The following opinion was originally published in The Sun Newspapers on March 28 and 29 2004 by Col Dangiwa Umar and titled ‘My Arrest, Detention and Retirement’. Col Umar’s retirement from the military was rather sudden. Many who followed the event wondered why without finding any useful answer. If there was a fine officer whom I thought would reach the peak of his military career, it was Umar. How he suddenly retired into Ostrich farming kept me guessing.
I nevertheless thank God for sparing the life of this fine officer and for keeping him in good health. In Igbo, there is this saying that “after the men fight the battle, the women bear the tale.”
Today, many of the unsung heroes of democracy are unrecognised and treated as enemies by the system. The recent publication of General Ibrahim Babangida and his expose of the events that led to the June 12 annulment reignited my interest in the treatise by Col Umar which I plead to republish here with little redaction as a tribute to the fine officer and gentleman.
Before digging into the timeless piece by Col Umar, let me seize a moment to commend Gen. Ibrahim Babangida for writing his memoir -A Journey in Service and for also setting the record straight about the 1966 Coup which has been the reason for the continued Igbo victimization. Kaduna Nzeogwu, the chief plotter of the coup was ‘an aboki as aboki can be’. His coup wasn’t an Igbo coup but an idealistic agenda by young officers principally to install Pa Awolowo as President. Awolowo was the jailed opposition leader and irritation to the conservatives.
According to Umar, towards the end of September 1993, I was summoned to AHQ by the new COAS, Gen. Aliyu Gusau. As soon as I entered the Chief’s office, I sensed something was amiss. Gen. Aliyu wore an unusually stern look. He did not even ask me to sit down when he went straight to the point. He said to me: “Dangiwa, you are my junior brother, I have always taken you into confidence and I am now your Chief. You had been plotting a coup for some time now and you did not tell me. Why? The Minister of Defence has even shown me the coup speech you prepared for him.” How could one start answering such a question?
I retorted by asking since he was not part of the plot, how did he expect me to inform him? I refused to denky anything but I told him that his source, the Minister of Defence, Gen. Sani Abacha was my co-conspirator. I was led into an adjacent room where Ahmed issued me a paper and instructed me to write my statement. I asked on what subject. He said the coup they are talking about. I told Ahmed that in that case, I did not need to write any statement because both the minister and he were fully conversant with the subject and should be able to brief the COAS better.
I was mad. I felt betrayed. How could anybody think of arresting these principal officers who were only ready to selflessly serve the cause of justice? I pleaded with Ahmed to please help in setting them free. I promised I would take responsibility.
The news of my arrest spread so fast throughout AHQ. Many officers rushed to the Chief’s office to confirm. Those of them who were involved decided to meet Gen. Aliyu. They were led by Gen. Tanko Ayuba and the Chief’s Military Assistant, Col. Jaafara Isa. These officers proved to be the men of great honour and moral courage. They briefed the Chief on the genesis of our struggle and its aim. They confessed that they were also involved as Gen. Abacha and a host of others were. They intimated him of their willingness to give themselves up instead of watching me made a scapegoat.
The general was shocked and near tears when they narrated their story. He called me back and told me that he had been briefed by some officers on my case. He ordered that I stay with the DMI while he went to consult Gen. Abacha. He came back after about 30 minutes and instructed Ahmed to put me under house arrest at the Bauchi State Liaison office where I was putting up. We were driven to the guest house where I stayed overnight under arrest.
I was surprised to get a call from IBB who was informed about my arrest by Gen. Abdulsalam. I didn’t know the telephone number of the guest house so I wondered how he was able to get it. He asked me what was happening and I just told him I was under arrest. I promised to brief him later, which I did when I was mercifully released. I was also told that he was shown the coup speech I wrote for Abacha, which contained among other things, our reasons for toppling his government i.e. to reverse the decision to annul the June 12 election and to swear in the winner of that election.
Ahmed came for me the next morning at 9 a.m.
He took me to the office of the Chief. Wearing a more relaxed look, the General told me that I would be seeing Gen. Abacha by 12 noon. In the meantime, he asked me to join the Chief’s conference, which I was supposed to attend as still the Commandant of ACCS
Gen. Abacha’s M.A, Col. Yakubu Muazu who was also a member of our group, sent for me when the minister finally arrived at the usual time around 1 p.m. I waited up to 5pm before being called in. I saluted and the General made one eye contact with me and henceforth fidgeted with his papers throughout our discussion, which lasted about ten minutes. He told me in his cracking voice that security misinformed him about my independent plot to topple the ING and assassinate its members. He was now convinced that there was no truth to this, but since I had earlier applied for voluntary retirement, they had decided to accept.
They had also decided to appoint me as Nigeria’s ambassador to the US and promised to assist me with some oil contracts. When he was through, I thanked him so much for showing leniency and for his offer of appointment which I would reject. He agreed and promised to contact me later. I took my leave and that was the last time I met Abacha. We did what all honourable Nigerians are expected to do under similar circumstances. I, a Hausa Fulani, made a great personal sacrifice in an attempt to ensure that a Yoruba man was justly allowed to exercise his earned mandate. To me, Nigeria would be a much better place if more people adopted this attitude and became less parochial in their outlook.
Of course, the starting point in this argument is the role of the IBB regime. If it had not annulled the June12 elections, there wouldn’t have been the need for any struggle. But if after it did, Abacha had truly behaved honourably, our first attempt would have succeeded.
If Gen. Obasanjo did not support the annulment by his submission that Abiola was not the Messiah that the nation was waiting for. Gen. Obasanjo at that point was a man of huge international stature. He was the most respected former Head of State both at home and abroad on account of his identification with truth and justice. A word from him against the annulment would have made all the difference. But then he struck the mortal blow.
Believe me, many members of the de-annulment group, including Generals Abacha and Diya, drew attention to the Obasanjo statement to demonstrate that Abiola did not enjoy the support of the political elite and did not, therefore, merit all the sacrifice we were calling for. Had all these forces opposed the annulment, this country would have been saved from Abacha’s misrule.
But then, personal interest was made in these tragedies. It is therefore not difficult to see why the heroes of that struggle are not even recognized by the system, which their painful struggle helped to bring about.