Welcome, General Malu
By
This morning, I am on General Victor Malu, the immediate past Chief of Army Staff (COAS). He was the Chairman of the military tribunal that tried and sentenced the likes of Oladipo Diya, Tajudeen Olanrewaju and Abdulkarim Adisa to death for allegedly plotting to dethrone Sani Abacha through violent means in 1997. As soon as Abacha died mysteriously in his sleep and the General Abdulsalami Abubakar regime chaperoned a transition to civil rule to produce the Olusegun Obasanjo regime, Malu was appointed the Chief of Army Staff.
Throughout his career he posted a reputation of a thoroughbred "dog of war". Malu did not have any political posting. Even if he played any role in plotting coups he never had his eyes on "plum" political jobs. This was where he differed from the likes of Babangida and Abacha, who similarly shunned political postings until they were ready to occupy the topmost one – Head of State and Commander-in-Chief. Malu’s tenure as the ECOMOG Field Commander in Liberia and Sierra Leone was a memorable one for the rebels in both countries.
It was probably his keen interest in core military duties, added to the fact that he came from the Middle Belt, where President Obasanjo wanted to beach the strategic defence of his administration, that recommended him for the post of the COAS, despite his role in the coup mess of 1997. Obasanjo must have convinced himself that Malu was sufficiently "apolitical" to help in keeping the military within leash in this fragile period of return to civilian experimentation. It turned out that, perhaps, Malu was "politically obtuse" to a fault. He did not understand the need to "flow" with the administration he was serving. Obasanjo wanted to involve America in his reorientation of the Armed Forces. The President must have recognised the perceived role that America and its agents played in resolving the political stalemate between Abacha and Moshood Abiola, and ultimately ushering his administration into place. America, therefore, needed to help strengthen a process it helped start. Malu did not understand this. Or, he refused to brook it. He saw the new direction as the involvement of the American military in the affairs of the Nigerian military. He felt it was his "patriotic duty" to speak out against it. Analysts read Malu’s position as a preference for the old order, which the British colonialists put in place. This order tended to keep the strategic control of the military with a section of this country and tolerate its intervention whenever the interests of the section appeared threatened.
In addition to that, Malu appeared at the Oputa Commission sitting in Lagos when the operatives of the Abacha security network were "spilling the beans" on one another. He said he did not have any regrets for serving the Abacha regime and he would do it again if Abacha rose from the dead and found his way back to Aso Rock. Understandably, the President sacked him shortly after that. He had to. If he was allowed to remain a moment longer, Malu was sounding like the sort of army chief that the old establishment and their janissaries within the military could use to move against the Obasanjo administration.
When Malu’s house was razed and some of his relations killed during the Nigerian Army’s on-going punitive expedition in Tivland as a result of the killing of 19 soldiers on peacekeeping mission in the troubled zone, Malu said his confidence in Nigeria had been "shaken".
My reading of this statement is that Malu has just discovered that there was something wrong with Nigeria. All along, he never knew. For instance, he did not know that the sack of Odi town in Bayelsa State, which he presided over as the COAS was a macabre display of the ugliness of the Nigerian state. Years of neglect had forced a lot of young people of that vicinity to take up arms against the state. The situation was grave but only the government, with its variety of security outfits, did not know it. So, they sent some hapless policemen, whom the well armed young outlaws merely used as target practice objects. It was then that the state moved into this "enemy territory" and "biafranised" it. Malu did not see anything wrong in running a country like that. Instead, he came out with his famous quoteline:
"If you are my father and you raise a gun on me I’ll take off your head!"
It is an irony of fate that just about one year after Malu made this statement, his kinsmen resorted to murdering a score of Nigerian soldiers sent to keep the peace between them and the Jukun. Since he left the Army, Malu has been suspected to be nursing sour grapes. He was seen, rightly or wrongly, to have thrown his support for the Tiv militias who ended up massacring the soldiers. That was obviously why the soldiers on a revenge mission took their ire to the doorstep of their former service chief.
One thing I have found out is that whenever communal riots or open conflicts take place, especially between rival communities, otherwise prominent people and elder statesmen find it difficult to rise above the petty sentiments. They make themselves available to be used against the other community, which used to look up to them as "our brother" or "our son". It makes one shiver to hear people like Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida, all former rulers of this country, pandering to narrow sectional and religious sentiments that could easily destabilise this country.
This writer’s confidence on Nigeria was lost more than thirty years ago, and he has just crossed his fortieth birthday. He lost it when he was below ten years old. One day he came to school and was told there were no classes. Everybody was to march to the city arena reserved for sports and march past. The elders of the city came and announced:
"We are no longer Nigerians. We are now Biafrans".
Biafra Kwenu!!
Col. Emeka Ojukwu, the brave man with a beard the size of a thick forest, was now our Head of State, another saviour. Bring Gowon’s meat, we’ll eat the evil Munchiman.
Before long people started coming home in thousands. All came with tales of woe about death and injury. Soon, war came and we were on the run from the city. My family and I lived in the bush for nine months before the war ended. I lost four school years to the crisis. We were back as Nigerians all over again. This was 1971 when I returned to school. General Gowon was coming on a visit to Aba in the then East Central State. As school pupils we were lined up major streets and we sang:
We salute you, General Gowon. Welcome to our state. Grace of God we are one.
We did not eat Gowon after all. It was our own threats we ate. Why couldn’t the elders make up their mind once and for all? Are we Nigerians or are we not? Why switch us this way and that?
Years later, I found myself in Niger State as a member of the National Youth Service Scheme. Babangida had just toppled Buhari. In the department I was posted to there was a commitment to the War Against Indiscipline (WAI), which Col. David Mark re-Christened Total War Against Indiscipline T WAI! I threw myself into this war. I came to work by seven and left for home at 4.00PM, or whenever I finished my work. The newsletter the department was producing was handed to me. I wrote the articles, typed, cyclostyled, collated and distributed it. My head of department went on a casual leave for a week. During that period, I was able to produce a better packaged newsletter with N40, rather than the usual N500 voted for every edition of the newsletter. To my surprise, everybody, including the head of department, suddenly lost interest in the newsletter, and that was how it died as a project. When I enquired, my supervisor simply told me that if I wanted to succeed as a civil servant, this was not how to work. That was probably how I lost an opportunity to work in that department. On the last day of my service year, I came into the Director’s office to ask when I would be able to resume for the job I was promised. He simply told me that I had all the qualifications and competence required but I would not get the job because I could speak neither Nupe, Gwari nor Hausa. He told me not to worry. Time would come when I would be the one rejecting jobs.
I came out of it 15 years ago convinced that something was definitely wrong with Nigeria. So, I discovered this problem before Malu. And that’s why I’m in a position to welcome him to the world of the wise.
However, I have not lost confidence in the Nigerian possibility. The country has the ingredients for greatness. We had thought President Obasanjo, given his vast experiences, would be best suited to rework Nigeria. Obasanjo may mean well, but he is not paying critical attention to the important things. He is also using the old wrong methods and allowing the old wrong people to manipulate him the way they manipulated his failed predecessors.
That’s my own worry.