The Day Governor Nyako Came Under Fire ‘Nobody Condemned my Memo’ How the Governor’s Letter was Discussed at the Security Council Meeting
In an hour-long chat with journalists yesterday, Adamawa State Governor, retired Admiral Murtala Nyako, said, he stood by his memo on ‘genocide in the North’ despite reports that an expanded security summit last Thursday condemned him for writing a ‘divisive’ position on the insurgency.
“I never regretted a bit about what I wrote,” the governor told journalists. “If the president properly evaluates the memo, he should know that I’m his friend, because everything I said is true. It’s your friend who would tell you the truth, because some of the things I mentioned in the memo would count against the president, even after he has left power.”
The governor’s position comes as a shock to many, especially from the backdrop of reports that the Expanded Security Council meeting unreservedly condemned the Adamawa State Chief Executive Officer (CEO) over the allegations he raised in the memo. According to Governor Aliyu Babangida, who spoke to journalists along with other colleagues after the meeting, the meeting cautioned Nyako and other governors against making such allegations in future.
Governor Aliyu had said, “We need to be very careful that whatever we say must either be evidence-based or something that can be authenticated. There is no need to be giving terrorists the opportunity of thinking that they are succeeding. All the terrorist wants is for him to find out that whatever he does is carried out in such a way that people will believe his is succeeding and having some impact.”
Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State added that there was a unanimous condemnation of Nyako’s memo, saying the issue of security was not for the federal government alone, hence it should be a corporate issue to be handled corporately by the federal, state and local governments.
Governor Nyako’s 9-page memorandum dated April 16, 2014 and addressed to the Northern Governors Forum, was quite wordy and replete with words, phrases, clauses and sentences that provided evidence that the former top shot in the Navy is frustrated and helpless as governor of a state where the insurgency is claiming innocent lives. The very first paragraph of the memo set the tone of the 3,016 word position, by accusing the Federal Government of being behind the insurgency and the spate of killings, and alleging that it is orchestrated by the Federal Government. The memo said, “It is a well-known fact that the present federal administration has now become a government of impunity run by an evilminded leadership for the advancement of corruption that is apparently enjoying the protection of the federal administration as a citizen of this country should enjoy, but is being denied by the administration using its mass murderers/cut-throats imbedded in our legitimate and traditional defence and security organisations.” It went further to allege that “The administration is bent on bringing wars in the North between Muslim and Christians and within them and between one ethnic group and another or others in various communities in the region.” To justify this claim, he alluded to kidnappings and murders that have taken place in the North in the last few years, saying such acts could not have endured for so long without the collaboration of security forces. The governor called on the international organisations to intervene in the killings, investigate those behind it, seek compensation for victims and initiate the process for prosecuting accomplices.
As it were, Governor Nyako’s memo is a mild version of a presentation he made at a 3-Day Symposium on Current Economic, Social and Security Challenges Facing Northern Nigeria, in Washington DC, USA Organised by US Institute of Peace - March 17-19, 2014. At that meeting, he raised many questions concerning the precision with which Boko Haram insurgents carried out their attacks.
According to him, “It is now clear to all and sundry that there is an unhindered coordination between the activities of Boko Haram cells and some strategic commanders sitting in some high offices in our national Defence system. How else could there be such timely actions regarding the immediate withdrawal of the Military near vital positions such as schools and colleges with the immediate arrival of Boko Haram squad of murderers. Not only are these withdrawals of the Military and the attacks of Boko Haram timely, it is noticed that such attacks would last for hours without counter response by the Military even if they are located at a hearing distance. We have had cases where a fleet of Airforce aircraft was being burnt by Boko Haram near a unit of the Military, yet the latter did not respond. We have had a case when a retired General and a civilwar hero was being shot to death by alleged Boko Haram attackers in front of soldiers detailed to protect the area, yet there was no response from them. There are numerous other revelations which time would not allow me to narrate. I should, however, add that virtually all the regular Military units in the area are poorly equipped; they have arms without ammunitions and are poorly fed and quartered in spite of the trillions of Naira said to be spent on them by Abuja. In contrast, members of the Abuja-nurtured Task Force being deployed in the areas are better equipped and cared for, perhaps to guarantee that they rain enough havoc on the communities whose domains they are deployed.” NYAKO’S ENCOUNTER WITH JONATHAN AT SECURITY MEETING: Apparently, the expanded security summit which held last Thursday was called in order to confront Governor Nyako over the allegations he made in the memo. Sunday Trust gathered that, at first, President Goodluck Jonathan, after raising the issue, started reading Nyako’s letter to those who attended the meeting. After some minutes, Governor Nyako asked to be allowed to read the letter by himself, since he wrote it. The president agreed. So Nyako read the letter from line to line and at the end of it, remarked that he stood by every word he wrote.
“The governor made a remark after reading the letter,” Sunday Trust was told. “He told the president that he had respect for the Office of the President and his person, hence he neither mentioned the president’s office nor his name. Nyako was in no way remorseful at the meeting; he spoke with a lot of courage.” In the 9-page letter, the governor cleverly blamed the ‘federal administration’ for the atrocities in the North. For instance, on Page 7, he rhetorically asked, “How could we be nonchalant to the activities of the federal administration which is involved in the daily massacre of our young men and women, selected elders and eventually all and sundry?” Governor Nyako avoided any reference to the presidency, police, army or any of the security agencies, perhaps to avoid being branded as making specific allegations against any of the institutions.
Speaking with journalists yesterday, the governor said as a former military officer, it is clear that if any security agency is failing in its responsibility, the first charge is that there is
connivance, saying that the Customs would be blamed for conniving with smugglers if smuggling does not abate; while the police would be accused of conniving with criminals if crime is on the rise; therefore the military would be first charge with complicity if insurgents move freely in a state where there is emergency rule.
Contrary to the impression given by governors who attended the meeting, that the governor was roundly condemned at the meeting, Nyako said it was not true. According to him, after he read his memo to the hearing of everybody at the meeting, no one condemned him. He said it was only the governors of the South-East who raised exception to his allusion in the memo to the pre-1966 Civil War violence. In his write-up, Governor Nyako had said, “We should always condemn any action by any group of people that would set our communities and nation aflame. One is quite sure that if you (South-East leaders) had condemned the cold-blooded murder of political and military leaders of Northern and Western Nigerian origins in the night of 15 January, 1966 by your sons it would not have led to the subsequent massacre of the innocent and the Nigerian Civil War. We should never be silent or tolerant of such action by anybody. We have the duty not to be nonchalant or dormant on the fundamentals of our life. We should never take any ethnic group, however small or unorganised for granted!” OUTCOME OF THE MEETING: Though it was reported that the meeting criticised Nyako over his outburst, several positive steps were taken in order to tackle the insurgency in the North. First, the military was given the marching order to rescue over 200 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, who have been in Boko Haram’s den for 13 days running today. According to Governor Aliyu, the meeting agreed that government should embark on massive public security awareness. He said, “If you notice, many Nigerians have taken many things for granted for a long time, and many people do not think they are part and parcel of what is going on in the country, and that we must leave security issues to security agencies. But all of us, whether in the village or in the city, should know that we must become very security conscious, even in our activities or our actions.”
Also, the meeting agreed to relocate cattle rearers and gazette all grazing routes and areas across the country. Religious leaders were also cautioned against preaching messages that would jeopardise the security of the country. Also, the Defence Minister, retired General Aliyu Gusau pointed out that the meeting resolved that federal, state and local governments should work together to overcome the security challenges in the nation. The meeting also harped on data sharing among security agencies.
Reacting to the controversy surrounding Governor Nyako’s letter Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim, a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) told Sunday Trust that it was wrong for Jonathan’s men to launch a campaign to lambast the governor because Nyako is the Chief Security Officer of Adamawa State.
He said it is wrong for government’s security outfits to arrest, harass, intimidate and allegedly kill innocent Nigerians who oppose the government on the pretext of security operations. He called on the SSS to step up action on ensuring security of lives and property even though they are answerable to the President. Saying the President is also answerable to the people of Nigeria, Alhaji Ibrahim said the allegation against retired Colonel Abubukar Dangiwa Umar is just a smokescreen of the failure of the SSS and the government and a diversionary tactics by the government in rescuing the abducted school girls in Chibok of Borno State.
Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim said when he was accused of being a ‘national security threat’ in the First Republic, he was invited on his return from the Soviet Union to see the late Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, who personally asked him what he wanted the late leader to do in order to develop the country. He said it was in the presence of the then Foreign Affairs Minister Jaja Wachukwu, Joe Iyala and Ambassador Jalo Washo and Ambassador Aminu Sanusi, the father of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
The politician said instead of intimidating him, the Prime Minister decided to dialogue with him, and he responded by saying he wanted the country to develop through communist and not capitalists system. The First Republic government gave him the opportunity for further studies instead of intimidating him.
Alhaji Ibrahim said the way the current government operated with impunity was making it very difficult for people to pass sensitive information to the authority, while questioning the Jonathan government for doing little to prosecute those who have been alleged to have perpetrated acts of terrorism.
Meanwhile, the United Nigeria Forum (UNF), made up of the Northern Coalition for Democracy and Justice, Transparency Centre Network, Northern Emancipation Network, Northern Transformation Advocacy Movement and Transparency Movement, has joined other organisations and individuals in condemning the widely published news report of the memo the Adamawa State governor, Murtala Nyako sent to the Northern Governors Forum (NGF). In the memo, the governor was said to have accused the federal government, led by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of promoting and sponsoring what he called genocide against northern Nigeria.
In a press briefing in Abuja yesterday, the Forum said the Adamawa State governor was not in a position to speak for the North. They wondered why Nyako would make such dangerous allegation against the federal government even when the Vice President of Nigeria, Mohammed Namadi Sambo, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the top echelon of the military are from the North.
“Murtala Nyako is not more patriotic than other northerners. He should know that insurgency in the North did not start with President Jonathan. History shows that it started over 30 years ago. We remember how Alhaji Shehu Shagari was confronted with the notorious Maitatsine uprising when he was president. There were other uprisings like that and Nigeria came out victorious.
“What did the Adamawa State governor say when people were pasting posters of global terrorists like Osama bin Laden and others as their heroes and role models? He did not speak up. He should know that Nigeria is the last hope of the black man. That allegation is very weighty and not worthy of a one-time military governor, a vice admiral in the Nigerian Navy and former Chief of Naval Staff,’’ they said in their separate speeches.
“Nyako’s memo is, to say the least, inflammatory, unsubstantiated and dangerous. It is clearly aimed at inciting a section of the country against their compatriots. It is a call to arms by the Muslim population in the North.
“We are, however, excited by the position of the National Security Council (NSC) after its meeting on Thursday, where they described the memo as outlandish and lacking in evidence. We align ourselves with the condemnations that came from other governors and eminent Nigerians, including Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, chairman of the Northern Governors Forum. Nigerian politicians should desist from making statements and writing memos that are capable of tearing this country apart,’’ the Forum said in a press release signed by Mr. Yunana Shibkau, Comrade Umar Farouk and Abdulazeez Suleman.