Although General Sani Abacha’s rule lasted only five years, compared to Gowon’s nine and IBB’s eight, today when people refer to the military years in Nigeria, what they mean are the Abacha years. Whereas Babangida used bribery and corruption to rule, Abacha used plain, old-fashioned terror. There were more ‘official’ killings, arrests, and kidnappings in those five years than in all the other military years put together. Traditional rulers were deposed, newspapers were shut down and their publishers and editors arrested. Lomba is merely one of the less spectacular victims in a long pageant, whose ranks boast such names as M KO Abiola, former President Olusegun Obasanjo (present Nigerian President), and General Yar Adua (who, with Abiola, was to die in detention). But Abacha finally surpassed himself with the hanging of writer and political activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. Alongside this reign of terror, the looting of the treasury went on as briskly as ever before.

The Economist of 18 November 1995, commenting on Nigerian military rulers, had this to say about Abacha and his junta:

The current gang, under General Sani Abacha, are the worst: repressive, visionless and so corrupt that the parasite of corruption has almost eaten the host. These days the main activity of the State is embezzlement. Unchecked it is likely to end in Nigeria’s destruction.

It almost did.

It was a terrible time to be alive. Most intellectuals had only three options: exile, complicity, or dissent. Needless to say, there was more of the first two than the last. But with the killing of Saro-Wiwa, the world was scandalized. The sanctions mounted. The internal and external anti-military struggles became strident. The name of Abiola became a rallying cry for all lovers of liberty. Abacha had to go: nobody has a right to impose himself over others in this way. It is morally wrong.

But as with most plots that become too tight and unwieldy, a deus ex machina was needed to effect a suitable denouement. It was granted to Nigerians on 8 June 1998, when Abacha died of a heart attack.

What this story tries to do is to capture the mood of those years, especially the Abacha years: the despair, the frenzy, the stubborn hope, but above all the airless prison-like atmosphere that characterized them. This I tried to achieve like most works of historical fiction are achieved: by making recognizable historical facts and incidents the fibres with which the larger fictional fabric is woven: Ken Saro-Wiwa, June 12, Dele Giwa, Kudirat Abiola, the riots, the student demonstrations, and of course the arrests.

But not all of the above events are represented with strict regard to time and place – I did not feel obliged to do that; that would be mere historicity. My concern was for the story, that above everything else.

Helon Habila

Lagos, January 2002