LETTERS To USAfricaonline.com Editors
Nigeria's Human
Rights Commission; more of
the same? Special to USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com Thank you very much for your informative and analytical
piece on the USAfricaonline.com HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
series, titled "How far, how deep will Nigeria's Human
Rights Commission go?" By Chido Nwangwu. Thanks to your expose, if any thing, at least we now know
that the entire exercise is much more than a mere
"talk-shop" - in deed, it is a hurried whitewash, if not an
attempt to cover-up and gloss over the real issues of rights
abuses in Nigeria - individual, group and genocidal. A necessary deduction flowing from your said article is
that, the fact that a "Truth Commission" was relevantly
suitable to South Africa's circumstances do not necessarily
make similar approaches fair and equitable in the case of
Nigeria or any other country. The African majority in South Africa at least were able
to retrieve political power into their "hot little hands".
That was their ultimate aim and their sons, daughters and
friends did not die in vain. If you like, that was arguably
adequate reparation or compensation for the inhumanity they
had had to contend with. They also needed to be able to
progress, service and maintain their fairly complex and
sophisticated economy, which the African majority was
ill-equipped to manage on their own alone. In this regard,
the approach adopted in South Africa was necessary in order
to retain their valuable, largely skilled citizens of
European decent, in addition to retaining the confidence of
the West. The last thing Igbos and other
colonised Nigerian nationalities need is a
"talk-shop" which does nothing to redress the inequities in
the polity and leaves intact, the ill-acquired benefits, the
very machinery, instruments and sources of those same human
rights abuses and genocide. In the end, the rights abusers
retain all the gains of their inhumanity, while the abused
continues to bear their loss, suffering further loses in
consequence, ad infinitum. How do Igbos recoup their lost
self-determination, lives, properties, bank deposits,
businesses, jobs, natural resources, environment, culture,
unity etc, many of which loses the abusers have retained and
many of which loses continue even as the Commission is in
proceedings? Therefore, who needs the Justice Oputa
Panel? Certainly, neither the Igbos, nor the colonised
nationalities. Your write-up has been able to open up the entire ignoble
agenda: they will say sorry and our people are supposed to
say okay, and the beat goes on! I think they have to
tell that to the marines! Nigeria's Human Rights Commission
should ask Obasanjo, Danjuma some questions, too Special to USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com Regarding the column by Chido Nwangwu "Human Rights and
Democracy: How far, how deep will Nigeria's Human
Rights Commission go?" which appeared on
USAfricaonline.com on October 24, 2000, I am glad you
brought point up, to Igbo Forum. It is an excellent
piece. The Oputa Human Rights Commission Panel is another
rhetorical balderdash established by President Olusegun
Obasanjo and his colleagues, retired Lt. Gen. Theophilus
Danjuma, included, in an attempt to call it even with their
nemesis--Sani Abacha's henchmen. Hamza Al-Mustapha, Ishaya
Bamaiyi, James Danbaba, Bala Yakubu, and Mohammed Rabo Lawal
have been accused of criminal activities during Abacha's
reign of terror. Their crime: attempted murder on the
publisher of The Guardian Alex Ibru, several terrorist style
bombing engagements, assassinations of numerous NADECO
stalwarts, and the murder of Kudirat Abiola. All along, these celebrity, media-hyped, "Orwellian
drama" indicates Obasanjo's personal vendetta. The ridicule
here is, Abacha is dead. The irony is Obasanjo, Danjuma, et
al. are no saints. My only concern here is that Obasanjo and
Danjuma have in the past committed crimes against sections
of the Nigerian humanity. On the other hand, it is really a
waste of time and resources just for the fact that nothing
whatsoever will come out of it. Obasanjo and Danjuma
defending human rights? Give me a break. In the case of
Danjuma, we are talking about the worst possible case of
sacrilege, treason, and disloyalty that a soldier or even a
man could be guilty of. Danjuma was, as you recalled, late
Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi's aide de camp -a confidential and
trusted assistant to the Head of State. For those who do not
know, the duties of an aide-de-camp requires that he
surrender his own life to protect the life of the senior
officer he is assigned to protect. Danjuma abandoned his
duties and collaborated with the Hausa/Fulani mutineers and
their Yoruba counterparts in a plot that murdered Ironsi and
his host, Fajuyi, the most brutal of circumstances. Now that they have selected their investigators and panel
of judges, amazingly, all Southerners to seek justice and
recommend crimes committed against humanity since 1966, the
obvious question here is, would Danjuma and Obasanjo be also
tried for murder and series of human rights violations they
may have committed in the past? Would justice prevail if
other crimes against humanity are not adequately addressed,
as well? On Obasanjo, we all know he took over the command of the
Third Marine Commando where he pursued helpless children and
exhausted women into the bushes. What's the difference
between what Abacha's men are accused of and what Obasanjo
and Danjuma did in the past? Even recently, was the plunder
of Odi not carried out on the orders of Obasanjo and Danjuma
? We shouldn't be moved or rejoice over this brouhaha. We
are still being used as guinea pigs and we shouldn't allow
these dubious machines affect us gain. But while the aura
and periods were different, the potential consequences seems
and likely to be the same--double standards--using us as
"guinea pigs." Index of Viewpoints
and Commentaries by
USAfricaonline.com columnists and
contributors
By Francis Nnamdi Elekwachi 
Some
of the very important issues raised by some of
community members, including such persons as Ejike Okpa II
and Ken Okorie, regarding the Commission's terms of
reference and enabling legislation have been substantially
clarified in your article.
Elekwachi is a researcher on legal and public policy
matters regarding Nigeria
By Ambrose Ehirim
Ehirim is a Los Angeles-based writer.
HUMAN
RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
How far, how deep will Nigeria's human rights
commission go?
USAfrica
FORUM
AFRICA
AND THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Colbert
I. King, Washington
Post columnist, writes what is, so far, easily the most
expository and insightful commentary on the disregard of
Africa by Republican George Bush and Vice President Al Gore,
as the country counts down to the November 7, 2000
elections. Especially, Colbert queries whether Bush is
applying the "Pinky"
foreign policy doctrine?
Will
religious conflicts be the time-bomb
for Nigeria's latest transition to civilian
rule?
Even the late dictator
General Sani Abacha deemed it fair to appoint an Igbo into
Nigeria's security
council; why not President Obasanjo? By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu in
Lagos
COMMUNITY
INTEREST
Achebe
turns 70; to celebrate with Mandela, Morrison, Soyinka,
Thelwell, world's leading arts scholars in New York in
November at Bard College. Meanwhile, the Nobel committee
has, again, chosen a relative less known (globally-speaking)
Chinese novelist, Gao Xingjian, rather than Achebe for the
Literature prize. Achebe was seen as a top favorite for the
2000 award. What the Swedish Nobel committee will not give,
Achebe has, for well over 30 years, won in the hearts of
millions in 53 languages. By Chido Nwangwu
LIBRARIES
AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
National Libraries in an
African Renaissance conference
holds October 31
-November 2, 2000 in Pretoria
Yoruba Forum blasts Obasanjo as
puppet of "Hausa-Fulani sponsors" for arresting
OPC's leader, others