Until unsolved murders are resolved, and the victims get justice, Nigerian democracy is incomplete
The greatest slur on this present democratic order is the unsolved assassination of Chief Bola Ige, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), killed right inside his old Bodija, Ibadan, home, on December 23, 2001, while still in office.
If there was a most cynical form of execrable murder, this was it. That 24 years after, no one has been convicted for Chief Ige’s murder, mocks our criminal justice system. The chief of the Nigerian criminal justice system couldn’t get justice from the system he presided over! It doesn’t get more perverse and more macabre!
Besides, the hallmark of democracy, over other forms of government, is the centrality of the rule of law. This is why it towers over military junta rule, which is rule by the gun. Ige’s unresolved murder, therefore, continues to mock the place of Nigeria in the comity of democratic states.
The symbolism is ultra-ugly: if our killed AGF could not get justice, what are the chances for other lesser mortals, routinely bumped off, with killers escaping justice?
This is the context of Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka’s umpteenth reminder of that “open sore” that was Chief Ige — to partly borrow the title of one of his essays. He was reacting to the celebration of the June 12 Democracy Day for 2025.
President Bola Tinubu had honoured some democracy heroes — and fittingly so — as part of the celebrations. Prof. Soyinka argued — and rightly so — that inasmuch as many of June 12 heroes are rightly honoured, the Federal Government should add an extra vim to bringing political killers to book. That logic is unimpeachable.
The Nobel Laureate, aside Bola Ige, named other victims: Alhaja Kudirat Abiola; and before democracy, during the best-forgotten years of military rule, Dele Giwa, the colourful journalist killed by parcel bomb, during the junta rule of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
He didn’t specifically mention Harry Marshall, a politician from Rivers State. But Mr. Marshall symbolised the free-killing nest of political opponents, an ugly landmark very early in this 4th Republic, when the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was the federal ruling party.
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So, aside the Nigerian state as a collective, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, under whose presidency the murders of Ige, Marshall and numerous others took place, without resolution, should feel some personal embarrassment, if not vicarious guilt, for being the commander-in-chief then. It was such recurrence of shocking murders, in the high corridors of politics, that made Prof. Soyinka dismiss the Obasanjo-era PDP as a “nest of killers”, after Bola Ige’s murder.
The former president did not help things when verbally, at an event, he appeared to dance on Ige’s grave, by referring to him as one who neither knew his right from his left, on his first power portfolio. This, in all good conscience, could well explain why Ige was shuffled from power (which he knew little about) to justice, his professional forte.
But Obasanjo’s diction was just terrible; and it only helped to flare emotions, especially among the Ige family; and the late charismatic orator’s many lovers and admirers.
Now, to the pre-democracy assassination of Dele Giwa, the man who had the honour of introducing, with his colleagues: Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed and Ray Ekpu; and popularizing weekly newsmagazines in Nigeria, with the defunct ‘Newswatch” Just as the Ige murder, everything in Giwa’s death, by parcel bomb, pointed to some rogue state elements in action.
But if that was explainable — though never tolerable, during military rule: which is stealing power by the barrel of the gun — it should never be excusable during democracy, in which the rule of law — not arbitrary might — sits on the high throne.
Which is why Prof. Soyinka’s call for the case to be re-opened is not out of line. Justice and rule of law are needed to right past wrongs. Now that both are the epitome of democracy, then no government is better armed to correct these historical wrongs and secure justice for everyone.
Fortunately, there is no time limit to prosecuting a murder crime. That means the case file remains as eternally open as possible. Yet, there are great challenges.
Core to every successful prosecution are witnesses. Either for Ige or Giwa, some witnesses might still be around, whether home or abroad, that could give useful clues that can lead to hard core evidence, en route to successful prosecution and conviction.
But in that hope too could lie some despair. Many a core witness may have died, incapacitated or otherwise unavailable, because of the time lapse. That effectively means a blackout — at least from that particular end.
All these are to underscore that the government must show extra resolve if it must crack any of these cases. The only abiding hope here, if indeed rogue elements in past governments tried to frustrate the investigation and trial, by threatening witnesses into quiet, is that threat is no longer there. But again, the government must go all out to underscore that, to show its full resolve. With iron will, nothing is impossible.
Still, the lesson is to strike when the iron is hot. If past governments, military or democratic, had hastened on the path of justice, Ige, Giwa and many other unsolved murders would have been concluded, justice served and firm deterrent put in place to dissuade putative future felons, telling them that for criminals, there is no hiding place.
So, while racing against time to solve these murders, the authorities must impose a regime of no tolerance for unsolved murders. That way, at least, we won’t have any of such cases in the future.
As for the triad of Generals Babangida and Sani Abacha; with former President Obasanjo, under whose respective tenures these unsolved killings happened, that failure is cemented as part of their legacy — and that legacy is decidedly ugly! Fortunately, it’s consigned to the past.
As for now and the future, Nigerian democracy is incomplete with such a hole in the criminal justice system. It’s time to fill that hole and swear never again!
