Ephemeral Nature Of Power; The Case Of The Bamaiyi's Brothers

NOBODY REMAINS IN POWER FOREVER

In the 90's under Gen. Sanni Abacha, there were the very famous and feared Bamaiyi brothers, Musa the senior, and Ishaya junior, from Kebbi state, and were referred to as the Zuru Generals. They were the first Generals from same parents at the same time in the @HQNigerianArmy. While Musa was a Muslim, Ishaya was a Christian.

Musa rose to National prominence when he was appointed Chairman of the @ndlea_nigeria by Gen Sanni Abacha in 1995. He was a no nonsense General who revolutionalized that agency.

It was under his tenure as NDLEA Chairman that the late afro beat King, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was arrested on the allegations of illegal drugs, alongside about 100 others, when the NDLEA raided his shrine on January 14, 1997. Unfortunately, he died on the 17 of April, 2007 at just 58.

Ishaya on the other hand, was Commander, Lagos Garrison Command, until Abacha appointed him Chief of Army Staff (COAS) in 1996. He was reputed to be one of the Abacha bad boys.

He was accused of the attempted murder of @GuardianNigeria newspaper publisher, late Alex Ibru, on Feb 2, 1996 and was later charged by the @followlasg after his retirement in 1999, alongside Abacha's former CSO, Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha and others. They were in detention for 9 years until they were discharged and acquitted on April 2, 2008.

During the era these 2 brothers were in power, there was hardly a time you turn on the TV or radio sets that you don't hear about either both of them, or one of them. They were about the most talked about and most feared family in Nigeria at that time outside the Abacha's family.

Not even Gen. Oladipo Diya, who was Chief of

General Staff and de facto VP to Abacha at the time came close.

Today, though Musa is dead, Lt. Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi is still alive but a lot of Nigerians don't even know about his existence, while majority of those who remember him, do so only for the negative reasons.

The story of the Bamaiyi brothers and many others should teach any sane human being that power is transient, and don't last forever. Only what you did with the power, POSITIVE or NEGATIVE last forever.