Interview, News

Emir Of Gwandu Is A Liar – Jokolo

The Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Muhammadu Ilyasu Bashar (Major General Muhammadu Jega) has been lambasted by Major Mustapha Jokolo…

Major Mustapha Jokolo

“I am very glad that this book came out to show the kind of person that Alhaji Muhammadu Ilyasu Bashar or Major General MD Jega is. If you go through the 1983 and ’85 coup and even ’75 against Gowon, he didn’t spare anybody. It shows he has something against Babangida and Aliyu Gusau and I am going to make sure I send them copies of this book They do not have copies. Nobody has a copy. Even the author of the book I have tried to reach him through phone but nobody is picking the call.”

“And everywhere I asked, nobody has seen the book. So it is photocopies I made to send to some people who after going through were disgusted. If you go through the book you will find that he is faultless. He put himself in the same level as Prophets of God.”

“Before I go to the issues he raised in the book regarding the 1985 coup, kindly please allow me to address a particularly surprising story he gave about the stool of the Emir of Gwandu. Honestly, the book is self serving and he just wants to make money out of it. But I am really happy that he published it. He lied too much in that book.”

“He lied too much in his relationship with my father. He even tried to show that he was better than us, that my father wrote a letter to him that he should succeed him. It is true that my father wrote a letter that he should succeed him. But before my father, my father’s grandfather, Haliru Abdul who reigned from 1906…if you like I can show you the letter. He wrote a letter to the white men that he wanted my grandfather to succeed him. And after that the person who succeeded my grandfather, Emir of Gwandu Shehu from 1918 to 1938, he too wrote a letter to the white people that he too wanted his own son to succeed him. But he wrote to the officials, not to him. And if my father wrote to him, at the time he wrote in 1972, I was 20 years old and a cadet.”

“Who would have considered me as Emir of Gwandu? But surprisingly, my father brought him up, like he said, before I was even born and he trusted him. He gave him the daughter to marry. He looked after him like his son. Even the key to the safe of the house was with him. But what happened? Abubakar Musa, the former governor of Kebbi State was his classmate. One day, Abubakar Musa sent a message that he wanted to come and see our father at night. He came with Yahaya and one of our in-laws.”

“When they went to see our father, we were annoyed that how could they come at night to see him. Later, Yahaya told us that Abubakar Musa told him that he was shocked because Jega went to him and told him that you know you are my classmate in secondary school. I was the head boy and you were deputy. So I want you to know that I am interested in this throne. Emir of Gwandu is like my father and so if he dies I will like to contest this throne.”

See also  Dele Momodu Bombs APC

“So he said he wants to see the Emir, maybe the condition of the Emir is not good. That was why he went to see him. But then when he got to know that we knew what he said he now wrote a letter to the same Sarkin Shanu telling him that let him take note of this letter that he and Emir of Gwandu only God knows which one of them will die first, but he has treated him like his own son. But in the event of the Emir dying before him and any of the Emir’s children is interested he would not even apply talk more of contesting.”

“You see. He is doubled nature? Sarkin Shanu gave me a copy of that letter. We waited. And another thing even though my father gave him that letter in 1972, the same my father now gave me the key to the tomb of Abdullahi Fodio. He gave nobody. Nobody has ever entered that tomb except me; that tomb of Abdullahi Fodio, the first Emir of Gwandu.”

“Don’t forget I have four elder brothers but I was the only person given. And he gave me the mandate to look after his family. Even in marriage I was the one giving the hands of my sisters in marriage. Why didn’t he give Jega? My father told one of his wives that he would want to resign and give me the appointment. I told them to stop telling me that kind of thing. The only thing was that at the time my father wrote that letter, he was sick. He didn’t want his family to scatter with nobody to look after them. But when he found out that I was strong enough to take care of them then he now pronounced it to me. If he wanted Jega to be, why should he write a letter to him?”

“He should have written to the officials, like his grandfather and uncle did. I have the documents from the archives. He is carrying the letter my father wrote to him but he is not showing the letter he wrote to Sarkin Shanu that he would not contest if any child of the emir was interested.”

“I saw the book just by accident. A friend showed it to me and I photocopied it and went through it. I will come to the 1985 coup, but let me finish dealing with the issue of the throne of the Emir of Gwandu. In the book he mentioned successor to the throne of Gwandu; that is the successor to my father. He said there were five applications. There were actually fourteen applications.”

“When the Kingmakers met, they selected three people. It was never four as contained in the book. I was number one. He was number two and Dr. Bello number three. And from there they passed it to the Council of Chiefs which was headed by the Emir of Argungu, late Alhaji Muhammadu Mera and Shuaibu of Yauri. The Emir of Zuru, Alhaji Usman Danga was sick in the hospital. But in the book he mentioned that Alhaji Sani Sami was a member of the Council of Chiefs.”

See also  How Akwa-Ibom Governor Escaped Death

“How can when I was the one who appointed Sarkin Shanu, Sani Sami as an emir? So how could somebody I appointed appoint me before I appointed him? Interestingly, he was always referring to the word some middle grade officers. I don’t know what he means by that. It is always referred to as Field Grade; that is Majors and Lieutenant Colonels.”

“He doesn’t even know military terminologies. He said they sat down with the Military Administrator who was Tunde Bello to appoint me the Emir of Gwandu and that they changed his name and gave the throne to me. Fortunately, we still have some of the Kingmakers around. We have the Magajin Zaga, the District Head of Zaga. He is still around. We have the Sarkin Ilo, District Head of Ilo who is still around. The Sarkin Aliero is around.”

“Tunde Bello, the then Military Administrator is around and the Secretary to the Emirate Council is alive. He was the one who took minutes. The Permanent Secretary, Local Government, Digi, he is now the District Head of Digi. He is around. And the Secretary to the State Government, one man from Yauri is the one who announced the result. Let him bring the papers because everything that was done is on paper.”

“From Haliru Abdul, my grandfather, up to my own, there are papers to show how the selection was done. Let him bring the papers during his time. That is why I will say with turban on his head and lie on his tongue. How can he…like the Emir of Zuru; I was the one who sat on the committee that selected the Emir of Zuru and he now said he was the one who selected me. Danga was the one. He lied.”

“Why do we start from 1985 when he equally talked of 1983? 1983 led to 1985. So, let’s begin from 1983. Everything is just about himself. That book is self-serving. It is not an issue of biography. I am saying that in the book there is nothing to show that he did something wrong in life from his past till now. He is the only person who is doing something good. I’ll give you an example. There is a place where he said they did landing operation during the civil war and the first of its kind in Africa.”

“There were landings in Africa before and during the first and second world wars. The Germans were in Cameroun, how did they come? British were in North Africa with people like Brumell, Montgomery, Alexander and others. How can he say that was the first in Africa, unless he doesn’t know what is called military history. That’s number one. Number two, he mentioned that his Battalion was always moving during the war and his Brigade Commander was General Akinrinade and Murtala was their GOC. But there was a place where he said Murtala asked him to come and he sent message back that he was not coming.”

That is interesting. Murtala, a GOC who was senior to people like General TY Danjuma because Jega was course mate to Buhari, “Yar’Adua and others. They were NMTC Course five. Danjuma was NMTC Course one, that is Nigerian Military Training College. Before, there was no NDA and they were going to Teshi in Ghana; then they will send them to different countries, either to Britain, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan and so on; like General Hassan and Gowon went to Ghana. So, the NMTC Course started with people like Danjuma. He was in Course one and Murtala was far ahead of people like Danjuma. So for a GOC to ask a Battalion Commander to come and he said he wasn’t coming to the extent that the GOC had to go to him is not possible. It is just not possible. That is one aspect of it.”

See also  Senator Hope Uzodinma Arrested

“Again, I was not lying down on the floor. There was a Guest House. The Guest House was for senior officers; so what blanket is he going to bring for me. It was a Guest House with every facility. They were cooking food for us and everything. Look if Buhari was his friend why didn’t he go to Buhari instead of reporting to all the people he went to. And there is a place in the book where he said he was retiring. He was not retiring. Those people appointed him Ambassador to Niger and he was very bitter with the appointment and he said he would rather…it was very humiliating for him. Babangida and Abacha were his juniors.”

“He was course five and they were course six, but they caught up with him and Buhari later. But how could he come and serve under his mates and subordinates? So of all places they gave him Niger. Haba!”

Ambassador after moving from Governor they made him Ambassador to Niger. He was bitter with it, just like he mentioned in the book that he was deputy Commandant to Joe Garba. Both of them were Brigadiers because Joe Garba was course four like Wushishi and Bali. Later Joe Garba was appointed GOC 2 Division and he didn’t take over command, he went to India on course on Defence course and Jega was now humiliated by being posted from Deputy Commandant NDA to the Brigade he commanded in 1972, ’73, 26 Brigade.”

“He was posted to the same Brigade he commanded when he was a Lieutenant Colonel as a Brigadier and his subordinate, General Lekwot was made the Commandant of NDA and he was very bitter about it. So he is the only one thinking of himself. It is so because in the book after that 26 Brigade he was posted to Infantry and he went and complained that they know the place is shithouse and that anybody posted there was on his way out.”

“When Akinrinade became Chief of Army Staff he now moved him to DAT (Ops). That was what saved him. So the 1985 coup, he was in Gongola State. He couldn’t do anything about it. He couldn’t have been able to stop the coup even if he were in Jos or Ibadan.”

– Culled from The Sun