Goodness: Not Gusau Again!
Obasanjo plan am very well. Him take old politicians who rule Nigeria before, the same old politicians who spoil Nigeria before. Obasanjo carry all of dem. All of dem dey there now. E no finish, e no finish, e no finish. The young Africans dey get two ears for head, dem get two eyes too. Dem dey see the thing wey dey happen; dem dey hear am too… Egba mi oh! –Late, great Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
SaharaReporters reports that President Jonathan has selected 70 year old General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau for Nigeria’s Minister of Defense position. This is absolutely impossible to believe and one is tempted to think and hope SaharaReporters got it wrong this time. Perhaps their ‘sources,’ mixed up something. 70 year old, three time NSA Spymaster Mohammed Gusau to return to Nigeria’s top security offices?
“Finally, at 70 years of age, and after all the great work Spymaster and spy Aliyu Mohammed Gusau has done for Nigeria; due to the lack of any responsible, apt, skilled and patriotic Nigerian to employ for the office of Minister of Defense, our dear president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, according to recent reports, has agreed to an unknown request Gusau made, and prepared to bring him back into the nation’s top defense spot“
Let’s review Gusau’s credentials; perhaps he best qualifies for this top security office.
Aliyu Mohammed Gusau helped Nigeria stage the military coup that ousted one of our better regimes, the Buhari-Idiagbon government in 1985. Yes, Gusau was dictator Babangida’s right hand man in that critical coup that confirmed Nigeria on a path of economic woes, corruption, malgovernance and doom. Suspected for being a traitor by Buhari-Idiagbon, he was placed on surveillance by the NSO, and thus he prompted them Babangida to speed up the coup before he was sacked or killed.
Aliyu Mohammed Gusau occupied several power roles in that Babangida regime we all suffered from. He was Director of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Acting Director-General of the NSO, then Coordinator on National Security.
Aliyu became National Security Advisor in January 1993, and was promoted to Army chief. We Nigerians understand that dictator Babangida did not destroy our country by himself. He did it with his henchmen; these include Aliyu Gusau and even the current NSA, who is Aliyu’s in-law, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, who in like fashion, Jonathan brought back into power for lack of any other better people than the dictators of our horrible past who we struggle so hard to forget.
Abacha, not trusting this man, retired him. Aliyu went private, running his ‘security company.’
General Obasanjo brought him back from the ‘tombs’ in 1999 to be his NSA. According to WikiLeaks, which is flooded with startling and depressing tales of Aliyu Gusau, Obasanjo brought him back not only because of his experience, but to “keep the dangerous man close.”
When we think of the terror that evolved and reached full capacity during Obasanjo’s tenure, the single person to blame—apart from the President—who was in charge of our national security was of course our NSA, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau. MEND acquired arms under his wonderful watch and reigned limitless terror in the Niger Delta while Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was NSA. That is ‘commendable.’
Likewise, Boko Haram, north eastern maniacal terrorists created camps, gathered arms and unleashed terror while Gusau was our ‘great’ head of national security. Then called Taliban, when President Obasanjo asked about these boys in the north, PMNews on September 14, 2011reported that Aliyu Mohammed “told Obasanjo that no such group existed in the country.”
With Yar’Adua taking over, Gusau was dumped and replaced with Major Gen. Sarki Mukhtar. A great army general known for his antagonism of late Sani Abacha. The difference was clear. Under Major Gen. Sarki Mukhtar, Boko Haram was swiftly and surely decimated with no mercy and empathy. Over 700 terrorists were slaughtered and even the leader, Mohammed Yusuf was ‘accidentally,’ terminated while ‘he tried to escape.’ But not only was the right approach used to deal with Boko Haram, but the other terror threat of the Niger Delta was also addressed appropriately in consideration of the peculiarities it held. An amnesty was appropriate and Major Gen. Sarki Mukhtar and Yar’Adua established this to curb terror in the creeks.
Nigeria for once saw what a sensible and patriotic, none terror facilitating administration was like. There was a chance for safe growth with security.
With the unfortunate demise of President Yar’Adua, which some say may have been speeded up with poisoning, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was again returned as the NSA by Obasanjo’s brain-child, President Jonathan. It appeared there was no one who could secure the nation as NSA better than the one person who never secured it while he was NSA before.
Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, Babangida’s right-hand man, under whose watch, all types of ammunition were imported into the country and made available to terrorists; who has also been fingered in the recent cache of arms discovered in Kano in the hands of so-called Hezbollah agents, as reported by the NigerianPilot. Think- importation of arms in containers, allowed by the top level national security office.
With Gusau back, once again, Boko Haram terror continued seemingly unabated. Bombings occurred and not a single culprit and sponsor was arrested. Boko Haram seemed simply impossible to contain.
Now, there is another story in Aliyu Mohammed Gusau’s resume. He wants to be president of Nigeria by all and any means necessary. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau is a die-hard to occupy the top position. He apparently was at that table where Babangida, Obasanjo and Abacha sat and placed bets that they each must rule and ruin Nigeria.
Googling keywords, ‘Gusau’ and ‘WikiLeaks reports,’ the internet is awash with sickening tales of how Aliyu Mohammed Gusau kept running to US ambassadors in Nigeria to discuss his odds at becoming the next President and report on all Nigeria’s top security issues. Gusau, Nigeria’s top security man was an open cannon, delving all top level intel to the US according to tons of WikiLeaks cables exposed by Julian Assange.
So, back to his resume, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau stepped down as NSA in September 2010, when he told President Goodluck Jonathan that he planned to contest for Jonathan’s post and as such could no longer serve. This was when late General Owoye Azazi was hired for the job after a brief month when Colonel Kayode Are held the office.
General Owoye Andrew Azazi was NSA from October 2010 to June 2012, when he, increasingly frustrated with the President, apparently for not being allowed to operate as he would wish and bring the known masterminds of terror to book, was terminated.
General Owoye Andrew Azazi is remembered for at a time, upon there being a need to declare a state of emergency in Kaduna, referring to the President as incapable, with the words, “where is the president to declare it.” Later he dared to declare that Boko Haram was a result of “inner workings of PDP.” In a televised speech, General Owoye Andrew Azazi said, as recorded on Channels TV, that, “PDP got it wrong from the beginning, from the on-set by saying Mr. A can rule, Mr. A cannot rule, Mr. B can rule, Mr. B cannot rule, according to PDP’s convention, rules and regulation and not according to the constitution {applause} and that created the climate for what has manifest itself, this way. I believe that there is some element of politicization. Is it possible that somebody was thinking that only Mr. A could win, and if he did not win, there will be problems in this society.”
It appeared General Azazi was referring to one of the PDP primaries contestants which included Bukola Saraki from Kwara, General Babangida, Atiku Abubakar and our dear general Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, as having been disgruntled by the convention decision and supporting Boko Haram to “suddenly” get sophisticated to reign terror on Nigeria.
Azazi was fired in June and died at the end of that year in a suspicious helicopter crash which bore the hallmarks of Babangida era assassinations.
Back to General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau. Unable to put a lid on Boko Haram terror, President Jonathan kept begging the spymaster to re-occupy the seat as NSA. Apparently Nigeria had no younger, more skilled, more patriotic candidate for that office who did not have a record of being the one on the seat when terror penetrated and plagued the nation. Nigeria’s president needed the man who craves for his Presidency seat and whose duty it was to defend and prevent the nation from being engulfed in terror, in fulfillment of which he totally failed, to return and clear up the mess.
When Gusau refused to return to the office, President Jonathan hired his in-law, Colonel Sambo Dasuki. Gusau is married to Dasuki’s sister. These two are brothers and are both the pivots of that Babangida administration we thought we had gotten rid of. Dasuki according to theNation, supported an amnesty for Boko Haram terrorists and brutal murderers, a position virtually all of Nigeria vehemently rejected.
Finally, at 70 years of age, and after all the great work Spymaster and spy Aliyu Mohammed Gusau has done for Nigeria; due to the lack of any responsible, apt, skilled and patriotic Nigerian to employ for the office of Minister of Defense, our dear president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, according to recent reports, has agreed to an unknown request Gusau made, and prepared to bring him back into the nation’s top defense spot.
One wonders if there is a problem with our heads as Nigerians… and who cursed us and how bad the curse was, that we must be hated this much by our government. Disrespected, insulted and sacrificed at the altar under reigns of never ending government corruption, greed and deadly terror. Yeparika oh!
Dr. Peregrino Brimah
www.ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something]
Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian
