General Sani Abacha, Head of State, was reputed to be a no-nonsense soldier. Amongst all the Generals that had ever been at the top of Aso Rock up to that time, Abacha was seen as exemplifying the very height of dictatorial hubris. He wore dark glasses over his eyes, as a rule. To understand his state of mind and the direction of his will, you have to jump over those black goggles. His reputation for brutality was in a class by itself. His ruthlessness was said to rival that of the most heartless tyrants in recorded history. To be invited to work on his behalf was to bear an automatic tag as Abacha’s errand boy.
Not surprisingly, Navy Captain Omoniyi Olubolade was counted as one of the Abacha boys, just like Navy Commander Walter Aye Feghabo, his counterpart in Ebonyi State. To see them was to behold Abacha. And, indeed, both officers carried something of that aura when they came into office. It was as if, by shaking hands with Abacha on that fateful day of their appointment, they had received an impartation of newfound authority. The charge was simple. Go and develop Bayelsa. Go and develop Ebonyi, with or without a take-off grant. They were doing just that, working day and night on a wide range of project sites, when news broke that General Sani Abacha was dead.
All of one month was declared for mourning the late Head of State who created Bayelsa and Ebonyi on the same day, 1, October 1996. That was one long, agonising month for Olubolade, as it was for Feghabo. They were affected at a personal level. Abacha had sent Olubolade to Bayelsa to undertake a special assignment in a special area, and sent a son of Bayelsa, Walter Feghabo, to Ebonyi. Now that the General was no more, what would happen to the great commission given to develop their respective states? Well, there was no vacuum in leadership, and General Abdulsalami Abubakar soon took over. Before long, he announced a change in his choice of Military Administrators.
It bears repeating that, until his last day, General Sani Abacha was perhaps the most controversial leader in the history of Nigeria. He almost always had his way. It didn’t seem to matter what people said or thought. He was a silent ruler who took over the presidency at a time when the country was on the verge of disintegration, and saw himself as the strong arm that was needed to keep the country united. He saw himself, in short, as the saviour of a threatened patrimony. When he assumed office, many Nigerians thought he had come to correct the wrongs of his predecessor. Perhaps he did. Perhaps he did not.
He was a stubborn and fearless ruler who was convinced of his actions far and above public opinion. He ruled in silence. He believed in action and results. On his own, he knew what he wanted for Nigeria and Nigerians. For a start, he decided to call for a constitutional conference to review the nation’s age-old Constitution. He set in motion a totally new transition to civil rule programme, and pursued it with evident resolve.
He set up the Failed Bank Tribunal to sanitize the banking industry, and give some dignity to the value of the Naira. He greatly encouraged the Family Support Programme and FEAP, bringing them under the office of the presidency first, only to shift them back to the office of the First Lady where they rightly belonged. Vision 2010 was another laudable programme from the Abacha days. It collated the rolling plans of local, state and federal governments into one, and placed it on the national drawing board.
Abacha introduced several policies and activities to distract his critics over the clamour for June 12, just to move the country forward. Though he wasn’t as diplomatic as his predecessors, he managed to silence the voices of some key 12 June activists by appointing them into public office under the close watch of his regime. The General wouldn’t stop at anything, and yet was prepared to stop anything that posed a threat to his leadership.
Politicians, lawyers, human rights activists and journalists who spoke against him did not have an easy time. He knew best what was good for his people. His method of leadership and indeed his assumption of office drew the attention of the international community to himself. He took the country and its people by surprise. He simply could not be predicted, and his word was law. That was the man who appointed Navy Captain Omoniyi Olubolade as Military Administrator of Bayelsa State, and Navy Commander Walter Feghabo as Military Administrator of Ebonyi State.
Abacha formed five political parties and set the transition programme rolling. He promised to keep to it and actually went as far as organising elections at the local government level, into the Houses of Assembly, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Some people got so carried away by his pro-Nigerian policies, his spirited defence of the nation’s policies before the international community, and his repeated affirmation that Nigeria, and indeed Nigerians, can handle their own problems and resolve their challenges without outside interference. This rugged stance of independence, of territorial sovereignty, gave some courage and strength to other African nations.
Apparently, Abacha refused to borrow money from the World Bank despite pressures for him to do so, following the ailing economy he inherited. Instead, he introduced measures that would enable the country increase her foreign reserve and gradually pay off foreign debts. And indeed during his tenure, Nigeria’s foreign debt dropped and budget surpluses were declared.
Some Nigerians, especially politicians, saw a messianic hand in this. And like the paparazzi who pursued Lady Diana to her death, Nigerian politicians promptly found the only possible leader who would usher them into the twenty-first century. The airwaves were inundated with praise songs for Abacha.
Traditional rulers and various impromptu organizations paid courtesy calls and begged him to succeed himself. All five political parties adopted him as their sole candidate, not considering their various constituencies. After all, they were not even guided by a credible Constitution. In all this, there was no talk of who would produce the Vice President.
A grand One-Million-Man March was planned to hold in Abuja, and various presidential rallies took place with a reasonable posting of security personnel all around. Still, it came as a wonder why, despite a nationwide broadcast against anybody speaking for or against the General’s self succession, those who spoke for him did it freely, openly and unabashedly. On the other hand, those who spoke against were taught the golden rule of silence.
No doubt Abacha’s reign in office saw bomb blasts which were attributed to NADECO. Then came a coup plot announcement which sent several officers into detention and life sentences. World leaders pleaded for amnesty. In the midst of all these, the infantry General endeared himself to Liberia and Sierra Leone where he brought peace and democratic rule through ECOMOG.
He was a hero to some. To others, he was a stubborn and insensitive dictator. The international community and Nigerians alike voiced their varied opinions every day. In all these, the man never made a public statement accepting self-succession, nor rejecting it. The regime had an undercover mission which he needed to accomplish without distractions.
He could not stand the thought of coup plotters, for a start. He was to let Nigerians know if he had plans to succeed himself, but he never did. Not even his close confidants knew what the General was up to at any given time. He simply kept his ideas to himself. He didn’t trust people at all. He once said that you will save yourself from trouble if you keep your mouth shut in public. He was a President, Head of State, and a military politician all at once. Depending on how you looked at him, he touched the lives of every Nigerian.
In many ways, his temperament was reflected in the carriage and comportment of the Administrators he appointed to do his will, the famous Abacha Boys. Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade was one of them. So was Navy Commander Walter Aye Feghabo, a son of Bayelsa who governed Ebonyi and later Delta States. Like Abacha, Olubolade kept his plans to himself and went out of his way to achieve results that the people of Bayelsa could point at, results that continue to underscore the long-term vision of his government. In doing so, however, he attracted the ire of many, and faced outright opposition from time to time.
Olubolade, in fact, came into office at a time when a growing awareness about poor conditions of living in the swamp land had overtaken the minds of the youth. Many of them were still living with fresh memories of Abuja and its wonders when they returned from attending General Abacha’s One-Million-Man March. The unrest grew steadily to be formally recognised in everyday lexicon as youth restiveness in the Niger Delta. One of the men who sought to harness this newfound energy of the youth and direct it to profitable uses was a man called T.K. Ogoriba. He was the leader of the Movement for the Survival and Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MOSIEND.
Olubolade’s first confrontation with the restive youth came with the arrest of Ogoriba, following feelers that public disturbance was afoot. The youths had reportedly invoked the powers of the famous Egbesu cult, and stormed Creek Haven one night, rowing in stealthily from the creek behind Creek Haven, and taking the entire security apparatus of government by surprise. Before anyone knew what was happening, they had raided the cell where Ogoriba was locked and freed him along with Alfred Egbegi, the unrepentant publisher of Izon-Link newspaper who was believed to have reported the government in bad light.
The unexpected raid on Creek Haven came as an embarrassment to the Olubolade government, and the Military Administrator was summoned to Abuja to explain himself. Olubolade said he chose not to order a shoot-out. If he did, it was bound to be deadly. He would rather not shed one drop of Bayelsa blood. This stance spoke well of him and kept his conscience free, but even the Navy Captain was to accept that the incident marked perhaps the lowest point in the life of his days as Military Administrator of Bayelsa State.
In Ebonyi State, the testimony of Navy Commander Walter Aye Feghabo was quite different.
