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Sani Abachas' Son Reply to Wole Soyinka

Published

10 years ago

March 5, 2014

If you want to think, speak and act logically then you should know all
three.
1. The law of identity
2. The law of excluded middle
3. The law of non contradiction.
Now let’s look at each one of these and see what they mean in
practice.
1.The law of identity
The law of identity means that things are what they are, which at
first doesn’t seem very illuminating, but wait; it implies also the
following, that things are what they are, whether you like them or not,
it implies that things are what they are whether you know them or
not, it implies that things are what they are whether you agree with
them or not.
*Sadiq Abacha, Wole Soyinka
However, if you don’t like the facts as they are you are going to have
to put up with them, because facts are what they are, if it’s raining on
your golf day, get used to it! Because the facts are what they are and
are often not what you want them to be, like if the traffic lights turn
red when you approach, stop complaining! The law of identity means
that you must adapt yourself to the facts and start your work from
there, it implies that the facts will not bend to meet your expectations.
You must first adapt yourself to what life is and then get to work
changing and improving things in your life, be brave to meet reality as
it really is and not how you would wish it to be.
2. The law of excluded middle.
The law of excluded middle means that you should give a straight yes
or no answer always and there is no middle ground. The law means
that there is no kinda yes and kinda no, there is no ‘sort of’ being
married because you are either married or you are not, you are either
a thief or you are not, you are either on time or not, you are either
living in Nigeria or you are not. The law is the idea that you should
not try to keep all of your options open by staying in the middle or
hedging, when it suits you, like when you accepted an appointment
during IBB’s regime as chairman of FRSC. I bet that was a
military regime you partook in. Please pick one wife and state your
claim 100% to her, pick one idea and go for it 100%! Decide and
commit Sir! There you might find great power and self satisfaction in
the doctrine of decide and commit. No half way measures, no middle
ground, exclude the middle! Here! The law of excluded middle Sir.
3. The law of non contradiction.
The law of non contradiction says don’t contradict yourself simple. If
you say you will be there then be there. If you say you will do it then
do it. Don’t say or fight for one thing and then do the opposite. Don’t
say one thing and then later deny that you said it. Don’t say one thing
and then later contradict it. Be consistent in your thoughts and
actions. Observing someone who was a socialist in the morning but
then became a capitalist in the evening is a textbook on contradiction,
these are two polar opposites, such a person is clearly inconsistent and
is therefore considered a flip flop, confused, easily led or misled or at
best a lunatic who has no clear understanding of the basis of either
doctrine.
Apply these three logics to others with consistency and then you can
ask for the same or expect the same from others, and then you can also
ask for others to deal with facts not fantasy, which is the law of
identity. Ask others to make up their mind to decide and commit. The
law of excluded middle.Then ask others to follow through on the things
that they say they would do. The law of non contradiction.
Sir, I believe brilliance is not perfection. I have grown and watched
you criticize regime after regime and at that young and naive age I
was thinking why wouldn’t this man just contest to be president so that
Nigeria can be saved, I would have defiantly voted for Mr Soyinka
if it would have brought an end to Nigeria’s woes. To my utter
surprise, I heard about your FRSC leadership and how funds were
misused and a great deal of it unaccounted for. “Oh my God! In the
end he turned out to be just the same as everybody else” were my next
thoughts. My hopes for you, all ended up in great disappointment.
Here I find myself defending my father 15 years after his death
because some of you have no one else to pounce on, or rather, you have
chosen a dead person to keep pouncing on over and over again when
you have more than an array of contestants. A coward’s act I
believe. “A common writer” is what I have heard you being referred
to lately, and I believe a mature mind would now agree to such
referrals. With all due respect, there is a great challenge that faces the
country, we have to put our heads together, rather than clashing, our
collective ships must sail in the same direction, let us leave the ghosts of
past contention and face the future bravely as one, criticizing the past
does not help the present or define a path to the future.
You say, with the weight of your sense of history and the authority
you possess on national issues that ” a vicious usurper under whose
authority the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed
out” referring to my late father, you must be growing old, or you
would rightly recall that that president elect you refer to did not die
while my father was alive. Did you slyly change your facts to fit a
history that would better serve your narrative, or are you just plain
forgetful? Either way, it shows you are losing your grasp of reality.
Comparing my father’s leadership to Boko Haram’s current reign of
terror, is a rather cheap shot, you are in no position to examine, judge
and sentence an entire regime based on the information you think you
have, you are privy to almost none of the true facts, what is at your
disposal is at best, hearsay, or were you ever minister of defence? did
you ever sit in during security meetings, evaluate the facts and
subtleties of national security? You remind me of Obama criticizing
the Republicans before he became a sitting president himself, vouching
to put an end to all American occupation, this all came to an abrupt
end once he had access to the briefs and security issues, economic and
political, facing his nation. Surely he did what he could, and history
will judge him. To lead is not to be a rock star, and to be a Nobel
laureate is not to be a an antagonist of this countries legacy..We are
Africa’s leaders, whether we like it or not, we cannot trivialize the
centenary celebration, it happens only once, let
us come together, if only for this one occasion and agree to disagree.
Open rebellion against the current government at this time, on the
manner of the centenary celebrations, for whatever reason, is tactless,
it is not about you, it is about our nation, our beloved country. There
is a time and place for everything. My late father was a Nigerian,
lived in Nigeria and died protecting our interests to the best of his
ability, critiquing placing him on the honor roll, along with many
deserving dignitaries is your right, you have the right to your own
opinions, but you do not have the right to your own facts. Facts stand
alone, regardless of who espouses them, let posterity judge, but you are
clearly politicizing a dead issue, how could you not be? Having an
issue with the naming of a hospital after the late General and leader?
really ? Now ?
It almost seems as if you want to turn back the hands of time, what
else would you like to undo besides the naming of the hospital, would
you like to unmake Bayelsa state, Zamfara state or the others?
What about the advances we made in commerce, reducing the inflation
rate, what about security and welfare, how many projects, hospitals
and schools were created? inflation went from 54% to 8.5%! my father
oversaw an increase in our foreign currency reserves from 494 million
dollars in 1993 to 9.6 billion dollars by the middle of 1997, that is
unprecedented , 15 years after the PTF the benefits are still being
reaped today in Nigeria, What of peace keeping and nation building,
not just in West Africa but the entire continent, restoring democracy
in Liberia and Sierra Leone, all these under my father’s leadership,
are all these not laudable? Or would you like to undo them all. All
this on 8$ per barrel of oil! You have to be kidding me.
You are a learned man, you would have to undo all your learning to
knowingly wish to undo all these achievements! I will be the first to
proclaim that my fathers leadership was not pitch perfect or spot free,
that does not exist, maybe in utopia but not here on this earth, so let us
keep our discourse set in the sphere of reality please, he deserves the
award, and he did not campaign for it, let it go, Sir…and allow
Nigeria to at least bask in our survival and endurance in our growing
prosperity and development in these trying times. I have been accused
of being an optimist, hence, I am optimistic that you will come around
and accept that we can all come together and face the future together,
forgive each other our wrongs while celebrating our rights, I am still
an admirer of your works after all, however, I cannot and will not
attempt to answer your every charge, this is not the time or place, this
is a time for solidarity, if only you were wise enough to grasp this.
I applaud the patience of President Goodluck Jonathan and his
composure and restraint in not having a knee jerk reaction at such a
pivotal moment in our nations history, but you would mar the
occasion, Sir, in the future, please pick your battles, and do better to
safeguard your relevance, Enough Sir!
Sadiq Abacha.