Reminiscences with Alhaji Gambo Magaji

Alhaji Gambo Magaji was born in 1947 in Dukku, a community in present day Gombe State.

The former chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) also served as a director-general of the Federal Civil Service Commission during the General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida era, until the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, removed him. He was also a member of the Civil Service Reform Committee on Rationalisation of Government Ministries and Parastatals. Prior to his engagement in the federal civil service, he had several positions in Bauchi State under various administrations. He shares his experiences with Daily Trust on Sunday.

How would you describe your early days in life?

Growing up was very interesting. Unlike today when materialism is the order of the day, during our time, everybody was their brothers’ keepers. You could find one man in an area who would be the disciplinary officer of all the children around. And nobody would quarrel with him because he disciplined his son or daughter. This is no longer the case today. We took so much responsibility. We took our teachers as brothers. We also took some of them who were elderly as our fathers. There was no discrimination between your father and other people’s fathers.

We lived in a very interesting community. People ate in groups, based on their age brackets. Everyone brought food from their houses and we ate together. There was no discrimination whatsoever. The kids grew up that way. You could hardly differentiate brothers and sisters from different parents.

In the morning you would wake up and go to the Qur’anic school, come back to prepare and go to elementary school. After school, you would come back and take food or whatever it was, to your parents or seniors in farm. When you came back home you would take whatever you could get for animals, and later on go to the well to draw water and bring to the house in the evening. After that, you would go back to the farm and take the utensils you took there, as well as take some firewood to the evening Qur’anic school. This used to be the order of the day.

I recall that at that time in Dukku, in the night you could see flames all over the Qur’anic schools; but unfortunately, today it no longer exists.

You received western education when it was not easy to come by, especially in the North, how did you do it?

I started primary school in Dukku in 1956. I went to Gombe Senior Boarding Primary School in 1960 and completed junior primary school in 1962. I went to Bauchi Provincial Secondary School from 1963 to 1967. In 1968, I went to Abdullahi Bayero College, which is now Bayero University, Kano (BUK). I graduated from the university in June 1972 and reported for work in Maiduguri on June 12, 1972.

In the whole of Gombe we had only one senior boarding primary school, now science secondary school. And you had to pass an examination from primary four to senior boarding primary school.

My first day was very interesting, I won’t forget that day. Immediately we came, 72 of us were called outside the compound, asked to raise our heads to look at the roofing aluminum sheets. We were asked, “Do you have these in your houses?’’ And you dared say yes. We said we didn’t know, so we were all put in a straight line. The first person was asked to slap everyone of us and sit. We gave ourselves 71 slaps and were told that we had left our fathers’ houses and came here to be disciplined. We had to obey the rules of the day.

Two days later, we were attached to seniors as their batmen in the army. You had to wash their clothes, make their beds, and the rest of it. That was in class five in the boarding primary school for you. We respected our teachers. When we saw them riding bicycles we would push the bicycles. They would stop paddling and we would be the ones to push them to their houses.

We felt happy because we thought we were doing something to our teachers. We were also looking forward to the days when we would have our juniors doing those things it for us. That was it.

Did you have many job opportunities?

Before my university education, I worked as an engineering assistant in the Department of Works in the Gombe Native Authority from February to September 1968. Before I completed my exams, I had four jobs waiting for me. I was offered an appointment by John Holt as a manager trainee. I was also offered appointment by the then Public Service Commission of the Federation as a foreign affairs officer 07. There was an appointment by the North-East as an admin officer. I was also asked by the university if I was interested to stay as a graduate assistant, but I decided to move to Maiduguri, based on the advice of my late cousin, Uban Doman Gombe, Magaji Muazu, who was the director of audit in the North-East. At the time, only very few graduates were admin officers, so I took his advice.

You attended the Australia Management College, Melbourne; can you share your memories?

It was a Commonwealth scholarship and only two of us from Africa – myself from Nigeria and the other one from Kenya. Majority of them were from the Middle and Far East: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan. Most of us there were on permanent secretary grades. It was just like what you had in the United Kingdom.

It was like what you have in the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Nigeria. It was interesting. That was my first time of having the knowledge of computing. We learnt a lot about letters management techniques and a lot of them. That was also the beginning of introduction of computer usage in administration and other aspects of human development.

The programme was just for six months.

You were an engineer assistant in the Gombe Native Authority, what was your responsibility?

I was the best science student in my secondary school and the intention was for me to go to the then technical college, now Kaduna Polytechnic, to study Civil Engineering. There was nobody in charge as the person there had left the Native Authority and they were trying to get somebody who could replace him. I was chosen, but before the time came for me to go to the technical college, I got admission into the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and left.

In the Department of Works in the Gombe Native Authority, we had engineering, roads, rural water supply, carpentry and masonry. We also had mechanical workshops. What I did was to coordinate their activities. Where there was need or anything, I put it up to the councillor for works there.

In ABU, seven of us were selected to undergo training. Then, you had to spend two years to do a preliminary course to get the university’s requirements. And you had to get three A-level papers. If you got one or two, you would undergo the one year preliminary training programme.

Those of us who were selected were put in one class. We met those who had already spent one year – those who had one or two papers in advanced level but could not get three. All of us were put in one class.

Surprisingly, I was a science student but I studied History and Islamic Studies.

How would you describe your job as an assistant secretary in the Ministry of Establishment and Training? 

It was interesting. We reported to the military governor’s office. In 1971 we had an argument with the then governor of the North-East, the late Musa Usman. We wrote a very nasty petition against his government. Unfortunately, that petition was brought to me to process. It was more or less an intimidation, but I refused to divert from what was written. After two weeks, I was posted to the Department of Establishment and Training. There, we were the ones dealing with circulars, rules and regulations of civil service.

Would you share your experiences working under a military regime as a civilian?

There were challenges. As a civil servant, if you want to be honest and straightforward, you must face challenges. But I enjoyed working with Musa Usman. I was there from June to August, 1972. In August, a new ministry was created from the governor’s office, Maiduguri, and it was tagged, Economic Planning and Political Affairs.

I was posted to the ministry and made an assistant secretary (political). My responsibility was writing speeches, organising press conferences and handling technical issues for the government, and so on. That was my schedule.

Usman (may God have mercy on him) was very hardworking and honest. There were challenges, but what I did was always to tell him the right thing. I didn’t care whether what I said would hurt him or not. And that earned me respect.

Were there issues of fake discharge certificates at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme?

During our time, there was no issue of fake corps members, so we did not record fake certificates. You dared not even think of anything like that. It was later that such things started happening. The scheme started in 1973, so they were very few. The whole of North-East could not get more than 200 members.

In fact, it was between 1976 and 1977 that holders of the National Certificate in Education (NCE) were mobilised for the scheme. That was the time I was a senior inspector.

The problem is beyond students and the rest of them. The main problem is that there is debasement of morals; that is the issue. Unless we reinvent ourselves and ensure that morals are brought to the front burner, we will continue to have these problems.

When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was created, I was the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the defunct ANPP. I said the then President Olusegun Obasanjo was trying to deal with only one aspect of the problem, which is even less dangerous. The main problem is the debasement of our morals. That is the biggest corruption. It is the cancer we have. If somebody had morals he would not think of corruption. This is the issue.

In those days, if you saw somebody living above his means, people would find out how he or she came about such things. During our time, corruption was punished, even in the civil service. You hardly saw a civil servant living above his means.

We have to reinvent moral issues. Today, if you steal and go back to your village, you are hailed as a hero and given a traditional title. And you are always in the front row in the church or mosque. They make sure you are always recognised.

We need to understand that no matter how you acquired your wealth, you will meet your creator one day and account for it.

I can tell you how I joined the civil service in 1968 and how I got to my position and what I have. But today, somebody who just graduated two or three years ago is already looking at what I have. And such a person will forget that I have even retired from service. People want to get rich quickly, that is why they are cutting corners to make ends meet. These are the problems. We have to reinvent ourselves.

Unless we deal with the issue of moral corruption, the other aspect will be there with us.

How would you describe your days as secretary to the Local Government Service Commission?

The Local Government Service Commission deals entirely with staff matters. In 1976, I happened to be the deputy secretary to the committee that created additional local governments in Bauchi State. We had Bauchi, Gombe, Katagum, Misau, Jama’are, Tangale/Waja, Ningi, Das. We later had 7 in Bauchi, 6 in Katagum and 4 in Gombe. I was tasked with the responsibility of deploying members of staff to the newly created local governments. After that, I did not stay long there. I was moved to the Government House as principal private secretary.

What is the status of the tin industry on the Plateau, especially looking at the issue of rationalisation?

The issue of rationalisation came about because of the high exchange rate of the naira then. We produced a ton of raw materials before they became metals. We were producing a ton of raw tin at N9, 600. And you would take it to the melting company, where you would remove impurities and gases. By the time you added melting charges, 14 per cent royalties you paid to government and other things and took it to the tin metal exchange market, it would be sold at 9,300pounds. And the exchange rate was 70kobo to $1.

It was $1.3 to N1, and N1 was 70pence. When the naira was introduced in 1973, it was N2 to 1pound and N1.5 to $1. So, you can see that if you had a strong currency, there must be something to back it up. What backs up a strong currency is strong production; and we are not a productive country, we are import-oriented. So, you would discover that after calculation, you were producing at a loss because of the artificial strength of your currency. We thought of what we could do to maintain production and sustain the survival of the five tin mining companies at the same time. So what we did was to rationalise and put them under one company. We dispensed with members of staff we did not have use for and disposed those assets we did not need so that we did not have to go to the bank to borrow.

When you are rationalising, it is an issue of survival. You need to retain some so that the company can survive. Or do you leave them so that the whole thing collapses? You have to choose. The choice was for us to make the industry survive. So the only thing was for us to rationalise and at the same time maintain our position as a member of the International Tin Council (ITC), where we are members up till today. That was what we did.

In 1980, we wrote a letter to the then government to look into the exchange rate of the naira because we believed the currency was artificially strong. And the consequence was that government was inadvertently subsidising whatever we were importing. It was like we were borrowing, and we said we would pay the loans. And when the time came we would all be crying. And this is what is happening today. Today, N360 gives you 1$. This is what we saw between 1980 and 1981. We foresaw it coming.

As a former director-general of the Federal Civil Service Commission, how would you compare what happened during your time and what obtains nowadays?

I can’t talk about what happens there now because I am no longer there. Immediately I reported in November 1990, I met a lot of problems, particularly illegal appointments, promotions etc. Many things pertaining to staff matters were taking place. And whatever every ministry did, wrongly or rightly, was recorded in a gazette. Once that was done, it would become law.

So, what I did first was to write to government’s printer, telling him to stop gazetting anything that had to do with federal civil servants unless he saw my signature. I also realised that in the civil service itself, some states were over-represented whereas some were hardly represented. So, what I did was to call for a nominal role of members of staff of the federation – state by state, grade by grade level. At the end, it came out clearly which states were well advantaged and which states were disadvantaged. That was the beginning of trying to balance the system morally. You can call it federal character or whatever you want. But people didn’t want it, and that’s the truth. That’s what gave birth to what is today called the Federal Character Commission.

I had two interesting episodes. One was with the then minister of health, the late Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti. One Professor Gio was the director-general. The National Agency for Foods, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) was created in 1992, based on American Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Professor Ransome-Kuti went to the ABU, picked one Professor Osude, the then dean of Pharmacology and went straight to Gen Babangida, the then military president, for approval.

Having already directed government’s printer not to print or gazette anything unless he saw my signature, I picked my pen and paper and wrote that the appointment was illegal and null and void. I gave reasons. Number one was that one could only be a director through promotion within the service itself, Two, there must be bilateral transfer of service from the federal civil service or by way of advertisement, interview, selection and appointment.

Osude did not qualify under numbers one and two because he was neither a federal staff nor had he transferred his service from a scheduled service. If he qualified under number three, I wanted to see a copy of the paper where that position was advertised. I also wanted to have a copy of the minute where qualified candidates were shortlisted for interview. I wanted to have a minute where Osude was interviewed and found suitable. Again, I wanted to know the commissioner who represented the Federal Civil Service Commission in that meeting. That is because any meeting of the Personnel Management Board where we were not represented was a null. I also observed that Osude was being appointed as a director, which is a civil service position, and he would continue to enjoy his university perquisite, which is contrary to the pension decree.

To crown it all, I realised that the president had been misadvised because he was the one who signed decree 43 into law. It was an extant law and he was not expected to flout it. That decree clearly stated who would appoint who. And there were institutions that would appoint people, not an individual, no matter how highly placed he or she was. But Mr President had the right to appoint Osude on a political level because the previous one was going to remain a civil servant and would spend either 35 years in service or 60 years of age; whichever one that came first. So Mr President had the right to give him a political appointment as minister, director-general, special adviser on the NAFDAC, or whatever he deemed fit for him.

So the appointment was returned. At that time, Professor Ransome-Kuti was in the UK. Professor Gio, the director-general of the ministry, walked up to me and said, “You trampled upon my minister.’’ He was on the 9th floor while I was on the 10th at the Federal Secretariat in Lagos. I asked how I trampled on his minister and he responded that it was on the issue of the appointment of a director for the NAFDAC. He added that the minister was not a listening man. I told him that he met the one who could dare him.

When the minister came back from the UK, the letter had already been brought from Abuja because Babangida had moved to that place. When the letter was brought to the State House, the courtiers who were there wondered how a president could make an appointment and a mere director-general would oppose it.

The following morning, the head of state called my chairman, who was even more uncompromising than me. He was the commissioner of aviation during Murtala’s regime who disagreed with Obasanjo and wrote a letter of resignation during a Council meeting. He was the Shuaibu Kazaure.

The head of state asked if he had seen the letter his director-general wrote to the minister of health. He said he had seen the letter and it was fine. He added that he had been trying to get an appointment to thank him for posting somebody who knew his job to the commission. He asked who the person was and he responded that he was Gambo Magaji. He said he knew him very well and recalled how I disagreed with General Abu Ali as the military administrator of Bauchi based on principles. He wanted to intimidate me but I refused.

The head of state called for an emergency meeting and dissolved the Executive Council. The following Monday evening, I was appointed a director-general by General Babangida. So the former military president knows my antecedents.

In 1980, General Babangida visited Bauchi for eight days, his longest stay outside Lagos. When he was leaving, I had printed a book on that visit, including the speech Chris Garba was to deliver that evening, and handed it to him. He asked what it was all about and I explained it to him.  He handed it over to the late General Duba, who was the GOC in Jos.

He asked Abu Ali if there was any problem and he replied that he wanted to reshuffle his cabinet. Subsequently, the head of state said if his action would affect his secretary to the state government, he should send the man to him. That’s how I was appointed as a director-general.

My second episode as director-general was during the time of the late General Sani Abacha. They brought a promotion of an officer from level 15 to 17 and I said no. He sent somebody to me whom I respected so much. When he came, I burst into laughter. When he asked why I was laughing, I asked if it was morally or legally right to promote a captain to a lieutenant colonel.  He said no and I said that was exactly what he wanted us to do. He wanted to promote an assistant director to the opposition of a director, and there was a deputy director in-between. I told him that it was not done that way. However, I said he would not come to my office and leave empty- handed. I said we could bend the rule but not break it. I said he could change his recommendation to level 16, and after six months, if he performed exceptionally well, he could forward his promotion to level 17 on acting capacity. I knew he could do that because he wanted it.

That episode led to my retirement during the Abacha regime. I was retired on Saturday, between 3pm and 4pm while I was in my house, specifically on February 13, 1994 because I was adjudged unbendable and uncompromising. But it turned out to be a blessing to me. I got that letter on Saturday, and the next day, in the evening, the managing director and sole owner of one company came to my house and handed me a letter. When I opened it, I saw that he had given me an appointment as the chairman of his company. My salary was jerked up. I was earning just N4,000.00 as a federal director-general. He gave me an appointment as the chairman of his company at N16,000.00 per month. He also gave me a car for my personal use. There was an official car in my office in Apapa. I also had some exchange kept for me in Deutsch Bank in Germany. So, I thank God for what happened.

When you are clean and somebody wants to intimidate you, certainly, God will not allow it. I went to the office and wrote my handover notes when I heard the news of my retirement on air.

You were a member of the Public Service Reform Committee, how was it?

There were two committees, one of which was on the rationalisation of government ministries and parastatals. I was the secretary of that committee. We tried to rationalise the ministries based on decree 43, which was the extant law. It was interesting. We discovered that there were a lot of problems. Some ministries were streamlined while departments and units were merged.

We submitted the report to government. Some of it was implemented while some were not.

The other one was the review of decree 46 for civil service reforms. We did it, but unfortunately, the man who set it up (Babangida) stepped aside. When Sani Abacha came, I gave a copy to him. Although he forced me out of the service, because of my interest there, I gave him a copy and said they should look into it. That was why they set up the Philip Asiodu panel and others, which looked into it and reorganised the civil service. My pain is that they did not take the good things occasioned by decree 43. And that was because of the pull-him-down syndrome in Nigeria. There were a lot of good things in that decree. It introduced directorship, deputy directorship and other positions in the civil service. It also segmented the level of appointments.

Why did you join politics?

Actually, what happened was that I was sitting in my office in Apapa in 1995 and it was noted that there should be new political parties. They called me to Abuja and I didn’t know why. They said they were thinking of a manifesto and constitution of a political party and they believed I would be a resourceful person. They kept us for two weeks in Transcorp Hilton, then known as Nicon-Nuga Hotel. We produced a manifesto and constitution of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP). Ibrahim Gusau was the chairman while Sulaiman Takuma was secretary. That was how I got involved in politics.

How did that affect your life?

They forced me to contest an election. I was the first person who represented Dukku/Nafada federal constituency of Gombe State in the House in 1998. We later merged the UNCP with the then All Peoples Party (APP) to form the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). We later became part of the All Progressives Congress (APC). I was a member of the merger committee and the constitution drafting committee. I am also a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the APC. But unfortunately, the party has failed to have a functioning BoT. We have not even been inaugurated because some people don’t like some of our faces.

Would you say that your traditional title, Magajin Gari, is very demanding and distracting?

It is not distracting at all.

Are responsibilities attached to the title?

I have delegated the responsibilities to two of my children. Dugge ward is headed by my son, Mohammed, who’s now the commissioner for finance in Gombe.

How large is your family?

I am married with two wives and 18 children, two died while 16 are still alive.

What do you do with your leisure time?

You can see the Holy Qur’an there.

What is your favourite food?

I am diabetic, so I don’t have any favourite food.