...from previous article
How about your own trial proper? Were you allowed to take the lawyer of your
choice or compelled to employ one among the military lawyers? And what really
happened during the proceedings? How long did the whole thing last? Whenever we were taken to court, we were
always happy because this was an opportunity for us to see the sky. Remember that
we were always caged like wild animals in the zoo. It was also an opportunity
to see other human beings, to move your legs, sit down on a chair,breathe in
fresh, unadulterated air and sneak to say hello to somebody else. Before it
came to my turn, five or six days after the arraignment, they started taking
Diya and co for trial. I got to know this through Colonel Bako who was next
door to me for four weeks without my knowing. The person who was there before
was Colonel Chiefe but I thought he had been taken away. Anytime I was going to the
toilet,I would only see the head of the person who appeared new but I could not
recognise him because the rooms were dark. One day, I was able to see him when
he was coming from the toilet and I was on my way there. I could not but
exclaim, "So, Yakubu [Bako] you're the one?" He said, "Yes, I always
wave to you, Prof.,but you couldn't see me."Because he was charged with concealment
[of treason] he was one of the first batch along with the generals to be tried
first. So,it was Bako who whispered to me that Diya and others,including him
[Bako], had been going for trial. The point is that we were still able to communicate
despite the tight security. For four weeks, I was waiting to be tried because,
up till the time, I was, perhaps the only detainee who had not been charged
with any offence. I was thinking that maybe they had given up on me not to
commit me to trial. But one Saturday [four weeks after the arraignment], I was
told to prepare to go to the tribunal.And that was the first day I was meeting
our lawyers. They worked as a group. they picked one for me, a military
police,one Lieutenant-Colonel Badewole, who was not even around that day. While
he was not around,two other lawyers talked to me. They were a lieutenant and a
captain. These are sharp, brilliant lawyers who understood the geo-political implications
of why I was there. One of the officers, I think, was a Northern minority who understood
the North-South politics and how some people could be agents of the oligarchy and
oppress and deal with anybody who they think would not accept the status quo.
He understood the politics of the coup because we had discussions explaining
the background and circumstances of why I think I was there. And he said from
what I had told him, they had no case against me and that we would deal with it
in court. I must say this;anytime I was briefing my lawyers, I was always on
the verge of shedding tears because of the degree of suffering and inhumanity
visited on my person by Mustapha and his boys. How on earth can we explain
this, a professor of my own calibre and age who has served the country for so
many years in different capacities being subjected to indignity and utmost brutality
by some majors and privates who are nitwits ordinarily? I'm not being boastful.
It's like you take a jewel and you start messing it up in the mud. You cannot explain
it. Anytime I recalled the humiliation meted out to me by those nitwits I
started weeping, not for myself, but for Nigeria,my country,which was being savagely
reduced to nothingness. And I always asked myself,"Why were they doing this
to me?" I saw myself as a victim of the agents of this tiny oligarchy who
wanted everybody to kowtow and submit themselves as slaves; and anybody they
didn't see behaving like that, they would find a way of dealing with him.It's
not that I'm angry but I hate injustice.I hate unfairness and I have always
fought this in my life. Nobody cheats me and gets away with it. I'd fight for
my right but in this case, I was powerless and I could not fight for myself.
here I was, a victim of prejudice.Not only that, I was a victim of a
conspiracy. "Yes,we must get this professor whom we have known from ABU
for so long, who does not accept a position as second class citizen." But
I'll never accept it. I didn't accept it and I'll never accept it. They can
hear this, why not? They know the kind of Yoruba they like. They know the kind
of Igbo they like. Those who will not discuss injustice,who will only say don't
mind them, that's the way they are;but when they are alone with fellow
Southerners, they would be complaining. For me, it makes no difference even if
you are my best friend.Among the Northerners, I have very good friends. I respect
general Buhari very well, I respect Professor Ango Abdullahi very well. A lot of
my friends and past students are from the North and I cherish my friendship with
them but that does not mean we should not discuss geo-political issues that may
divide us and which we may see differently because we are from different angles
of these divisions. The principle of differential vulnerability says that we
perceive problems differently - the way you are vulnerable to the federal character
system in Nigeria is different from the way a minority is vulnerable to it. Who
benefits from it? Who loses from it?Differential vulnerability leads to differential
solutions. I expect my lawyers to understand this factor in the political
equation before their very eyes as it affects their client. Eventually,they were
able to procure the charge against me from the secretariat and it was
treason,later they added conspiracy to commit treason. The trial was thus
anchored on this charge. On the day of trial, as they called my name, I excused
myself to go to the toilet. You can call that anxiety urine. As I was about
to go in, the guard detailed on me said, "No, the court is waiting,you cannot."So,
I held it and walked back with my chains.The man refused because he had already
received an order to bring me in. That's the soldier's mentality.Only death could
counter that order he had been given except he received a superior order to counter
it. So, when the trial started, my lawyer was at his best. He performed
brilliantly by raising substantial and crucial objections to the admissibility of
certain documents as exhibits, and he quoted some relevant laws to back up his
submission.It was a crucial victory.My statement, four in all, were accepted as
part of the proceedings;and when they were being read you could see pity on the
faces of the panel.They were a recount of my arrest, the beatings, the false accusations
by Mustapha and the threats of Lieutenant-Colonel Omenka to shoot,eliminate and
waste me if I didn't say what they wanted to hear and how I said that though my
life was at stake, I was not ready to tell lies against myself or anybody, for
that matter.
...to be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment