DAUDA MUSA KOMO, remember him? He was the soldier who struck fear into the Ogoni people of Rivers State as their administrator between December 1993 and August 1996. To the Ogoni, the native home of renowned playwright, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed with eight of his kinsmen on November 10, 1995 by the Abacha junta, Komo was a terror.
The execution of the Ogoni 9 was a bestial act carried out under judicial cover. History will remember Komo’s role in what culminated in their execution. Komo’s tenure in Rivers where he was born in 1959, and died last May 30, left Ogoni worse off. The scars he left in Ogoni are still as visible today as they were then because of the way he handled things. He was more interested in working with Shell, the multinational oil firm, than the people.
As Fela sang in one of his popular songs, Komo left the military trademark of sorrow, tears and blood (STB), in his trail after his exit from office. Since that incident which happened in 1994/95, Komo has been in the black book of many Nigerians, irrespective of where they come from. But this same Komo who acted more as a dictator is now being painted as a democrat by a fellow officer, the irrepressible Col Umar Abubakar Dangiwa, who deserves the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) that he got. As a witness to the June 12 history, I can attest to his role. That is a story for another day.
Komo’s name appeared prominently on Dangiwa’s list of army officers who fought for the revalidation of Chief M.K.O Abiola’s mandate, but who were not given national honours during the celebration of Democracy Day last June 12. Dangiwa too was not among the honorees, but the President corrected the omission later by giving him CFR. In his reaction to the President’s decision, Dangiwa said there were other officers deserving of such honours too, and listed Komo, among them.
To Dangiwa, Komo was a democrat at heart. However, he looked more a dictator, a terror, and a nightmare in the face to those he was supposed to lead in Rivers then. It is obvious that besides Komo, there are other names that would not have made it to that list, if it had been compiled by other persons, regardless of their profession. The post-June 12 actions of many officers on Dangiwa’s list did not portray them as soldiers of democracy; they acted more as opportunists when fortune smiled on them. I am not here to bùry anybody, but to state the facts as they are.
This is a matter that is in public domain and which was witnessed by many who have come of age today. We know of some of the things that Dangiwa wrote about, though we were not in the barracks with him. We got tips about those who wanted the election results announced and Abiola formally declared winner; as well as those who did not want the election upheld because a court had stopped the poll; and those who wanted Abiola arrested and detained, with the key thrown into the ocean.
Above the level of officers listed by Dangiwa as June 12 ‘heroes’ were their superiors, the Generals, who were also said to be in favour of Abiola taking office. These Generals were not on the list. It was believed then that if these Generals had their way, they would take over from the maximum ruler Ibrahim Babangida and hand over to Abiola, who was duly elected President on June 12, 1993. But Sani Abacha took over, and nothing of sort happened, to the shock of many, who had in their benign ignorance, counted him among those Generals.
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What did we not hear then? Just wait, you will see. As soon as Abacha comes to power, he will invite Abiola and handover to him to form the government. This ING (interim national government) led by Chief Ernest Shonekan is what it is fidi e (interim), it won’t last. Awon soja ma gba s’egbe, wa gbe ijoba fun Abiola, eyin ema wo (soldiers will kick ING aside, bring in Abiola and hand over to him and end this interim nonsense). These and many more were the tales the public was regaled with.
So, when Abacha removed Shonekan on November 17, 1993, the people’s expectations were high as they looked forward to him handing over to Abiola. It turned out to be the beginning of the nation’s long night – four years of the locust that only ended following Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998. Abacha sent Komo to Rivers to do an hatchet job. Komo executed it with clinical efficency, using his sidekick Major Paul Okutimo to make life hell for Saro-Wiwa, especially. It was Komo’s and Okutimo’s poor handling of things that fueled the Ogoni crisis. It eventually led to the unfortunate killing of the Ogoni 4 in 1994, an act that appeared to have been orchestrated to get Saro-Wiwa.
Saro-Wiwa and Abacha were no strangers to each other. They served together in Alfred Diete-Spiff’s executive council in the state in the late 60s and early 70s. Saro-Wiwa was a commissioner, while Abacha was then a military commander in Rivers. You will think that they should be friends, but it was otherwise. Abacha could not stand the sight of Saro-Wiwa. Thus, he needed a trusted officer to send to Rivers to stop the environmental rights campaign, gathering momentum then, which was championed by Saro-Wiwa and Ledum Mitee, among others. Mitee escaped the hangman’s noose in 1995, as the court freed him to give a semblance of a fair trial of the Ogoni 9.
Komo fitted the bill, and he discharged his mandate to his master’s delight. What Komo and Okutimo did in Rivers between 1993 and 1996 paved the way for the Niger Delta crisis which engulfed the oil-rich region in the early days of the return to democracy in 1999. Komo might have fought for the revalidation of Abiola’s ‘sacred mandate’ as the business mogul himself put it in the heat of the fight for June 12, but he changed course when he became Rivers administrator in December 1993, barely five months after the annulment of the election.
Dangiwa, Komo and others might have fought for the restoration of June 12, but some of them did not stand to the end. They changed gear when they became politically exposed. Only a few remained true to their commission to the end. No matter what some people, whether as soldiers or politicians might have done for June 12 in the initial stage of the struggle, once they capitulated thereafter, they they no longer deserve any honours. As the scriptures say, only those who persevere to the end will be saved. Likewise, only those who stood on June 12 to the end, should get national honours.
It will be absurd for anyone to suggest today that Abacha be honoured for fighting for June 12 when he did not do the needful when he had the opportunity to do so, no matter the impression he created that he believed in the cause? Like him, others, many of them his subordinates later got into political office, either elected or appointed, and messed up. Such people too deserve no national honours. Some even traded their mandate for political office, and got away with it. Their betrayal of the June 12 cause does not justify the honour they got. But then in life, some get luckier than others, no matter their misdemeanours.
This does not mean that everybody should benefit from their betrayal of a cause they once fought for. Komo, who was from Kebbi State, is dead now. God rests his soul. Since the June 12 saga will outlive those of us who witnessed it all, it is important that things are put in perspective for the sake of posterity. By the way, another officer who deserves to be honoured for his stand on June 12 is Major-General Ishola Williams. I know his time would surely come. These are the kinds of officers we should celebrate, and not those who either as politicians or soldiers traded with June 12.