged to break it again. I hope the reader will understand and forgive me for the breach.
The reason this time is a response from Malam Ya’u Shehu Darazo, the spokesman of former head of state and now chieftain of the leading opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd), to my column last week which was an orbit of Dr. Umaru Dikko, probably the most powerful minster during the short lived Second Republic (October 1979 to December 1983) under President Shehu Shagari.
Apparently Darazo felt obliged to defend his principal over the role I said the general played as head of state in the so-called Dikko Affair, i.e. the attempt to kidnap Dikko in broad daylight in front of his residence on the streets of London where he lived in self-exile, and bring him to justice in Nigeria for sundry charges. Dikko had turned himself in self-exile as the most virulent critic of the military regime that threw out the Second Republic.
Darazo is right to say I was wrong to claim that Dikko kept his vow that he would never return to Nigeria as long as the military were in power. As he pointed out, Dikko did return to Nigeria during the five-year rule of General Sani Abacha between 1993 and 1998 and played an active part in Abacha’s transition politics. He is also right to say I was wrong to claim no one denied the claim by Major M. H. Jokolo, Buhari’s ADC, that the plan to kidnap Dikko was approved by his principal. As Darazo said, my memory clearly failed me in not remembering that his principal issued a widely publicized denial of Jokolo’s claim.
Even then, I am sure few will believe that the denial amounted to much given the central role Jokolo played in the coup that brought Darazo’s boss to power and given the fact that ADCs of heads of state are like their clearing houses for virtually everything.
Whatever the case, Darazo’s letter is reproduced below. Before then, however, I should note that the reader must have observed that we seem to be in season of birthdays of veteran journalists and literary giants this month, with no less than four of them celebrating their birthdays.
First we had Mr. Henry Odukomaiya, one of the most celebrated editors of the now rested Daily Times, one of Africa’s biggest success story in newspaper publishing. The gentleman also holds the record for successfully establishing three newspapers in the country, most notably Concord, which, before it went down, once overtook Daily Times as the widest newspaper in Nigeria. Odukomaiya turned an octogenarian on July 12.
Next, Chief Ajibola Ogunsola, the actuarian by profession whose revival of a comatose PUNCH in the late eighties must rank among God’s little miracles in Nigeria. Ogunsola retired from the newspaper as chairman when the ovation was still loud. While chairman of PUNCH he became the Chairman of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria. It spoke volumes of the man’s character than as soon as he left PUNCH and he decided not to seek another term as NPAN’s chairman, he resigned his board membership of News Agency of Nigeria which he had occupied by virtue of his chairing the club of newspaper publishers.
Ogunsola turned a septugranian on July 14.
Tomorrow, one of Nigeria’s foremost columnists and among my top five all-time satirists in the country, Dr Olatunji Dare, will turn 70. Dare has moved from classroom to practice and back to classroom as a journalist and in the process has left a huge mark on the profession that is hard to surpass.
The biggest of the masquerades this month is, of course, Wole Soyinka, teacher, poet, political activist and Africa’s foremost playwright and black Africa’s first Literature Nobel laureate. Soyinka turned 80 on July 13 and, as is to expected, the throbbing of the celebratory drums is yet to die down.
Happy Birthday to the four foremost Nigeria’s literati. Here’s many more returns to you all.
And now to Darazo.
Sir,
Writing on contemporary subject can be tasking in the sense that many who are either players or witness of the events may very much be around and can easily detect some obvious mistakes or misrepresentations. Mohammed Haruna’s piece which appeared on the cover of the Daily Trust of Wednesday 9th July, fell victim of three errors.
Firstly, quoting Major Mustapha Jokolo’s paid advert on the now defunct Citizen in which he (Jokolo) claimed that General TY Danjuma who had “scores to settle with Dikko for shutting down all private jetties in the country, including Danjuma’s because of information he had as transport minister that many of them were being used for smuggling” was the reason behind General Danjuma’s role in the abduction saga of Umaru Dikko.
According to Mohammed, one day, Jokolo said, “the former army chief rang him to book for an appointment to see Buhari. He made his proposals which sounded attractive. He said he could bring Umaru Dikko back using his Israeli connections” Mohammed Haruna mistakenly asserted that “none of the principal actors Jokolo mentioned EVER CONTESTED”(emphasis mine). Mohammed’s memory clearly failed him. Few weeks after Jokolo’s advert, General Buhari, in a widely circulated interview carried by the now defunct Democrat newspaper debunked Jokolo’s claim, adding that Jokolo was too junior to understand the workings of the government.
The second mistake Mohammed made, was quoting a here-say to corroborate Jokolo’s claim. Quoting what he described as definitive 2012 biography of General Babangida titled IBRAHIM BABANGIDA: The Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria by veteran journalist Dan Agbese, Babangida, according Mohammed told Dan that the “initiative actually came from the Israelis who sold it to a retired general WHO DAN DID NOT NAME BUT WHO, OBVIOUSLY, WAS DANJUMA (emphasis mine), Danjuma, in turn sold it to Babangida who in turn sold it Buhari” The question is obvious to who? How can a definitive biography carry a faceless personality in an event that is very important to the subject. For as long as Babangida refuses to disclose the name of the “retired general” in his “definitive” biography, that aspect of information remains speculative and using it as referral or corroborative discourse, defective.
The third error is where Mohammed Haruna said, as a result of the trauma of being crated alive in the bungled kidnap attempt, “Dikko vowed never to return to Nigeria as long as the military remained in power. He kept his vow even after some of his partners in self-exile like Chief Joseph Wayas, the senate president, Alhaji Uba Ahmed, NPN’s general secretary, and Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, one of Shagari’s top aide, returned at various times to participate in Babangida’s long transition politics between 1985 and 1993.” This is also an error. We all know that Alhaji Umaru Dikko returned to the country during General Sani Abacha’s regime which was for sure, a military government. Dikko fully participated in the Abacha’s political programme, in which he (Dikko ) even formed his own political party.
Ya’u Shehu Darazo
darazo58@yahoo.com
