By AMECHI. P (Columnist)
Nigerians are a forgiving bunch—too forgiving, perhaps. We’ve mastered the art of moving on, of shrugging at yesterday’s horrors while wading through today’s muck.
But every now and then, a backward glance forces us to rethink what we thought we knew.
Take General Sani Abacha, for instance. The man ruled with an iron fist, looted with a greedy hand, and left a legacy so dark it still chills the spine.
Yet, here we are in 2025, looking at the criminals in power today, and I can’t help but wonder: compared to this lot, was Abacha a saint?
Let’s be real—Abacha wasn’t exactly a choirboy. Billions vanished under his watch, political opponents disappeared into thin air, and dissent was a one-way ticket to a cell or a coffin.
But there was a method to his madness, a twisted order to his reign. The trains ran (sort of), the streets weren’t a free-for-all, and you could at least predict the kind of trouble you’d get into for stepping out of line.
Today? Chaos is the only constant. The thieves in power don’t even pretend to govern—they plunder with abandon, leaving us to pick up the pieces of a nation they’ve turned into their personal ATM.
And who sold us this mess? Look no further than the Lagos-Ibadan print media, that Yoruba-dominated echo chamber that’s been spoon-feeding us half-truths for decades. Back in the day, they painted Abacha as the devil incarnate—every headline screamed tyranny, every column dripped with righteous outrage.
Fair enough, he wasn’t winning any humanitarian awards. But what they didn’t tell us—what they conveniently buried under their sanctimonious ink—was that the alternative could be worse. Much worse.
Fast forward to now. The same media cartel cheered on the “democrats” who replaced the khaki boys, hailing them as saviors of the common man.
They gave us hope, sold us change, and wrapped it all in glossy editorials. What did we get instead?
A revolving door of looters who make Abacha’s haul look like pocket change. At least Abacha’s loot had a ceiling—today’s criminals don’t even know when to stop.
They’ve turned governance into a feeding frenzy, and we’re the ones left starving.
The Lagos-Ibadan press didn’t just report the news—they shaped it, spun it, and shoved it down our throats.
They convinced us that anyone in a suit was better than a man in uniform, that civilian rule was the golden ticket.
How’s that working out for us? Abacha’s era had its share of brutality, no doubt, but it also had a strange stability—a predictability we’ve lost to the lawless free-for-all we’re stuck with now. The media deceived us, and we bought it hook, line, and sinker.
So here we are, nostalgic for a dictator because the democrats have outdone him in every wretched way. Abacha might’ve been a villain, but he was a villain with limits.
Today’s crew? They’re a different breed—shameless, reckless, and utterly unchecked. Maybe it’s time we stopped swallowing everything the Lagos-Ibadan axis feeds us and started asking harder questions. If we don’t, we’ll keep trading one devil for a worse one, and the joke will stay on us.
