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The Difference Between Agbada, Ishiagu, Babanriga on the One Hand and Khaki on the Other By Ubanese Nwanganga
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, not long ago made good its threat to prosecute ex-governors who had dipped their itchy fingers into their states’ coffers while in office, when the Commission arrested ex-governors Joshua Dariye, Rev. Jolly Nyame, Orji Uzor Kalu, Chimaroke Nnamani and Saminu Turaki. The Commission headed by the no-nonsense, redoubtable Nuhu Ribadu, an Assistant Inspector-General of Police, had informed Nigerians that based on its investigations, it had indicted 31 then serving governors on corruption and that they would be prosecuted as soon as their immunity to loot their states’ treasuries expired on 29th May 2007. Nigeria is a federation of 36 states plus Abuja, the 20th state of the north, although known as the federal capital territory. This means that going by the Commission’s position only five states’ governors plus the infant terrible of Abuja were adjudged not corrupt or indicted. But is this the truth? I doubt if this is correct. There are more corrupt ex-governors out there who are yet to be arraigned. Similarly, most of the ex-ministers bled this country to death. They were aided by the rapacious permanent secretaries and the directors of finance and accounts in their ministries.
The thrust of this essay is the obvious difference between agbada, ishiagu, and babanriga on the one hand and khaki on the other. Therefore, let us understand our terms very well, although most Nigerians, without any explanations, know where I am heading to. I mean that they are conversant with the terms, which are central to understanding this essay.
Agbada is a traditional dress worn by the Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria. It is a three-piece attire, made up of a pair of trousers (shokoto), a shirt and a big overflowing gown. It is sown mostly from cotton materials, such as brocade, hollandaise, etc. It is not normally sown from wool. Its distinguishing mark is that it is always big and makes the man wearing it to look bigger than he actually is. It is not usually worn by ladies but in these days of “anything men can do women can do better” I will not be surprised that ladies have decided to be wearing agbada in Yoruba land. Ishiagu, on the other hand, is a traditional Igbo wear. I am aware that the people of the minority areas of eastern Nigeria will contest this. Let us ignore the debate for now. Ishiagu is a two-piece attire made up of a pair of trousers and a long shirt. It is best sown from cotton materials. Sometimes, it could be made of one single piece, the long shirt worn upon a georgette cloth worn round the waist. A fitting cap, the red cap, for titled men, makes it attractive and befitting.
Babanriga is, on its part, the traditional Hausa/Fulani wear. It is made up of three pieces, like the agbada of Yoruba land. These are the pair of trousers, the shirt and the big overflowing gown. It goes with the cap to match. During the second republic (1979-83), Shehu Shagari, then president, popularized the long version of the cap that it came to be known as Shagari cap. Without the big gown, babaringa becomes the kaftan, which is very commonly worn in northern Nigeria. However, like the kwunu drink, it is fast becoming a national dress. The north is not only militarily and politically imperial-culturally; it is swallowing the rest of the country, especially Ndiigbo.
Finally, we have the khaki. It is used here in a generic sense. It represents military uniforms. Therefore, when we refer to khaki we have in mind all uniformed groups in Nigeria. They include the army, air force and navy. The police, customs, immigrations and prisons also belong to the khaki boys.
In Nigerian politics, there are two dominant political parties. One, the military, is permanent while the other mutates from time to time. In the process, it assumes any name of convenience. In the current political dispensation, its name is the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. In the second republic, it was known as the National Party of Nigeria, NPN. The Northern People’s Congress, NPC, was its name in the first republic. One obvious conclusion from this, if we are conversant with Nigerian politics, is that the two dominant parties in Nigeria are northern parties. The north controls the military and has controlled the other dominant party before and after Nigeria’s independence, whatever its name. Head or tail, the north wins. And it has employed it very well in the past with negative consequences for the entire country.
It is a truism that in Nigeria politics is for personal relevance, self interests, self aggrandizement, etc. We made the point during our last outing when we looked at the political rehabilitation of Baba Gana Kingibe, a key player in the Yar’Adua nascent administration. Nigerian leaders at whatever level the opportunity calls are known for their penchant for stealing or looting the public treasury. This happens all the time, whether in civilian or military dispensation. A man whose father died while he was a pauper and could not give him a decent burial will suddenly realize that he has an opportunity to make the man great, thrust on him the moment he is appointed to a leadership position. In 1995, for instance, Tom Ikimi was appointed minister of foreign affairs by the late maximum leader, Sani Abacha. Ikimi’s father died in 1986 or thereabout. Nobody heard about it. There was no obituary announcement in the print or electronic media. Then, one or two years into office, Ikimi’s father became an important man, what Ndiigbo call okeozu. All roads led to Igueben to mark the tenth anniversary of the man’s death. Who footed the bill? Your guess is as good as mine. About the same time, Walter Ofonagoro was minister of information. His kinsmen, the people of Orlu senatorial zone of Imo state chose to honour him with a chieftaincy title of Onu N’Ekwuruoha (Spokesman) of Orlu. Almost the entire staff of the federal ministry of information, where Abacha’s Goebbels held sway, relocated to Orlu to participate in the extravaganza. Each officer who attended drew duty tour allowance at appropriate rate. Of course, the big man (the Hon. Minister) defrayed the expense from tax payers’ money. There are countless others when Nigeria and Nigerians have been ripped off by impostors masquerading as public servants. How many chieftaincy titles did each of the politicians between 1999 and 2007 acquire while in office? Who paid for them, especially those of the ex-governors?
The abuse of public trust is not the preserve of civilian politicians. Their counterparts, in uniforms, the khaki boys or militicians, are culpable as well, if not more. The soldiers seized power for the first time in Nigerian history in January 1966. The counter coup followed, which returned power to the north. Then followed the unfortunate civil war and its aftermaths. Soldiers assumed political leadership of the country. They were military governors and occupied other positions as commissioners (ministers) in addition to overseeing the military. In the course of time, they knew what ordinarily they would be ignorant of. Little wonder then that military governors as well as soldier commissioners began to amass wealth at the expense of everybody. They began a systematic abuse of their offices. They ceased to be officers and gentlemen. Corruption had reared its hydra head in the military. Corruption dug in well with all its tentacles and became irremovable. The very disease that Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, an unsung hero because of his ethnic origin, and his colleagues had sought to rid Nigeria of when they struck on January 15, 1966 became more entrenched in the country as well as became the bane of the very Nigerian armed forces, which produced Nzeogwu. Many commentators have attributed this to the fact that the military overstayed its welcome. This may not be totally correct. I hinge my position on the fact that the then military head of state who was accused of sit-tight, General Gowon, was penniless when he was hounded out of office by Col. Joe Garba and company. His Angas people of Plateau state collectively built him a country home. While he was a poor former head of state, all the nine military governors save Brigadiers-General Johnson and Rotimi, who served under him, were found guilty of corruption. What of the commissioners (ministers)? They were as corrupt as their colleagues who were state chief executives. Otherwise, how come that General Murtala Mohammed who served as federal commissioner for communications returned to the Kano state government instead of the federal government illegally acquired properties? I have the feeling that the foundation of what later became Temperament Farms, Otta, was laid while Baba was the federal commissioner for works under General Gowon. Or, was it during his tenure as military head of state? May be, may be not! Among my people, there is a saying that you can know the taste of human excreta from the odour of fart. If Baba went into office in 1999 almost a poor man whose savings amounted to more than twenty thousand Naira but left office as one of the wealthiest Nigerians, despite the anti graft crusade of the last eight years, with assets worth billions of Naira including a university, a presidential library, controlling shares in Transcorp, Oando, etc, as reported in a recent edition of a weekly magazine, then we should not be surprised, because it was in fashion. He presided over the affairs of the state when Nigeria was relatively poor, and yet he became the proud owner of Temperament Farms. Now, consider Nigeria in the 21st century when international oil price hit the US$70 per barrel mark. Imagine Nigeria under Baba announcing an annual budget running into trillions of naira?
The Murtala Mohammed regime, which probed the Gowon regime found, as noted above, that all the military governors and the administrator of the east central state, Ukpabi Asika, had plundered their states. The only exceptions were the military governors of Lagos and western states, Brigadiers-General Mobolaji Johnson and Rotimi, respectively. Because of Murtala Mohammed’s later day born again, his regime went ahead to confiscate the assets of the guilty governors and the lone civilian member of the looting pack. Murtala Mohammed’s Damascus road experience brought about some sanity not only in the military but across the polity. Many civil servants, who were considered corrupt or dead woods, were weeded out from the system. Everybody, the high and the mighty inclusive began to sit up. Unfortunately, the national rejuvenation and crusade against corruption was short-lived when Lt. Col. Buka Suka Dimka and his fellow travelers assassinated the head of state on February 13, 1976. Although Baba, the reluctant successor, tried to maintain the tempo, the difference between his style and that of his predecessor was as clear as that between Seven-Up and Coca Cola. This was expected, for no two persons are ever the same. Besides the charisma of Murtala Mohammed, Baba was not allowed a free hand in governance, as the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, representing the north, which had reluctantly allowed power to shift to the south, was said to be in charge.
The Shehu Shagari government came into office on October 1, 1979. The government is today remembered for the squandering of riches, to borrow my sister Onyeka Onwenu’s language. Politicians of every hue descended on the nation like vultures and spreading malignant tumours. They literally stole the heart of the country. The period between October 1979 and December 1983 would be remembered for the excesses of political rascals and jokers like Umaru Dikko of presidential rice taskforce fame and Joseph Wayas, who did not appreciate the seriousness of the office of the president of the senate, which he occupied. He remained a playboy until the khaki boys came calling again. Nor are we going to forget so easily characters like Barkin Zuwo, Professor Godwin Odenigwe, Sam Mbakwe, etc. Barkin Zuwo will always be remembered for his political buffoonery. Professor Odenigwe betrayed the intelligentsia when he declared unfit for human consumption rice provided for the people of his constituency, which he later sold and pocketed the money. Sam Mbakwe was known as the weeping governor, the Kenneth Kaunda of Nigerian politics. Above that he left lasting legacy of development in the old Imo state, made up of the present Imo, Abia and some parts of Ebonyi states. Unfortunately, he allowed the bug of greed to bite him.
During the period, the southwest (Yoruba land) presented a case study in solid political maturity and sustained social engineering, under the able guardianship of Pa Awolowo. From Lagos to Oyo, Ogun, Ondo and Bendel, all the UPN controlled states displayed exceptional foresight and determination to rid their people of ignorance, disease and poverty through progressive social and economic policies. At the senate, the UPN senators distinguished themselves remarkably.
Unfortunately, when the soldiers struck in the dying hours of 1983, they tarred all politicians, the good, the bad and the ugly with the same brush. Alex Ekwueme, distinguished architect and former vice president was thrown into detention at the maximum prison at Kirikiri. Ekwueme, the gentleman in the wrong party, was not spared the humiliation of indefinite incarceration. So also were Bola Ige, Pa Michael Ajasin, Ambrose Alli and others who did not deserve such treatment.
Many of the politicians were tried and found guilty and sentenced to long prison sentences of up two hundred years! The Buhari led junta also seized their properties. They were given more than the maximum punishment for dipping their itchy fingers into the public till.
The self-acclaimed evil genius struck on 27th August 1985. Our national political drama took a new but interesting turn. Under IBB, the maxim was “take maximum care of your interests at the expense of the state while you can”. It is pertinent to note that one of the reasons why IBB shoved Buhari aside was the latter’s determination to probe the ministry of defense, including the various arms of the armed forces. IBB became chief of army staff following the coup that toppled Shagari’s government. He settled for that position after the office of head of state had eluded him and was given to Buhari by the coup plotters. Interestingly, Idiagbon, a Fulani man with ancestry in Sokoto, was anointed chief of staff, supreme headquarters, and the equivalent of vice president. The three most powerful Nigerians under Buhari’s regime were clearly northerners. Head or tail, the north always wins.
Since IBB headed the most important arm of the armed forces, the army, Buhari’s decision to probe the ministry of defense appeared targeted at him. The army receives the largest chunk of the annual budgets of the ministry of defense, which in turn receives close to 25% of our annual budget. IBB was known for his generosity to officers and men who were subordinate to him. Being generous in the military does not allow for accountability. The point is that the generosity is made possible by misapplication of the resources of the military. One consequence of this development is that those who presided over the looting of the military made sure that the accounts were never audited. Buhari knew this and much more about what transpired in the army and wanted to repeat what Murtala Mohammed did in 1975 to his former colleagues who had be found to have abused their offices and enriched themselves at the expense of the nation. IBB got wind of it and actually sent word across to Buhari through a prominent member of the Caliphate (an Emir) to consider his commission in the army over if he went ahead with the proposed probe of the military. The threat was not an empty one. IBB was dead serious. Buhari ignored him and paved the way for the coup of 27th August 1985.
While Buhari has been vilified for not tackling IBB frontally while the opportunity was still there, it is often forgotten that IBB was the army chief who had control over the use of the troops. Also, cognizance is not taken of his all pervading influence in the army arising, in the main, from using state resources to build bridges of understanding. In spite of his integrity and democratic credentials, Col. Abubakar Umar maintains that he would not hesitate to serve under IBB any day. The love for IBB by the troops was infectious. Therefore, for Buhari, a strict disciplinarian to confront IBB in a military dispensation in which IBB held such a sensitive position as army chief would have led to splitting the army into two, with IBB likely to command the stronger and greater faction. Besides, we seem to forget that Buhari’s national crusade against corruption seemed not to have respected the larger feelings of the north. I take this position because Buhari, though a northerner, was more interested in moving the country forward than in regional hegemony. It appeared that he truly believed that the greatness of Nigeria was not measured by the little gains made by the individual component parts against one another but by the giant strides it made, which would stand it out in good stead in the comity of nations. This conviction, I must admit, has not deserted him. He is still the man that Nigeria and Nigerians must reconcile with, notwithstanding his misadventure of romancing with Islamic fundamentalists like Sani Ahmed Yerima, former governor of Zamfara (sharia) state and others.
With August 27, 1985 as successful as envisaged and Buhari and comrade in rigidity, Idiagbon, out of the way, IBB proceeded to visit on Nigeria the worst form of corruption compliant governance. From board members to ministers, governors, commissioners and even sole administrators of local government areas, the creed was steal and steal and in the process settle those who deserve to be settled. Those who proved difficult, the stick was used on them. While the corruption of the IBB years involved everybody in position of authority, khaki boys were a special breed of people, who were never to be declared corrupt. Let us consider one or two cases here.
Sometime in the second half of the 80s, Navy Captain Mohammed Lawal (as he then was) was the military governor of Ogun state. Lawal was from the present Kwara state, where he served as an elected governor under the platform of the ANPP from 1999-2003, before the owner of Kwara state, Olusola Saraki, suddenly remembered that his progenies had come of age. Governor Lawal caused the funds belonging to the Ogun state government to be lodged in an account with a bank owned by the Kwara state government. His commissioner for finance, one Dr. Bello, a former lecturer at University of Lagos, Unilag, frowned at the governor’s decision. As an indigene of Ogun state, the governor’s action was unacceptable to him and he said so. But the governor ignored him and left the funds in the Kwara state owned bank. Dr. Bello went public after resigning from Lawal’s cabinet. The incident generated a lot of controversy and the public became interested in the propriety or otherwise of a governor lodging the funds belonging to the state government of which he was the chief executive in a bank belonging to the government of his state of origin. The case was rested in a dramatic way. Admiral Augustus Aikhomo, Chief of General Staff, after Ukiwe was humiliated out of office by the combined onslaught of Abacha and Domkat Bali, had the now famous train ride from Lagos to Ibadan. On the way, he stopped at Abeokuta and there and then cleared Governor Lawal of any wrong doing.
Public interest in the case was not simply because Governor Lawal lodged the money of Ogun state in a bank owned by another state. It was simply that by lodging the money in the Kwara state bank-it could have been any other bank-Governor Lawal was suspected of having benefited directly from the lodgment. In other words, Governor Lawal might have struck a deal with the bank and would have received a reward, in cash or in kind. The suspicion was not baseless. It is a common practice in the civil service since IBB’s regime of easy banking for a chief executive of a government department to strike a deal with any bank and have the department’s funds transferred to the bank. Such chief executive was usually rewarded handsomely. One of the recent allegations against former governor Sam Egwu of Ebonyi state, which appeared in a recent edition of The News Magazine, is that he was involved in such deal with now moribund Standard Trust Bank in Abakaliki.
In any decent society, the allegation against Governor Lawal was enough to force him to resign his commission as a naval officer. Before then, the government that appointed him would have recalled him to the barracks. We are discussing Nigeria and Nigerian issues. But more importantly, the point being made, which will be well amplified in the conclusion of the essay is that Governor Lawal was a uniformed officer, a khaki boy. Therefore, he was untouchable.
Under the same regime of Supremo IBB, one Col. Maina was the governor of Borno state. While in office, he played host to Prince Charles and his late wife, Princess Diana. Although Prince Charles is yet to ascend the thrown of England, his visit was treated as an official visit. The royal couple was therefore received as official guests of the federal government. Part of the programme of activities for the couple while in Nigeria was the visit to Borno state. The visit eventually took place, hitch free. Governor Maina received the couple and the entourage well and showered them with the proverbial African hospitality. Nobody quarreled with that. However, in showering African hospitality to the royal august visitors, Col. Maina dipped his itchy fingers into the coffers of the Borno state government and helped himself generously. The visit gulped a whopping nine million naira. This was long before the national currency died pieegh!
Governor Maina’s reckless indiscretion attracted wide media coverage. In response, the military government simply retired him from the service. He was allowed to go home to enjoy his loot. He was not prosecuted and sentenced, as Buhari did to civilians, who committed similar offences, to a long jail sentence. He was simply retired from the army.
During Abacha’s years of unrestrained looting of the national treasury, many military administrators, commonly referred to as “milads”, looted their states like an army of occupation. I have no access to the archives but I recall very well that Newswatch Magazine did a good expose' on them then. Col. Usman, an Igala man, and military administrator of Oyo state, who declared a prominent politician from the southwest a prison of war, was one of them.
What, then, is the moral of this long excursion into our recent history? It is that there is a whole world of difference between the uniform (khaki) and the civilian clothing, no matter the description; whether agbada, ishiagu or babanriga. Our ex-governors from 1999-2007 seemed oblivious of this hard fact. They refused to learn from history. While in office, they behaved as if they were in uniform and presiding over the affairs of a conquered people or an overrun territory.
The strength of the khaki is not affected whether in or out of active service. Consider Baba, our former president from1999-2007. Baba is the force behind the travails of the governors who were in office with him at the same time. But, are we to take it that his hands were completely clean? I mean, was he, like Caesar’s wife, above board? We know about presidential library project. We also know about shares in Transcorp. Equally of public knowledge is Bells University. And how come that from near liquidation, Temperament Farms, Otta, bounced back into buoyancy and profit-making while Baba was in charge at the Aso Rock Villa?
What do we make of the Tafa Balogun case? Tafa Balogun was onetime Inspector General of Police. He took over from Musliu Smith. He was a policeman. Balogun was accused of stashing away in his countless number of private bank accounts money meant for the police force. He was caught pants down because of his greed. A staggering sum of seventeen billion naira was traced to him. What punishment did he receive? Six months in prison during which he lived like a monarch. He was allowed to go home with much of the booty in tact.
This shows without any doubt that even the common police uniform is different from any civilian clothing. By the time the Ehindero’s ongoing case is swept under the carpet in the name of esprit de corps, we will come to understand it better, by and by.
Let me quickly say that I am not against ex-governors being made to account for their stewardship while in office. Yes, they should be tried as provided for in our law books. Those found guilty should be given maximum sentences. We elected our brothers in the different states to govern us and improve our lives. One good thing about democracy, as distinct from military dictatorship, is that a governor is elected to preside over the affairs of his own people, his kinsmen. He is one of them. Even if he was imported from abroad, as Chimaroke Nnamani was, he knows their pains, which he shares with them. He knows their aspirations. He is expected to understand where they are coming from and where they aspire to be. He counts himself lucky to have been chosen by God as an agent of positive change. He is not a hireling or a mercenary whose brief was written without the interest of the people he was commissioned to govern.
Yet, our brothers, who know us inside out, choose to treat our collective wealth, as if they are from the outer planet. Even, the colonial government could not have treated us in this way. One can now understand the seething anger and disappointment across the nation, when the misdeeds of the ex-governors are examined. For instance, for a people like the Ebonyi people of the southeast geo-political zone, nothing can be more heart-breaking than the reported inconsiderate, mindless looting of their state treasury by one of them, Dr. Sam Egwu. Ebonyi is the least developed of the Igbo speaking states. But for the political disadvantage of Ndiigbo since the end of the civil war, Ebonyi would have qualified as educationally disadvantaged. Some of the states in the north, which enjoy the disadvantaged status, are far better than Ebonyi. Yet, a man who cut his teeth in the deprivations of Ndiigbo chose to visit on his hapless people such reckless looting and wickedness.
Therefore, let the EFFC swing into action all the more and haul more of the former chief executives into the halls of justice. While Baba may have orchestrated the hunt for corrupt ex-governors, for personal reasons, we should not allow ethnic or religious sentiments to becloud our sense of justice. Orji Uzor Kalu stood up to Baba while in office. We took off our hats at him. That, however, would not entitle him to loot the Abia people treasury. If he is not guilty, we will all rally behind him to advance the cause of Ndiigbo in Nigeria. If indeed he looted his people, he stands condemned, his past crusade against Igbo marginalization notwithstanding.
But how far can Ribadu go in the fight against corruption? I am afraid not much, going by certain clear signals in the polity. Again, my thesis that khaki pass civilian clothing comes in handy. Recently, the navy justified the premature retirements of some top naval officers because they were involved in bunkering. They were, like Col. Maina, simply retired. They were not hauled into any court of justice to face the full wrath of the law. Oil bunkering is an economic crime, which is adequately addressed by the law. Why then should the law not apply to them? Simple: they committed khaki crimes!!
The EFCC dare not show any interest in the goings on in the Nigerian military. Take the navy, for instance. Year in, year out large chunks of the defense budget are earmarked for the equipment and supplies, training, etc in the navy. Yet, the navy can only boast of obsolete equipments, which are poorly maintained. Training is inadequate. Where then does the budgeted money go? Does it develop wings and flies away? No way. The top echelon of the navy knows the truth. What of the army? Don’t mention it! Any little wonder that many ex-military men are in politics? Is David Mark, our senate president a known businessman or an inventor of anything in the market? Where did he get the money to marry six wives, with some and their children well provided for abroad in hard currency?
In fact, when Nigeria and Cameroon were on the verge of going to war over the Bakassi Peninsular, I became apprehensive. It is not the size of an army that gives it victory. It is its preparedness, including training, equipment, morale of troops, etc. With the state of corruption and its attendant effect on our military, Cameroon would have taught us a huge lesson. Our lackluster performance in Liberia and Sierra Leone is still fresh to be forgotten.
I am not in any way suggesting that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and his men should commit suicide. Rather, what I am saying is that khaki crimes in Nigeria belong to a class of their own. Yes, whether or not we acknowledge it, khaki is different from any civilian clothing. Those who wear it are above the law. |