Reminiscences with Emir Sani Sami

In this interview with the Emir of Zuru, Sani Sami, who recently marked his 77th birthday, he spoke on life after he lost his father at the age of two, why he abandoned his ambition to read medicine and joined the military. He also spoke on his relationship with General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd), General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd) and the late General Sani Abacha, among other things.

How would you describe your early days in life?

I was born and bred here in Zuru. I was born in this palace on a Monday in 1943, to the late Sami Daudu, the Sarkin Dabai, Sarkin Zuru and Sami Gomo. My mother’s name was Hafsatu.

My father died in 1945 when I was only two years old. After the death of my father, we left the palace to my mother’s compound, somewhere in the town. It was there that I grew up under the care of my mother. I went to primary school here in Zuru in 1950, after my Qur’anic education. I attended junior primary school from 1950 to 1954 and completed senior primary school in Kontagora in 1957. I went to Kontagora because there was no senior primary school in Zuru.

After passing out from senior primary school, I was admitted into the Provincial Secondary School, Bida, the present Government College, Bida, from 1957 to 1962.

How was life after losing your father at such an early age?

When my father died, life became a little rough. My mother did not go to school, but she knew the value of education, so she insisted that I must go to school. She sent me to a Qur’anic school and thereafter enrolled me into primary school, here in Zuru. She paid my school fees through her farm produce. It was really a very rough period, to the time I got admission into secondary school.

As a determined child, I was able to overcome those challenges; I even trained my younger brother. I secured him a job in the Nigeria Customs Service and thereafter forced him to go back to school and read Law in the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

Are your primary schoolmates still alive? If yes, do you relate with them?

Four of them are still alive, as far as I can remember: two males and two females. The rest have all gone back to their creator. May their souls rest in peace!

You were an exceptional science student in your secondary school days. How were you able to achieve that, looking at how you grew up?

You cannot compare the teachers of today with the types we had in those days. When I was in Provincial Secondary School, Bida, we had teachers for all subjects. Those that taught us were expatriates, with the exception of the likes of the late Mallam Ladan Zuru, who studied Physical Education in Australia; Mallam Sheik Lemu, who taught us Arabic when he returned home, as well as one Yoruba man, Mr Omole, who taught us sciences. I was a Chemistry guru in our school. I knew the secret of Chemistry and Physics very well. Our school was well equipped and staffed.

You wanted to be a medical doctor but ended up in the military. What influenced your decision?

After I obtained my General Certificate of Education, I was privileged to be enlisted into the Nigerian Army, though my ambition was to be a medical doctor. My ambition was born out of my exceptional performance in sciences when I was in secondary school, but it died following an aggressive campaign launched by the government of the Northern Region, championed by the premier, Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, on the need for the northern youth to join the military.

General Yakubu Gowon, then a captain in the Nigerian Army, and the then minister of education of the region, visited our school and preached to us on the need to join the army. We immediately made up our minds to join; otherwise I would have been at the Federal Science Emergency School, Lagos for my High School Certificate (HSC).

By December 1962 we were enlisted into the Nigerian Military College, as it was called, for training as cadets. We were there for six months, and after passing our examinations, we were selected for overseas training to various countries. In my class, 16 of us were selected, including Ibrahim Badamasi Babagida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Magoro.

Four of us went to England; some went to India, Canada, Australia, while some went to Ethiopia. I went to Britain. We were trained for seven months and passed out in 1963. Thereafter, we were attached to British institutions for some time.

While in the UK I took the advantage and did a Regimental Accounting diploma course. I came back to Nigeria as a 2nd lieutenant and got posted to 3 Battalion of the Nigerian Army in Kawo, Kaduna.  I served there from 1963 to 1966 when the unfortunate coup took place.

As a young officer, while in Kaduna I attended so many courses on transportation, intelligence, small arms, anti-aircraft gun course and many others. After the 1966 coup, I was transferred to Ibadan in 1967. Shortly after that, I was drafted to Kainji when it was under construction, as a security officer. From there I was drafted to Bukuru in Plateau State to quell an uprising by miners. While there, the unfortunate civil war erupted.

I was in the warfront even before the shooting began. I was there from the beginning in 1967 to the end in 1970. I was at the warfront with General Muhammadu Buhari; both of us were lieutenants. At the warfront we served in 2nd battalion. Thereafter, I was made a company commander while he was made the commander of the battalion. After sometime, I was made the commander of the 27th battalion, which was otherwise known as ‘The Devils’ during the war because the battalion fought devilishly.

After the war, when the army wanted to decongest the eastern Nigeria of troops, I led the 32 Infantry Brigade to Jos as part of the decongestion process. At that time, there was no barracks for the soldiers. It was left for the commander to use his initiatives to house his soldiers.

On arrival, we started commandeering houses here and there. I was in Jos for one year. Thereafter, I was transferred as a commander to 1 Brigade in Nsukka, to Abakaliki as commander of 2nd Brigade. I was also transferred to Enugu as a brigade commander. In 1978, I was transferred and made a principal staff officer, 1 Division in Kaduna.

After a year, I was in the United States for an International Defence Management course in postgraduate college. The certificate course is equivalent to a master’s degree in the US, while back home, it was only equivalent to an advanced diploma.

On return, I was posted to Maiduguri as a brigade commander. It was during this time that we had an incursion into our country by the Chadian army. General Muhammadu Buhari, who was the GOC in Jos, directed me to clear the Chadian rebels, which I did successfully in 1979.

After that, a problem between Nigeria and Cameroon erupted, which almost led the two countries into war. I was moved to Calabar to take command.

In the Nigerian Army I had been a troubleshooter all my life because wherever there was a war I would be there. But when hostility ceased, as God would have it, an agreement was reached and we were asked to halt.

While I was in Calabar, I was selected for a United Nations operation in southern Lebanon as a chief of staff. After coming back to Nigeria, I headed the Infantry as director. I was also posted to the Nigeria Army School of Infantry, Jaji as a commander.

It was from there that I was promoted to the rank of major-general and posted to 82 Division as GOC. After a year, when Abacha was the chief of army staff, I was posted to 1 Division, Kaduna as commander.

When General Sani Abacha became minister of defence, I was deployed to the Ministry of Defence as Joint Staff Officer. The position is like second in command to the minister. I was in charge of the service chiefs.

You were with Babangida and Abdulsalami from secondary school to the military. As fate would have it, they later became heads of state respectively. How would you describe your relationship with the two statesmen?

The relationship is very cordial. We speak on phone almost everyday. We have maintained a very good relationship. We have an association of Government College, Bida Old Boys Association, under which umbrella we have been meeting regularly. However, for some time now we have not met. We have contributed substantial resources to improve the lot of the school. We constructed additional classes and laboratories for the school. We are very close to one another.

Is any of your secondary school teachers still alive? If yes, are you in contact with them?

Just yesterday (referring to a day before this interview was conducted) when I was reading Daily Trust, I saw the birthday anniversary of one of my teachers, Professor Jonathan Ndagi. He celebrated his 90th birthday. It is only Professor Ndagi and Sheik Lemu that I can say are alive. Sheik Lemu was once here in Zuru to establish an Islamic outfit. though it is yet to come to fruition.

When the first coup took place, you were one of the young military officers of northern extraction who were in Kaduna,  where the premier of the Northern Region was killed. Can you describe the situation at that time?

The 1966 coup took us unawares. The organiser of the coup, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was living very close to me; then I was a battalion training officer. Nzeogwu, was squatting with us because the military training college displaced them from where they were. We gave them a plot of land in Kawo, Kaduna; and that is where they have been staying.

When they planned the coup we did not know. Traditionally, they usually rehearsed some military action, so one evening, when they said they were going for night rehearsal, nobody suspected anything until they did what they wanted to do in Sardauna’s house the following day, early in the morning. All of us young officers never knew what was happening until somebody alerted us that Sardauna was killed. We did not also know that Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Col Kuru, my former OC, Col Pam, were killed, while Maimalari was nowhere to be found until later in the day. It is upon this background that myself, the late Abacha and Major Dembo came out into the tranches, ready for war. We vowed to revenge.

Can you share your experiences at the warfront?

At the beginning we were not prepared for war because the crisis was supposed to be handled by the police, but somewhere along the line, the situation went out of hand. We started from Benue and took over the warfront from the Abakaliki zone. It was along the line that we got prepared for the war and started getting ourselves arms and ammunition. At the warfront, we were well armed, catered for and motivated.

Can you remember those who were at the warfront with you?

Yes, there was General Buhari; we fought in the war together and came back together. People like the Emir of Gwandu, Muhammadu Iliyasu Bashar fought in the marine. Although General Abacha later came, he did not fight with us. General Mohammed Magoro was at the other axis but within our division.

Many died during the war while others died after the war. I was shot three times in the warfront as a young officer, with nothing to look back to. I was not married, so I did not care, all I did was to continue fighting.

Most of the military officers who sustained bullet wounds during the war are still battling with such wounds. Your case is different, even though you were shot thrice; what is the magic?

I was lucky to have been treated very well. The first gunshot injury I had was in my calf; the bullet destroyed a major part of the muscles. The doctor who treated me even wondered how my bones were not damaged. The second was a far away bullet I took from the back. It was extracted successfully. The third one was in my buttock and it was also operated upon successfully.

I got my first wife during the treatment of one of the bullet wounds. She was working in the University Teaching Hospital, Ibadan. The treatment of the bullet wound in my back took me to Ibadan because I could not be treated at the warfront. While receiving treatment in Ibadan I was made to be under her care; and she diligently nursed me.

You raised the alarm before the coup that claimed the life of a former military head of state, General Murtala Muhammad in 1976. What did you see that made you raise the alarm? How would you describe the action of the military authorities? 

Dimka and his men were parading my office regularly. There was an army canteen where they would come and buy alcoholic drinks always. Therefore, I started suspecting their movements. I had to tell my O C that I didn’t trust those men coming to my headquarters regularly. He asked me to keep an eye on them. I wrote General T. Y Danjuma thrice, warning the military about the looming tragedy, but no action was taken quickly. I told General Murtala Mohammed, who was the head of state that there was something fishy. Well, I wouldn’t want to say he was stubborn, but he was the type that did not believe in accessing security. He said he did not want troops following him. I gave him escort, but he asked them to go back home. So the inevitable happened.

We were told that those of you who joined the military at the same time agreed to voluntarily retire to give way for younger officers. Was that plan executed?

When I applied for voluntary retirement and took same to General Abacha for approval as minister of defence, he asked: ‘So quickly?’ I said yes and took a copy to the head of state, General Babangida in Dodan Barracks. They asked me to wait, but I refused. I immediately left for Kaduna. They sent for me but I refused to go back. I, therefore, relocated to Kaduna as a businessman and my company was doing very well. I won many contracts. I was in money, too much money.

From there, these people (referring to his councilors in the palace) drafted me to be the Emir of Zuru. I lost a lot of my businesses, but I am happy that I am serving my community. I am happy that I am helping my people. This is what I have been doing.