Reminiscences with the Emir Zuru Alhaji Sani Sami

How did your military career start?

Zuru is known to produce soldiers of all levels; I mean the rank and file and ffocer. It is a known fact that we have the highest number of military generals in the country. There is no magic in it; the colonial masters identified the Zuru area because of our cultural activities such as the Uhola festival and the Golmo marriage contract practised within our areas. 

The Golmo cultural marriage contract involves a lot of physical training. The young people who get involved in it run miles and miles to serve their father-in- laws at the farms before they are qualified to get wives. Another one is like a cult association where they train the youth to maintain secrets. These qualities impressed the colonial masters and they got attracted to Zuru people. They saw us as people who were physically fit, honest, hardworking and could keep secrets. For this, they started recruiting our people into the army. That is why we have many people from Zuru in the army today. When I was growing up, many of my brothers were in the army. 

When I was in school, the premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello undertook a tour to campaign for young boys from the North to join the army, especially those in the final class in secondary school. I happened to be one of the beneficiaries of that campaign. 

General Yakubu Gowon was a captain when he came to our school with the then Minister of Defence. They talked to us, demonstrated and showed Gowon in his military outfit. He was well dressed, with a belt across his shoulders. We admired him and were attracted to join the army. 

I had wanted to be a medical doctor because I was a very serious science student, but after that campaign I changed my mind. Those of us who were finalists in the class were successful in the examination for the recruitment into the army. We were 16 in number.  General Ibrahim Babangida, General Abubakar Abdulsalami, Colonel Sani Bello, General Gado Nasko and me, were among the successful students. 

Unfortunately, we lost quite a number of the soldiers during the civil war, but few of us are still around. Five days after I finished my WASC I was recruited into the army. They called us into what was known as the Nigerian Military Training College in 1962 as young cadets. After the training, they distributed us to various countries for further training. I was privileged to go to Britain with few of my classmates. General Babangida went to India, General Duba and others went to Australia, while others went to Ethopia and Canada. I started my military career from the scratch. In 1963, I was commissioned as a second lieutenant by the Queen of England.  After my commissioning I was attached to a school in Britain, where we were polished up.  When I returned, I was posted to the 3rd Battalion, Kawo in Kaduna, and I was privileged to undergo so many trainings. In those days, we must complete the circle before we were promoted. The late General Sani Abacha and I spent three years at the 3rd Battalion. We were classmates and we shared one room. General Theophilus  Danjuma was a major at that time, General Olusegun Obasanjo was a major in the engineering unit at Kakuri in Kaduna, Brigadier Ogbemudia,  who was Abacha’s  O C, was a major then. We were brought up properly and well trained by senior officers. At that time we used to go on public tour to demonstrate what the army was doing to attract people. 

In 1964, General Danjuma led us to a place now known as Taraba. We went to Jalingo, from where we went to the Mambilla Hill. We were the people who conquered Mambilla Hill because that was the first time human beings had the opportunity to get to the plateau and spend many weeks. Army engineers constructed a road on the Mambilla Hill before we returned to Kaduna. On our arrival in Kaduna, there was mutiny in Tanganyika, now Tanzania, so they requested for the assistance of the Nigerian Army. We were privileged to be drafted there from the 3rd Battalion. 

They disbanded their army, so we spent about seven months there to train and polish them. When we returned to Nigeria we underwent many other courses like the Young Officers, 10 Commanders, Company Commanders, Transport, Intelligence, Junior Staff College to Senior Staff College, National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, and so on. We are proud we were well trained. 

I think effort is on to bring those courses back.

Was there any memorable incident in the course of your career?

 The incident I can vividly remember was that horrible coup of 1966. Nobody thought of coup in those days. We were working diligently in the barracks. That coup was unfortunate and horrific. It was our troops they used for the coup and we didn’t know. I shared a block with Nzeogwu. He was in the Nigerian Military Training College as an instructor at that time and he had no accommodation, so we gave him a place at Kawo where he was squatting. We never knew they were planning a coup. They used our troops to invade the premier’s house that fateful night of January, 15, 1966. This is one of the things I usually remember in the army because it was very annoying and bad. It is not something I wish to be thinking about every day. We just pray such a thing doesn’t happen to us again in this country. 

How has the 1966 incident affected the army and the country’s politics?

Certainly, after military incursion into governance, democracy gave way completely to decrees, force and so on. It has affected our lives as a people. We hope to get real democrats who will turn things around and bring us to where we should be. We need proper democracy, not the expensive presidential system we are experiencing now. There are so many countries that embraced democracy, particularly the presidential system, but modified it to suit their purposes. Take Cuba for example, which is close to the United States of America. They did all they could to make them embrace the presidential system of government, but instead, Cuba came up with its own indigenous democracy, and it is doing very well. Many other countries have done same, but we are here dancing, going all over the places, wasting our time and resources. I think we need to think twice about this system of government. We all know that democracy is a good form of government, but we should modify it to suit our purposes because we don’t have resources to be wasting. There are opportunities now, so we should be able to do it and turn things around.

Looking back at your days in the military, would you say the institution you left many years ago is still the same?

 It depends; our set in the 1960s were well exposed, well trained, and we knew what we wanted. We were commissioned as second lieutenants and given commands, a platoon of 40 men, and we knew them in and out. We held each soldier firmly – his children, wife, father, mother and everything. He was just like a family. This type

of relationship is no more because we got involved in so many things that destroyed the system and regimentation in the army. At one stage, every officer wanted to get involved in politics because of material gains.  It was during the Obansanjo administration that many of them who served as ADC, task force commanders, and other political positions were retired to bring back proper regimentation and training in the army. I am very happy that the present Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, is trying to bring back regimentation and training that have been deprived the army. I think it is a complete departure from what obtained in the former administration. The army was politicised and completely destroyed. We have to accept that. With the coming of the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is incorruptible and does not worry about worldly gains as a very discipline soldier, the pride of the army is gradually being restored. He picked the right people and placed them in the right places, particularly the service chiefs. They are doing well now and things are changing for the better. 

Did you have any encounter with President Buhari while you were in the army?

President Buhari was very close to me during our military career. We served in the same unit and fought the civil war together, and we came back together. He was the GOC in Jos and I was a brigade commander in Maiduguri. 

I remember the Chadian incursion into our country. I was very proud of the action taken by General Buhari. He planned the operation very well to dispel the Chadians. They had occupied 14 islands on the Lake Chad side of Nigeria. Buhari mandated me to recover those islands, which I did successfully. We recovered the 14 islands and handed them to the civil authority. I handed the islands over to Muhammed Goni, who was the civilian governor at that time. 

During the military operation we captured many rebels, fighter helicopters, brought down a cargo plane carrying arms and ammunition in Maiduguri, but we released them because of politics during the Shagari administration. They were all in my guardroom. I remember that episode vividly, and I am proud of our action till today. 

The other incident I vividly remember while in the army was the attempted coup by Buka Suka Dimka during the late General Murtala Muhammed regime. I was the commander in Dondon Barracks. When Dimka and some of the misguided soldiers showed up, I did all I could to frustrate their efforts; hence they didn’t succeed in taking over the Dondon Barracks. Nobody has mentioned or said anything about this, but I was the one who did that dirty job. 

I reported suspicious movements to the then Chief of Army Staff more than four times, even on papers I signed, but they did not take action on time. That was how Dimka launched the coup. He could have succeeded if I didn’t run into my office to take action. I arrested six officers, including Dimka’s second in command, Major Rabo. They were all kept in my guardroom. Two other people, Captain Dauda and a sergeant called Yarda, were declared wanted.

They made an attempt on my life in my office, but didn’t succeed. They disappeared. Till today, nobody knows where they are. 

 Also, I always remember those who were arrested and executed for coup attempt of 1985. Some of them were our very close colleagues. The day they were executed was not a good day for us. Many of them were picked up in front of us. The late Mamman Vatsa was my classmate and I was the provost marshal of the Nigerian Army.  I did the investigation of the attempted coup. That was another serious period of my military career that would be difficult to forget. It was a nasty experience. 

What was your role in the civil war?

 I fought tenaciously throughout the war period.  I was at the warfront two months before we started the war. We were training, training and training. I was a young officer. Till today, I and General Buhari still crack jokes on his helmet during the war. The helmet had outer and inner parts. The outer part, which was made of metal, repelled bullets, but Buhari used the softer helmet throughout the war. The last time we met, we joked about it. He said I was shot several times, but he wasn’t shot even though he was using the softer helmet. This was true. I was shot four times during the war, but I refused to die. I was at the hospital many times. And each time, I got better I went back to the warfront. I fought as a company and battalion commander during the war. They used to call the 27 Battalion, which I commanded, The Devils. Those in the army at that time knew about my battalion. Once you said The Devils they knew it was the 27 Battalion. I fought like hell.

I was not married, so I had no commitment and nothing. I had nasty experiences during the war. I give thanks to God that I survived it. We should pray to God never to allow us experience such war again.

When I see people agitating for Biafra I begin to wonder if we had not learnt any lesson from the civil war. Are they calling for another civil war?

God forbid! We don’t want that to happen again. We should sit down and discuss the issue. We thank God that President Buhari gives listening ears to people from different parts of this country. For example, he is attending to the case of the Niger Delta region. Agreed, it was a neglected place, but he is doing a lot to solve their problem. 

Those agitating from the East should desist from it and sit with him to resolve the issue.

Considering your passion for the military, is there any of your children in the army?

 Unfortunately, none of them is there. Sometimes I regret not training any of them to succeed me. But it is not too late because one of them, who is still studying in the UK, went to a flying school. He might be interested. My children are university graduates. But right now, I don’t have a son in the army. I regret that.

How has your training in the army helped you in your position as a traditional ruler?

The experiences I got in the army are helping me to administer my people well. Throughout my career as a soldier I was dealing with human beings. As a commander of different units I had a lot of exposure and the art of dealing with human beings. So coming down to become a traditional ruler was no problem at all. All I needed was putting some touches for them to understand me and make sure I assist my people. There are a lot of economic problems, but I am showing them the way on how to get things right. We work in collaboration with politicians. We also assist government to implement its good intentions towards our people because we are closer to the people. I don’t have any problem fitting into the society because I have seen it all. I had done it before. This is the last stage of my life. 

How do you relax?

I have hobbies which I maintain till today. After all the hassles in the morning or afternoon I retire to my garden. I am a lover of animals and birds. I have a botanic garden, so after my meal I go there to sit and play with my animals. I also love music. I listen to music when I am in the house. I relax with my family and we crack lot of jokes. I tell my children lot of stories about my background, the Nigerian Army and leaders. This is how I relax.