Between IBB and Hajiya Vatsa

Comfort Obi

Major General Mamman Vatsa, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, must be proud of his wife, Hajiya Safiya Vatsa, wherever he is. Executed in 1986 by the former President Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) regime, over an alleged coup d'etat, Vatsa seems to be fighting from his grave. Until his wife started a serious campaign to protest his execution, most people thought that Vatsa’s ghost had been laid to rest. But perish the thought. Nothing has caught the attention of Nigerians, in recent times, more than the crusade embarked upon by Safiya to avenge her husband’s execution.
I didn't take notice of the Vatsa case when Hajiya Vatsa petitioned the Justice Oputa Panel. Since then, nobody had heard anything serious about Vatsa, except for the occasional gossips, and allusions, in the media. The Vatsas simply went into their shells. Thinking of it now, I guess it was strategic. They were waiting for an opportunity to strike. It came a little when IBB and his associates began to drop hints of his desire to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007. As the Vatsas waited patiently for IBB's public declaration, fate threw a big opportunity at them.
It came through former Minister of Defence and chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff during the IBB regime, General Domkat Bali. He granted an interview to The News magazine in which he threw doubts over the culpability of Vatsa in the coup for which he was executed. Bali said his greatest worry was that he was not sure it was right to have executed Vatsa. He said the allegations against Vatsa were flimsy. There had always been a rivalry, hinted Bali, between the two childhood friends – IBB and Vatsa. To excuse himself from culpability, Bali said he was helpless. I will come to that later.

Since Bali’s interview, Vatsa's widow, Safiya, is rightly crying blue murder. She says Bali’s pronouncements confirm that her husband was deliberately murdered by IBB. She has petitioned President Obasanjo. The President has in turn granted her audience, and promised he would look into the case. Safiya’s spirit has risen to high heavens. She has thus become emboldened. And has become hot cake for media houses. Human rights activists are paying her solidarity visits. She is granting interviews left, right and centre. Some of the things she says are very touching. Basking in it, Safiya raises the bar everyday. She couldn’t have chosen a worse time to do it. IBB, it is strongly rumoured, has his eyes on the presidency in 2007. Although he is yet to publicly declared interest his body language nonetheless seem to confirm. So, enters Safiya. She has featured in, and released, a documentary entitled “A Widow’s Pain, a General’s Burden” which was aired, twice (60 minutes each) on AIT. And the DVD is being distributed to personalities by those who sponsored it. She is calling IBB a "land grabber," a murderer, who allegedly, was involved in the Dimka coup, but was saved by her husband, Vatsa; she is saying IBB is not a Nigerian and well, hinting at drugs! And she threatens these are but a tip of the ice-berg!!
IBB does not seem moved, or shaken by President Obasanjo’s reopening of the case. The only time he seriously spoke about it, he acknowledged his closeness to Vatsa, but said he had no regrets because he had enough documents to back up Vatsa’s involvement in the coup. That angered Safiya who dared him to make the documents public. But IBB’s associates are up in arms, crying foul, pointing accusing fingers and insisting it is a calculated plan to destroy IBB’s political aspirations. If it is, which I suspect, Bali has questions to answer. And not just on why he chose the time he did to speak about Vatsa, but on the execution of Vatsa and co. as well.
Bali said he was helpless over Vatsa. How? He was the Minister of Defence and the trial was under him. If he was convinced that Vatsa was innocent , why didn’t he speak out then? What was he afraid of? Nothing would have happened to Bali if he had spoken out then. He should have done that for the records, and then resigned. That is what men of honour do. It was a matter of life and death. So, silence is criminal. Men of honour resign and speak up. Why did it take him 20 years to now talk? When Robin Cook, former British Foreign Minister, disagreed with the deployment of troops in Iraq with Prime Minister Tony Blair, he spoke out and quit his cabinet position. Cook was a man of honour. Bali, in case he does not know, cannot, like Pontius Pilate, wash his hands off Vatsa’s execution. In fact, he is neck-deep in it. His position then assured that. If Vatsa was innocent, then his blood is on Bali's head too.
As for IBB, he should not be seen as exchanging words with Safiya, no matter how provoked. And he should order his associates to shut up. I don’t know who advises him, but I felt, and still feel, that he lost the opportunity to defend himself on Vatsa, Dele Giwa, and other issues, at the Oputa panel. Those who advised him to ignore that panel and challenge its legality in court did him no good. If he had, these allegations would long have been buried. An adage says: “If you are carrying nothing, don’t walk like you are carrying something."
Now, IBB should ignore some of his hangers-on and advisers and speak up on Vatsa, Giwa, June 12, etc. He should address them specifically in the media, with documents. That, I believe, is the only way he can get rid of this mud that is continuously splashed on him – whether he is running for the presidency or not.