Gabriel Akinadewo
He was known as the ‘fixer’ during the regime of the evil one between November 17, 1993 and June 8, 1998. Because of the enormous power he was given by the late General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza al-Mustapha decided the fate of his superiors in the military. The then Chief of General Staff, Lt-General Oladipo Diya (rtd), can testify to this.
Diya was the de jure second in command, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Lt-General Jeremiah Useni (rtd), was Abacha’s de facto deputy but the duo knew the relationship between Abacha and al-Mustapha and they dared not do anything that would make him turn against them.
Diya, however, saw the other side of al-Mustapha when he was arrested in December, 1997 over a coup plot.
The young Major was not the Head of State but he was as powerful as Abacha and created a vicious empire for himself in the security circle.
Even the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), knew that al-Mustapha was very powerful. That was why when Abacha died on June 8, 1998 and Abubakar took over, the first thing he did was to move against al-Mustapha.
Since then, it has been one story or the other for al-Mustapha until he was sentenced to death by hanging last Monday by Justice Mojisola Dada of a Lagos High Court.
I remember an incident in early 1998 during the rush by the ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’ parties – United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN), Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM), Congress for National Consensus (CNC) and Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) – to make Abacha their joint presidential candidate.
All prominent politicians went to Maiduguri, Borno State to endorse the Khalifa. al-Mustapha was at the airport with his boys to know who will go against the plan by Abacha to make himself a life president and to also have a roll call of those who refused to attend the event.
All the politicians were just bowing down and saying ‘rankadede’ to him in a way that suggested that to do otherwise would mean instant death.
Even in Aso Rock, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) would delay his superiors for hours and at times, prevent them from having an audience with the Head of State just to make a statement: I decide your fate here.
But, the day Abacha became history on June 8, 1998, al-Mustapha became an ordinary Nigerian and since 1999, he has been incarcerated until he was found guilty last Monday of the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
The al-Mustapha saga is a bitter lesson that power is transient but, will human beings ever learn? Do the so-called ‘alphas and omegas’ of the country today know that one day, they will also become ordinary Nigerians?
al-Mustapha was not the first public officer who will be intoxicated by power. And he won’t be the last. History abounds of those who, one way or the other, became blood-thirsty maniacs in their quest for power and how they ended up.
I am sure my readers remember Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Waza Banga, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Idi Amin Dada, Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, Charles Taylor, Muammar Gaddafi and other despots who killed millions of people for any reason and no reason.
Despots have several characteristics in common: rule by force and assassination. They use secret police to spy on the citizens as well as restrict or completely remove their personal freedoms.
Many of these dictators (soldiers or civilians) foster cults of personality, a form of hero worship in which the masses are fed propaganda, declaring their leader to be flawless, divinely appointed.
Once they are in power, it is difficult for dictators to step down and they are always in the news because of the controversial, often violent and long-lasting nature of their regimes.
Many dictators don’t usually call themselves dictators. They can be presidents, prime ministers, heads of state, chancellors, premiers, monarchs but they are known as dictators by the way they wield the power of life and death over their citizens.
You don’t need to offend them before they order your execution. At least, Archbishop Jawani Luwum didn’t do anything against the state of Uganda when Idi Amin ordered the secret police to assassinate him in 1977 and an auto accident was used as a decoy for the killing.
In Idi Amin’s dictatorial madness, he ordered that he should be addressed as “His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular, the uncrowned King of Scotland”.
At public functions, any deviation from these self-bestowed titles by the Director of Protocols meant instant death.
It is unfortunate that in modern times, the word dictatorship has been bastardised because when it was first used, it didn’t have such negative connotations.
Dictatorship was first created by the Roman Senate in 510 B.C. for emergency purposes, such as taking care of rebellions. During the time of the Republic, Rome was ruled by two consuls, and the Senate decided that in some cases, it was necessary to have a single person making decisions. Sometimes, one of the consuls became a dictator.
The first dictator was Titus Larcius, a consul. He was chosen to put down a rebellion staged by several cities that wanted to reinstate Tarquin II as Roman king. Larcius was a member of the patrician class, the privileged elite. He worked to improve the lives of the plebeians, the middle- and lower-class Romans.
Dictators were appointed until 202 B.C. More than 100 years later, Lucius Cornelius Sulla was appointed dictator without a term limit and without the restrictions of previous dictators. He became a vicious dictator, ruled for two years in office and executed thousands of Roman citizens, many of them political opponents. Sulla also became rich by confiscating property. He was succeeded by Julius Caesar, who was named dictator for life and proceeded to begin a civil war. Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., and the office of dictator was abolished due to its corruption.
Modern dictators usually come to power during states of emergency, too. But, a few would come in through constitutional means like doves only to become monsters.
In modern history, Napoleon Bonaparte was seen as the first modern dictator.
Napoleon was a general during the French Revolution, a period of huge social and political upheaval in the country. Beginning in 1789, France evolved from a Monarchy to a Republic, and then to an Empire. In the midst of executions, coups and confusion, Napoleon became a consul under a new provisional government.
Because he was never defeated as a military commander, Napoleon enjoyed immense popularity. He created a balanced budget, reformed the government and wrote the Civil Code that still forms the basis of French civil law today. Napoleon then abolished the Senate and continued to reform the Constitution. He named himself consul for life, and in 1804, crowned himself emperor. He continued his military pursuits, fighting across Europe.
As a dictator, he controlled every facet of government and had a network of spies. He also controlled the press, ensuring that his propaganda machine continued. But his reign began to falter when his invasion of Russia was a failure. A coalition of European forces, including armies from Great Britain, Prussia, Spain and Portugal surrounded France.
Generals in the French Army mutinied and Napoleon was forced to abdicate the throne. After a brief return to power, he was exiled in 1815.
From ancient dictators to modern ones, dictators are the same because they always surround themselves with a murderous gang which operated unfettered while the dictatorship lasted.
Atrocities are committed on a daily basis to sustain the tyranny in the system during which there is an open display of arrogance that reduces human life to mere pun.
Power will be coveted just for sadism sake and lives and liberty will be trampled on to ensure the continuation of a fearful era and exercise naked power that is built on terror, exerting maximum pain and suffering on perceived opponents.
To give the order for the brutal elimination of a perceived opponent, man or woman, is a pastime.
As long as the despotism lasted, there is always an insatiable quest for unquestionable power
So, it is not a surprise that dictatorships come to an end just as chaotically as they began.
Hitler committed suicide after the Allies beat the German Armed Forces. Mussolini was shot by Communist partisans and his body stoned by civilians.
Noriega was captured after the United States (U.S.) invaded Panama and is serving a 30-year prison sentence in a Florida federal correctional facility. Hussein was deposed after coalition forces took control of Iraq and pulled him from a small muddy foxhole near his birthplace in Tikrit. He was later executed by the provisional government of Iraq. Gaddafi was killed by rebels aided by forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
But, some dictators die naturally because many dictatorships end when the dictator becomes too weak or sick to continue. Vladimir Lenin suffered a series of strokes and took lesser roles in government before his death. Stalin also had a stroke and died shortly afterwards. Idi Amin died in exile in Saudi Arabia. Even Fidel Castro stepped down as leader of Cuba (passing the presidency to his brother Raul) after several years of worsening health.
The al-Mustapha saga is a clear lesson for those who operate with a demeaning attitude to human life that they will pay for their acts. Those who display impunity while in office will eventually face justice, no matter how long it takes the long arm of the law of catch up with them.
It is not my duty to write on who killed Alhaja Abiola. Justice Dada said al-Mustapha and Sofolahan were guilty as charged. Whether that was a fair judgement or not is left for lawyers and judges to decide because the matter is now before the Appeal Court and I am sure it will get to the Supreme Court.
But, human beings, while in government, must know that that office is temporary. What dictators don’t know or refuse to acknowledge until it is too late is that 50 years in office is like one day before history.
Gaddafi started his reign on September 1, 1969 and he was in office with seven American Presidents – Richard Milhous Nixon (1969-1974); Gerald Rudolph Ford (1974-1977); James Earl Carter, Jr. (1977-1981); Ronald Wilson Reagan (1981-1989); George Herbert Walker Bush (1989-1993); William Jefferson Clinton (1993-2001) and George Walker Bush (2001-2009). His end came during the administration of the current American President, Barack Hussein Obama, on October 20, 2011.
An important point is that while dictatorship lasted, there are always some deceivers at the background. Some Christian and Muslim leaders are no more than herbalists, witches and wizards, like the three witches who psychologically deceived Macbeth.
They are always the spiritual godfathers of dictators.
To consolidate their hold on dictators, they will go to any length, spiritualism and spiritism, killing those opposed to their occultic ways in the process. While dictators are dealt with physically by their people and history, what these spiritual deceivers have forgotten is that, according to Hebrews 12: 29, our God is a consuming fire and the Judgement Day will eventually come.
Those on the rampage now, physically and spiritually, maiming, killing and assassinating perceived and real opponents should know that the day is coming when they will be as helpless as Mussolini before those peasants on April 29, 1945.
Mussolini, his mistress, Clara Petacci, and 15 others were executed and their bodies hung at an Esso filling station in Piazale Loreto, Milan, Italy.
God is indeed on His throne.