On 12 June, President Bola Tinubu gave special recognition to a number of former military officers who stood against the Armed Forces’ hold on power, as heroes of Nigeria’s democratic journey. The honour has been a long time coming.
Sambo Dasuki, NSA to President Goodluck Jonathan, also made the list. Dasuki’s case is unique.
For more than 30 years, he has had to take heat for defending both his family and his country.
Ask anyone within Nigeria’s security circles, and you will learn that Bello Fadile is one of Dasuki’s closest friends. Ask anyone within his family circle, and they will tell you his son, Atiku Dasuki, is his best friend.
What no one disputes is that former President Ibrahim Babangida is as close to Dasuki as anyone can be as family.
Sani Abacha, as Military Head of State, was not just suppressing democratic expressions; he went after anyone who represented a semblance of power and authority outside his control.
And Abacha had a beef with Dasuki’s father, so he deposed him as Sultan and put him under house arrest. Sambo himself was forced to retire from the army and live in exile.
When Olusegun Obasanjo became president, Dasuki was first appointed, then later forced out. A retired army general within the government had issues with Sambo’s brother, putting pressure on him.
The pressure remained and turned to Dasuki when he was NSA. But the worst was yet to come.
It’s no secret that it wasn’t in Babangida’s interest for Muhammadu Buhari to become president. Babangida, who Dasuki had to thank for becoming NSA, preferred that Jonathan remain president.
That’s the political interest Dasuki worked to protect during the 2015 presidential election, without compromising the sanctity of the process.
It still landed him in trouble with Buhari, who detained him. In a certain respect, he was locked up in place of his boss.
For as long as he was held, both Jonathan and Babangida couldn’t utter a word about governance. On June 12, Tinubu only assessed Dasuki’s role in opposing Abacha.
And when the president put Dasuki’s name on the list of democratic activists, he was restoring the honour of the Sultanate and the Nigerian Army as defenders of the democratic state.
This is, in effect, a Tinubu ‘truth and reconciliation’ gesture.
