WIKILEAKS AND ABIOLA, ABACHA’S DEATHS

Perhaps the Wikileaks, is the only source through which Nigerians may get the “truth” about the deaths of former Head of State, General Sani Abacha and the presumed winner of 1993 presidential election which was annulled by the military, Chief M.K.O. Abiola. This is because the federal government speaking through the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, to President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr Ruben Abati, has said that the Jonathan’s administration would not conduct inquest into the circumstances of Abiola and Abacha’s deaths. This followed the request made by the personal physician of Abiola, Dr Ore Falomo, at the 15^th anniversary of Abiola’s death, that federal government, should institute an inquest over the deaths of the duo, alleging foul play by the United States. The idea that the duo’s deaths were engineered by people within and out Nigeria has been on for a long time by conspiracy theorists. Similar sentiment was also raised at the recent anniversary of the annulled June 12, election by the former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who demanded that the truth be told about Abiola’s death.  Fani-Kayode also noted the alleged role played by the current National Security Adviser to President Barack Obama, Susan Rice, on Abiola’s death. Rice was alleged to have served tea to Abiola a few minutes before his death.

Even before Fani-Kayode and Falomo raised the ante of the conspiracy theory, the former Chief Security Officer to General Abacha, Major Al-Mustapha had claimed that he has a video evidence of how Abiola and Abacha were killed. Given all the confusions over the death of the duo, may be the wikileaks can avail Nigerians with the information exchanged by the American and Nigerian officials at the time, which can give a clue to the circumstances of their deaths. My worry though is that like all information generated by man, wikileaks information can also be doctored. Besides, the so-called wikileaks’ scoop are actually generated through newspaper headlines in Nigeria which various ambassadors interpreted as they saw fit and relayed back to their countries. They may not give us anything new besides the speculative reports of Tell and TheNews Magazines of the time of the duo’s deaths. May be we should just allow the sleeping dog to keep on sleeping, perhaps for ever. Incidentally both are devote Muslims and I believe they will object, if they were alive, that their dead bodies be exhumed for a thorough autopsy.