VIEIRA & WAIE OF GUINEA-BISSAU, WHAT A DOUBLE TRAGEDY?

As another African leader bites the dust, the whole world is trying to make sense out of the double tragedy that struck the tiny West African country of Guinea-Bissau. Her President Joao Bernardo Vieira 69 (right), and Chief of Army Staff, General Tagme Na Waie (below) were respectively killed within just a few hours apart. The former by 5.00am Monday March 2, 2009 and the later on Sunday March 1, 2009 night?

The marauding and rebellious soldiers which took the life of the president were reacting to the act of violence authorised, sanctioned and carried out by and on the orders of the late president on their chief of army staff. According to available information, the chief of army staff was bombed to death in his official quarters on the direct orders of the late president? Icheoku says, what a brutal taking of law into ones' hands both by the president who instigated his own very demise and the amok-running khaki-boys who wasted him in retaliation! Why must a sitting African president always see himself as a "god" who can, at his whims, take the life of another human-being without first going through due process? In a way, Icheoku some-what accedes to the riotous soldiers show of instant justice, at least to prove to these African "demi-gods" leaders that they are not all that supreme!

If the chief of army staff did something wrong, where was the president's Commander-In-Chief's power, with which he would have relieved him of his office; rather than the primitive act of "shooting him between the eyes"? The chief of Army staff was, before any-other thing, a brother, a husband, a father, an uncle and a tribesman to so many Guinea-Bissau people; so why would the late president think that his action will not elicit a response? This is especially so in Africa, where tribal loyalty far exceed any allegiance to any oath of office, and revenge-killing is somewhat viewed as very honorable; and coming just a few hours after the state murder of an "innocent" Chief of Army staff makes it more "worthwhile". According to law, one is innocent until proven guilty, so without any form of trial, the Chief of Army Staff would be adjudged innocent.

Icheoku says, the Chairman of ECOWAS Mohamed Ibn Chambas assertion that the killing "is not only the assassination of a president or a chief of staff, it's the assassination of democracy", is an arrant nonsense as the president is not by himself the democracy in Guinea-Bissau but a mere product of the democracy and in his absence, another president will be elected. Also, if only the president had realized that in a democracy, there is a thing called rule of law, may be he would have not authorized the brutal murder of the chief of army staff and by so doing would have been alive today. The army sustains democracy in any given society and to simply kill their chief of staff without any cogent reason and in total disregard to due process, was the biggest insult on the Guinea-Bissau Armed Forces and peradventure, they reacted accordingly, as expected. Admitted an eye for an eye makes the world go blind, but Jesus Christ minded us that he who kills by the sword goes by the sword!

The Guinea-Bissau armed forces spokesman Samuel Fernandes, spoke well when he vowed that they "are going to pursue the attackers and avenge ourselves." Icheoku says, now that they have avenged the death of their chief of staff, may they allow democracy to continue to flourish in Guinea-Bissau and remain the brave custodians thereof, which they are! Be that as it may, Icheoku commiserates with the people of Guinea-Bissau on the double tragedy of their army chief of staff and president's violent deaths.