By Emeka Obasi
It is so common, an all purpose sack. The name just will not go and we are condemned to live with it. But be careful, do not say it in Accra. You dare not mention it across the Aflao border. Ghanaians do not want to remember that past. General Muhammadu Buhari could have forgotten. The Ashanti have not.
The Ga, the Mossi down to Mamprusi, the Ewe. During the Buhari- Idiagbon days, thousands of fellow West Africans were sent packing from Nigeria as they were declared illegal aliens. It was so sad because many of them saw Nigeria as a land of milk and honey, big brother of the continent.
And of course, Ecowas was all about regional integration. As those folks , given short ,notice hurried out of Nigeria, they found the bag we now refer to as Ghanamust go handy. It did not have a name until Buhari asked Ghana to go.
And till date, that name lives with us. Even in Europe and the Americas, you see Ghana –must –go bags . Ghana under Jerry Rawlings, did not like that treatment at all. The 1985 Ecowas Summit was so heated that Ghana’s foreign minister Obed Yao Asamoah was ready to tear Nigeria to shreds, literally speaking. Asamoah was doing the job that had been reserved for the best in his country. From Kwame Nkrumah, to Kojo Botsio, General Joseph Ankrah, Col. Roger Felli.
The position was not for under achievers. Jerry Rawlings empowered Asamoah to fight Nigeria with the best diplomatic weapons. It did not come as a surprise that Asamoah would serve as Foreign minister for 16 long years[1981-1997].
That is a Ghanaian, if not African record. And among the great lawyer’s students, you could name Prof. John Atta Mills, Nana Akuffo Addo and Tatsu Tsikata. Rawlings was actually looking for a way to diminish the Nigerian junta of generals as he had done worse in Ghana by executing about seven of them including three ex- Heads- of-state, following his June 4, 1979 Revolution. Generals Okatakyei Afrifa, Kutu Acheampong and Fred Akuffo were shot in Teshie, Accra while Service Chiefs, Rear Adm. Joy Amedume, AVM George Boakye and the trio of Gens Robert Kotei, Edward Utuka and Col .Roger Felli were also executed.
Then Rawlings had told Nigerians,”while you content yourselves at the Bar Beach by watching the execution of maladjusted labourers, mechanics or clerks, we in Ghana have killed the jumbo –size robbers-call them generals or brigadiers-whose going leaves the world smelling sweeter.”
Those were the years of the youthful military leaders. There was the much loved Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, who could boast of just a guitar, refrigerator and Renault car as part his assets. The Nigerian army chief, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida did not feel so comfortable with the swashbuckling young presidents.”
No to undue radicalism”, he told his troops. However, Buhari and some of his henchmen were also radical in appearance. They were tagged the Beret Boys because himself, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon and Babangida felt more comfortable in berets, something Generals Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo, never did with their deputies and army chiefs. Buhari never recovered from that Ghana stigma as his name had little weight in diplomatic circles.
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The British would have none of the Nigerian ruler, after the Umaru Dikko kidnap attempt. At home, Buhari’s patriotism was put to question when he denied his country the opportunity of producing a Secretary –General for the Organisation of African Unity [OAU], which today is known as the African Union[AU]. At birth in 1963, the OAU had an acting Sectretary- General in Ethiopia’s Kifle Wodajo. Then in 1964, the Guinean, Diallo Telli took over in full capacity.
The Camerounian duo of Nzo Ekangaki and William Eteki Mboumoua also had their turn until 1978 when Togo produced Edem Kodjo who spent five years. On June 12[ this date did not start with the great Chief Moshood Abiola], 1983, Nigeria’s Peter Onu, of old Benue-Plateau extraction, stepped in to act .
He had been Nigeria’s Ambassador to Germany and was a seasoned diplomat. For over two years, Onu worked in acting capacity, something that had not happened since the Telli tenure. And Nigerians earnestly wanted their country man to get the position since Buhari ,like previous military leaders, flaunted Africa as the centre piece of our foreign policy. It was a monumental disappointment that almost forced one of our foreign policy experts, Ibrahim Daggash to weep for the country. Against all expectations, the Nigerian leader voted for the candidate from Niger Republic, one Ide Oumarou. That was how Onu gave way on July 19, 1985. In the next 39 days, Babangida drove Buhari from the throne. And till this day, Nigeria has not occupied that AU seat. Even in our last attempt some years ago, we lost to South Africa.
Nigeria has also not produced an ECOWAS Secretary- General. When Chief Olusegun Obasanjo tried to grab the United Nations’ Secretary –General job, some of those who made him an Eminent Personality, worked against Baba even after our own dear general had gone for some crash progamme lessons in French. The only good news is that Emeka Anyaoku became Secretary General of the Commonwealth and spent ten good years.
That was the same man that left the Commonwealth office in 1983, to serve as our foreign minister under President Shehu Shagari but was sent away by Buhari ‘s December 31, 1983 coup. Anyaoku became Commonwealth Chief Servant during the Babangida years when Gen . Ike Nwachukwu held sway as Foreign minister and the Nigerian government had a vibrant foreign department. It should strike our memory that those who played prominent roles during the Abuja Peace Accord between President Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari were people who ordinarily should hold so much against the former military leader. Anyaoku was joined by Kofi Anan, former UN scribe, and a full blooded Ghanaian. He is also our inlaw because he had a Nigerian wife. I do not know if Buhari looked into Anan’s eyes.
There was a message. Anyaoku’s wisdom also came to bear. Leadership requires a lot of tact. Statesmen do not have to be all brawn. Buhari is really learning and fast too. The wrongs of the past could be forgotten. And there is always a second chance. I saw him in Minna, shaking hands with Babangida, the man who swept him out of Dodan Baracks in 1985. That is forgetting the past. You see, they cannot run away from each other. Babangida’s last baby is Halima. Buhari has a Halima too. Aisha is Buhari’s second wife, and IBB’s first child is Aisha. Nigeria is one and we are going to vote Buhari, in 2019, after all these tough lessons. Sai Buhari.
*Obasi is the publisher of Business Hallmark
