16 November 2008
interview
The name of Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo stands out as one of the nation's military leaders that emerged after the second coup of 1966. As the military governor of Western Region, the responsibility of resolving the crisis in the region that partly sparked off the coup fell on his laps. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late Chief Bola Ige, among others, served in his cabinet.
In this interview, Adebayo, who, at 80, remains mentally alert, speaks on events before and after Nigeria's first and second coups, the state of the nation, the Obasanjo presidency, Yoruba Council of Elders, YCE, which he heads and Yoruba leadership.
HOW would you describe the state of the nation?
Well, the state of the nation, one can say is not what it should be. One would expect that the nation should be better than what it is now. Since we got independence in 1960, 48 years ago, nevertheless, we are still a developing nation. The politics of the nation is not stable yet, the economy is not too strong yet. Unfortunately, people take so much interest in the politics of the nation than in the economy.
Everybody wants to participate in politics just to get to the top of politics and to the root of the economy. This we have all seen, the pros and cons, of what is going wrong in the country. People are beginning to realise that we should play down on the politics of the nation and play up the economy and the population of the elite is becoming more and more everyday. And the elite have to live well and they have to find their feet. Therefore, people like us are running around so that government spends more time and money on improving the economy, so that school leavers can get jobs.
You were a governor at a time in this country. Would you say the kind of development you would have loved to see is what you have seen under successive governments?
Unfortunately, we have had so many kinds of government. We had civilian regime before 1960 and after 1960. Then first military regime took over in 1966 and I served in the military regime from August 1966. Then the military handed over to civilians in 1979. Again, military took over again from Shehu Shagari. And there hasn't been stable platform since then.
Like as I said, everybody is beginning to understand now that the country has to settle so that everybody will have where to eat or to find his or her platform. That is why even the military itself wants a stable country to enable people to live long and serve their country well. Everybody is concerned about it and those of us who are lucky to still be alive today have great concern about the nation. For instance, I am the only one still alive in my generation today. So, I thank God for it and I am ready to advice quietly without making noise, just to push the country forward.
Who are the members of your generation. Would you like to mention their names?
My generation includes General Ironsi, Ademulegun, Shodeinde, Bassey, Ogundipe. I am N7 and West Africa 23 because we had the West African Frontier Force before independence.
Training in the Gold Coast. So, we were all trained in the Gold Coast. I was Number 23 commissioned officer in West Africa and N7 in Nigeria.
In your days, we learnt that a lot of Ekiti people went into the military. What informed this?
I advised them to go into the military. Because I was alone from Ekiti, I advised people like Francis Fajuyi and others to come in as potential officers. And we didn't disappoint then, so more of them came in after us.
What was the vision then?
Because the British officers were going and they wanted Nigerian officers to take over from them. And I felt it was a good opportunity for me, in my position, to encourage Yoruba, not only Ekitis, to be there. And people took our advice, not my advice alone. They took the advice of Adebo, the number one Yoruba man, followed by Shodeinde, followed by Ogundipe, followed by me. Bassey was N1 from Calabar. Ironsi was N2 from the east, Igbo. So, we called our people, the Yoruba, to come in and we got them in.
What was the journey in the army like?
The journey in the army was very, very good. We were very loyal to each other, loved one another. We didn't breath on each other's neck.
You said you encouraged other people to come into the army. At what stage would you say ethnicity crept into the Nigerian military?
Well, I would say the first military coup was staged by the Igbo officers, Ifeajuna and younger officers, Nzeogwu and co. Unfortunately, at that time, only few northerners were in the officers rank of the military - Maimalari, Bawa Mohammed. There were a few of them. Then the second coup actually brought in more people from the North, because there was suspicion that the first coup was done by the Igbo, and the second coup was done by the northerners.
So, thereafter, we regularized the intake of the officer corps, you had to go through exams, interviews, all sorts of qualities you must have before you were made officer, you had to pass the exams, you had to go to the college in Teshi, Gold Coast, from there you go for either short service commission in England or Sandhurst. Short service was meant for those who had been in the army, who had done their training within the army, Sandhurst was meant for those who were recruited, done the exams and went straight to the academy.
Those days, the impression was that it was those who were not inclined to education that went into the army?
The never-do-well? That impression was wrong. You had to know what you wanted in life before coming into the army.
They say there was this mutual suspicion, one ethnic group did not want others to join the army.
No, initially, there was no ethnicity. It was the first coup that brought the suspicion into the military. Then after the coup, people started showing interest. People started knowing that there is a future in the army, and that if you can do well, there is future in the army, which is true.
Not that people wanted to become governors?
No. For instance, I was not going to be governor anyway. I went through the various courses in the army. Luckily, I went through all the positions of my rank in the army before the second coup of 1966. Moments before the coup, I had come home on a visit, to see the Head of State, then General Ironsi. I was then on a course in England at the British Defence College, which is the highest military and defence course in the Commonwealth College. Nigerian officers started going there from Ironsi, he was N2, as I said. It is a one-year course.
After Ironsi, Ademulegun went, after Ademulegun, I think Ogundipe went. After Ogundipe, I went. I had come home on a visit to confer, because the first coup took place barely weeks after I left home on that course. And I was then the chief of staff, army headquarters, the first Nigerian to be appointed the chief of staff, army headquarters and I was on that job till November 1965, and Mohammed who took over from me was killed in that first coup.
So, I thank God I wasn't home, possibly I would have gone with the first coup. Then the second coup too, I was lucky. I wrote to Ironsi who was then the Head of State, and Ogundipe, who was chief of general staff, that I was coming. I got to Nigeria in the morning of July 28, 1966. Ironsi was visiting the Mid-West and the West. I hadn't seen him.
Ogundipe, who was chief of general staff, sent a car to meet me at the airport. He organised a guest house for me to stay. From the airport, they took me to the guest house and I left my luggage at the guest house. Since Ironsi was away and he would not be back till the following day, I decided to see some of my friends in Lagos, because I left them six months earlier.
I was going round now and ended that night in a cousin's house, late Chief Adeyemi. He was living at Alhaji Ribadu Road. He was the chief architect of Lagos Development Corporation, LDPC, in those days. So, I ended up in his house. We were discussing about Iyi Ekiti, about our parents, and so on. And I looked at the time, it was 11.00 p.m.
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