Daughter of the late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha,
Gumsu, says she is still mourning the death of her father, 15 years after his
demise. Read more
Gumsu, who may have cut short her sleep early Saturday
morning, took to Twitter at 3:16 am to pay tribute to her father, saying, “I
miss you so much.”
Abacha became the 10th military Head of State of Nigeria on
November 17, 1993 but died in office on June 8, 1998.
“May Allah
grant my father Aljanna Firdaus. I miss you so much. Fifteen years already.
Allah ya jikan ka da rhama
‘Baba,’” she stated in a tweet.
A few hours Gumsu posted the tweet, former Minister of Aviation, Femi
Fani-Kayode, replied her, saying, “Ameen.” However, Fani-Kayode’s move to share
in her grief on the 15th anniversary of the death of Abacha made a handful of
his followers on Twitter to raise an eyebrow.
When Fani-Kayode’s gesture was noticed by Gumsu, she replied
his tweet, saying, “Thank you,’’
while Fani-Kayode responded, “My pleasure, dear.’’
But Fani-Kayode’s
followers on the social service wondered if he was one of the Nigerians
who subtly benefited from the Abacha regime.
“Fani-Kayode,
sir, were you pro-Abacha?” one of his followers, Dolapo Bello, queried in a
tweet. But realising what damage that could do to his reputation online,
Fani-Kayode responded swiftly by dissociating himself from the Abacha regime.
He stated, “Of course not. I was not pro-Abacha government.
I was one of those who fought his government.”
But as the day broke on Saturday, the Nigerian Twitter space
was soon turned into a podium for debate with some arguing that Abacha was a
hero, while others vehemently disagreed on the social network.
A Nigerian with the name, Ikhide, who tweets via @ikhide
argued, “Nigeria’s democracy has seen more extrajudicial murders,
state-sponsored looting, incompetence and insecurity than two reigns of Gen.
Abacha. If I had to choose among Goodluck Jonathan, Olusegun Obasanjo and
Abacha, I would choose Oga Jonathan, followed by Abacha, before OBJ. My father
Papalolo was happier, safer and more prosperous under Abacha.’’
Segun Bamidele said, “With due respect ‘Mr. & Mrs.
Death’ you have been unfair to Nigeria. You took Abacha and Abiola 15 years ago
and left us with more wicked charlatans.’’
Meanwhile, some Nigerians used the picture of the late
President as their Display Picture on their BlackBerry Messenger. One of such
persons, who is a contact on our correspondent’s BBM, with the name Engr L.G. Adinoyi, wrote on his BBM,
“Nigeria needs another Gen. Abacha.’’
Reacting to the way Gumsu mourned the death of her father on
Twitter, a prolific user of the social service, Tolu Ogunlesi, said, “That’s
the lesson: That even the cruellest of dictators have families. And are often
loving and caring daddies.’’
Though Ogunlesi was silent on the “Abacha hero debate” he
painstakingly equated the Abacha regime with that of the Goodluck Jonathan
administration. He explained that
some of the achievements the Jonathan administration was laying claim to were
also there during the Abacha regime.
He said, “Truth is, many ‘achievements’ Jonathan Government
is claiming, Abacha too claimed. African Cup of Nations win; Petroleum Trust
Fund (for Abacha) – Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (for
Jonathan); Failed Banks Tribunal (for Abacha) and Fuel Subsidy trial
(Jonathan).
“Give Abacha’s
list of achievements to Doyin Okupe (presidential assistant on public affairs)
and Labaran Maku (minister of information), you won’t recognise the dictator
again o. Bottomline is that there are no heroes anywhere, are there? Only
varying degrees of non-heroism. Nigerians celebrated Abacha’s death. There were
parties in Britain celebrating Margaret Thatcher’s Death. Therefore, the
summary of the matter is this: All leaders are evil but some are (much) less
evil than others.”
Culled from Punch Newspaper
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