How I Missed Being Executed..Nigeria's 1st NDA Student

Colonel Paul Ogbebor (retd) was the first Nigerian to be admitted into the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1964 and the only 16 pioneer Cadet One graduates still alive. He was also the commander of the 83 Battalion of the Nigerian Army during the Nigerian Civil War. In this interview with ALEXANDER OKERE (The Punch), the former military head of the Signal Brigade in Lagos speaks about his escape from the post-1976 coup death list, his premature retirement, national insecurity and other issues

As a pioneer product of the Nigerian Defence Academy, what is your assessment of the academy now?

I joined the academy in January 1964 and that was the first time officers were being produced in Nigeria. We must thank (the then Nigerian Prime Minister, Abubakar) Tafawa Balewa and other leaders at that time for choosing to put money in such a thing among very competing priorities. The Nigerian cornerstone foreign policy was world peace. So, they (the Nigerian government) didn’t prepare for any war at all. It was just symbolic having the military for the sake of having it. That was why in the first three years, only 61 of us were taken (admitted by the academy); when there was no other intake because the government couldn’t decide whether they wanted a strong military that could go to war or to have a military for flag showing. It was in our fourth year in the academy in 1967 that another set came in. The NDA was affiliated to the University of Ibadan. So, we sat for what was called the NDA examination, which was equivalent to the National Certificate Examinations or Advance Paper, and later sent to the university.

But now, the NDA is a full-fledged military university awarding first degrees, masters and even PhD. You can see that because of new technologies, the army officers have to be well educated to be able to read, interpret and be involved in research and development in the military. The officers then were not trained for flagship and some rudiments, should there be a war. But the ones there now are trained to go to war because we know there will be war and if that is the case, there will be modern devices. There is no single officer from the NDA today in the Army, Navy or Air Force who does not have a minimum of a second degree. But in those days, 90 per cent of the officers in the military were school certificate holders, except those from the NDA who were NCE holders.

What was your experience in the Nigerian Civil War?

I served in the civil war and had the opportunity of being a pioneer officer to form two divisions under the late (General) Murtala Muhammed. I formed and commanded the 81 Battalion, which went all the way from Lagos to Okene (Kogi State), where we started operations. We captured Auchi, Benin, Agbor and Asaba. It was after our first crossing that we sustained severe casualties, which led to the fusion of the 9 Battalion and 81 Battalion to form the 83 Battalion. I commanded the battalion and was given Warri Area Command. The command extended from Warri to Yenagoa, Escavos, Asaba and Ore. I was in charge of that command at early age and I am grateful to this country for that. It was after then I was moved to Onitsha to capture Nnewi but in that process, Owerri was recaptured and our soldiers were encircled. However, four of us were picked to reinforce the Third Division, with Olusegun Obasanjo as the General Officer Commanding. It was there that I experienced fighting in the riverine area, which is a different warfare. We recaptured Owerri and ended the war after capturing Uli-Ihiala.

Why did the Nigerian army suffer such a defeat en route to Onitsha?

Murtala was a highly intelligent officer who formed a division from nothing. Before the war, Nigeria had two brigades. I was told to form a battalion, which is usually made up of a minimum of 760 people, but I was given only 11 soldiers. I went to Iddo, rounded up some area boys and conscripted some prisoners from the Ikoyi Prison, who formed the 81 Battalion then. We were provided with some ammunition when we got to Ondo and were kitted in Okene. I also trained them in the use of the guns. In three months, they were ready for battle. Murtala, knowing that he was covering a large expanse of land, had a mission to secure the oil areas under the capture of the Biafran army to enable the government to get some revenue. But within a month, we moved from Okene on foot to capture Benin. Three weeks later, we captured Asaba but we could not cross to Onitsha because the Biafrans bombed the Niger Bridge the next day. That seemed to end our journey.

After some consultations with the Army Headquarters, we decided to cross over through ferries. My battalion successfully crossed and landed in Onitsha and started advancing. But unfortunately, the Biafran soldiers intercepted us and opened fire. When we retreated to where we came from, we discovered that our already established bases in Asaba and Benin had been blown up. We did not know how it happened but many of our soldiers died. As we tried to return to the bases, we were either shot or captured. Some of us jumped into the river to escape and many of them drowned. I was lucky to have survived by climbing onto a boat with a bullet wound in my ear and that was the last I knew. It was in a Benin hospital that I found myself later. The casualty figure was estimated to be at about 5,000 soldiers.

How was your encounter with Colonel Dimka?

In 1971, I was removed from the infantry and sent to America to study telecommunication engineering. And I placed in the signals when I came back. In 1975 when Murtala became the Head of State, I was posted from Jos to take over the Signal Brigade in Lagos. But on February 13, some people rushed to my office in Apapa to say there was a problem. They said there had been a coup. So, I mobilised the officers to defend the brigade. It was at that point that David Mark came to say that the Chief of Staff had moved the headquarters from Marina to Bonny Camp. He also instructed us to secure Apapa and establish communication. I got in touch with Kaduna, Ibadan and Port Harcourt. It was then that I was told Colonel Dimka ran away, while others involved in the coup had been arrested. We could not find Dimka and the body of Murtala who was killed, but we saw his official car shattered with bullets. We could also not find Obasanjo. We had a meeting to decide on what to do because the Head of State had been killed. It was during the search for the body of Murtala that Obasanjo got in touch with us. He said he had crossed over to Takwa Bay and asked us to arrange to bring him back. We also found the body of Murtala later on at Obalende before he was buried in Kano the next day. However, on March 19, 1976, a month after Murtala’s death, I was told that the Chief of Army Staff, Theophilus Danjuma, wanted me to appear before a panel set up to try people involved in the coup. When I got there, they asked me what I knew about the coup and General Samuel Ogbemudia. I told them that I knew nothing. They said I should follow them in my car and before I knew it, I was in Ikoyi Prison, stripped almost naked and detained. I was later transferred to Kirikiri Prison for another three months. But one afternoon, they brought me out to say, “Sorry about what happened. We had the wrong information and we have taken the decision that with what you went through, you will not be happy with the military and, as such, you are retired.

You must have felt bad about that and have you forgiven the Nigerian Army?

I felt very disappointed because the military was my life. But my six months in prison helped to orientate me that when there is life, there is hope. In prison, I saw people being taken out and shot to death. They were adjudged to know about the coup after a trial. I cannot say if they were culpable because I did not partake in the coup. Murtala was my idol. The effect of his death has not left me till today. It was later that I found out through a junior colleague that I was number 41 on the list of those to be executed at the Bar Beach in Lagos. I saw that my name had been struck out by General Bali, who was the convening officer, because I had no case file.

So, God saved me because he wanted to change my life and I have forgiven everybody involved in my detention; even one late Adoloju, who (allegedly) forged documents that I was involved in a coup. However, nobody believed him because I had not been interrogated on that. I was only asked what I knew about the people who were brought from Edo State, since a coup would not have been planned without my knowledge. When I realised that God had spared my life for a reason, I knelt down and thanked him.

What is your relationship with Gen. Ogbemudia now?

I take him as a father and I even visited him in Abuja two days ago, where I spent some time with him in the night.

What is your assessment of the Nigerian Army in the fight against insurgency?

The Nigerian Army remains the best trained, educated and exposed officers in the world. Anywhere they have served, they have got accolades. But as I stated in a write-up, it is only the Commander-in-Chief who can declare a war today and the type of war that we should fight is a political decision. The country has agreed that there is an insurgency and the army is doing everything to fight it. Insurgency, itself, means that citizens of a country have conspired and resorted to arms to change the government. It is called a coup when carried out by the military. Boko Haram started being active in 2009 and that was when the late President Umaru Yar’adua was in power. He was a northerner – an Hausa-Fulani – and a Muslim. They could not have wanted to change his government because they didn’t like him.

If you look at it, these people (sect members) are just criminals. The people operating Boko Haram today are just criminals. Otherwise, they would not have shot at the Emir of Kano or killed the Emir of Gusau. Also, whenever they launch their explosives, they don’t kill only southerners, they kill indiscriminately. And they do so to intimidate the government and Nigerians and create fear, so that they can move freely, steal money and get logistics to maintain themselves. Today, the military has been using all the tactics at its disposal but they are not working. Why? They are not working because we are fighting the wrong war.

We are told that people come from outside Nigeria to join some Nigerians for terrorism. By definition, once foreigners come into a country, it becomes an invasion. So, we are fighting a war of invasion. The strategy adopted by the military is also not effective; the terrorists come in, create mayhem and escape across the border. They have a hideout outside Nigeria and they bring foreigners along with them when they come in. We must change our tactics.

The military should adopt a police action, where they can use strategies to uproot the terrorists and then hold the ground. The military has not been doing that; they only deal with the terrorists, leave the ground and return to their barracks, allowing the enemies to come again. They (terrorists) hit the military bases, institutions, banks and cart away money. Again, before the (Biafran) war, the whole of the military was less than 5,000. Within six months, we built up to over half a million. That is what happens everywhere in the world; every military keeps only the nucleus of the soldiers that they can hold and train. But in war time, these soldiers are enlarged. We are told that the total strength of the military today is about 150,000; that figure cannot fight and hold ground extensively because some are fighting oil thieves and kidnappers, while the rest fight bombers. We don’t have enough people fighting the war.

What do you think should be done at this point?

Recall all military officers who retired in the last 10 years to join the active ones today to fight successfully and hold the ground and eliminate the insurgents. War is too serious a matter for novices to dabble into. Also, what we call Boko Haram today manifests in different forms. The other day, ex-Biafrans seized a radio station in Enugu. There are oil thieves and pipeline vandals in the Niger Delta. There are kidnapping and robbery everywhere; these are all vestiges of Boko Haram. There is only one root cause of the problems – the young man who left the university is roaming doing nothing. If somebody can offer him N100,000 to commit that offence, he will do it. To solve the problem of Boko Haram and other allied offences, Nigeria should start creating an egalitarian society.

In the short term, finish the Boko Haram problem by increasing the people on the field fighting and the people should hold the ground. The government should also use the opportunity to liaise with the United Nations to started negotiating with Boko Haram because every war ends on the roundtable. Nigeria must task and finance the state and local governments, as well as traditional rulers to help because terrorism affects everybody. In the long term, make it an emergency to create employment for the youths. Create 30 per cent for agriculture from whatever resources we have, so that we can get the youths involved. Create 25 per cent to improve the quality of education, so that they youths can be involved in national development. Nigerians are dying under self-help. They provided their own water, electricity, security and transportation. The government must invest in all these things. Realistically, there is no reason we should still be reviving the railway lines the British left for us in 1914. At this time, every city in Nigeria should be connected by rail. We have soldiers, prisoners and area boys. Bring them together to build the railway lines. That was how the Americans and British built theirs. The Nigerian Army built the railway lines between Ijaw and Baru in 1965. If they could do that then, is it now that they cannot build railway lines? When the lines are built and the cities are connected, the cost of transportation will reduce.

Is that all to be done?

Again, salaries are too low in Nigeria. As of 1987, the minimum wage was N250 and one naira than was equivalent to 1.7 dollars. If that is multiplied in addition to the ratio of inflation, you will get an equivalence of N60, 000. Then, a litre of petrol was 12 kobo and a bag of cement was sold for N14. Now, the same litre sells for N97, while a bag of cement goes for N2, 000. Can you imagine the rate of inflation? If you do the compilation and take the average, no person should receive anything less than N100, 000 in this country today. That should be the minimum wage. How? It is very easy; just add N50 to pump price of one litre and set that money aside to pay the salaries of all Nigerians from first charge. Then, the money set aside for security votes should be stopped because you cannot create insecurity and use money to fight it. If that is done, there would be a surplus. Nigerians will now have enough to spend and enough to save and take part in the development of their country. The government cannot do it alone.

Nowadays, Nigerians are not involved in national development, they are just living. Also, retirees are treated poorly; that is why everybody in position steals against the rainy day. I advocate that the government should pay all retirees and unemployed a minimum of N25, 000. The excess money should be used to give life to Nigerians. Take the United States for instance; in 1972, there were cases of people burning house and killing other people until government managed to create a formula for the distribution of national wealth. Now, there is no person in America who does not live within and above subsistence. If somebody takes care of your education, transportation, security and transportation, do you need to steal? You don’t need to steal money, so that your children can go to school because all these things are already provided.

Nigeria must also engage in real research like the developed countries like Japan, America and Britain are doing. We can do it because Nigeria has so many brilliant people; so many ideas wasting away because they are not channelled. There are so many researches done in the universities but they are purely to get promotion. After getting promotions, such research materials go nowhere.

What do you think would be the fate of the report from the just concluded national conference?

The delegates have done very well. Left to me, the recommendations should be subjected to a plebiscite and whatever comes out from that should be embedded in the Constitution. The contributions of the over 400 delegates are not enough to speak the minds of Nigerians. If you want to create something that is sustainable, throw it to the whole of Nigerians as a plebiscite.

Do you subscribe to the creation of state police?

State policing is a good idea. Until 1966, we had native police who lived with the natives. They knew people who were strangers in a community and were effective. It is not like bringing a northerner to Benin, where he does not understand the language and the culture. The Police should be constituted by the local governments – not even the state governments – to work within the local governments, while the federal police should remain for federal matters.

What about the fear of putting the Police in the hands of governors?

There is nothing like that. In the military, we call it the fear of being afraid; you just conjure fear and live by it. It is not real. In America, you will find state police. Where there is conflict between federal and state matters, the federal government takes priority.