Editorial, The Guardian, September 6, 2006
ONE of the issues that have dominated political discourse in recent weeks is the campaign for restitution mounted by Hajiya Safiya Vatsa, widow of the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Major General Mamman Vatsa. General Vatsa was executed in 1986 along with 12 others for their alleged involvement in a coup plot against the regime of President Ibrahim Babangida.
Hajiya Sefiya petitioned the Federal Government and was subsequently received in audience by the President. She maintains that her husband was innocent of charges of coup plotting and that then President IbrahimBabangida had ordered his execution apparently to settle old scores with a fellow general who also happened to have been his course mate and bosom friend. She asked the president to review the trial, return Vatsa's forfeited property to the family, accord him a more befitting burial and prosecute Babangida for the execution. President Obasanjo assured her that the Federal Government would consider the matter and respond appropriately in due course.
Mrs Vatsa's campaign remains a topical issue and has attracted comments from all and sundry, including the principal characters themselves. General Babangida has responded that he has no regrets over the actions he took in office, including the execution of General Vatsa and 12 others. He claims that the execution was proper and that there was no miscarriage of justice in the matter. He also described the allegation as spurious and unfounded.
Hajiya Sefiya claims she has the documents to prove that her husband was executed unjustly and that she will make these public once President Obasanjo makes a pronouncement on the issue. Babangida's Chief of Defence Staff, General Domkat Bali (rtd), has also recently asserted that the evidence available to the Armed Forces Ruling Council at the time did not justify the execution.
To be sure, the timing of Hajiya Safiya's campaign appears suspect since it obviously coincides with General Babangida's foray into the murky waters of politics as a likely presidential candidate in the 2007 elections. This may not be a coincidence. However, the issues raised by the Vatsa saga are weighty enough and can, therefore, not be dismissed as part of the campaigns of calumny often associated with elections.
Occasionally in a nation's history, a time comes when society calls into question the conduct of its past leaders, particularly if such conduct is deemed to have transgressed the basic tenets of the rule of law, human rights and state responsibility. Power is highly intoxicating, and those who wield it have a responsibility to themselves and to society not to abuse it. Where they do, society has a responsibility to hold them to account even after they have left office.
Across the world, military regimes have been most guilty of the abuse of power. When such regimes are eventually replaced by democratic government, society may decide to throw the searchlight on their conduct while in office; first to redress abuses and provide justice to victims; second, to establish the principle that culprits will eventually be brought to justice no matter how long it takes; and third, to serve as deterrence for future leaders. This was what happened in Argentina, in South Korea, in Chile and in a host of other countries. And it seems that the time is ripe for Nigerians to re-examine the conduct of all our past leaders. It is time to revisit the past in order to establish the principles of governance and state responsibility in our country.
The Oputa panel provided a good opportunity for the country to do this. Unfortunately, leaders like Gen. Babangida refused to appear before the panel to respond to petitions written against them. To make it worse, the Obasanjo government that established the panel in the first instance appears to have developed cold feet: it has kept the panel's report in the cooler and refused either to publish it or implement its recommendations.
But for how long are our leaders going to avoid taking responsibility for their actions in office? There are many Nigerian families that feel aggrieved and are yet to get justice from the system. We believe that the time is ripe to revisit the Oputa panel report. In fact, government should go beyond the Oputa panel report and institute a public probe of all cases involving infringement of human rights, rule of law, abuse of power or arbitrary use of power by state agents.
The Vatsa saga and all such cases deserve to be revisited. As the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka noted, such a broad-based probe will give Nigerians the opportunity to re-examine the records of their former military rulers. It is time we infused in all those who seek to govern our affairs, the notion that history will hold them to account for their conduct in office.
