LIEUTENANT-General Victor Malu (rtd), apart from reaching the pinnacle of his profession, becoming the chief of the army staff, COAS, was also in charge of the multinational peace keeping force to Liberia contributed by about 10 West African countries, code named, ECOMOG, which restored peace to the war torn former American colony and assisted in installing a democratically elected government. By virtue of his rank, Malu became the first Tiv (the major tribe in Benue State) to attain the post of lieutenant-general in the Nigeria Army.

Despite his achievements, however, he exited the army ingloriously. He was relieved of his appointment by the Obasanjo administration in 2001. His sack was not due to incompetence as it was much later discovered, but due to his principled nature. "I don't compromise my principles," he told Sunday Vanguard. Well, his principles are not our focus but the consequences of such principles, one of which was his sack and on which he says, if given the opportunity, again, he would repeat the same thing.

"Honesty is very important to me and this is what the military is all about because you are dealing with people who are carrying arms. You must be absolutely honest with them, even when you know speaking the truth will hurt them. I don't believe in talking from both sides of the mouth. If I tell you the truth and you are angry about it, to hell with you!

I once told Obasanjo if he made a mistake by appointing me as COAS, he should tell me who to hand over to when he said I should sack the former GOC Kaduna Division who eventually succeeded me, General Alex Ogomudia and later became the chief of the defence staff, CDS, and I told General Danjuma, his defence minister, who brought the news that he should give me a reason why I should carry out Obasanjo's instruction and he asked me a question which up till now bothers my mind, "Do you want to see the president?", as if the president was God. I booked an appointment to see Obasanjo and I repeated what I asked Danjuma.

Speaking the truth

It was after the meeting that he then said I should allow the man to continue in office. My removal was not because of arrogance but because of my principles which incidentally the military works with. I think if care is not taken, we will be having three COAS every year (in reference to recent removal of service chiefs in the military)", Malu said.

If he has regrets on being sacked, Malu did not show it, rather, he says the military would have been better off if people had had the courage of speaking the truth. His words," I come from a remote village in Benue State. I am probably the fifth or sixth person in my village that went to school to the extent of being able to communicate like I am doing with you now.

Where I come from, I will never do anything that I know will cause me problems because I know that nobody will plead for me. I only insist on those things I can defend. So far in my life, particularly in my professional life, I have not done anything that I would have done differently if given another chance."

The former COAS, however, agreed that he may have offended some people in his private life but which "when I do realize, I go on my knees and apologize and ask for forgiveness." This, according to him, is his grouse with Obasanjo. Knowing now that he (Obasanjo) was wrongly informed and the subsequent order which led to the death of his relatives and destruction of his village by soldiers, Malu expected Obasanjo to be apologetic about his action.

He stated: "That is my grouse with him. After obviously a wrong information, he sent soldiers to kill my people, destroy my village, I am sure he must have realized now that the information he was given upon which he acted was false, any God fearing person would have phoned me to say, 'Victor, I am sorry about what happened.' That would have ended it. After all, the dead cannot be brought back to life any more. Instead of being apologetic, the government humiliated me.

They seized my passport on arrival from Paris. I was interrogated. If you check my passport, you will notice that I go to Paris once every year and it is usually between end of April and beginning of May because of the Roland Garos Table Tennis Championship.

"I was doing that even when I was in service. I always find excuse through medicals. I don't speak French, so it was out of place for them to interrogate me that I was liaising with some people in Paris to overthrow the government. I had just left service, I had more loyalty of the Nigerian soldiers in service than those in the office. As a former COAS, if I wanted to overthrow the government, did I need to go to Paris?

I told them during interrogation that what they were calling intelligence might be something they got from babalawo. That is not intelligence. If you accuse me of going to Britain, it might be difficult for me to explain because most of my colleagues with whom I speak the same language are there. Who was I going to speak to in Paris?"

Malu was the president of the tribunal set up by the late General Sani Abacha military administration to try all those who participated in the 1997 alleged coup popularly called Diya coup. He accepted the appointment, according to him, because of his various experiences in coup d'etat since the nation's independence.

Said he:" Coup culture was not rampant during our days.. We were trained to be military officers to lead, fight and protect Nigeria. The most difficult in any officer's life is when there is a coup. I don't go late to any function.

That I have locks all over the house is not for fun. If I give you a time, know that I mean it. I came to Lagos from Kaduna on official assignment in 1976, few days before Murtala was killed. I stayed in my colleague's house who incidentally was one of the planners of the coup and I didn't know.

"The next day, as I was going to see someone in Ikoyi, I met three of the other planners who were friends also. Again, I didn't know those ones were part of the coup, there was nothing they didn't do to stop me for a discussion but because of the time I was supposed to be where I was going, I just told them I would see them when I returned.

You will not believe it, my host, the three other officers who were trying to stop me were among those executed. I was on interrogation for two months after the coup. Out of all those that were interrogated, I was the only one still in service in the army until Obasanjo removed me; others were either jailed, dismissed or retired. The other one that I probably would have been executed for was the Vasta coup.

"Adamu Sadama, one of the most brilliant air force officers, I gave him my house in Benue to be using so that there would be some activities in the house since I was not always around but he was there in Makurdi. We were very close and that explained why I volunteered to release the house to him.

He and some of his coup planners actually held their meetings in that house. It was just God that saved me because I even took some of the planners in my car and none of them ever told me that they were about doing something of that magnitude.

So, having escaped from being condemned and Abacha appointed me as the tribunal president, I decided to take up the challenge so that I could use the position to help some other people just as I was helped out then. And I think that trial was the fairest in the history of the country because more than three quarters of those charged were acquitted.

Only those who were directly involved were found guilty among whom were my best friends. "Abdulkarim Adisa and I were course mates and it was my house he came first on the day he was released. In my heart of heats, I know I did very well. I have never in my life hurt people deliberately." Well, Diya and all those condemned would certainly have a contrary opinion. I told him.

Greatest disrespect

Malu said Diya knows the truth, adding: "His action at the tribunal even earned him the greatest disrespect from officers in the military." The erstwhile COAS spoke glowingly of Major Fadipe, the ADC to Diya, saying he was one of the most honest officers in the Nigerian Army. "His testimony was what saved15 soldiers who were charged with Diya because they were just given blank instructions without telling them what, they were just roped in because they were carrying arms.

"Diya is so disappointing and you wonder whether he was trained differently from the rest of us." How about Olarenwaju, I enquired. "He was as guilty as anything. You will notice that he has not been talking. He is my friend because part of what the judgment says has not been implemented and there are so many things he didn't want the government to come and take from him.

When we see, we still hug. If they didn't do anything, will they be hugging me? I was the one buying clothing items for them when they were in Jos prison."

No matter what anybody says, Abacha, to Malu, will always be a hero and he owes no apology for that. "I admire Abacha in a lot of ways. Tell me anybody who ruled this country that has not been charged with corruption? They claimed we lost 16 billion dollars Gulf War windfall, but can you compare all that with the magnitude of what Obasanjo has done? I didn't hold political appointment, so I am in a good position to testify for those who held political appointment in the military.

I am not saying there were no corrupt ones. There were a lot of corrupt ones." Last week, the pen profession lost Abayomi Ogundeji to the cold hands of death.

The police claimed the former Thisday editorial board member was shot when robbers ordered him to wind down the glass of his Kia SUV and he refused. Malu says there is nothing that will make him surrender to armed robbers, even if they have superior weapons. "When armed robbers meet Malu on the road, they will remember they have met somebody different.

There is never going to be a time that I am going to put my hands up in the air to surrender to somebody, never, never. If you are lucky to kill me first, that is fine but I will be firing to take off your head. I will never surrender." I reminded him that he is no more in the military and so no longer entitled to military guards." It is even better now because, at that time, I had people protecting me.

Now, I have responsibility of protecting myself and my personal staff and I practise this on daily basis, how I can shoot straight and get your head? God gives you only one life, if you don't take care of it, it is your fault. Protect it as much as you can and God will help you achieve the rest."

But what if those he is fighting are better equipped, will he take cover? "In terms of weapons, it is about who is better trained at handling the weapons. Those people with weapons might cork and fire by stroke of chance. If you kill me first, fine but necessarily I will never put up my hands to surrender, never. This is what Nigerians do that encourages armed robbers. Every Nigerian believes his life is greater than the other person's.

You will never see a Nigerian man stand up in defence of his wife, children, parents so that when robbers are raping his daughter, he fights back. In other countries, the man will die there. You brought the girl into the world, it is your responsibility to protect her and fight with your bare hands and let them kill you, they will know that you die protecting your daughter and that is why robbers have field day. "If only we come to each other's assistance, the incidence of armed robbery will not be as bad as it is now," he added.