MKO Abiola, Susan Rice and a Deadly Cup Of Tea
Ambassador Susan Rice is currently the American Ambassador to the United Nations. Her long-standing aspiration of becoming the Secretary of State for her country was dashed when the Republicans in the Senate started sharpening their knives in anticipation of her formal nomination for that position by President Barak Obama.
Sensing that her nomination would not scale through the Senate and that she would not be confirmed as Secretary of State due to the role she played in the cover up of the Benghazi affair in which the American Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other American citizens were murdered by a group of islamist terrorists, her nomination was withdrawn.
Instead of Secretary of State, President Obama has now nominated her for the position of National Security Advisor which is a job that does not require Senate approval or confirmation. I wish Susan Rice well in her new assignment but I am constrained to ask the following questions. What did she put in the tea that she served to Chief MKO Abiola on July 8th 1998 just before he died? She was one of the last people that saw him alive, she served him some tea, he coughed violently and one hour later he dropped dead. What was in the tea? Was it Abuja ''green tea'', Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Liptons or some other more exotic brand?
Can someone please ask Susan Rice what her role was in the death of MKO Abiola? Who sent her to do the job and who was she working for? At that time she was Assistant Secretary of State for America in President Bill Clinton's government. Was she acting on his direct instructions or simply on the instructions of her boss and controller in Langley?
Chief MKO Abiola was the winner of Nigeria's freest and fairest elections. That election took place on June 12th 1993. The following day it was annuled by General Ibrahim Babangida. Shortly after that, as a consequence of the sheer outrage that was generated by the annulement, Babangida was compelled to ''step aside'' and hand over power to Chief Ernest Shonekan. In what was clearly a strategic manouver he left General Sani Abacha (his own Chief of Army Staff) behind to be the Minister of Defence for the incoming administration.
As many had predicted a few months later Abacha toppled the Interim National Government of Chief Ernest Shonekan which he served and seized power for himself. Abiola was eventually arrested and detained and he was never granted his freedom again. Four years later Abacha himself was murdered by forces that are yet to be identified and General Abdulsalami Abubakar took power. Exactly 30 days after Abacha was killed, those same forces that killed him murdered Abiola as well in an attempt to ''balance the equation''.
These are the facts and those are the sequence of events. One thing is self-evident and cannot be denied no matter which side of the divide one may have been on in the June 12th saga- certain questions must be answered. And those questions are as follows. Who killed MKO Abiola? Who killed Sani Abacha? What role, if any, did officials of the Abubakar administration play in the murder of both Abacha and Abiola? What role did the CIA play and exactly what transpired in the room when Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice, Ambassador Thomas Pickering and two other faceless and nameless officials from the American Embassy met with Abiola on the very day that he was meant to be released. Instead of being released on that day he dropped dead in what can only be described as mysterious and questionable circumstances. This is all the more so because Abiola's security officer and the man that was charged with looking after him and protecting him throughout the time that he was incarcerated, one ASP Zadok, told the Oputa panel in 2002 that Abiola was ''hale and hearty'' and in ''very high spirits'' just before going into the meeting with the Americans.
As Zadok was about to enter the premises where the meeting was scheduled to be held with Abiola he was asked to leave his principal, step outside ythe premises and to go and pick up another car from somewhere by one of General Abdulsalami's security officers. He promptly obeyed but half an hour later when he came back he found Abiola in a terrible condition, coughing violently, writhing all over the floor in pain and breathing his last breath. Thirty minutes later he gave up the ghost. I have no doubt that this was murder but the question is whose call was it and why did it have to happen? Was it done in an attempt to pave the way for an Obasanjo Presidency one year later? Could General Olusegun Obasanjo have been elected President if Abiola had lived and if he had insisted on claiming his mandate?
The Nigerian people have a right to know the truth and it is about time that those that have wielded power in this country for the last few decades told them. The powers that be must appreciate the fact that they cannot sweep things under the carpet forever and that one day, no matter how long it takes, they will be held accountable by the Nigerian people for the morbid and oftentimes homicidal choices and secret decisions that they made.
Yet the truth is that the military operates like a cult and we may never get an honest answer from any of them about what really happened. This is because there are very few Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar's in the Nigerian military. Very few of them are prepared to break ranks with the leadership and break the ''omerta' code of silence like Abubakar Umar did over the June 12th election. Very few of them are prepared to call a spade a spade, speak the truth, expose the lie and damn the consequences. Most of them continue to spin the yarn and tell the dirty lie that Abacha and Abiola's deaths were both from natural causes and that it was just a coincidence that one dropped dead on July 8th 1998, just 4 days before the 5th anniversary of June 12th, and the other droped dead exactly one month later on July 8th 1998. As they say ''the secrets are embedded in the sequence of events, the numbers and the dates'' and, in this case, the interesting sequence of events, the numbers and the dates really do tell a revealing story.
Yet no matter how hard they try to cover her up and silence her, truth is stubborn and she cannot be drowned. She is like a pack of straws that are held together and pinned down by an all-powerful hand at the bottom of a river. As long as she is held at the bottom of that river she cannot be seen or heard. Yet one day, in the fullness of time, that all-powerful hand that seeks to drown her forever will get tired and let go and at that point Lady Truth will happily float to the top of the water where she will be seen and heard by all. It is in the same way that one day the pernicious lie of "death by natural causes" or "act of God" that the powers that be have claimed are the cause of Abiola and Abacha's deaths respectively will be exposed for what they are. And those that continue to spin that lie and conspire to hide the truth will pay a heavy price for their murderous deceit either in this world or the next. The truth is that the most filthy and despicable creature under God's sun is the unrepentant and compulsive liar. The evil of those that that bear false witness, that sahed innocent blood and that seek to kill, maim, jail or destroy the innocent in the name of the state knows no bounds. Such people will surely burn in hell. And those that continue to hide the truth and spin the tale that there was nothing untoward or mischevous about the death of Chief MKO Abiola, that great son of Nigeria whose only crime was to win a free and fair election and refuse to renounce it, shall fare no better.
The fact of the matter is that until these questions are answered and justice is done Nigeria will not know peace and she cannot possibly make any meaningful progress. It is a spiritual thing. He gave his life that we may have a better tomorrrow yet we refuse to acknowledge it or to bring his killers to justice. We are repaying his gfood with evil and the consequences of that are set out in the Word of God. The fact remains that had it not been for Abiola's great sacrifice and his gallant refusal to bow before the Nigerian military and give up his 1993 Presidential mandate we would not have democracy in Nigeria today. We should do our best to ask the relevant questions, demand the appropiate answers and unearth the bitter truth. We owe MKO Abiola, his wife Kudirat (who was also murdered) and all the other June 12th footsoldiers and martyrs that much.
May God give us leaders that have a conscience and that truly respect and fear Him and may Chief MKO Abiola's beautiful and generous soul continue to rest in perfect peace.