In Nigeria Evil Comes in Three Letters By Ayo Turton

I used to wonder why the most notorious evils in Nigeria come in three letters they are patently evil they were subconsciously engraved in our minds as their three-letter compatriots like SIN and BAD. Names like IBB, OBJ, GEJ, SLS, CBN, CJN and NJC have generated a recurrent of absurdities in the Nigerian daily life of recent.

These three letter entities have been great tormentors of the Nigerian people, some of them have been with us for a long time, some relatively recent, we have fasted, prayed and rioted they refused to leave us alone.

IBB
The khaki oriented and bullet sanctioned evil seized power in August 1985 in a bloodless palace coup to unseat his erstwhile partners and seniors in governance whose popularity was becoming waned due to their high-handedness and lack of focus. He initially smiled himself into our hearts by running a populist government. He released most of the people that were perceived to have been unfairly jailed by his predecessors in office, he put a human face on War Against Indiscipline which hitherto was enforced with horsewhips and military brutality; this was when he was known as General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. The carried away Nigerian press affectionately called him IBB. Then the counterparts of the three letters word, SIN and BAD set in and took over. The man IBB went on rampage, the first grave accusation against him was the death of a veteran journalist Dele Giwa through parcel bomb, he opened up our treasury in a buffeted all you can steal fashion to consolidate his hold on power, he started an endless transition program where his exit date was “not a day longer than necessary” but as the exit date suggested he cancelled many elections and annulled the freest and fairest until his over N1 billion Naira (when Naira was money) transition program ended in “stepping aside” As the exit term suggested he did not leave us alone in peace he only stepped aside to torment us the more.

When stepping aside he put in one hapless Ernest Shonekan in power while making sure he “backed” him up with a goggled evil named Abacha. IBB’s plan was for the administration of Shonekan to short-live, a reason he left the goggled one behind to arm-twist him out of power. No sooner had Ernest Shonekan tried to settle down than evil Abacha removed the chair from under him and sent him scampering for safety. The story of the devil incarnate bestowed on us by IBB named Abacha is not the focus of this piece. When the evil one suddenly expire the stepped aside IBB stepped in by working with Abdulsalam Abubakar to take over power and both of them quickly organized to bring out General Olusegun Obasanjo who was languishing in Abacha’s jail, from prison to Presidency.

OBJ
During his first coming as a military head of state, he was simply known as Lt. General Olusegun Obasanjo who kept faith with the transitional program of his predecessor in office Gen. Murtala Mohammed by voluntarily handing over to an elected government. Never trusted by his people due to his many manipulations but in a conspiratorial evil agenda IBB begot OBJ and forced him on Nigerians with stolen commonwealth. In his first term of “democratic” governance between 1999-2003 he started off very well, redeemed the image of Nigeria from being a pariah nation where many embassies were closing down to a darling of investors and a country visited by all powerful Presidents across the globe, from George Bush of America, to the Prime Minister of Britain to Presidents of Japan, Singapore, China etc. Our ever forgiving press got carried away and christened him OBJ- he became possessed by SIN and BAD, evil spirit took over, he started an unending war with his deputy and he wanted a third-term against the Constitution of Nigeria. Our treasury was systematically looted to prosecute this agenda until he was finally stopped by the Senate.
Of course one evil begets another evil, when IBB begot OBJ, IBB believed that OBJ would follow the natural laws of evil by begetting IBB’s return to power, after all one bad turn deserves another, but overtake had overtaken overtake. OBJ would not beget IBB. With a greater evil agenda than the one that brought him in, OBJ gave us a terminally sick President Yar’Adua knowing like his benefactor did to Shonekan that his administration would short-live, because he would not be able to cope with the rigors of the office, he was right, the man died in office, this was a systematic murder of naively stupid Yar’Adua who was married to an over ambitious wife. OBJ finally begot GEJ.
The out maneuvered evil named IBB is furious, that a junior evil has been used by a bigger evil to replace the self acclaimed evil genius. The evil genius decided to take it to the street against the bigger evil they ended up tearing each other cloths in the street in a bout of shame.
IBB and OBJ have more in common than they are willing to admit. Evil has no currency to pay back evil than with evil. IBB should suck it up like a man and quit whining.

The whole civil right community in the country was involved in getting GEJ to power believing that he would give us a breathe of fresh air by breaking from the circle of evil as promised by him. No sooner he became the President that he was christened GEJ. Forgetting that a bad tree will not bear a good fruit, we trusted him. GEJ is a begotten child of OBJ. Before we could say swearing-in, he started buying jets, depleted our foreign reserves and sent a bill to the National Assembly for undercover tenure elongation. Of course the hand of his father OBJ was written all over the bill, he looks too much like his father not be his begotten son, so it was easy for Nigerians to quickly see beyond the façade of “I will not benefit from the seven years single term” mantra of GEJ. We have heard that before, his father OBJ is yet to admit to the open secret of third term tenure elongation agenda.

CBN & SLS
CBN is a victim of circumstances, it has come a long way, worked with the good and the ugly. The day of the BAD is here with us. His name is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS) an activist-banker gone wild! He came into CBN with his own agenda, he started with a fire brigade approach to banking supervision, walking in the path of Shariah, a system after his heart. He dealt with his perceived erring bank Directors with the brutality of Shariah punishment. As Yoruba people would say, O da sheria fun won. He was naively hailed by many.
Seeing how many Nigerians who never liked the face of the banking directors accepted his commando style banking supervision, he decided to take it a step further from the path of Shariah judgment into a spiritual frenzy of a Jihadist, from the Governor of CBN to the Chief Imam of CBN. He wanted his own religion tenets to govern a law made for all and sundry simply known as “non-interest banking” in a secular state. All hell was let loose, he thereby set Bishops against Imams, Obas and Igwes against Emirs, husband against wives, religious institutions against religious institutions - the three letters evil SLS is on rampage at the three letters institution CBN.

NJC & CJN
National Judicial Council was established under a fraudulent Constitution, a book that falsely proclaimed “We the people…” in the opening statement, when it is actually a creation of one goggled evil known as Abacha. NJC composition in the lying book was ill-conceived against the sterling advice of people like Justice Kayode Eso(rtd)The power to discipline erring Judges was vested in Judges, they jettisoned the long established principle of “nemo judex in casua sua” No man shall be a Judge in his own cause. The danger of this composition will sooner than later come into play. This present crisis in the National Judicial Council arrowhead by Justice Katsina-Alu the Chief Justice against Justice Ayo Salami President of Court of Appeal was foreseeable. The hallowed chamber justice has been desecrated by a Judge appointing Judges in his own cause; by the highest judicial body in the country refusing to accept a service of court process upon it and by the body illegally removing the second highest Judge in the nation engineered by the Chief Justice. Another three letters evil CJN is on rampage at another three letters body NJC approved by another three letters evil GEJ. I think it is about time we should drop the use of three letters in this country. OBJ, IBB & GEJ has one thing in common, the Soyinka’s dubbed “nest of killers”- PDP!

Since evil will always beget evil, it should be clear to us why these evils persist. Nigeria itself is an unholy empire; Nigeria was put together by colonialists with evil intentions, operated and nurtured with evil intentions from inception. This is why the country has not been able to generate its own light despite several billions of dollars made from crude oil sales, evil triumphs under the cover of darkness!

Until this evil empire called Nigeria is brought down and on its ruins autonomous regions or independent states that will develop at their own pace are created, this generation and indeed coming generations of Nigerians may never know neither peace nor prosperity.