Prof Sadiq speaks on the may cause of former president of Nigeria Gen Sani Abacha, Professor Sadiq Suleiman Wali was General Sani Abacha’s personal doctor. Professor Wali describes Abacha as “a quiet person, calm person. He could be really firm on some issues, but normally he didn’t talk much.
Professor Sadiq Suleiman Wali was General Sani Abacha’s
personal doctor. Professor Wali spoke to the press, revealing the details of
Abacha’s sudden de'ath seventeen years after his mysterious demise.
An event in 1998 changed the Nigerian history. By June 1998,
Sani Abacha had ruled Nigeria for almost five years. Isolated by the West,
Abacha had promised democratic elections and a transition to civilian rule by
October 1998, but with just months to polls, all the political parties
nominated General Abacha as their candidate for president.
Professor Wali has served as physician to the three previous
Nigerian heads of state after being reluctantly recruited to that role in the
early 1980-s. He considered himself politically neutral and lived outside the
sprawling heavily guarded presidential complex known as Aso Rock in the capital
Abuja. But he was a fixture in the presidential entourage.
Professor Wali says Abacha’s health was OK just before his
dea'th. “Abacha was generally healthy though he had some health issues, he was
treated, he’s responded [to that treatment] very well. He didn’t have any
heart-related diseases at that time.”
On the 7 of June, 1998
Wali’d been with Abacha, as he hosted the Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat and all seemed well. The next morning General Sani Abacha was due to fly
to the OAU summit being held in Burkina-Faso and professor Wali was due to go
with him.
Professor Wali recounts that “around 6 am I had a phone call
from his security officers, and they said, “please come, come to the villa,
come urgently!” Before I even could get
ready, they came and picked me. I had no idea what it all was about.”
The car carrying the doctor sped towards the presidential
villa through a special entrance – a shortcut which only the president was
allowed to use
The doctor realised something was seriously wrong.
“I arrived then I saw chief security there and he said
“doctor come in, please, come in!” We all rushed and I just saw the president.
There was another doctor who came earlier, resuscitating him. Abacha was in the
sitting room. He was on the couch. He was in his normal work clothes. I didn’t
panic. I’ve seen a lot of serious problems before in my practice, but to affect
him was very tough, definitely. I joined and we did as much as we could to
resuscitate him. But I realised that he was dead because he was fuming. We just
continued resuscitation and even injected some things, but it didn’t work.”
After 40 minutes trying to resuscitate the stricken general,
Professor Wali said General Abacha had d!ed. “I said, sorry – there’s nothing
we can do”.
There was no immediate public announcement, in a country
prone to coups, Abacha’s head of security first increased the guard around the
presidential complex and then called the heads of the armed forces to gather to
decide on his replacement.
“Immediately the security officer took over, and he invited
all the service chiefs to come to Abuja, by then most of them were based in
Lagos.” says doctor Wali.
They wanted to make sure, that he is dead. And some of them
were crying” – tells Wali.
Professor informed the family of what have happened.
Obviously, the sudden dea'th of an apparently healthy head of state raised a few
questions.
Professor Wali was determined that there should be an
autopsy to find out what caused the sudden heart attack. After much
deliberating, the family declined, preferring the quick burial in line with
Islamic tradition. But the doctor was determined to find some clues as to what
have happened.
I still try to take some samples of blood and urine and hair
and things like that, just thinking for the future chemical tests,” Professor
Wali said, adding that “it’s very difficult to say [whether he d!ed of
natural causes]. What I can see. The blood test we did, has
shown some raised cardiac enzymes [proteins that are released into the blood by
dying heart muscles].That’s why we thought maybe it was cardiac attack.”
Every Nigerian has his own theory about what happened to
General Abacha. There are rumours that he has been poisoned, or that he spent a
night entertaining young ladies. Professor Wali conmented on those rumours that
“when I entered [Abacha’s premises], there were no ladies. It might be true but
I did not see them. Concerning the poison, as I said no post-mortem has been
done, so I couldn’t assure whether he was poisoned or it was a heart attack.”
While the generals deliberated on who would take over, plans
were made to take Abacha’s body in his hometown of Kano later that day. It was
decided to finally tell the public what had happened. But the mystery around Abacha’s dea'th still
remains seventeen years after his sudden and unexpected demise.
Earlier Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Chief Security Officer
(CSO) of General Sani Abacha, who was Nigeria’s military Head of State from
November 1993 to June
0 comments:
Post a Comment