Photo credit: Daily Trust
It’s no longer a secret that the president of Nigeria, Mr Muhammad Buhari apologised to Nigerians and particularly the family of late Chief MKO Abiola for stealing the presidency, for detaining people unjustly and for murdering people.
When I heard the news, my mind flashed back to over forty years ago. I was then a first former. I attended a boys only school. As would be expected boys were boys.
We had this geography teacher, Mr Ogunrinde, who, for every offence committed, would ask us to put our apologies in black and white. Being foolishly innocent or innocently foolish, we would then rush to state our roles in the misdemeanor committed.
The teacher would have encouraged us to even sign our statements after writing our names underneath. The next morning, we would be called out on the assembly to have confessed to committing the offences.
Back to the point of discussion, if the president of Nigeria could open his mouth and apologise, it means the official acceptance of committing various offences.
I will expect lawyers representing the various groups to be working out the damages due to be paid. For instance, I expect the Abiola family to seek reparations for losing a father, the father’s business interests, the sum the father spent on the ill fated elections, the emoluments of a president for the first four years, etc
And I would expect anyone that was remotely affected by the annulment to do the same.
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