Why I was removed after 30 days in office
Ooni of Ife warned me not to handover Yoruba heritage to FG
The career of the former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Akin Aduwo (Retd) makes an interesting story. Don’t ask why the 30 days he held sway as the governor of the old Western region, was like an eternity in hell. And how did he rise to the pinnacle of his career as the nation’s number one Naval officer and the fourth indigenous Chief of Naval Staff? In this interview by WILLY EYA and VERA WISDOM-BASSEY, the gentle officer who hates to hear the acronym ‘bloody civilian’ opens up on a number of issues including how God saved him from being associated with the bloody coup that led to the death of Murtala Muhammed.
Many believe that things are not going well in the country today; are you comfortable with the state of affairs in Nigeria with particular reference to the economic recession the people are going through?
Well in any country inhabited by human beings, there is always one time or the other that the people go through a recession. Every human being or family at one time or the other goes through a recession. So, it is not like engaging in war and so on. There is problem in the country but it is a temporal condition. Today, I don’t see it as anything except if it results to famine and all sorts of life-threatening situations like the nationwide Ebola we had and things like famine taking place in certain countries that we see on Television. I don’t think recession is an unmanageable problem once it is discovered and dealt with by the government that controls the economy, rule of law and behaviours of citizens. We just pray that this kind of difficult situation doesn’t last for too long as to make people suffer.
You sound as if the situation is not that difficult but people now commit suicide particularly in Lagos where it has become fashionable to end one’s life by jumping into the Lagoon.
People taking their lives is for reasons best known to them, maybe they have something to hide and there is no way to get out of it except to kill themselves.
People decide to kill other people so that they can get their money and the more they get it, the more they continue. Government or God does not create the situation. It is the free will of human beings. Recently, a medical doctor decided to jump into the Lagoon and killed himself. I do not believe it was as a result of economic problems and difficulties. He may have done something and he did not want people to find out.
Perhaps, one of the greatest challenges facing the nation today is the high level of insecurity; as one who has occupied a top security position in the country, what do you make of the increasing level of kidnapping, ritual killings and all manner of violence becoming the order of the day?
Again, when anything happens in Nigeria, we act as if this particular issue is only in Nigeria. The rain could fall and villages are consumed by flood and trees destroyed during hurricane; I don’t know if Nigeria has had landslides but I know that several parts of Nigeria have been flooded. Communities have been driven out of their homes, habitations, farmlands have been consumed but the question is do these things not happen even in the greatest countries on earth including the United States of America. So, why is it that we always think that we are the only victims of natural disasters. It is not so and it is not true. It is only that our own time has come to face this kind of situations. Insecurity is the same thing. How many times even of recent have schools and Universities been attacked; even the British parliament where we came into recognition as a colony was attacked a few weeks ago. I was in London when the recent attack happened. So, insecurity is worldwide; it is not Nigerian placed. Only perhaps, there are some lapses in our readiness and preparedness to face the situations. But we are not the only one and we are not alone in this world.
But don’t you think the insecurity situation in Nigeria has some peculiarities?
I have just told you that many of these things are self-inflicted by laziness, selfishness, envy and a great deal of lack of patriotism. Why should this man have two cars when I do not even have a bicycle? Why should this man be appointed this and that when I have a PhD and nobody is thinking of appointing me? Why did this man make so much money from whatever he does and I am here just praying for my next meal? So, the best thing is to set that man up or to wait for him some place and cut him down. The problem we have that every other country has is unemployment of youths especially. The unpreparedness of governments, national, states and local governments is a problem; paying workers their wages, arrears and entitlements as and when due could be blamed on the governments. What is obtainable among the ruling class is corruption and God does not create that. It is created by selfishness and the abuse of power and this happens from primary schools, Universities, native courts to the highest levels of the judiciary, the legislature and so on. Again, they are not from God but from us human beings. In fact, we are our own problems and enemies.
Somebody I could regard as your colleague, Rear Admiral Ikoli just died under controversial circumstances. The Police say he may have committed suicide while his family is saying he was assassinated. Based on your experience, what do you make of such a highly placed officer dying in that manner?
I read it in papers and naturally I shouted when I heard that such a thing happened but it is under investigation. But how do you react to the assassination of late Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India where I served as Nigeria’s Defence Adviser from 1975 -1977 and a country which I fell in love with. India is the greatest and largest democracy in the world; in that country, there had never been a coup and military takeover of government. At a time, it was regarded as a rich and poor nation but today, India is no longer a Third World country but even a First World country. This is because the people put their energy to make the country what it should be. In spite of the poverty in the country, believe you me the two and half years that I spent there as Nigeria’s Defence Adviser and a year later as a student of the India Defence College, you leave your car outside and forget even to wind up your glasses, unless it rains, you wake up in the morning, your car is still there. At a time, I was on tour of training schools when the Nigerian military personnel were on course and I forgot to lock the backdoor in my residence; I came back and nothing was touched. No entry was made into my house. It cannot happen in Nigeria even if you lock your door and you are away. So, the difference is clear. India has convinced me that it is not poverty that causes all those crimes of theft, burglary and so on. This is because the poverty in India, one needs to be there to see it. The only Indians that commit crimes are those ones living outside the country. If you smuggle a watch into India and you are an Indian citizen, you would go to jail. If you are caught at the airport arriving from abroad, and they notice a watch in your luggage and it was not bought in India, you would be in trouble unless of course you are a foreign diplomat and you have diplomatic immunity to bring in such expensive items; but of course, you have to declare them. So, if we start comparing with other countries, that is when I agree with your question on the peculiarity of the Nigerian situation. We are peculiar to our own style of life. Even our legislators earn more than the most powerful presidents of the world. Members of the Senate and House of Representatives earn more than their counterparts all over the world. And ironically, in other countries where legislators earn less, they serve the people but here where legislators earn more, the people are expected to serve them. We serve them with our votes and they become distinguished and honourables after they win elections. We line up in the rain, sun to elect them to serve us and pass laws that we are to obey but most of the laws they pass, they are the ones to break them. So, who is to blame? Nigerians! Let me divert now; in the last two days, there had been newspaper reports about this and that about a book launched by the former Chief of Army Staff, ‘Vindication of a General’.
That book was launched by one of the most highly respected former Heads of State but unfortunately, I doubt if he read the book before he signed in for its launching. If he read it, he could have seen all the untruths and incorrect statements and contents of that book and all that he, the writer claims for himself that he did not want the former Head of State to become the elected president and Commander in-Chief. He said he was in favour of a civilian from the same zone of the country. If you as civilians, I say that with great respect, I am not one of those who talk about bloody civilians because there are more of bloody soldiers than civilians. We have bloody sailors, airmen and policemen than civilians. I never liked to use that expression, bloody civilian. It is not only incorrect but abusive. I think if anybody knows the pattern of political thinking in the military, that fellow was expecting the civilian he supported because he knew that it would be easier to overthrow that fellow than the former Head of State that he was against. It was not out of love for the civilian candidate but that he wanted to upstage it. He knew it would be more difficult and near impossible to overthrow the ex-Head of State. I read the former president replying him but I did not like that. The former president should have got a much more junior officer to answer that fellow. Obasanjo is glorifying Bamaiyi by replying him directly but that is part of our own self-inflicted situation. Honestly, I believe that the President and also an ex-military man should make an order that any senior military officer who wants to write his memoir should submit his script to maybe the office of the Chief of Defence Staff for scrutiny before publication.
But you know that can only happen if it is backed by a law?
Yes, this is why the script should be submitted to the Defence Headquarters because it is making members of the military to wash their dirty linens in the public. The junior ranks are reading these things. Many of them would be saying what kind of military did we have and we as younger ones have come to join it. The development would start to evoke some confusion in them. There has to be a stop to that. The military has been out of government for over 18 years and if I want to write my memoir, I must bring down the highest ranking officer that played any part in my career. What do you want to gain? It is disrespectful. I read about colonel Ajai who published his reaction to the book because he worked directly with Bamaiyi, the author. I agree with what he said that rank is sacrosanct. What you could not do or say when you were serving under this man’s command, when you were a junior officer and subordinate personnel, you are now trying to make a name by trying to bring him down and in that process cooking up all sorts of lies. It is like coup planning. Why should I have joined the military in order to assassinate the character of my superior officers so that I can take over government or command or to empty the Central Bank of every penny of the nation’s fund? How long do you live on earth to be able to finish N600 million not to talk of dollars and pounds? These things I do not understand. I spent 30 years less about nine months in uniform; the last four years as Chief of Naval Staff under President Shagari whom I never met until the day he was swearing me and my colleagues into office as Service Chiefs. He is a Northern man, a Muslim leader and a politician but the Service Chiefs appointed by Shagari in 1980, all of us Army, Navy and the Police were all Christians. And none of us was from any state governed by his party. Can you imagine that! I am a Yoruba man from the West and I was appointed Chief of Naval Staff; Gen Akinrinade is a Yoruba man from the West and was appointed Chief of Defence Staff. Sunday Adewusi, a Yoruba man, was appointed the Inspector General of Police; Gen Dialo from Gongola state, a Christian was appointed Chief of Defence Staff; Dominic Bello, Chief of Air staff again from Gongola State. All those states of the appointees were not ruled by the National Party of Nigeria(NPN), the party in power then. We were all Christians, so we never followed him to the Mosque. But since then, everything has been happening upside down. Senators have been climbing the fence to get to the National Assembly. All these are self-inflicted. Again, these things happen in Latin America and many African nations’ legislatures. So, again, it is not only in Nigeria but our own should be our biggest concern.
Why did you steer clear of politics despite the fact that many of your colleagues, retired army officers, control the nation’s political landscape?
If there are about a 100 people or you are a member of a family of 10 children, you cannot all be the same. I did not join the Navy to become a politician and it is not the first time I would say this. My appointment as the military governor of the Western State was the saddest appointment I ever had in the Nigerian military.
Why do you say so?
It cut me off from my career. It took me away from my love for the Navy. You would find it very difficult to understand but when you are especially in the executive branch and you are commanding a ship manned by human beings, equipment that cost the nation a lot of money, it is a great responsibility. And even as a captain of a ship, whatever wrong it may be and the operational situation demands it, you can shoot a human being and throw him overboard if he is an obstacle to the operation you are carrying on. You as captain if necessary can condemn the marriage of one of the members of your ship company. If it happens that you are in a foreign land and there is no way you can permit one member of your ship’s company to go home and get married, you have the powers. So, you are like a Bishop; you are like a Cardinal and the day I was like two weeks in rank as a lieutenant, I had to take control of the command of a ship and from there, you start to develop an attitude of responsibility. The safety, welfare of the men that serve under your command are your responsibility and I grew to love this. In war, I have never been so lucky. My staff were always praying for me; people were even pleading for them to be drafted to my ship NNS Ogoja at that time. And from the rank of a lieutenant to be drafted to go and be governor in a place I knew nothing about, it was not easy. It was not that I do not know the state because I come from there but the politics at that time was not easy to handle. They were calling the Western states at that time the wild, Wild West. It was not my own making. I went on my knees from the moment I entered that room with bullet holes. It was the Premier’s lodge because the Government House was not ready. In those bullet holes on the walls where the military coup plotters chased Chief S. L Akintola, the Premier of the Western region from the large bedroom with three air conditioners to the basement, believe you me, the first three weeks, I was sweating. It was not an easy thing but my prayers were answered exactly 30 days after I entered that room. I got a call and I did not know whether it was a call to safety but somehow my prayers were answered. I got a call to withdraw from the Government House back to the service for reasons best known to my appointing authorities.
There is a report that you disobeyed the order to handover the then University of Ife to the Federal Government. Why did you do that?
So, you have been investigating me. That was the truth. I did not refuse but military orders are different from political actions and decisions. I was in a strange environment. You cannot for instance just walk into my living room and say move this cupboard and table here and there without first asking who owns it. If you remove them without the owner’s permission, what does the law call that; stealing. I did not want to be accused of stealing something that does not belong to the authorities that had ordered me to handover the ownership of the property. If it was something built by the Federal Government for that state and the state was not looking after it well and the Federal Government wanted it back, that I would have readily brought back to the original owner but this was an institution planned, financed and completed and run by the state government to which I have only just been appointed military governor. I must find out who owns this thing if I give it away to the Federal Government. What would be the reaction? So, I was then returned to the service when I did not handover the institution.
But in all of these, did you have any regrets for the decision you took that time?
I have no regrets and I thank my God that really put me on the path of good reasoning, consultation and collection of advice and suggestions that resulted in my being adjudged too slow even as I was not charged with disobedience.
As a matter of fact, when I reported to the Chief of Staff, Supreme headquarters who later became the Head of State (the then Head of State was assassinated in 1976), and I was introduced that this is Captain Aduwo, late Murtala Muhammed stood up, moved towards me as I saluted, shook my hands and said I don’t want you to think that what has happened has any effect on your career. It was like ice water was poured on me. As he shook hands with me as I saluted, I staggered and almost fell down. He said you are a good Naval officer but we think that the speed with which you are carrying out your governance, you have been overwhelmed by the political problems of the West. He said you are hereby recalled to the service and that the Chief of Staff and the Navy Chief would find a place for me in the armed forces. At that moment, honestly, till I got there, I did not know what I had done wrong. As I left my house that morning, I had told my wife that if I did not come back, I may be in Kirikiri and I would send for anything I needed. When I was going that morning from my house in the Railway compound of Ebute Metta, there was no Okada then but two Press cameramen were there and they asked, ‘Captain, why did they remove you, did you embezzle money?’ I just wound up my glass and left. At the Dodan Barracks, they opened the gate as soon as they saw my flag. So, it was an experience. I was appointed into a political office and what is politics, it is for the welfare, consultation and governance of the people. And all I was doing was consulting the people and the founders of that institution. I could not have just come down from the airplane, started making orders and go to the bank and withdraw all the money of the state there. Is that governance?
But within the short period in office, how were you able to manage the so called wild, wild West?
I consulted a lot. Agbekoya was a lesson to learn from. Among my consultants, people would say Your Excellency, be very careful. The then Ooni of Ife said to me that the University of Ife was located in Ile Ife not because it was the only land available but to honour Oduduwa, the progenitor of the Yoruba existence. He told me that if you now handover the University located in his homeland to the federal military government, an institution built with the sweat of cocoa farmers, how would you explain it to the Yoruba people when Ahmadu Bello University is still in the hands of the Northern governors and states that established it. He said being a Yoruba man, you would be the man that would hand over the University of Ife in Oduduwa land to the Federal Government. In fact, it was the most nasty appointment I ever had but God is wonderful and guided me in the decisions I took.
If I had been in Ibadan and later on, it was announced that the federal military government had taken over that University, they would say it was Aduwo who gave it out. And if Obasanjo had insisted that I work in Supreme headquarters with him and refused my request to be appointed to India, when Murtala was assassinated six months later, I would have been arrested. They would say this officer who was removed from his seat as governor would be part of that coup.
India was my saving grace and my Oga, Obasanjo’s eventual support in approving all those requests for me was all an act of God. Six months after I got to India, I never saw Murtala alive again, a Ghanaian officer told another Nigerian officer on course together who phoned me about the coup, saying they listened to the news on the BBC. I was on tour of some training schools in Southern India. Everything just happened like a miracle around me.