How societal ills crept into the military – Air Marshal Daggash

Air Marshal Al-Amin Musa Daggash rose from being a cadet in 1963 to the highest rank of Air Marshal in the Nigerian Air Force. He was a commander in virtually all the various sections of the air force before he became the commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, and ultimately, the Chief of Defence Staff during the regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar, between 1998 and 1999. In this interview, he spoke on his career and other issues.

How would you describe your early years?

As a civil servant working for the colonial masters, our father moved from one place to another and we moved with him. He experienced a lot of postings. We started school in Maiduguri, but before we knew it, within one year, he was posted to Zaria and we moved. In another one year or two, he was posted to Katsina. We were moving from place to place until the Oyewole twins, who were my father’s classmates in Oxford, visited him in Zaria and said we (the children) should have been in an organised school environment.

Were you not schooling in Zaria then?

We were schooling, but they were moved by the way they saw us. Remember that schools in the southern part of Nigeria were of different standard from what we had in the North. Finally, they agreed that we should be sent to Abeokuta.

How many of you moved?

Two of us—myself and my late brother, Mishara. We went to Mrs Kuti’s class. It was a primary school owned by the late Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti, Fela RamsomeKuti’s mother. We spent three years in the primary school and took the entrance examination to Abeokuta Grammar School and were admitted. We spent another three years in the school before our father decided that schooling there would not inculcate Islamic teaching in us.

We tried to read the Quran with some Islamic teachers (mallams) but we couldn’t understand the phonetics and their language, so our father decided that we should move back to Jos, where he was posted to establish the then College of Forestry, near the present day University of Jos.

As a child from Borno, how did you find the Abeokuta environment?

It was a difficult moment owing to the fact that we could not speak Yoruba language and they couldn’t speak Hausa. But as children, we managed to push here and there; and gradually, we started picking the language. I ended up being very lucky to speak Yoruba better than my elder brother. But it was six years of good experience, living peacefully with everybody.

Do you think the exposure somehow influenced your life and career?

Yes. In the school, including the boarding house, there were dos and don’ts. The twins I told you about also stayed in the boarding house; they had their little apartments.

Were they teaching in Mrs Kuti’s school?

They were teaching in Abeokuta Grammar School, having graduated from Oxford.

When you moved to Jos, it was not a very typical northern town; I don’t know how much of the Islamic traditional education you got there?

When we went to Jos, the only school there that our father got for us was Kuru Science Secondary School, near the railway. All the teachers in the school were British, except one. I can’t remember his name now, but he was the assistant craft teacher and a Yoruba man.

Another member of staff, also a Yoruba man, was the bursar, otherwise everybody else was British.

I think our father did his research and found out that that was a good school there, so we went.

To answer your last question, there was no Islamic study in that school. We would go to the hall and they would read some kinds of books. I got some of them; and they were kind of pamphlets and neutral - neither Islamic not Christian - but the Almighty God was mentioned here and there. We would read it for about 10 minutes and disperse to classrooms.

We learnt Arabic during holidays. Really, Plateau and Jos were not what we have now.

What is the difference?

When our father asked his driver to take us to Bukuru, there was no road connecting Lagos Road, so the driver had to carry our box. I and my brother had one common box. We had to walk because we had to avoid the long route. We had to cut across Berom villages; that was where we had a little problem.

There were cactus plants here and there.

Parameters?

That’s right. Each family had their own parameters, so we had to move between the cactus trees and so on to find our way out.

We were heading to Kuru, and suddenly, Mishara (my brother) tapped me, turned and started running back.

What did he see?

At that time, Berom people were not wearing anything. Their females were using only leafs to cover parts of their bodies and the males only had what they called kororos. They would put one there and tie it.

When it was cold they would have godo because they had to try to cover themselves. Mishara ran and the driver dropped the box and started running after him. He said I should sit down with that box there, promising that they won’t touch me.

In the military we have a seniority rule and you cannot break it. The only condition was to ask General Abdulsalami to take over since he was the Chief of Defence Staff, and Diya, now late, was in prison.

He grabbed Bushara, brought him back and held him, saying our father said he should take us to school and these people won’t touch us. He said we should not even look at them. So we continued. We walked and finally got to the school at Kuru.

There, again it was a nightmare for four days. We wondered how somebody could live in that kind of environment. We had never seen that kind of thing, so we were not used to it.

What was the difficulty?

The difficulty was that they were more or less our neighbours as they were not too far away from the school. So you could see them naked. We wondered how we could live in that kind of environment.

What about the teachers?

The teachers were in the school compound. The Berom were across the road.

We were told that the driver had to stay around with us for another one day or two. He had to call and send a message to our father to assure him that we had settled despite difficulty.

Then other schoolmates started arriving from Lowland division - Panshin, Lantang, Shendam. Many of them spoke different languages, but the common languages were Hausa and English.

We settled down gradually. And since the British people were teaching and looking after us, we forget about these other people and concentrated.

Of course the British team was quite good; they looked after our welfare and feed us well. They were good teachers. And everything was free.

From that school you went for training in Kaduna, what attracted you to the air force?

What happened was that during the last year in school, different civil servants and experts, technocrats, armed forces, police, came and briefed students on careers, so the one that attracted

me the most was the air force. It was either the air force or navy, but I wasn’t able to make up my mind.

Why?

When I left that school, we went to Kano to start our Higher School Certificate (HSC) programme with my brother at Rumfa College. When we went on holidays to Lagos in 1963, the Germans came and established the Nigerian Air Force. Our father was in Lagos.

In Kaduna?

No; at that time, it was in Lagos. The Ministry of Defence was in Lagos. I was able to read few pamphlets and information in the newspaper.

Our father was a permanent secretary in one of the ministries, but I can’t remember its name. I think it was mines and powers. He was with Maitama Sule (as minister).

I went to him and said I would not go back to Kano. He asked why and I told him that I would like to try and make a career in the air force since it had been established. He asked if I was sure and I said yes. He promised to speak to his friend, Tako Galadima, who was a minister.

The late Ribadu was the minister of defence but Galadima was in charge of the air force. I expected an answer the following day because we were on holidays.

The next day, my daddy came back and said he had spoken to his friend and he said they should encourage northerners as much as possible to join the air force because there were quite a lot of people in the navy and army and they were mostly southerners.

He said the minister advised me to write a letter stating that I wanted to join the air force. So I wrote my application and gave to him and he gave it to his friend. They called us for an interview and aptitude test. We were almost 1,000. After a week or two, the result came out; and of course they selected us according to scores.

My cadet number was 1015, which means that I was the 15th on the list. They selected 120 or 130 in the first batch. That was how I got into the air force.

You held positions in virtually all the commands; is there any particular aspect of the air force you recall with a lot of nostalgia?

Well, I am technically attracted to anything I can use my brain and hands to do. In the aptitude test, they were able to tell you how you would be able to go for air crew or engineering training etc. I was selected for engineering training.

When I went to Germany during the first training, after the military training in Kaduna, the next school we went to was technical. And in Germany in those days you didn’t just become an engineer. There’s what they called grade levels. As a young man, they would teach you technical drawing, craftsmanship and other things.

So you had to pass grade levels 7 and 8 before going into proper engineering training/aircraft maintenance.

That was how I progressed in that line. From there you would go on further training of different aircraft types. Sometimes there were longer courses and sometimes there were shorter ones.

We were also taught logistics management because if you didn’t know how to manage spare parts procurement, distribution, usage and so on, your equipment would not go. Those courses were put together and taught.

I progressed from one step to another, and each grade you passed earned you promotion. Sometimes they were short courses and sometimes longer ones.

That’s how it worked. I did virtually everything and headed everything. I was a director of almost everything in the logistics unit.

I was first of all a director of works for four and half years, as well as an aircraft maintenance engineer. I didn’t like it but it was a challenge. I was also a director of engineering for four years plus. I became director of supply for another two years or something.

During Abdul Bello’s tenure (as Chief of Air Staff) I director of works. At that time, we had two major runways being built in the country for the military in Makurdi and Kainji. These were about 3.67kms length; and they were thick.

It was designed by an old lady, a professor from Switzerland, but it was built by Julius Berger.

So, in that field I really got involved; I even forgot about aircraft. I was more interested in infrastructural development.

You were also a commander of the training school, was it more of flying or engineering?

When I left the headquarters temporarily from logistics, I went to Kaduna. We were in Kaduna briefly, where I was a senior aircraft staff officer at the air training command. I was there for a year. It was headed by the late AVM Natiti. I became the air officer commanding the training command.

The training command caters for everybody, including aircraft pilot training. We have the basic primary flying training in Kaduna.

I and my late friend, Group Captain Magaji, established the present Air Force Institute of Technology in Kaduna, which is now a university. We started with the technical training group, then gradually, it increased.

We trained everybody. We had the technical training group in charge of training all the craftsmen.

What about flying?

That was the basic flying school, but I didn’t fly. I was all through in technical matters.

Remarkably, you spent 20 years when the military was in power, but you were not one of the political officers; why was it so?

It was not my making, but I never longed for it because I noted one or two examples of those who were there and societal ills started crippling into the system.

There were bribery and corruption, nepotism etc, so I was satisfied where I was and it never bothered me.

Were you not jealous that your colleagues were governors, ministers and all that?

Not at all. In some instances, the governors were selected because they came from a particular region. Maybe that was the requirement. Some states got that privilege and some didn’t.

Things kept moving but I never bothered. But I moved from one stage to another until I finally got to the position of Chief of Defence Staff. Finally, I had my retirement in May 1999.

But before that, you were the commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), which was almost like a political posting; how would you describe that?

The posting I enjoyed most was as a commandant of the NDA. That was a brilliant posting and I thank the Almighty God for that, especially because at that time, the post was monopolised by the army. I think it was during my time that the decision to rotate it as it is done in other countries was taken.

I don’t know whether it was my luck or God’s will. I was the deputy commandant for one year and was appointed the commandant.

Were you the first air force officer to hold the position? it?

Yes; even till today.

Why did you say you enjoyed

I enjoyed it because I was working with human beings and dealing with different characters and members of staff from different places, including civilians, lecturers etc. It was very interesting. It was like a small world.

It was beautiful to put things together and get everybody to cooperate, do the right thing and get the best results. That’s what I loved the most.

You served as Chief of Defence Staff in the regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar before you retired; how did that come about? Was there any kind of negotiation?

I don’t know about negotiation, but I can perhaps admit that it was God’s will. However, I know there was tussle of sorts. An army officer can be very shrewd and crude when it comes to such appointments and posting. It is an everyday thing, which has succeeded in killing a lot of esprit de corps.

The issue of seniority also matters a lot, which our army brothers and friends sometimes don’t follow.

If you got a weak leader up there, he would listen and give it to them. Sometimes he would select a junior officer to hold the position and his senior would be forced to retire.

I never lobbied for any appointment in my life because I trust in God.

I said negotiation because when General Sani Abacha died, there was a kind of tussle among top commanders and generals over who would become what. Was it in that situation that they conceded the position to you?

No. I was the commandant of the NDA when Abacha died.

I took over from the late

I and my late friend, Group Captain Magaji, established the present Air Force Institute of Technology in Kaduna, which is now a university. We started with the technical training group, then gradually, it increased.