BOMBSHELL !!

1985 coup: How I led soldiers to pick up Buhari – Col.
A. Aminu (rtd)
Source: DailyTrust
Retired Colonel Abdulmumini Aminu, Borno state
military governor during President Ibrahim
Babangida's regime, narrates, among other things,
how he led other officers to pick up current president
Muhammadu Bahuri from Dodan Barracks in Lagos
where he was as military head of state.
What have you been doing after your retirement
from military service?
If you may recall, I retired from the military in 1993.
Since then life has been very challenging. I won't say
it has been very bad, but manageable. I was
opportuned in 1986 to be appointed as chairman of
Nigeria Football Association (NFA) and I became
President, West Africa Football Union (WAFU). I was
also a member of CAF, FIFA and the rest of them. You
know I am a lover of football. Well, sports generally
but football in particular. Up till now I am a
stakeholder in football affairs, because I cherish it. I
follow football with passion. I always contribute my
quota in many ways.
Life in military service or retirement, which area do
you cherish?
It depends. When I was in service, I was very young.
For me to say it was not enjoyable, is an
understatement, because it was a very interesting,
exciting experience being in the military and don't
forget, I did a short service course in the Nigerian
Defence Academy (NDA), so I was commissioned in
1969 and matched to the war front, because at that
time, there was dire need of officers. So we did a
crash programme. What regular officers were doing
in three or four years, we did in four months. We did
not have anytime of ours. It was a massive training,
but very interesting. We were happy that we passed
and most of us were interested in serving in the
military.
But on the other hand, if you compare it with
retirement especially for a military officer, they are
two distinct lives. When I was in the military, I held
many posts and after that, you retire. It is not easy
for you to blend with the civil life. In the military
when you are given an assignment or give an
assignment, you are expected to perfectly complete
or adhere to it. In fact, the subordinate in carrying
out that assignment, would be worried whether it
would be done to the satisfaction of his boss. But on
the other hand, with due respect, some civilians do
things the way they want, when they want it, how they
want it and so on. And even where you push them to
do it, you would see that there is some lackadaisical
attitude. I am not saying that everybody is like that
but some people do that and that can never happen
in the military. And that is the beauty of it and that is
why if some people leave the military, they are not
able to adjust.
You had some time in politics. Now are you still in
politics?
I am still participating in politics, but not too active.
At some point you contested for the governorship of
Katsina State but you kept out of this year's election.
Why?
I ventured into politics because today that is the
norm. I like politics. In my state I am a kingmaker. In
the federal government also I am in the higher
echelon. Initially, I was in the PDP in 1999, then in
2003 I was in the UNCP. Before the governorship
elections I withdrew and supported ANPP then. At
that time, I even supported General Muhammadu
Buhari and that was how I was even arrested at one
time and was in Abuja, although the following
morning, I was released. It was on the allegation that
I went to a local government area and stole ballot
boxes and burnt the entire local government.
Anyway, I drove myself to Abuja with the boxes I
carried that they were trying to thumb-print and I
stopped that and I carried some boxes as exhibit to
the headquarters.
The ANPP with other parties transmuted into the All
Progressives Congress (APC). Why didn't you join the
APC?
I had personal grudge. It was not because I did not
like my party. But later I went back to my party. That
was a short-lived thing. Immediately after that, I
returned to the PDP after the elections. People say it
was because I was scared. It was not so. People
always feel that you should be scared. I believe under
democratic setting, you should not be afraid of
anything. The system protects you. It is not a military
administration so I am not scared of anything.
Are you saying this because you have a military
background?
I know I am a very courageous individual but the
issue is I know my rights. Once you know your rights
I think half of the battle is won. I have not stolen
money. I have not done anything wrong against any
government. I am not a saboteur. It's not because I
have a military background. I know my rights.
Nobody can just say you should be arrested. There
must be something for somebody to initiate that
arrest.
You were governor of old Borno State, now faced
with the problem of insurgency. What is your take on
the whole situation?
Unfortunately in most cases in Nigeria today, we
always allow bad things to develop from weakness to
strength. Well, to me, it was supposed to be arrested
right from the onset. For you to allow it to develop
further, then you will find it difficult to contain it.
That's what has caused our problem today. There is a
lot of laxity pertaining to the way the whole situation
was handled. We discovered that there were
complaints about the military being ill-equipped, ill-
motivated, who were not very much supported or
leadership that lacked focus. All these put together
really cause a lot of problems in terms of objectives
of winning any war, whether it is real conventional
war or war on terrorism. You see, you must identify
the problem clearly and you must set objectives and
also the ways and means of how to achieve that
objective with the aim of completely destroying Boko
Haram. But, the government and the military didn't
have a clear cut idea of how to go about it. They
didn't even define the enemy properly. They didn't
even know the intention of the enemy. They just took
them for granted and I know by our training in the
military you don't underrate anybody or any
opponent. An enemy is an enemy because if you
underrate an enemy, then he can cause a lot of havoc
before you realize it. That is the situation we found
ourselves. In the course of my military training, I
never heard anything like 'when you are killed'. It is
said, 'when you kill' because 'when you are killed' is
demoralizing.
Having been a governor in the old Borno State, what
efforts did you make to help mitigate the problem
there?
While I was there, there were a lot of problems in
terms of security. There were a lot of security
challenges in Borno and Yobe and I took it head-long.
There was the proliferation of arms and
ammunitions from the political upheavals in Chad
that caused a lot of security challenges for my
administration in Borno at that time. With all the
security agencies in the state, we came out with an
idea of operating not in a normal way but we had to
adopt an unorthodox method, whereby I ordered the
purchase of two buses used by security personnel in
civil dress and unarmed. That is how we were able to
check the insecurity. They would think that they were
ordinary people and we arrested many of them,
sometimes we killed some. And from there, we had a
lot of information until we checked the criminals and
that was how we eliminated them right from the
beginning.
Would you link the insurgency now to the events of
that time?
The magnitude now is different and the Boko Haram
is beyond local insurgency because al-Qaeda and ISIS
are being alleged to be involved or supporting Boko
Haram in Nigeria and you can't imagine, they are
using armoured vehicles, heavy machine-guns and
sometimes helicopter. So it is not a child's play. I'm
happy that they have taken full military operation to
bring to an end the problem of insurgency in the
Northeast. I recall that in early 1993, during
Babangida's administration, National Guard was
established and I was the pioneer commander. When
it was established, Abacha was vehemently against it,
because the military, the police and other security
agencies saw it as a rival organisation. The military
and politicians were not comfortable. Some say
Babangida established the unit to enhance his stay in
power but that was not the idea. Before it was
established, I went to seven countries that
established similar outfits. When I came back, we
even started sending people for training, suddenly it
was abolished. Believe me if that outfit was allowed
to thrive, armed robberies, kidnappings and all these
would not be, because we could have curtailed them
from the onset. We could have had the intelligence to
discover all these things. That was our mandate. No
security outfit had that kind of mandate and our
training was geared towards that. The essence at that
time was to establish it as a fighting force as well, so
that if there was any attack on Nigeria, it would be
the National Guard who would take the first shot to
stand the enemy. If it gets to the point that they
cannot cope, then the military comes in. I am talking
of an attack against the country. Now, the Nigerian
Security and Civil Defence Corps, with due respect, I
don't even know the role they are playing in the
country. If you have an outfit like that, that outfit
should be able to get some amount of military
training. But I really don't know what they are doing.
Are they doing police work, road safety work or
whatever? For me, that outfit should take the role of
the National Guard to take care of the things I have
enumerated. The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence
Corps should be a stronger outfit. I would pray and
beg that our president should look into that with a
view to making them a very strong outfit that can
perform certain functions. Now, the military is
mounting road blocks and the rest. The respect and
the fear the military earned is gone now.
The last Chief of Defence Staff said some of the
problems he faced were the lack of well-equipped
military to tackle the insurgency. Do you think he
should be taken seriously?
Yes! Because you see at that level especially in the
military, you have to be loyal to the government. I am
sure he made his point before the authority. He must
have made all efforts, probably something was not
done.
So are you saying in essence that the last
administration was negligent in dealing with the
situation?
They took a lot of things for granted. They never knew
it was going to blow out of proportion to this extent.
But as far as I am concerned, the military did well,
the way they started with limited weapons and even
training. You see to fight terrorism is very difficult. It
is even easier to fight conventional war than to fight
terrorism. The insurgents would be in civil dress, be
with the population and you won't know and even
people protecting them without you knowing that
they are your enemies. So, it's a very difficult thing. If
the military had wanted to apply maximum force,
they would have done it, but at what cost? They
would have killed a lot of innocent civilians and
Nigerians would complain and if you do it to save
lives and property they would still complain. It is a
double edge sword and it depends on your real
calculation, how you really plan your own operation.
But whichever way, you stand to be accused of killing
innocent people and there is no war that can be
fought without killing innocent people. But to what
extent is what matters.
At a point in your military career, you were asked to
arrest your superior officer, former head of state,
General Muhammadu Buhari, the present president.
During the IBB coup you were asked to arrest him
and you did. What happened and how do you relate
with each other now?
I must confess that I led that operation. I went to
Dodan Barracks that time in company of two other
officers - then Major John Madaki and Lawan
Gwadabe. Three of us went, but specifically I was the
one that went upstairs to bring Buhari. With due
respect, I have been reading in the papers and
listening to radio, people saying that we manhandled
him, we disrespected him. That was not true. I and
General Buhari are the only two who knew what
transpired upstairs and there was nothing like that.
We gave him his absolute respect as a superior,
because even before that time, we had absolute
respect for him, because of whom and what he was.
We respected him a lot till today and there is no
animosity between us and he knew it was a military
assignment that we were carrying out from our
superior. He even told me at one time. So for us, it is
just like the other way round of when he came to
power during the anti-Shagari coup. I was among
those who played a major role in getting him to
power. So, he knew the role I played. And even
Buhari knew in 2003, I was arrested because of him.
That time, I supported him. I worked for him at that
time, without even him knowing anyway, but he later
knew.You see, once you believe in somebody and you
know he has the capability, you can do anything for
him without even him knowing.
But, is it true that you handcuffed Buhari?
It is a blatant lie. In an operation of that nature, we
don't carry handcuffs. I did not salute him because
according to military tradition and norms when the
flag is lowered, you can only pay compliments the
way you deem fit, not salutation. We met at 2 a.m.
and at that time, we don't salute because the flag is
down, until 6 am again when the flag is up. To
insinuate that he was handcuffed, that is far from the
truth. We only accorded him all the respects he
deserved. I still hold him in very high esteem.
But why you are not with him in the same party?
I left the PDP, which was on a personal ground. I am
in the APC. I have been in APC for long. I and Buhari
met in Katsina before our governorship election.
There was a time you were in PDM?
I have never been in the PDM. But at the early stage
of PDM, when General Musa Yar'Adua established it,
I was a member, including Tony Anenih and others.
That was what metamorphosed into the PDP at that
stage, yes; but not the PDM as a party.
People have expressed worry in some quarters that
President Buhari is slow. What is your assessment of
his administration so far?
To be slow and calculative is a strategy. I don't know
what he might have met. Now, he is in a position to
know how he would govern the country. First of all,
he has to align all the dismantled areas. He has to put
them right because he can't just start doing things
blindly. So, I have no complaint about that, I don't
have any worry about it, they should allow him to do
things at his own pace and to do what he deems fit,
because he is the person on the ground. He is the
one who knows the situation better than any other
person. Besides, we know Buhari is a very sincere
person, a honest, incorruptible person. My advice
here is that, like any other person has been saying,
he should also look for people who are honest, who
are sincere, who love this country and who are ready
to work. He knows them but it is very difficult to get
people like him because most Nigerians are corrupt.
He should know how to pick his team. If he gets the
right team, you would discover that he would do little
and everything would fit in. The government should
pick people even if the president is doing something
wrong, they should be able to tell him. But today, you
discover that a lot of people because they are
corrupt, they see leaders making mistakes, they
would not draw their attention to that, because they
are scared that they would be removed. We don't
want 'yes sir ministers.'
What is your general assessment of the state of the
nation?
For me, I am a Nigerian, I believe in Nigeria, I love
Nigerian and love Nigerians irrespective of who they
are, their religions, tribes or faith and I want
Nigerians to stop discriminating against one another
because we are talking about Nigeria and where is
the strength if there is no unity? When we say unity,
we must avoid being a northerner, a southerner.
Today Nigeria is being supported, respected from the
outside world because of our number. Today, it is not
because of our oil or economic potential that we are
being recognized and respected, it is that number
particularly. That number alone is why some people
don't joke with Nigeria. So we should harness that
advangate into strength by being each other's keeper
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