What I know about Diya coup – Col Yakubu Bako (rtd)

Colonel Yakubu Bako (retd) served as the military governor of Akwa Ibom State under the administration of the late General Sani Abacha. In this interview, he spoke about the projects he executed in Bakassi, which former President Olusegun Obasanjo ceded to Cameroun, how he made efforts to install the late MKO Abiola as president, what he knows about the alleged coup by Lt. General Oladipo Diya (retd), and other interesting issues.

By December 24 you will be 67, how has life treated you?

Life has been good, with all the challenges. I was born in Rivers State in the then Eastern Region. While we were growing up we lived happily without knowing who was a northerner or southerner. On Sallah days, those who were not Muslims would follow us and celebrate. We also celebrated with Christians during Christmas. It is indeed a nice memory.

Unfortunately, the 1966 crisis came and there were a lot of killings. I can remember when Ojukwu made an infamous statement that he could not guarantee the lives of non-easterners in eastern Nigeria. That was in October 3, and in October 4, most of us lost everything. We lost our parents, relatives and friends. The few of us that escaped were repatriated to Kaduna and some us that were from Kano were later sent back. I can still remember, as a kid, how we were made to register at the social welfare office and issued with testimonials to confirm that we were refugees from eastern Nigeria.

From there, I started trying to make ends meet; and luckily, as God would have it, there were so many vacancies in the civil service in northern Nigeria when the easterners left. There was a crash programme to train clerical assistants in the Kano Federal Training Centre. I went there and was among the lucky ones to be trained. I can remember that in our second year, Adamu Fika, our principal, whom we called Baba Fika, asked if we could attempt writing GCE after two years and we said yes. They taught us four subjects and we added two on our own and studied very hard. After two years, we sat for the exams. I was one of the lucky ones to have a school certificate after two years. It was like a miracle. I don’t think a degree holder of today would be happy the way I felt that day.

I later became curious about the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). Throughout my stay at the training centre, I was paid allowances every month, and at the NDA we were also getting paid, so life was very good for us. Eventually, the army nominated me to go for a four-year degree course in the University of Wiscansin.

However, you were not sure of when the army would recall you. So instead of a 12-credit course per term, I took 18 credits to make sure that even when the army called me back, I would have gone far. That was how I finished my first degree in two and a half years. Within the remaining 18 months I had my master’s degree at the Wiscansin University.

I was successful in the military; I never missed any promotion. When I returned to Nigeria, I was posted to Lagos to oversee the 19 battalion during the 1993 crisis.

While we were there, somebody approached me, saying we should plan to topple Shonekan and make Abiola the president. We held several meetings. While these things were happening, I went and briefed Abacha, telling him that they were aware that all troops guarding him and the chief of general staff’s office were from the 19 battalion, which I commanded; that was why they came to me.

Abacha told me to go ahead with them. We continued having our meetings, sometimes at the car park of Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja. After our meeting I would brief Abacha on how far we had gone with the plan. We even fixed a day that a judge would swear in Abiola.

One of the people I met during that discussion was one of Abiola’s sons. We had a meeting and he in return communicated the proceedings to his father.

Eventually, when Abacha took over, he told me to do whatever it took to contain Ikeja cantonment, even though there was a garrison with a commandant there. When he was going to Abuja he told me to take care of Lagos and make sure nothing happened. When he eventually became head of state, he made me a sole administrator of Akwa Ibom State.

I went there and executed some projects, and to God be the glory, those projects are still helping the people of Akwa Ibom.

When I was removed from Akwa Ibom to his office, I was like a special assistant to him. I executed assignments for him. Then I was moved to the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) as chief of logistics.

My military life was down and up, but thank God I survived it, against all odds.

How did your parents settle in Rivers?

Our parents went there as traders and got integrated into the community, to the extent that my father, who could not read or right in English (but could right and read in Arabic) was made a member of the Ekwere Eche County Customary Court of Appeal. The British had trust in the Hausa, believing that they would not lie to you.

They settled and made that place their own. If not for the 1966 crisis, maybe I would only come to the North once or twice to see my village in Rijin Goda Shanono. I can remember that my father came to the North twice or so because there was nothing to worry about.

Did you lose your parents in the 1966 crisis?

Yes, they were killed. That was what I went to Oputa Panel to testify. You see, it was a tradition that whenever such narrations came up, you would only hear agitations that the easterners were killed in the North; nobody is talking about northerners killed in the East. That was what I went to the panel to narrate as a victim.

If you were asked to proffer solutions to ethnicity and religious issues in Nigeria; what would be your suggestion?

The major problem is that our leaders of today are using religion and ethnicity to further their own personal interests. For instance, if I do anything wrong and the searchlight is placed on me by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or any other agency, you will begin to hear stories that I am being investigated because I am this or that. People will be using religion or ethnicity to cover up for themselves or their allies.

If we stop using religion and ethnicity to cover up, we will surely move forward. Unfortunately, it has eaten deep into our system. Until our leaders have a change of attitude, we will keep going back.

Tell us your level of involvement in Diya’s coup attempt and what really happened?

When crisis was building up, Major B.M Muhammed told me that General Adisa was grumbling. I told Abacha about it and he said I should not worry, that when the time came he would tell us more.

I called Major Muhammed and told him that if there was anything he knew and didn’t tell me, he should quickly go and tell the head of state. Eventually, he told me he had met the head of state.

A day before I was arrested, my neighbour, Yakubu Mu’azu, who was the governor of Sokoto State, called me and said he hoped I would not regret what he wanted to do. My mind went to the information they gave me, to the effect that I would be arrested.  I told him that he was my senior and I took him as my elder brother in the army. Even when I had family issues I usually went to him. I, therefore, told him to do whatever he thought was genuine.

I was arrested and charged with concealment of coup. I told them that I informed Abacha and they should ask him; and if he said I didn’t tell him I would be guilty as charged.

General Victor Malu, a straightforward officer, travelled to meet Abacha and told him what I said and he said I told him, and that I had nothing to do with the coup.

Based on that, when I came out when General Danjuma was the minister of defence, I met him to ask for his favour in making Mr President give me presidential pardon because I had nothing to do with Diya’s coup.  He wrote to the then President Obasanjo and I was given presidential pardon and my rank was restored, and I voluntarily resigned from the army.

How many years did you spent in detention?

One year and four months.

Can you tell us your experience in prison?

One of the shortcomings of Obasanjo was his failure to change life in prisons across the country. With his experience, I thought that when he became president he would change life in prisons. They are breeding inmates to be more hardened criminals.

My wife used to visit me in prison every two weeks. Some of the prisoners used to look forward to that visit because she would give me some money and I would pay for some inmates to be released. You would see somebody detained because of N5, 000. And some of the hardened ones will start recruiting the innocent ones.

I remember that a guy I met in Sabon Gari in Kano was one of those who were asked to take care of my needs inside the prison. He was also a prisoner. This guy said he wanted to be rich and didn’t care how he would do it. He just wanted to become rich in this country.

I wrote to some governors to pardon some prisoners and they granted the requests because it was a military regime and most of them knew me. Some of them came here to thank me for what I did.

Did you make friends in the prison?

No.

You said you narrowly escaped death during the 1966 crisis after many years in Rivers State, who received you in Kano?

My uncle, who was a driver in police headquarters, Bompai, he received me.

Were you the only survivor in your family?

No. My elder sister and some of my brothers survived as well. But many were lost.

You were a high ranking military officer but you made efforts to install a civilian as president, what informed your decision? Were you trying to join politics?

Yes. There was too much tension in the land at that time.

As a military officer, were you not afraid to meet with civilians to overthrow a government?

I was not afraid because there was much tension in Lagos. I saw the situation and knew what was happening.

Up till today, Abacha is the only Nigerian former leader persecuted by subsequent presidents, how do you feel when you read or hear the amount of money he is accused of stealing?

I feel bad, in the sense that the family did not handle the situation well. Abacha is not the only former head of state that had money. When we became governors, somebody told us that no one would go into a Government House and come out the same. You cannot cross a stream and water will not touch your leg. So there is no head of state, dead or alive, that went into the State House and came out the way he went in. So, their inability to manage the situation well caused the problem.

You made efforts to install Abiola as president, but at the end it was Abacha that took over, don’t you think you were used to achieve someone’s personal goal?

I won’t say both of them used me because Abiola was sort of sincere when we started. There was sincerity from Abiola’s family because they really wanted him to be president. We held several meetings, but the last one was at Abiola’s house. That was the last time I saw him.

When Diya was taken to the military tribunal, he said he was surprised that the then Chief of Army Staff, Ishaya Bamaiyi, was not there as the planner and executioner of the coup. Was it a set-up as he claimed? What actually happened?

I have to give credit to Hamza Al-Mustapha. There was a plan to remove Abacha, not by Diya, and Mustapha was monitoring that gradually and reporting to him. There was a time we held a meeting with the late AVM Musa, the Chief of Defence Intelligence, who was from Kano but a Christian, We gave ourselves a task to start monitoring those we thought were involved,  to the extent that I went to London and bought a recording facility, which was very small with a small antenna. With that device, if both of you were talking and you were close I could pick the conversation. I bought the equipment and distributed among ourselves to monitor conversations going on in Abuja. I give credit to Al-Mustapha because he was the one coordinating the whole thing. They planned a military exercise in Sokoto and invited the head of state, but Mustapha told him not to go. They planned another one at Escravos, but Mustapha insisted that Abacha should not go because he had prior information. That’s why I give him credit. There may be some bad aspects of him but he is intelligent.

I don’t know how they co-opted Diya and handed over everything to him.

As you monitored conversations in Abuja, who were you reporting to – Abacha or Al-Mustapha?

I reported to Abacha because Al-Mustapha was my junior; I was a colonel while he was a major.

As a former military governor of Akwa Ibom State, how did you feel when former President Obasanjo handed over Bakassi to Cameroun?

I felt bad. I wrote a letter to Obasanjo in my capacity as a colonel, stating that ceding Bakassi to Cameroun was not a good decision. Under Abacha there’s no way Bakassi would have gone to Cameroun. His plan was to develop the place and make the people patriotic Nigerians; that was why I went there and built a school, military barracks and hospital. They didn’t have water, so we installed boreholes, just to make them feel at home.

At Bakassi, apart from those in Cross River and Akwa Ibom, there were people from Cameroun. There were Yoruba people who were there fishing. Bakassi has the best shrimps in the world. They would catch the shrimps and package it inside the ship and say it was from China or Japan. And you would see the label.

How would you describe your relationship with the late General Abacha?

It was cordial, to the extent that we ate together.

And you didn’t inform him that you were going to be arrested?

I didn’t inform him. It was when I came out that I met Mohammed Abacha and related my experience, and he waved it off.

Are you still in touch with the Abacha family?

Yes; when I came out of prison I used to visit Innah before she relocated to Abuja. All the family members, especially Abba, Mohammed and Guntsu are very close to my wife.

How long did you work at the National Electoral Commission?

I worked there for almost one year. When I got to the commission, one of the major issues was ballot boxes, so I introduced transparent ballot boxes. The contract was awarded and the person went to China to bring the first set of boxes. I created an office for myself at the airport in Abuja so that the trailers would come and offload and go and for the sensitive materials, which we were to print overseas. I told Abacha that since he trusted me I wanted our security and minting office to print it and let me be responsible for it.

I made sure that two weeks to the time of local government election, all the sensitive materials were transported to all the branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in various states. A day to the election, I told all the divisional police officers to go to CBN branches in the states and collect the sensitive materials. The following morning, the electoral officers went to the divisional police offices and collected the materials. Everything went smoothly. That is the system they are using up till today. I introduced it. I also involved the Air Force to airlift the materials.  It was the same thing with the Navy at riverine areas.

Are you comfortable with the way the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is conducting elections?

It is the usual Nigerian attitude. Whoever is the chairman of the commission should be able to look back, even if it is once in a year, for those who were there before and get ideas that would help him succeed.

You mean that since you left the place nobody has invited you for any discussion?

When Jega was appointed, initially he asked me to give him ideas on what to do. He performed well, maybe he got inspiration or ideas from other people.

Again, let me say that printing ballot papers outside is a waste of resources. I wrote to the governor of the CBN, but I don’t know if the letter got to him, I stated that from my experience, we could do it in Nigeria. I stated that this is what I did during my time and we can still do it again.

Also, they are always too many non-governmental organisations who operate as independent observers during elections. It is also a waste of resources. How many observers do we see in elections overseas? Why must you have all these in Nigeria? I can set up mine and apply to the INEC and they will register me give me money and on the day of election I will wear a big tag and small jacket and go to my polling unit, come back and that’s all.

Are you saying it is one of the things that make our elections expensive?

Yes. I am not saying they should not have the observers; they can have foreign observers.

You were part of Buhari’s transition committee on security, what actually happened in 2015?

There was Boko Haram before we came in, but we made some suggestions, which he started implementing, but I won’t talk more on that. Lawan Ja’afar Isah, the chairman, is still alive, so you can meet him for further explanation.

But you were a member?

Yes, but in the military we respect seniority.

At 67 you look healthy and fit; what is the secret?

We were fed with our nose closed. When we wanted to eat they would go to the farm and bring fresh things. We were not eating things with chemicals; everything was fresh and organic. It is unlike now when you have a lot of drinks at supermarkets, the old generation grew up with organic food. I think that is what is making a lot of difference.

Do you engage in any exercise?

I play golf every day, except Monday, to keep fit. If you retire and sit at home without doing anything, believe me, you will not last long. So I exercise and eat. There are things I don’t eat or drink. Once in awhile I drink coke when I see my sugar level. There are things you have to condition yourself to. For example, I don’t eat red meat. If I have to eat meat it has to be goat meat, chicken or fish. That is what is keeping me healthy.

Are you a typical soldier that has one wife and few children?

Yes, one wife.

Is she from Kano?

My late first wife was not from Kano, but the current one is. My first wife was Bachama. I have five children and three grandchildren.

You have retired but not tired. What do you do for a living?

Visiting friends, relying on few investments, and the good old days. As the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio took good care of us. The present one is trying, but not as much as we were getting during Akpabio’s time. The state government is taking care of former governors. From time to time they will invite us and we will sit down and discuss and come back.

How do you spend your day?

I wake up in the morning and at times people will come with their problems and I attend to them. If I am not attending to people, occasionally I will enter my car and drive around, just to buy things from those who sell along the road to make them happy. Sometimes I will enter Sabin Gari market and give someone money and they will feel happy, and I will be happy too. You may not believe it, every month I spend one bag of millet. If you had come earlier you would have seen hundreds of birds here. I don’t know where they are coming from, but they will eat. Even now you can see some hanging around. By 3pm I am supposed to see them again. So I keep myself busy, and I feel happy when I see that I make somebody happy.

How did you meet your Bachama wife?

When they posted me to Lagos, I met a very beautiful girl and we started dating. Gradually, she moved into my house and became part of me. When I was ready to marry, I wrote to my unit commander and they certified that I would be able to take care of a wife; and I married. I did not marry her because of where she came from, I married her because of the relationship we had. And I didn’t have time to ask them to send me a wife from home.