By Kemi Kasumu, General Editor

The DEFENDER gave former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, an impromptu phone call on Wednesday June 27, 2018 but was not picked.  But, seeing the missed call in a short while, he called back.  Why was he called?  Why was the phone call impromptu?  Being the nature of how The DEFENDER practices its journalism, getting down to the earth moving very close to the people, inside a Cyber Café in Ikeja (address withheld), its reporter met two elderly men both claiming to be Afenifere members.  One of them gave his full names and we know him in the area and his street is even named after his name.  But he appeared to be more restrained in the argument that later ensued as he claimed to be a member of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).  The other man simply identified himself as Mr. Adesina and he said he is also Afenifere member.  To convince his small audience, he showed his phone contacts which revealed great Nigerians like General Alani Akinrinade, Frederick Fasehun, Gani Adams, Ayo Adebanjo, etc, and followed it up with whatsapp groups he belonged to with those names including that of Confederates.  They both agreed with themselves that Obasanjo/Afenifere/other coalition parties arrangement was the best way to go to uproot the “Fulani from Nigeria’s power corridor”.  They meant President Muhammadu Buhari did nothing in three years and that any Yoruba who votes for him in 2019 votes for Fulani and so will have betrayed his Yoruba tribe.  What sparked this journalism work was where, responding to question of how Afenifere betrayed MKO Abiola over June 12 since their attempt now was how to neutralize the joy of Yoruba over President Buhari’s resolve on June 12 and honour of Abiola, he said, “the story that Afenifere betrayed MKO Abiola over June is the lie told by Al-Mustapha”.  He was promised with an instant call to Al-Mustapha which was what happened.  Major Al-Mustapha was engaged in this impromptu media interview based just on that context.  Excerpts:

The DEFENDER: You have told Nigerians many things about June 12, MKO Abiola, the role of Afenifere leaders and other issues as regards the involvement of your late boss and Head of State General Sani Abacha.  But currently I have a man who says he is a member of Afenifere and that you have said nothing but pure lies.  Before media man like me gets confused, how would you react to this?

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha: What are the questions?  Let me know what he said (hearing the Afenifere man shouting on top of his voice during the telephone conversation).

“The skeletons in the cupboard of those who are destroying Nigeria are too much for the typical intellectual Nigerians to understand.  And I pray they will accept to invite me to discuss Nigeria.  I pray so.“

The DEFENDER: On the accusation that Afenifere was the one who betrayed MKO Abiola, he said it was according to Al-Mustapha, who he said was actually trained abroad to come back and tell lies to Nigerians in Nigeria. If this is true and you have always told us the opposite, how should that come from an officer that had benefited from the magnanimity of the Nigerian nation?

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha: My brother, I have spoken severally, I have spoken in many places and I have no cause to tell any Nigerian lie, no matter how big, no matter how small.  What we require in Nigeria is the truth and nothing more.

Those who found themselves in position of power used to play with the senses of the people.  Unfortunately the more they stole, the more they ruled the country, the more they sent wrong information to mislead Nigerians.  Those are the people I am fighting against.

We have distorted our history with nothing.  If Mr. ‘A’ has said something to you, calm down, don’t act until you have listened to the other person that something was said to you about.  And even before you act, you should put the two sides on scale to see where there is  a reasoning and where the truth actually stands.

I am not only talking, I am talking with facts.  I am talking with video and audio recordings.  I am talking with people who are high up there and I refer to them as ‘referants’.  I am not the type that talks about himself, I don’t like to be tolerated, I am also not planning to be.  My family is very well known.  Everybody knows the Hamza family.

My brother, I have said so many things and I want to see that person who will put me wrong on anything that I have said.  And, besides, I have not said anything yet.  There are many bigger issues that we will bring to the fore  to educate Nigerians.  They are making fool out of our intellectuals, making fool out of our people!

Look at it now they are going to publish some names from 1998 till date, according to an American company, there is a verification exercise between the Europe and America about $1.8 trillion.  We should wake up, unite and be focused as to who we are and what we seem to be.  That is what I am talking about.  I am not talking about myself.  I am not the type that talks rhetoric.

If he (the Afenifere man) hates me, if he is driven by the propaganda of yesterday, nobody will stop me from asking, why? Why?  He has the right to choose to abuse me based on what he read in the papers.  And if what he read in the papers is what he is basing everything about, then I will not blame him because it is what he saw and there are people who sponsored those stories and they are here.  Those big men who sponsored those stories are today scared to even meet me.

I met one of them, who ruled Nigeria, yesterday (Monday June 26) in Kano, where we went to pay condolence visit to one big man who lost a person.  When he saw me, he ran away physically.  Why not stay and shake hands with me?  Because he knew they were the ones that were telling Nigerians lies.

I can’t tell lies to anybody.  I can’t run to anywhere.  I am not telling all the details because of sentiments, even in court of law.  I was in Lagos for 15 years.  All the things that were happening in court, people do not know it because media refused to take them.

The DEFENDER: Anyway, the Afenifere member is talking from the standpoint of the latest coalition with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.  Are you trying to say that it is because they want to justify their support for Obasanjo’s coalition they are now talking this way?

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha: My brother, let me tell you something, tell the Afenifere to ask Obasanjo to have audience with me and let that be on the television.  Let him discuss national issues with me face-to-face.  Let the Afenifere speak to him to meet with me on television in Ota and let them send their report to me.  I am not running anywhere and I am still here and there is nobody that I fear.  I have gone everywhere and I have said nothing but the truth.  We must speak the truth.  That is what I want!

I have most of my friends in Yoruba Land.  If they begin to say, “You are Hausa man, you are not Yoruba man”, any Nigerian is a Nigerian.  I have parents all over.

My brother, one gesture that Afenifere man should do for me in the name of God Almighty is this: Call Obasanjo and tell him, “(On what you have told us about Abacha and June 12 and MKO Abiola) Why don’t you have audience with Al-Mustapha on television?”  If the Afenifere people of Yoruba Land think that I have told any lie, let me appear with all of them on television any day, any time.  Very simple!  If I have told lies, by now everybody would have known.  I told you something in 1998 and I am still saying exactly the same thing.

But, in fact, we have not even said anything.  Anything we said, for example, at Oputa Panel, consider it a pull of a drop out of the drum.  We have said nothing.

The skeletons in the cupboard of those who are destroying Nigeria are too much for the typical intellectual Nigerians to understand.  And I pray they will accept to invite me to discuss Nigeria.  I pray so.

The DEFENDER: Okay, thank you for this conversation and I promise you that I will help you to pass across this challenge that you have thrown.  What about that?

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha: Okay my brother and I look forward to that.