The Cruelty of Abacha and the Hospitality of His Former Victims, By Uddin Ifeanyi

Rarely is cruelty substituted for hospitality to anyone's advantage. Still, Shettima's main flaw might just be a bad case of foot-and-mouth disease: he can't open his mouth without quickly setting his foot in it. Yet, as General Sani Abacha's case does not fit any of these attributes, the possibility of a more harmful disease should be considered.

When Kashim Shettima, the All Progressives Congress (APC) vice-presidential candidate in next year's general election, said (among other things) that Nigeria needed "a leader with a dose of ruthlessness and taciturnity of General Sani Abacha", he inadvertently raised many more questions than he wanted to answer. Gaffe-prone (others argue these are just Freudian slips - windows to his inner thoughts), Shettima (a former Governor of Borno State and currently representing the state as a Senator in the Assembly national) was looking to fix a previous blooper. He had earlier, at the Yoruba Tennis Club's 96th anniversary celebration, Ikoyi, apparently suggested the country needed Abacha's 'hospitality'. At least that's what the Nigeria News Agency reported him as saying.

Rarely is cruelty substituted for hospitality to anyone's advantage. Still, Shettima's main flaw might just be a bad case of foot-and-mouth disease: he can't open his mouth without quickly setting his foot in it. Yet, because General Sani Abacha's case does not fit any of the attributes, the possibility of a more harmful disease should be considered. The stories that emerged after the death of the ruling General Sani Abacha on June 8, 1998 (as Nigeria's military head of state) were about a homicidal administration bent on perpetuating itself in power at all costs.

There was the wet operation which was the assassination of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. And there was the strike team of Barnabas Jabila Mshelia (whose operation nickname was "Sergeant Rogers"). I didn't know either of them. But I still feel pain for the first one. However, Bagauda Kaltho was both a friend and a colleague. His gruesome death, apparently because something about him exploded, remains one of the many unsolved mysteries of the Abacha administration.

On paper, the objective of the newspapers published by the Independent Communications Network Limited (TheNews, Tempo, AMNews, PMNews ) was to hold governments to proper standards of governance on the country's path back to democratic rule. That the Abacha government did not agree with any of this was therefore hardly surprising.

On a personal level, Sani Abacha touched me the most through work. I joined the editorial board of AMNews newspaper two years after its administration. Anyone who was with one of the titles from this stable has plenty of stories to tell of their shadowy reign. On paper, the objective of the newspapers published by the Independent Communications Network Limited (TheNews, Tempo, AMNews, PMNews< /em>>) was to hold governments to proper standards of governance on the country's path back to democratic rule. That the Abacha government did not agree with any of this was therefore hardly surprising.

No week has passed, so, w...