Brigadier General John Atom Kpera retired from the Nigerian Army in 1985 after serving in various capacities for over two decades. He became the military governor of the defunct East Central State (later Anambra State) between 1975 and 1978 and that of his home state (Benue) between 1984 and 1985 during the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari. He retired to his country home in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State where he has been living a quiet life. In this interview, Atom Kpera, who recently turned 80 years, reminisced on his early days in Gboko, his career in the military, and life after retirement, among other things. Excerpts:
On January 3, this year, you turned 80 years having been born on that day in 1941. How does it feel attaining this age in life?
I feel great, wonderful, and overwhelmed by God’s grace and mercies. I never thought I would get to that age given the uncertain nature of death. But when I got to that age I was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude to God.
So in what special way did you mark the day?
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I had a thanksgiving service in my Church and friends and well-wishers whom I had invited joined me in praising and worshipping God. Of course, a lot of them couldn’t come because of the COVID-19 issue but, like I said, those who came joined me in dancing, praising, and worshipping God.
You were born here in Gboko Local Government; can you share with us those fond memories of your growing up?
I am from the Mbatyerev District of Gboko. I didn’t quite grow up here as such but a lot of my youthful years were spent here in Gboko. I feel quite opportune to say that I have been back here for over 35 years now since I retired and I am living here. A lot has changed from what it was in the 40s and early 50s when I was here. Of course, you expect changes; a lot has changed in terms of development. But I still remember those days when I used to run around the streets of Gboko selling kerosene and how neighbours would shout in Tiv language, ‘mai kenanjir’ (Kerosene seller). Those were wonderful days that readily come to my mind with nostalgia. My children didn’t have the same experience as I had here in Gboko but I am really happy that Gboko is not a dead place. Indeed it has grown a lot bigger than what it was in the early 50s.
Who would you say had the greatest influence on your life at that early stage?
I really can’t remember. Everybody played a role that influenced my life in one way or the other. I had uncles and other relatives but I really cannot pinpoint someone who had the greatest influence on me at that early age.
It appears the affinity between you and Gboko has never eroded in spite of the years you spent in the military. What is the special bond between you and Gboko?
Like I earlier said, I was born here in Gboko Local Government. And Gboko town happens to be the headquarters of our local government so I feel like just coming back home. When I retired, I didn’t have any other place which I could call my home. Gboko was the only place I had a house when I retired so coming back here to my own house – a bungalow was simply and naturally home-coming.
I asked that question because most of your contemporaries would rather prefer to retire to highbrow places…?
I agree with you. A lot of people wondered why I was retiring to Gboko. In fact, our Tor Tiv at that time; Orchivirigh Akperan Orshi, asked me the same question when I retired. He said ‘General where are you going to settle?’ When I mentioned Gboko, he said, ‘No you cannot. But I explained to him that was the only place I had a place to live with my family; and that I didn’t have the money to go and hire a house in places like Jos, Kaduna, or Lagos.
Let’s talk about your career in the military; what was the attraction?
I joined the military not necessarily because of any particular attraction. I joined as a cadet at an early age. Well, a certain military officer, a Captain, came to the village and spoke to us. He asked those of us who were interested to indicate and just for the fun of it, I indicated. My name was taken and a week or two thereafter, I got an invitation and a train warrant to go to Kaduna for an interview and that we were even going to be paid allowances. The uncle I was staying with encouraged me to go and lo and behold when I got there, I was qualified. I was among the twenty that were selected out of over 700 candidates. When I came back I had a series of signals and telegrams reminding me to report so in the end, I went back to Kaduna. Two weeks later, I was flown out to Ethiopia to begin our cadet training. That was how I joined the military; not necessarily because I was keen and enthusiastic about it but I think God worked it out.
What was the preferred profession you had in mind then?
I was going to be a teacher; that was what attracted me very well. In my class, everyone was calling me ‘teacher’, ‘teacher’. In all my discussions, teaching was on my mind.
Why did you want to be a teacher?
I was attracted by some of those teachers who were very good and I wasn’t a dull person in the class.
Were your parents in support of your going into the military?
Unfortunately, all my parents were dead at the time. So it was only my uncle with whom I was staying here in Gboko that asked me to go.
Barely a few months after his appointment, you were posted to replace the then military governor of the East Central State. How were you so appointed?
They just called and posted me to Enugu to take over. I had no inkling that I was going to be military governor. I was commanding one unit in Ibadan and a signal came that I should report to Supreme Headquarters at Dodan Barracks. I went there and General Murtala Mohammed told me ‘you are going to be governor of East Central State.’ General Obasanjo was then Chief of Staff and when I went to him he said I should prepare to be sworn in the next morning. The following day, I came for the swearing-in and proceeded to the airport and was flown to Enugu and that was how I replaced Colonel Ochefu, a fantastic gentleman. He had already been informed and prepared his handover notes quite copiously then I took over.
How was your experience as a first military governor?
I governed as a military man. All the thirty-one months I served there, I worked diligently. I must say I got the cooperation of the indigenes of the East Central State very well. They were keen on being governed and ready to cooperate and work for their state.
How was it like working with the former Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo?
I worked with General Obasanjo in two capacities; first I was a staff officer in the Army Engineers headquarters when he was the commander of the Engineers. We worked together for a couple of years then later as Military Governor of East Central State with him (Obasanjo) as the head of State. In both capacities, I enjoyed working with him. One thing I knew about General Obasanjo was that he was very hardworking. To cope up with him as a staff officer, I literally got hypertension. As a military governor, there was some distance but as a staff officer engineer, it was a close working relationship. He was also very intelligent. So as far as I am concerned, I enjoyed working with him.
You returned to the barracks after Shagari assumed office as a civilian president. How did you cope with the regimented life there after spending time in the government house?
I spent only thirty months in the government house. On the other hand, I spent years in the military. So I was just coming back where I had been useful to. At that time, we were posted to the states as military governors and at no time were you ever given the opportunity to think of anything but a soldier doing your work. It was some kind of change leaving the government house back to the barracks. I said at one time that I was relieved. When I left the East Central State, I was returned to Kainji Army Engineers which I had commanded before. I got the same house in Kainji and in the evenings, I strolled around to the Niger Dam’s Authority Club. The difference was that there were no security people surrounding me; so I felt very relieved going back to the barracks.
Can you still remember some of your contemporaries in the army and how you still relate with them?
Most of them are dead but the few that are alive, we still communicate through phone calls. Those of us who went to Ethiopia together I think there are only five of us alive today. The good old days are gone and we are now grandfathers but like I said, whenever we meet or communicate, we share those memories of our good old days, especially during our training in Ethiopia.
Can you share with us your training experience in Ethiopia?
My training in Ethiopia was military officer cadet training that lasted for three years. It is the same kind of training that a young man goes through in life; nothing much. If it were in the Nigerian military, one would go to the NDA. There were, however, the usual restrictions that permit you to go out only with a pass. But generally speaking, it was a good experience.
You also worked under General Buhari; how was it like working with him as military head of state?
Just like Obasanjo, I worked with General Muhammadu Buhari in three stages. During the civil war, we were in the same theater; we were of the same rank then (majors). We worked together and knew each other very intimately then. Also when I was appointed Military Governor of East Central State, he was also appointed in the same position in North-East State. He later became head of state and appointed me Military Governor of Benue State. We worked closely together and as a head of state, he was very keen on what we were doing as military governors. Let me give you an example; General Murtala Mohammed posted us to states other than our own. He posted me from the then Benue Plateau to the then East-Central State and posted General Buhari from the then North Central State to the North-East. When he (Buhari) took over as head of state in 1983, he posted officers to their states of origin. When asked why, his reason was that if you go to your state and don’t do well, your people would blame you. I saw some wisdom in that so when I got to Benue State, I was challenged.
What would you identify as some of the landmark achievements you recorded in Benue State?
I think it is better for other people to say that. I came to do my work and when the time came, I left. I hadn’t set targets as such. However, at least I was told and the records are there, that our revenue position was extremely bad by the time I came, but we tightened our belts and improved upon what we met. The current Och’Idoma who was then in charge of internal revenue can attest. I wouldn’t list this as an achievement; it was simply an improvement on what we met. We had no money and at that time, there was no federation account. What we generated was strictly applied to work.
That reminds me of the statement credited to you that when you were leaving Benue, you left an empty treasury because you had met it empty…?
When people ask this question, the insinuation is that when I was leaving, I emptied the treasury. I am a very frank person and if I had left money there, I would have said so. But I didn’t cart the money away, which is the difference. The money I got I used; in fact, it was not even enough. I asked and raised a government bond of N12 million to do some projects but the money came after I had left. Governor Jonah Jang inherited it. I didn’t leave money in the treasury because whatever money we had there was a demand for it so we used it. But certainly, I didn’t cart any money away from government coffers.
Governors under Buhari were said to be reporting to Idiagbon, a general described as ‘unsmiling’. How did you relate to him?
We were not reporting to Idiagbon as a person. What were the chains of command of a military governor and the head of state? What is the chain of command of a brigade commander to the divisional commander? We have a staff called GS at the divisional level and communication-wise, he is the one that you have to go through. At the Supreme Headquarters level, we had a Chief of Staff in the military setting. In 1975, the Head of State was Murtala Mohammed and the Chief of Staff was General Obasanjo. The question would as well have been asked: were the military governors reporting to Obasanjo? So military governors were not reporting to Idiagbon as such; there was a chain of command. The connotation is that Idiagbon was the one taking charge rather than Buhari and I say no. Command-wise yes, but it wasn’t because Idiagbon was in charge and while Murtala Mohammed was alive, it wasn’t Obasanjo that was in charge; it was merely a matter of chain of command.
How were you relating to Idiagbon as a military governor considering his perceived tough disposition?
Idiagbon was my junior and I used to call him and say ‘Tunde what is happening?’ He had his duties as Chief of Staff and he was doing it. If he wasn’t smiling, that was his character. Outside the office, Idiagbon was a very jovial person; we used to play squash together. We were even at NIPSS together; we traveled all over the world together with him.
How did the 1984 coup come to you?
I was on leave right here in Gboko when the coup took place but I didn’t take part in it. I heard on the radio that General Muhammadu Buhari was the new head of state with Tunde Idiagbon as the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters. So I cut short my leave and rushed straight to see Tunde and I asked him, ‘Tunde what are you people doing?’ He responded by asking what happened. I said I had no knowledge about this coup that took place; and if it had failed and upon arrest, I told anybody I hadn’t any knowledge about it knowing the relationship between me, you and the head of state…. The long and short of it is that I wasn’t aware there was going to be that coup.
Most of your contemporaries go into politics upon retirement but you have chosen to stay away from it; why?
I think I am not cut out for partisan politics. By nature, I like to be straightforward and say it as it is. But what I noticed in politicians, many of them, is that they must tell a lie or say things that are not correct. This is my observation of Nigerian politics so I looked at it and said I am not a rich man but God has not made me a poor man either. God had made me rich in faith. So when I see a situation that would make me behave contrary to what God expects from me, I ask God to keep me away from it. Indeed, God has been wonderful by keeping me away from partisan politics and I am better out of it.
What have you been doing in your retirement?
That has also been God’s handwork. When I retired in 1985, I took to farming for about two years. Then I had a fire disaster on my farm. I had cultivated rice and when it was time for harvest, I went to get combined harvesters as I usually did during harvest but this time it was already given out to someone else. So I went to get manual hands for the harvest but in the course of that, something happened. The story was that some young men went hunting for rats and the fire they set spread to my farm. It burnt everything; not even a grain of rice was harvested. But I had started very well the year earlier with maize which I harvested a hundred bags and sold at N45,000 which was then big money. That was the first time I ever held that much money in my hands. That money was capable of buying me five new cars at the time. I retired as a Brigadier General in September 1985 and my last pay slip was N1, 500 and I still have that pay slip. So when I held N45, 000 in my hands, I decided to plant rice the following year when I experienced the fire disaster. Following that incident, I took my briefcase and headed for Lagos and met my friends who were still in the army and some of them gave me some contracts to do here and there. That was how I started patching until I got back to farming again. Of course, as an engineer, I also started doing some contracts that were also bringing me some income. This is how I have been surviving.
How would you assess the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari so far, especially with regards to dealing with security challenges in the country?
Well as a citizen of Nigeria, I think there is a lot of room for improvement. The president himself alluded to this when he gave instructions to the new service chiefs to go there and improve the situation. There is a lot of insecurity in the land occasioned by wanton killings, kidnapping, and so on. Therefore, it is quite obvious that there is a lot of room for improvement.
Do you think the Anti-Open Grazing Law introduced by the Benue State government and some other states in the country is yielding the desired results with regards to the farmer/herder crisis?
For Benue, I believe it has yielded positive results at least from that point of view when we had farmers clashing with herdsmen everywhere. That has been reduced to a reasonable level and to that extent I would say the Law is working very well. A few days ago when the governor went to see the president, he expressed satisfaction that the Law is working very well in Benue. A lot of people who indulge in open grazing in Benue are now arrested and their cattle seized and the culprits prosecuted, according to what the governor said and I agree with him. At least we have had some form of relief from that point of view. Our problem now is if we can now get the federal government to come and move those who were displaced from their ancestral homes and now living in IDP camps, then Benue would have succeeded in getting it right. But until that is done, the security situation is still not good.
The President recently declared Zamfara State as a ‘no-fly zone’ as a result of the security challenge there. Do you think that would have been extended to Benue?
I am not very sure I would be able to answer that question because I don’t know the situation in Zamfara as compared to the situation in Benue. If the order was exclusively for Zamfara; not to Kano, Borno then there must have been a genuine reason to have it in Zamfara.
There have been a series of attacks and killings in Benue. A couple of weeks ago, the elder brother of former Governor Suswam was murdered. The most recent incident was the alleged attack on Governor Samuel Ortom. How did all these come to you?
It is quite shocking and disturbing. If somebody can be shot and killed in his home as the killing of Suswam’s elder brother, it is indeed very sad. And if a whole governor is attacked by bandits or whoever the attackers were then somebody should cry about it. It is horrible! I haven’t been there in Sankera but I understand the situation there is worse; people no longer have qualms killing one another.
There have been mixed opinions over the alleged attack on Governor Ortom as some people are alleging that the story was made up. What is your take?
I have no choice but to say he was attacked because he said so and I believe him. I am not sure what he stands to gain if he faked it. When he went and saw the president and spoke with journalists thereafter, I got a clearer picture of it. He said he was visiting his farm and had disembarked from the vehicles and was walking inside the farm when he heard gunshots from the attackers. He then took off in the opposite direction. Before this, I had thought he was in a convoy driving when they stopped him and he got out and started running. Of course, no security man would allow him to do a thing like that; you can’t allow the main object of your protection to get out of a convoy and start running. But when he clarified that it was in the open then it became clearer for me to understand that he must have also taken whatever advice his security men gave him following the attack. But like I earlier said, I don’t know what anybody would stand to gain by stage-managing an attack. In any case, the federal government has already ordered an investigation; the president said an open and clean investigation. Unless the investigation comes out with a contrary outcome, then we have to believe the governor.
Let’s talk about your family; how did you meet your wife?
I met her at her house and we got talking. We later arranged for a wedding on November 16, 1968, at the current NKST Church, Mkar. We have been husband and wife for 52 years now.
What was the source of attraction?
Beauty; she was beautiful and I was handsome so we were attracted to each other.
You used to play squash; do you still do so now?
No, I don’t because we don’t have a squash court here in Gboko. But I play tennis and in terms of exercise, I still do a lot of it.
What food do you enjoy most?
Ruam kumen (pounded yam). Because of my doctor’s instruction to avoid red meat, I enjoy ‘bush meat’ and fish. Sometimes I also go for chicken when it is well cooked and soft because I have a problem with my teeth. But by April every year, I normally stop eating pounded yam; that is when yam becomes very dried and starchy.
Is there any moment during your lifetime that sticks to your memory?
You see, God has been very kind to me; that he has allowed me to live up to this age makes me feel grateful every day I wake up. I don’t have a particular thing but the fact that God has made me become what I have been, it is wonderful. For instance, I told you how I became a soldier; I didn’t plan it even how I became a military governor on two occasions. God has been so wonderful to me so every day is good and memorable because God has a hand in it.
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