The generalissimo of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Pa Anthony Enahoro, joined his ancestors. That is precisely twelve years after the evil General Sani Abacha joined his father, the President, Commander-in-Chief of the evil spirits which used him to make Nigeria a killing field. NADECO was the arrowhead of the campaign against Abacha’s dictatorship and tried to pull the fangs from the regime. This was a patriotic cause with a hazardous underpinning – Abacha did not like people who did not see things the way he did with his dark spectacles.At some point in the fight, NADECO began to lose members as the notorious Strike Force began surgical assassinations of members of the coalition. Pa Enahoro decided to follow the wisdom of Plato that “Courage is knowing what not to fear and what to fear.” This was in preference to the philosopher who stayed back in Athens and opted to drink the hemlock and die rather than abscond from his beloved city.Well the song: “He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day…” did not hold true in the fight of Pa Enahoro. He ran away and General Abacha thought he had won. Then Abacha died. Everyone remembers what he was doing when he heard the news of Abacha’s death – how he heard it and how he reacted to it. The death-master in the clutches of death! It sounded unbelievable because it looked like Abacha was cut out to kill and not to die. But die he did at a time all the political parties (the five leprous fingers on one hand – as Chief Bola Ige described them) had adopted him as their consensus candidate. It appears that after he was adopted the consensus candidate of the leprous parties, he was also elected a candidate for hell by praying Nigerians and the rest is history.It is unfortunate that both men may not meet in the great beyond. In the parable in the Bible, the rich man (in hell) asked Lazarus (in Heaven) to fetch him water to quench his thirst. If Abacha were to ask Pa Enahoro for water… I am not sure Pa Enahoro will oblige him, but I am praying that he would not.Whereas Abacha died as Head of State, Pa Enahoro died last week as a statesman. Yet, Pa Enahoro has evoked more sympathy and mourning across the nation. Abacha died without being missed and was so hurriedly buried (a patriotic effort by Abdulsalami Abubakar which deserved commendation because no one knew whether he was faking his death and no one wanted to take a chance on his coming back to life) so that we could consign the “thoroughly nasty piece of work” (another NADECO way of addressing Abacha) into the dustbin of history.Pa Enahoro’s death should be a lesson to Nigerian politicians and the Alhaji Babagana Kingibe’s of this evil world. Kingibe held a joint ticket with Chief M K O Abiola who was elected President of Nigeria with Kingibe as his vice president. But like Esau, Kingibe decided to sell this right for ministerial position. One would have expected him to defend the mandate which was freely given to them, but he had other ideas. Today his name has become a metaphor for betrayal, but then this is Nigeria where everything is possible. The land where today’s villain can be tomorrow’s hero and where the entire citizenry suffer from collective political amnesia.Pa Enahoro moved the first motion for the Independence of Nigeria in 1953, even though it was not adopted because the North was not ready then. He was a foremost nationalist and statesman and represented the best in us. He was the kind of man we needed to give our country direction - man who believed in doing right to all men irrespective of where they came from. A man of the old school! His life was so rich and eventful that it was like a kaledeiscope and you could look at the different hues and colors of his life in different ways.But nothing in his life could diminish his role in the defence of the June 12 election and his marshalling forces to oppose General Abacha at an age most men would have preferred to stay above the “fray” and rest in honored glory in retirement. He spoke the truth and stood up for the right cause because he was a living testimony of the part of the National Anthem which says that “the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain…” He was counted among the heroes and he did not want his labour to be in vain.He belonged to a different era. An era when politicians bestrode the nation with panache and spoke with conviction and certainty. When the great Zik of Africa would proudly declare “My stiffest earthly assignment is ended and my major life’s work is done. My country is now free and I have been honoured to be its first indigenous head of state. What more could one desire in life?” And the visionary Chief Obafemi Awolowo would say, “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English,’ ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French.’ The word ‘Nigerian’ is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria and those who do not.” A time when the flamboyant Chief K O Mbadiwe would proclaim to great comic relief that his party had “Men of Timber and Caliber” and added for good measure “when the come comes to become, we shall come out” and another memorable one that “NPN was zoning to unzone.”Last week we lost the last of the breed of Nigerians who added colour to our skies and made life interesting. They are survived by politicians who know everything about nothing and have an innate capacity to speak you to sleep. Next time you have a sleeping disorder listen to one of today’s politicians. They are a few exceptions and we all know.
Michael John, Angry man..
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