General Gusau: A Dissenting View

By BABANGIDA KAKAKI
 
Two recent views on the new (old?) National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, in Thisday should be of great public interest. This is because of the critical position national security occupies in the present political dispensation in the country as well as the relative importance of that office and therefore who occupies it to our overall well being as a nation.
The first appeared in Chidi Amuta's column on 18th March under the title: 'Good Morning, General Gusau'. The second was the rejoinder to Amuta's piece on Thursday, 25th. Amuta's piece was prefaced with an unqualified adulation of Gusau, while later offering very incisive insight on the current state of our national security. The rejoinder by one Bolanle Oke departs from engaging Amuta on the issues of national security, but instead went into qualifying General Gusau as the best material for the 2011 presidential race, while disqualifying his fellow retired generals. Without going into the politics of both positions, we need to confront both positions with facts from our recent history of which General Gusau has been very much part of.
Otherwise erudite and engaging, Chidi Amuta's charity towards Gusau is, I am afraid, not founded on a true perception of the general's career high points. From the onset of the Babangida administration, General Gusau occupied various positions in the nation's intelligence and security apparatus. He was variously, Director of Military intelligence, Coordinator of National Intelligence and later National Security Adviser under IBB regime. It has been recently observed by the deposed Emir of Gwandu, Major Mustapha Jokolo (rtd.), in an interview in The Sun Newspaper of March 21, 2010, that Gusau has no formal training in intelligence. That assertion has not been disputed. Similarly, even though he was serving a military regime under Babangida, his mentor, the state of national security under his watch then can hardly justify the adulations that these recent views have lavished on him.
First, there were at least three known coups against the Babangida administration. There was the very tragic Vatsa coup which almost succeeded. This was followed by the Gideon Orkar coup and a few others which were suppressed or under-reported because of the embarrassing frequency of those incidents. A military National Security Adviser or intelligence chief, who had the unenviable record of literally presiding over this state of perpetual insecurity, cannot be described in such glowing terms.
More strategically embarrassing is the political miscalculation that almost plunged the nation into a civil war. It is easy to blame Babangida for the unfortunate annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections that almost produced an Abiola presidency. Gusau as National Security Adviser must have been at the helm of all security meetings at which the national security implications of the elections and their aftermath were discussed and decisions reached. It was Gusau as the then NSA who advised, masterminded and fabricated the so-called evidence which lead to the annulment of the June 12 election.   Vicariously, his career path cannot be traced without referring to the unfortunate episode of June 12 annulment. Babangida should take the political blame, while Gusau and his acolytes must own up to the failure of national security judgment on the part of the General.
Under Obasanjo, General Gusau was National Security Adviser for almost two terms of Obasanjo's regime. This period also witnessed some of the most debilitating developments and erosion of national security in recent Nigerian history. Firstly, the series of sectarian and inter communal clashes that have come to characterize our national life took a dangerous turn between 1999 and 2007.
There were clashes in Shagamu, Kaduna, Kano, Jos, Plateau States etc. In the same vein, it was during his tenure as NSA, that our Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, was slain in a cold blooded murder unprecedented in history, of which the perpetuators have not been tracked down to date. We should not forget the Anambra kidnap saga, in which some PDP money bags hired some security agencies and kidnapped a seating governor, Chris Ngige. Up to this moment, nobody was arrested in connection with that crime of national shame, let alone prosecuted. This is even not to mention the high profile assassinations of Harry Marshal, Dikibo, Chuba Okadibo, Sa'adatu Rimi etc. These were all accompanied by high rates of casualty and erosion of confidence in Nigeria's stability in the outside world as well as the creation of distrust among our citizens. In all these, there is very little evidence that adequate intelligence was gathered ahead of these eruptions nor was there any definitive action taken to prevent future occurrences.
During this period also, there was an even more dangerous turn of events that embarrassed Nigeria's national security. Communal crises and insurgent attacks on security forces were handled in a manner that compromised Nigeria's already unedifying human rights record. The assault on Odi in Bayelsa State and Zaki Biam in Benue are cases in point. These all happened under Gusau's watch as NSA.
 There has been so much debate about the Niger Delta in national and international media. Easily the greatest national security embarrassment for Nigeria in this early part of the 21st century is the rise of armed militancy and wholesale insurrectionary war in the Niger Delta. While disquiet in the Niger Delta has been a feature of our national life and the debate on equity in the nation, the graduation to open confrontation with security forces and an almost intractable militancy problem was attained in Obasanjo's 8 years as elected civilian president. This also happens to coincide with the period of Gusau's stewardship as NSA.
The significance of the Niger Delta militancy, which is still very much with us, in our national security equation, requires little elaboration. As was revealed during the amnesty process under Yar'Adua and Sarki Mukhtar as NSA, so much weaponry was amassed in the region. Arms were freely trafficked along our waterways, while freelance bunkering went on uninterrupted. In addition, the nation's life blood in the form of oil production was eroded by close to 50% capacity.
What is incomprehensible as well as confusing is why the acting President, himself from the Niger Delta, would still appoint the same Gusau to supervise his national security apparatus in spite of the fact that it was under his watch that the nation witnessed a near terminal destabilization. I suggest that columnists Like Amuta should enrich their writings with the benefit of historical hindsight.
On the part of the rejoinder to Amuta, the writer regales the public with the reasons why General Gusau should be rewarded with the presidency of Nigeria in 2011. He even drew untenable historical parallels with men like Charles de Gaulle of France etc.; very unfortunate abuse of history. The foregoing service record of Gusau hardly justifies this advocacy except as a crude joke or, in fact, ironic condemnation of the man for his abysmal service history.
There is of course nothing that stops Gusau, like anyone else, from contesting the next elections into any office. That is the minimum benefit of democracy to even failures. In this particular case, there is nothing in the general's service history or indeed any other qualification to justify the advocacy of the writer. First, apart from endlessly occupying and re-occupying the office of NSA, no one knows Gusau's views on any national issue. Even in his chosen area of security and intelligence, he is not on record as having canvassed any coherent view on the best options for securing the nation. We do not know what he thinks of the economy, the society, the polity or indeed anything. Apart from operating behind the scenes where his strengths and shortfalls are shielded by others, his capacity for managing any organization or enterprise is not known by anyone. If indeed, the General is interested in vying for public office, he should not have accepted the job of NSA yet again. Let him come out to the open and mount the soap box. That way, he can canvass his vision, ideas and options and be engaged on them by the public instead of hiding under the cloak of a spook.
In this regard, it is unfair for Oke to compare Gusau with either Buhari or Babangida. These men may have made their mistakes in office because they are human beings with short comings like any other person. As proven leaders, they are, like leaders throughout history, entitled to their mistakes. At least, they articulate their views, vision and perspectives. They embarked on policies, programmes and actions that changed people's lives for good or for ill. We are yet to know what exactly Gusau stands for and who his followers are. If Buhari and Babangida carry the baggage of having served the nation previously, Gusau shares in that burden. He has an even additional heavier moral mill stone around his neck. He may have the singular distinction of habitually bungling national security and being rewarded, ever so often, with appointments to further mess things up. The taste of the pudding is in the eating and a word is enough for the wise.
 

Kakaki could be reached @ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it