BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE
…Says ’Biafra war consumed NDA first graduates’
ARGUABLY, Col Paul Osakpamwan Ogbebor (rtd), 70, is the first Nigerian
to be enrolled into the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA. Among the 61
cadets of Course 1, he was one of the 34 that graduated. He is also one
of the 18 who are still alive.
He fought the Nigeria-Biafra civil war of 1967-1970 and opines that
the war has cemented the country’s unity. Although at the NDA, he was
one of the best in academics, sports and soldiering where he won many
laurels, Ogbebor was one of those whose military career was
short-circuited by high-wire intrigues and witch-hunt that characterize
Nigeria’s military and public service.
Ogbebor’s love for the military had no bounds as he envisioned and
worked hard to be enlisted. He bore no one ill-feelings over how he was
detained, tortured and finally eased out of the army because of his
efforts to save General Samuel Ogbemudia (rtd), a former military
governor of Bendel State, who was roped in, in the coup that killed
former Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed, on February 13, 1976,
and spearheaded by Colonel B.S. Dimka.
Admitting that it was sad that he did not get to the peak of his
military career like some of his peers and subordinates, Ogbebor saw his
premature retirement in 1976 as the will of God. Waxing philosophical,
he said that he is still alive is a bonus since he did not know what
would have happened if he had remained in the military beyond 1976.
How? “When I was leaving the prison, I was very annoyed with the
military. I thought they had disappointed me because I wanted to become a
career officer; I wanted to progress to the zenith and I was working
very hard for it. So what they did to me, I was very annoyed but, later
on, my mind told me to forget everything, that it could have been worse
because, after the retirement, they brought me a paper, my name was on
the list of people who were to be killed; to be shot at the Bar Beach.”
To cap his illustrious military career, Ogbebor has given the polity
an illuminating and refreshing book, the first of its kind and the only
one so far, on the origins of the Nigerian Defence Academy, drawing from
his experience as a pioneer cadet, who started and saw how the academy
developed in the first four years.
Titled: “Nigeria Defence Academy – A Pioneer Cadet’s Memoir,” the
307-page book, which is broken into 16 chapters, chronicles, in vivid
details with pictorials, Ogbebor’s quest for a military career, the
early days of the Nigerian military after independence, how NDA was born
– the structure, training programme, general services and curriculum;
and how the January 1966 coup, the counter-coup and the accompanying
civil war affected the school and Nigeria.
In this interview, Ogbebor shares his thoughts on what motivated him
to write the book, why his military career was short-lived, why Nigeria
is struggling 52 years after independence and how to move the nation
forward among others. Excerpts:
On what motivated him to write the book
Asked what motivated him to write the first book on the NDA, he said:
“When I was in London, I bought a book on Sandhurst, which is a British
military academy. After going through it, I thought there should be an
account of the NDA. I also visited West Point, which is the United
States Army Defence Academy. After then, I started writing.”
The challenges
However, writing the book came with an avalanche of challenges. “I could
not lay hands on any material. I visited the NDA, there was no
material. There were no people to discuss with because many of them were
not there at the beginning and so they didn’t know much about the
beginning. Few years after the NDA started, the civil war started and
attention was on the war. There was no record; nothing!”, he lamented.
Undaunted, Ogbebor had to proceed, depending “mostly on remembered
events and photographs I personally took by virtue of being the chairman
of the Defence Academy Photography Club for the duration of Course I.”
He recalled: “All efforts to get photographs from members of Regular
Course II were in vain. The reasons for the hiccups included the
Nigerian civil war, which broke out few weeks after the commissioning of
Course I cadets as officers with most going straight from the academy
to their formations in preparation for the commencement of the civil
war. Unfortunately, many neither ever returned alive nor ever again saw
their belongings.
In the same vein, members of Course II were trained, commissioned and
deployed under war hysteria. In addition, many of the Nigerian pioneer
members of staff were deployed to the war-front, most of whom are now
dead, while the pioneer Indian officers returned to their country. And
even their replacements, after many years, were replaced by Nigerian
officers, who themselves trained in the academy. No proper records were
really passed along from generation to generation in the academy. The
same could be the bane of any institution with no regard for proper
records.”
How civil war claimed graduands.
For arriving the academy on January 19, 1964, while his 60 other
peers arrived on January 20, 1964, Ogbebor became the first cadet to
be enlisted. Of this number, only 34 graduated, 15 left to fight on the
side of Biafra during the civil war and today only 18 are alive. He
disclosed that those who are alive are meeting regularly and are
planning to start alumni of the NDA.
Counting the cost of the war on the NDA, Ogbebor lamented that 50 per
cent of those in the first and second intakes were lost during the
war on both sides (Federal and Biafra). “I was involved in the war from
day one till the end. We ended the war in Owerri. I was in-charge of
Biafrans who surrendered at Shell Camp, Owerri. Many of them were my
seniors, juniors and friends in the military. One of them, Austin
Ezenwa, was my teacher at St Patricks College, Asaba. Ezenwa is now the
Igwe of Abagana. I was surprised to see him in the war, “he stated.
On the raging controversy over Prof Chinua Achebe’s comments that
General Yakubu Gowon and late Chief Obafemi Awolowo used starvation as
weapon during the war, which led to the death of many Biafran children
and women. “I was in the field fighting. I wouldn’t know if Gowon and
Awolowo used hunger and starvation as a weapon. Those are undercurrents
of the administration in Lagos. I was in the battle field fighting.
However, there is suffering in every war. In every war, there must be
kwashiorkor, “the retired colonel stated.
Why he left the navy
After the first two years of training, Ogbebor was one of the seven
cadets, who left for the navy. But he had to retrace his steps to the
army after a short stint because even though “navy is a beautiful place,
it has to do with ships and with the sea. I mentioned that I was the
only member of my course who went to the sea and was never sea sick.
“And in the evening, I will sit at the upper deck and enjoy
everything. But, after a week, I became bored. The ship became too
small for me. I couldn’t just imagine my life living in that cubicle. I
enjoyed a lot of freedom; freedom of speech and everything. So that was
what deterred me from staying on in the navy.”
Col. Ogbebor.
Inculcating discipline in armed forces
Asked if the NDA had succeeded in inculcating discipline in the military
given the series of coups the country had witnessed, Ogbebor said the
academy had achieved most of its objectives because it was inbuilt in
the training programme. He nevertheless lamented that “coups will not
perfect the military institution because the military has its own
hierarchy and it is completely isolated from the general system, the
political system.
“The only thing is that during the war, people were brought to the
NDA to be trained for only four months and some were brought there to be
trained for only two months and sent to the war. These ones were purely
war materials. But the regular courses continued after the war.”
Abridged military career
By his account, among those who went through the NDA, he is the most
senior since he arrived ahead of his mates. He was also one of the most
brilliant and high performers in soldiering by winning laurels here and
there. Incidentally, his peers and those who came after him rose to the
peak of the military profession but he left as a colonel.
Asked what happened, he said: “I believe that whatever happened was
normally ordained by God, otherwise it could never have happened. Until
Murtala Muhammed was assassinated on February 13, 1976, I was the
Commanding Officer, Nigeria Army Corps, Ikeja. A lot of
responsibilities were given to me. The whole of Lagos was divided into
two: Area A and Area B. I was in charge of Area A — from Ikeja to Apapa.
“Things were moving well but one day, General Ogbemudia’s wife came
from Benin to see me, crying and wailing and saying that her husband had
been whisked away and since then they had not seen him. Not quite long,
another person, Dr. Amos Odaro, came to my house. He said his elder
brother, an engineer, was also taken away. I said, ‘What has he done?’
He said he did not know.
On Sunday, I drove straight to General TY Danjuma’s house. He was
living in the Defence House, Ikoyi. I told him what I heard. He asked me
how I came; I told him I came in my car. He said, ‘alright, enter your
car and follow me.’
“We drove to the Army Headquarters and, when we got there, he gave me
a blue sheet of paper. When I read through it, it was the minutes of
how they were going to take part in a coup that killed Murtala Muhammed.
It was held in Ogbemudia’s house. I said, ‘Can I investigate this
matter because this doesn’t follow the military pattern.’
People want to take part in coup, they sit down and write minutes.
So, they gave me the paper. We sent somebody to Benin, Engineer Ohile.
He worked in the Ministry of Works; he worked in the Governor’s Office
and worked in the University of Benin; they were just starting the
university then. So I said he should go and get me a copy of a letter he
signed when he was in the Ministry of Works, when he was in Governor’s
Office and when he was in the University of Benin.
So they brought it and I called the Commissioner of Police, who was
in-charge of handwriting and we asked if he could look into the piece of
paper and advise. He found that the signatures on the three papers from
Ben
in were consistent but the one Danjuma gave me was not consistent. So,
he made his report. I took that report and went to Danjuma and told him
to look at the signatures.
“So Danjuma and I went to see General Obasanjo, who was now the Head
of State. And that led to the removal of General Agbazika Innih, who was
then the military Governor of Bendel State. He was deployed to Kwara
State. I thought that was all but two days after, on the 19th of March
1976, the Chief of Staff, Danjuma, invited me to his office. When I got
there, he said I was under arrest. From there, I was taken to Ikoyi
Prison. I spent three months there. Nobody really asked me any question
except that somebody came one day and said, ‘What do you know about the
1976 coup that killed Murtala?’ I said I knew nothing.
He said, “We also heard that there was another coup being planned
which Felix Ibru reported and it looks as if you are the one planning
it.’ I said, ‘I don’t really know Felix.’ He said, ‘Felix said he gave
N200 to somebody’. I said, ‘I don’t even know Ibru not to talk of
collecting money from him.’ So that was all. I spent three months in
Ikoyi Prison. Then, I was moved to Kirikiri Prison to spend another
three months. “One day, they came to tell me that I was retired. I said
thank you. In September 1976, I was discharged from prison.
On the lessons he learnt and how he survived in prison
“The lesson I learnt is that God has hands in everything. When I was in
detention, some of us were condemned; in 24 hours, you will not see
light. It was made to break some of us. But I did a course called
‘survival course’ where we were expected to adapt to difficult
situations if we were captured.
“They normally bring water around six o’clock in the morning. When
they brought water I pleaded that they should give me an orange. I used
the orange as a football and played it in the cell, a nine by six feet
enclosure. I played and joggled the orange vigorously that I would be
sweating profusely.
“I adapted to the situation because if I was to be captured in war,
the situation would be worse than that. At first, I thought someone was
doing this to break my will, but the longer it took I discovered that it
was no longer a joke. So I started singing a song: ‘I have the whole
world in my hands.’ I just believe that it was faith. It was perfect
faith”.
How he felt when he was leaving the prison
“When I was released from prison, I was very annoyed with the military. I
thought they had disappointed me because I wanted to become a career
officer; I wanted to progress to the zenith and I was working very hard
for it. So when they did this to me, I was very annoyed but, later on,
my mind told me to forget everything, that it could have been worse
because after the retirement, somebody brought me a paper, my name was
on the list of people who were to be killed; to be shot at the Bar
Beach.
“I think it was to be on the 24th of March, 1976, there were 42 names
there. My name was the last one but General Domkat Bali said, ‘it was
only 41 people that were sentenced to death, how did you get the 42nd
person? Colonel Ogbebor, how did you get here, how did they smuggle your
name into this list?’ They said I had been charged. He said, ‘go and
bring his file.’ Nobody had my file because I was not charged, I was not
questioned. So, he used his pen to cancel my name. That is how I was
saved.
“But colonel Wya never had that fortune because he was shot at the
Bar Beach. He was married to a British, a white lady. The white lady
wrote to say that her husband was never involved in the coup. After
everything, the Minister of Defence wrote to the wife that it was a
mistake. You know what she did? One Sunday, she just entered a car with
her four children. She was living in Kaduna.
“She drove towards Kaduna, she saw a big truck coming and she just
drove into it. She and her four children died. She left a suicide note
saying that she didn’t know how to go to the civilized world and tell
them that her husband was shot at the beach by mistake. So, that I am
alive is the handiwork of God. When I came out at first, I was annoyed
but, later on, I decided to forgive everybody”.
How cadets received the 1966 coups
“The first coup, we didn’t know of it. We heard gunshots in the night.
We didn’t normally have feelings for that because of the training. We
thought the authorities were conducting an exercise for some students.
It was in the morning that we were told what happened at the Deputy
Commandant’s Office. Then, Ironsi took over as Head of State. But in
spite of the coup, there was cohesion in the academy and the cadets
continued their course until the cadets had their first passing out
parade on March 27, 1966.
“By this, the naval cadets were able to complete their basic training
in the NDA and had traveled out of the country to the various foreign
naval institutions for their specialization and commissioning. But the
army cadets had one more year to spend in the NDA for specialization and
commissioning. Then the fear and question again was whether the
prevailing political situation in Nigeria would allow the army cadets to
complete their training and be commissioned in March 1967.
“In spite of the fervent efforts to safeguard and continue the
academy courses uninterrupted; things were never the same again. Both
the military and civilian staff in the academy, who were Ibos, had lost
their sense of security and, in turn, fled. The officer cadets of
Courses I and II, who were from the Eastern Region, had developed fear.
In fact, no Nigerian staff and cadets remaining in the academy was sure
of his fate irrespective of one’s place of origin. The atmosphere in
the academy was no longer conducive for learning. The academy had to
close in June 1966 for a two-month vacation”.
On whether the January 1966 coup was an Igbo coup
“No, it was not. The handling was very successful in the North but the
handling in the South was treated with sentiments. Most of the people
killed were Yorubas and Hausas. It was only Nwogu that was killed in the
East and that raised eyebrows of northerners and they organized their
own coup”.
On whether the civil war was avoidable
“At the time we fought, we were obeying orders. We were trained to obey
orders. The pattern of our training is to be loyal to your country by
all means, even if it means taking your life to defend your country. If
there is a war, there is war. We never looked at the political aspect of
it.
“There are many indices to show that there was something wrong. For
instance, the papers published, Daily Times was sold only in the South,
not in the whole of the South, but in what we call South-West. Although
it was a federal paper, it was not federal at all. New Nigeria was only
sold in the North. The Pilot was only sold in the East. Then, you cannot
travel to the East and easterners cannot travel.
There was panic at Jebba Bridge, at Niger Bridge. Then, there were
lots of altercations between Gowon and Ojukwu. It was only divine
intervention that could have prevented that war. But God said there must
be war, so there was war. It has to be rough before it can be smooth.
We have a parable in Benin that says when a man marries two wives, until
they fight and one woman is able to defeat the other one, there won’t
be peace in the house. They have now tested their strength and one knows
that she is stronger than the other one. So, there will be peace in the
house. The same thing now applies to Nigeria”.
On whether true reconciliation has been achieved 42 years after the war
“What you see now is purely politics. You find one leader talking this
way and the other talking that way but when there is something in common
they share. You find that people in prison don’t know the country,
tribe or state they come from. People in the hospital don’t know what
religion they are practising.
“People in prison are fighting for a common goal. What matters to
them is freedom. What matters to people in the hospital is health. But
people who have health, who have freedom and everything, want to advance
their fortune. They look for whatever it is to put forward. So, at the
end of the day, we all will agree”.
52 years after independence are we really a nation?
“Look at our footballers, when they go out to play football, they are
there with a common goal. See how they try hard to win. The problem with
Nigeria today is that there is no national goal. During the war, to
keep Nigeria together was a task. For that one, 90 per cent of Nigeria’s
resources were mobilized to achieve it. If you are a medical doctor,
you are commandeered.
If you are a lawyer, you are commandeered. If you have a house, it is commandeered to achieve the survival of Nigeria.
That was why we were able to win. Since that war ended, tell me what
happened that the whole country is pulling its resources towards
achieving? Nothing! That is the failure of leadership in Nigeria. You
were here when Buhari/ Idiagbon came. You can see how the country was
moving towards something. They had content and were moving Nigerians
towards a goal.
“While I was in India, I was learning Hindu in an American embassy
school. I was a Major then. There was a teacher teaching us, his name
was Krishna. If you go to the Connaught Place, Delhi, at four o’clock,
you would see them packing dead bodies of people, who died of cold and
hunger in the night.
‘Can’t you do something for these people?’, we asked. “We can do
something about them,” one of them said, “if we pull the resources of
the whole of India to save these ones, we can only save 20 per cent of
them.
The remaining 80 per cent will still die. So what we are doing is
that we are not bothering about these ones now. We are bothering about
their children. We are putting our resources to develop our economy so
that the economy can now serve these children’. That is what they did
and India is better for it today”.
On the way forward
“When Yar ‘Adua came, we started something but it was too many –
seven-point agenda. Seven is too much. A goal should be one. President
Goodluck Jonathan came and said Transformation Agenda. Transformation in
people’s what? How much have people been educated? A goal should be
well articulated and there should be a plebiscite for all Nigerians to
understand and vote and, after voting, it becomes their bible. It is not
what one Head of State will sit in the room and conjure. People must be
involved”.
Vanguard
