murdered?
William Shawcross and Mail & Guardian reporters
Was Chief Moshood Abiola murdered? That was the question on everyone’s lips in the villages, towns and cities of Nigeria as the human rights organisation Amnesty International demanded a full independent inquiry into the circumstances around the death in detention of the country’s lost president.
“Of all the conditions he had, [a heart condition] was not one of them,” said his daughter, Wuru, fighting back tears in a BBC television interview immediately after the stunning news of his death was released to the world.
The United States said that it would suspend diplomatic moves until it had the autopsy results. Amnesty International stressed the need for a post-mortem beyond any challenge, noting that Abiola was the third prisoner of conscience to have died suddenly in recent months.
And suspicions remain about the circumstances surrounding the recent death of General Sani Abacha, who died last month of a “heart attack”.
It emerged at the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into South Africa’s chemical warfare programme that the “holy grail” of the scientists responsible for developing assassination techniques for the apartheid government was a drug which would kill without leaving any trace of poison.
The deaths of both Abiola and Abacha were suspiciously fortuitous for Nigeria’s military rulers. Although he was reported to have abandoned his claim to the presidency, Abiola still remained a potential rallying point in Lagos for resistance to the military regime. Abacha was seen as a major obstacle for the military in resolving the Nigerian crisis. He was also deeply feared by the other senior army officers, having just sentenced his own deputy, Oladipo Diya, to death for allegedly plotting a coup.
The United States Under-Secretary of State, Thomas Pickering – who was meeting Abiola when he collapsed after drinking a cup of tea – said he was impressed by the willingness of Nigerian officials to conduct an autopsy with outside doctors present.
“It was a Nigerian government doctor in attendance who said everyone must insist on an autopsy,” he said. “I think this autopsy will be done in a way that clearly protects the integrity of the scientific process.”
The US diplomat, who travelled with Abiola to a nearby hospital and watched as doctors tried to revive him, said the timing of the death was extraordinary. But he said it was known that the 60- year-old multi-millionaire businessman was in a poor state of health after four years of often brutal imprisonment. “He had some record of hypertension,” Pickering said. “Both of his legs were swollen and he showed them to us.”
The circumstances in which Abiola was being detained were surreal. The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, was one of the last people to see him alive. He has described how Abiola was watching the England-Argentina World Cup match on television without the sound on when Annan entered the room. When Annan asked the guard to turn up the sound, he was told this was not possible.
When Annan greeted him, Abiola said: “Who are you?” On hearing he was the UN’s secretary general, Abiola was overcome with emotion and kissed his hand.
“What happened to the Egyptian [Boutros Boutros Ghali]?” he asked. Annan explained he had taken over the position in January last year. Abiola had no idea that the pope had visited Nigeria and had pleaded for his release. He had only heard the day before Annan’s visit that his jailer, Abacha, had died. He had been almost completely isolated from the world for nearly four years.
Abiola said he had been allowed a radio in prison for his first month, but in mid-1994 was cut off completely. His guards refused to talk to him and he had stopped trying to get information from them. He had no newspapers and was only given two books – the Bible and the Qur’an. Hoping he was near freedom, he told the Annan that he wanted to visit Mecca to give thanks for his salvation.
Nigerian President General Abdulsalam Abubakar had asked Annan to get a written assurance from Abiola that, if released, he would not immediately declare himself president as a result of the 1993 elections. Abubakar feared massive disruption, with Abiola being hailed in his home area in the south- west, while the northern Hausa controlled the army.
Abubakar wanted Abiola to support a period of transition until new presidential elections in which he and others could compete and Annan found Abiola modest in his ambitions.
Abiola appreciated much had changed since 1993 and he did not want to come straight out of prison into the state house. But he was apparently reluctant to give a signed undertaking. Instead he preferred to meet Abubakar and give his word.
Abiola seemed philosophical. One need not be president to have a life, he told Annan.