AMG @ 80: Glimpses and encounters with Mr Mystique

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THestory was told at the onset of the Fourth Republic in 1999, about a challenge which confronted the media, as it sought to commence reportage of the new era. President Olusegun Obasanjo immediately after he was inaugurated, rolled out a list of top government functionaries who were to serve in his administration. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, Ufot Ekaette, Abdullahi Mohammed, Abu Obe, and a few others, were to serve as National Security Adviser, ( NSA); Secretary to the Government of the Federation, ( SGF); Chief of Staff to the President, ( COS) and Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, ( HCSF), respectively. With relative ease, the press sourced the photographs of all the new appointees, except Gusau’s! Some publications resorted to illustrations of their concepts of the man, having exhausted searches and excavations in available libraries and archives. But Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was no stranger in Nigeria’s sociopolitics, hitherto principally defined and administered by the military. He had functioned at command and leadership levels of a plethora of critical and strategic military subdivisions and security organisations and agencies, through times and seasons. He was a member of the nation’s topmost decision and policy- making organ, the Armed Forces Ruling Council, ( AFRC), in the hey- days of the Ibrahim Babangida military presidency. He is easily one of the nation’s most versatile, experienced and decorated patriots, in a most eventful career which began in 1964. He was involved in mutations of governments in Nigeria at various times, including working assiduously to berth our subsisting democracy and stabilising it. By nature, intuition and grooming, however, he had intentionally opted for discernible anonymity.

My first ever encounter with Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was at the instance of the highly respected economist and media practitioner, Onyema Ugochukwu in 1998. Gusau was one of the statesmen who crafted the co- option of Obasanjo into the presidential race that year, in the immediate aftermath of the latter’s release from prison in June. Obasanjo’s jailer and former military helmsman, Sani Abacha, passed on June 8, 1998. He was promptly replaced by Abdulsalami Abubakar, erstwhile Chief of Defence Staff, ( CDS). Abubakar committed to the accelerated return of Nigeria to democratic rule. Obasanjo’s liberation threw up conjectures amongst statesmen and the top brass of the military establishment.

The South West of the country remained implacable following the annulment of the “June 12, 1993” presidential election won by the charismatic multi billionaire, Moshood Abiola, by Babangida. Abiola would further pass in very hazy circumstances, while in military incarceration. In Obasanjo, the ruling military found a double- sided brand which fitted into their strategic thinking. Obasanjo is from the same state, in the same very aggrieved South West geopolitical zone. He was military Head of State from February 14, 1976 to October 1, 1979, when he handed over power to a democratically elected President, Shehu Usman Shagari. Throwing Obasanjo into the presidential contest since Abubakar had sworn to a fast tracked transition programme it was believed, would assuage the South West. Consistent with military esprit de corps, it was also presumed Obasanjo will be protective of the martial constituency to which he previously belonged.

Gusau it was who proposed Onyema Ugochukwu as Director of Publicity of the Obasanjo Presidential Campaign Organisation, in the run up to Obasanjo’s formal declaration for the top job, November 1, 1998. Both men had a longstanding relationship preceding the advent of the Babangida milieu during which Gusau featured prominently in multitasking security capacities. The press enjoyed quite some adulation by the reading public and the state, given the media’s role not only in information dissemination but also in shaping public perception. Ugochukwu had edited various publications within the stable of the Daily Times conglomerate, in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, ( UK). He also once served as President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, ( NGE), which won for him multisectoral bonds and relationships.

I was subsequently drafted into the Obasanjo project by Ugochukwu, as Campaign Press Secretary. I travelled and traversed the country with Obasanjo on his “political consultations” and subsequently, the breathtaking campaigns. Gusau was in the background, ensuring the electioneering proceeded seamlessly. While the Publicity Directorate functioned from Oluwalogbon Motors in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, Ugochukwu’s earlier official address was at “No 10, Lees Road,” Ikoyi, Lagos. Segun Ayobolu, one of Nigeria’s brightest journalists and political scholars and my respected colleague from the Daily Times of old, worked with Ugochukwu as Resource Person. On one of my visits to Ugochukwu’s Ikoyi office, I got a hint about Gusau’s broadminded generosity.

Gusau owned the office complex and used only one suite. But he availed all the other suites to his friends and associates including Ugochukwu who retired from the Daily Times in 1994. Kayode Are, a retired army Colonel who served as Gusau’s Military Assistant, ( MA) when Gusau was in the military, and Funsho Kupolokun, previously controversially retired from the former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, ( NNPC), occupied other sections of the building. Gusau is from Zamfara. Ugochukwu, Are and Kupolokun are from Abia, Ogun and Ondo.

Obasanjo was to undertake a world tour after his election early 1999, to alert the world about the immediate onset of democratic governance and to enlist global support for his forthcoming regime. I was detailed to draft a press release to this effect, for mass dissemination. The delegation included: Gusau, Donald Duke, Ahmed Muazu, Olusegun Agagu, Ojo Maduekwe, Abubakar Rimi, Ad’obe Obe, Oyewole Fasawe, and a few others. Reading the list over and over, I noticed the absence of a journalist. I thought to myself: Who would report the world tour? Instinctively, I pulled out from our Oluwalogbon office and drove straight to Obasanjo’s Ita Eko home in Abeokuta, where he sometimes stayed after the election, alternating between that and his reputed Otta Farm.

As I approached Obasanjo’s home, I met him standing outside the gate of the place with Gusau, Andrew Young and Carl Masters. I walked briskly to the quartet and greeted them and whipped out the global tour delegation list as I engaged Obasanjo. I made my observation and he studied the list and agreed with me. He immediately called Gusau’s attention to the document. Gusau ran through it and concurred. He then asked me: “Who in your opinion from the Directorate of Publicity should be on the trip?”

Olusunle, PHD, poet, journalist, scholar and author is a member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors ( NGE).

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