Vatsa : Short Memories, Long Shadows

Capt. S. Mohammed (Rtd)

Forwarded by Mohammed Haruna

The recent pronouncement by President Olusegun Obasanjo that he would re-open investigations into the circumstances of the 1985 execution of Major General Mamman Vatsa for involvement in coup plotting is a most welcome development. It is indeed time to lift the veil of “classified information” that withheld certain significant information about events related to the sad history of military coups in Nigeria. The choice of the 1985 coup and the case of late Major General Vatsa is also pertinent as it throws the focus on coups attempted against military regimes which, unlike the overthrow of civilian governments, are shrouded in rumours, half truths and even vendetta as the on-going presidential review of the Vatsa execution has been scripted to unleash. In fact, if the President is genuinely concerned about righting the perceived wrongs of military coups in general, particularly of the “palace” variety, he would do well to order the de-classification of the documents and other records of the investigations and trials stemming from all such coups, especially the 1979 coup whose 30 year-old puzzles needs to be solved and resolved in the same spirit of truth and reconciliation that inspired the establishment of the Oputa Panel. Let us have the records and documents of the investigations and trials declassified and published for public record, along with the others, before the presidential review of the Vatsa case, which though unfortunate, is certainly not the only case worth revisiting, if indeed it is even worth revisiting.

For now, it is sufficient to assist the presidential review with some insights and perspectives on some of the factual circumstances of the execution of Major-General Mamman Vatsa for involvement in the botched 1985 coup against the Babangida regime. This is especially important given the roles played by both Mrs. Vatsa, and her latter day sympathizer, General Domkat Bali (rtd), whose press interview alleging that the then AFRC did not have sufficient evidence to justify Vatsa’s execution must have paved the widow’s way to Aso Villa. There is no indication that any other information or memoranda that may be useful to the presidential review will be welcome or sought for the purpose of establishing an objective basis for determining the legality and justification of the Vatsa execution. However, since General Vatsa was executed with other convicted plotters, it is ridiculous and unfair to try to excise and isolate just his own case from all the other inter-related actors and issues if indeed the quest is for justice, not vendetta. Fortunately, the meeting between Mrs. Vatsa and the President, no doubt arranged to dramatise the submission of her letter and the President’s acceptance of the Domkat Bali version of events in the build up to his barely concealed IBB-phobia, was given maximum publicity by the Presidency, thereby making it a public issue for public discussion. The President should therefore not rely solely on his privileged “witnesses” but consider other pertinent matters before doing Mrs. Vatsa’s bidding, even if IBB is his real target.

The first issue of interest is the role of General Domkat Bali in initiating, if not provoking, the process culminating in the presidential review, for it was his interview that suddenly reminded Mrs. Vatsa of her craving to have her late husband cleared of any complicity in the 1985 coup and give him a proper burial, eleven years after the event. It was also the General Domkat Bali planted interview that energized the widow and earned her the rare privilege of an appointment with President Obasanjo in Aso Villa, to convey a tearful rendition of her decade old bereavement and last wish for her late husband. Perhaps it would have been too telling to have the General escort the widow on her visit to the President, but the involvement of the General has cast a long shadow on the case for revisiting or reviewing the Mamman Vatsa case file in the 1985 coup.

The coup was uncovered in December 1985 and Major General Vatsa and other officers and men were investigated, tried, convicted and sentenced by a tribunal presided by General Ndiomu. General Domkat Bali, along with other officers like Vice Admiral Ebitu Ukiwe, Chief of General Staff, General Abacha, Chief of Army Staff, Admiral Aikhomu, Chief of Naval Staff, Air Marshal Ibrahim Alfa, Chief of Air Staff, Mr. Etim Inyang, ICP, as well as other Army, Navy and Airforce officers, constituted the AFRC members who approved the sentences and executions. The Convening Order for the investigation and the tribunal was signed by General Bali as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff as those involved were tri-service. After the AFRC meeting which confirmed the sentences and executions, it was General Domkat Bali who made the national broadcast announcing the execution of the convicts that had taken place two hours earlier!

General Domkat Bali remained in the government until 1992 when he resigned as minister and three-star general, and even then it was not for any principle but for his personal discomfort over his redeployment from the Ministry of Defence to the Ministry of Internal Affairs as Minister, and the appointment of General Abacha as Minister of Defence. Despite this, General Bali gleefully accepted promotion to four-star general from the same government, becoming the only officer to be promoted in retirement. All this time, General Domkat Bali was riding high in the IBB regime as an influential and senior officer in the AFRC, securing vantage positions in the AFRC for his Langtang cousins – Lt. General Joshua Godonyaro, General Shagaya, General Jerry Useni and General Joe Garba as Permanent Representative to the UN. He had no qualms about the investigation, trial, sentencing and execution of Major General Mamman Vatsa. Only now, eleven years after, did he express reservations, on behalf of the widow, but also in concert with the anti-IBB agenda of the Presidency.

This is indeed a surprising turn of character for the ordinary man on the street who may not know much about the General. It should be recalled that General Bali was the most senior officer when the Buhari-Idiagbon regime came into existence, and he still accepted to serve in an undignified manner under his subordinates. This same General Bali continued to serve as Minister of Defence under the regime that overthrew the Buhari-Idiagbon regime without blinking an eye! Among his chain of dubious distinctions include being a party to the overthrow of the legitimate democratic administration of Shagari as the most senior officer involved in the coup, being a party to all the actions and activities of the Buhari regime whether right or wrong and being the convening officer of the investigation panel and the tribunal that tried and sentenced Orkar and Co.

With such a background, for General Bali to turn around and start accusing General Babangida over the execution of General Vatsa, he must be an accessory to the “murder” he alleged and it amounts to betrayal and hypocrisy for him to try to extricate himself as a member of the AFRC at the time from the confirmation of the sentence on General Vatsa, which all other living members of that AFRC have no contemplated. He must be cautioned about trying to undo all the efforts being made to forge unity by successive patriotic administrations with his crude and baseless statements through staged press interviews.

While sympathizing with the long bereavement of Mrs. Vatsa, it is considered tactless for her to wait for or use General Bali as a rather bloated trumpet to plead the innocence of her late husband before Mr. President, ignoring several other accessible opportunities to do so previously. Surely, she could not have forgotten her “widow’s mite” to her late husband for so long. So, she may need to be reminded of an earlier tragedy that befell the family, ten years before the execution of her husband, involving their cook, an army sergeant. She can recall that her husband was then in 1976 Commander, Brigade of Guards, and was scheduled to attend the Army Command and staff College Course One with Babangida and others, who were all colonels then. His cook, a sergeant from the then Cross River State, was ordered to prepare to accompany his oga to Jaji, to continue cooking his meals there, but the cook pleaded to remaining Lagos in view of his large family already entrenched in Lagos and dependent on his income and the petty trading his wife was engaged in, all of which would be destabilized by his transfer to Jaji.

His boss, Col. Vatsa threatened to get the sergeant dismissed from the army, if he refused to accompany him to Jaji, which forced the cook to opt for retirement, rather than abandoning his family. In a fit of rage, Col. Vatsa ordered soldiers to beat up the sergeant, and this they did with characteristic zeal, leaving the sergeant in a coma. He died shortly after that in hospital. There were several attempts to cover-up this sordid act, but when concerned soldiers wrote petitions about the incident, a kangaroo investigation was ordered under late Brigadier Wali, Adjutant General of the Nigerian Army, which blamed the doctor. The body of the sergeant has never been seen again since then. Does it not ring with irony that Mrs. Vatsa is pleading for justice for her husband, when the family of the deceased cook regarded his execution as God’s justice, or NEMESIS striking back? Or does Mrs. Vatsa not consider herself lucky to be alive to be making such a belated and short-sighted effort to establish the innocence of her husband, when others similarly bereaved, like Mrs. Waya, wife of Col. ADS Waya departed this sinful world long ago in a ghastly motor accident caused by grief over her husband’s execution, and Lydia, late Col. AB Umar’s wife, have left all to God.

As I said at the beginning of this contribution to the presidential review of the Vatsa execution, it is a welcome development that President Obasanjo has declared a willingness to look into the grievances of Mrs. Vatsa, during her visit to submit her letter of appeal, insinuating that it was General Babangida, not the AFRC, that was responsible for her husband’s “murder”. It has therefore become imperative for the President to also invite the families of the late Col. Audu DS Waya, Corps Commander, Nigerian Army Artillery, mate to Col. SE Tuoyo and Lt Col. Adamu B. Umar, Cadets Battalion Commander at NDA, who was mate of Buhari, Yar’adua and Shelleng, to submit their own letters of appeal. These two officers were confirmed to be innocent of the charges of involvement in the 1979 Dimka coup – after they had already been executed. And General Olusegun Obasanjo was then the Head of State, so he should be ready to take responsibility in the same way that Babangida is being framed to bear responsibility for the collective decision of the AFRC.

It will also be very germane, especially in the context of de-classification of documents and records of the 1979 coup with a view to lifting the veil of rumours and half-truths that continue to puzzle Nigerians, to draw attention to the contents of the recently launched memoirs, Aristocratic Rebel, of former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji MD Yusuf, who was also former head of the Special Branch of the Nigeria Police, precursor of NSA and later SSS and NIA. The former IGP who definitely knew his onions as far as national security issues of his era were concerned, points out in his book that there was a big puzzle on the of the coup and assassination of General Murtala Mohammed about the whereabouts of none other than General Obasanjo himself and his apparent reluctance as the most senior military officer to take charge of the situation. At the time there was only one General (Murtala) and two Lt-Generals, (Danjuma and Obasanjo). But only Lt. General TY Danjuma as Chief of Army Staff and the then IGP, MD Yusuf were available to take charge of the situation and mobilize a counter-attack. This scenario contrasted sharply to the situation during the 1966 coup when Ironsi was assassinated. General Ogundipe who was the Chief of Staff SHQ did not disappear, but gallantly and patriotically took charge of the situation.

Moreover, the 1976 Dimka coup took place in the early morning and everyone was taken completely unaware. Yet somehow, General Obasanjo who was staff officer under Murtala, and was always in office earlier than his boss, did not report to office that day and was nowhere to be found. All other officers, most of whom were targets for elimination reported as usual to their duty posts, totally oblivious of the unfolding events. Another puzzling disappearance was staged by the then Commander, Brigade of Guards, then Lt-Col Sani Sami, now the Emir of Zuru. Perhaps, the new NSA, General Muktar, who was a captain and Brigade Major can shed more light on the whereabouts of of his commander that fateful day. But it remains a fact that as a result of this incident, Lt Col Sani Sami was removed as Commander, Brigade of Guards and deployed as Col GS, One Div, and replaced with Col MammanVatsa. The real heroes of the day were General TY Danjuma who mobilized a counter-attack, Lt Col IB Babangida who dislodged Dimka from the Radio House, Captains AS Muktar and Mohammed Abdullahi Wase, ex-Kano State Governor, who as Brigade Major and DAA/QMG respectively mobilized in the absence of their commander. It was Capt AS Muktar who made the radio announcement of the crushing of the coup. But the unsung here was Lt Col Mamman Vatsa who in far away Calabar as Commander 30 Brigade was the first military officer to denounce the coup and categorically declare loyalty to the Murtala regime. There is indeed a very strong case for the declassification of all the relevant documents and other records pertaining to the 1976 coup for public enlightenment and to end the culture of cover-ups, rumours, puzzles and outright falsehoods that have attended the 30 year old history of the 1976 coup.

In the meantime it is equally appropriate to expect Mrs. Ajoke Mohammed, wife of late General Murtala Mohammed, Hajia Binta Yar’adua, the wife of Genel SM Yar’adua who died in prison in Abakaliki after the 1995 staged coup trial and wife of late Col Ibrahim Taiwo, former Governor of Kwara State, if she is still alive and also Lt Akintunde Akinfenwa, ADC to General Murtala Mohammed’s wife to prepare their letters and proceed to Aso Villa to present their appeal for review of their late husbands’ death for possible justice and compensation. Mrs. Vatsa has set the precedent but the presidential favour should not be hers alone to enjoy. In the interest of posterity, history and justice, half la story should not be told, let Nigerians hear the other side of the story – the one conveniently classified for three decades so far.

Capt. S. Mohammed wrote from Kano City