By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd) is not an ordinary Nigerian. He was an officer of the Navy who rose to become Chief of Naval Staff. He is a formidable politician serving his second term as Governor of Adamawa State. He is one of the few privileged Nigerians who owe to this country whatever they have accomplished in life.
Ikechukwu Amaechi
He is in the class of the Olusegun Obasanjos, Ibrahim Babangidas, Theophilus Danjumas, et al, who became famous, rich, influential and arrogant by feeding fat on the country.
They had free education up to secondary school, then joined the military, not out of patriotism. Then, Nigeria took over all their responsibilities, those of their families and generations yet unborn.
According to Wikipedia, Nyako was born Murtala Hamman-Yero at Mayo-Belwa, Adamawa State on August 27, 1943. He started his Western education at Mayo-Belwa Elementary School in January 1952, proceeded to Yola Middle School in January 1955, and began secondary school in the same school in January 1958.
He joined the Royal Nigerian Navy in June 1963 as an Officer Cadet, commenced his officer training at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, England in September 1963, and was commissioned Sub-Lieutenant in September 1965. He completed his initial naval training in September 1965.
Nyako returned to Nigeria in October 1966 and served in the Navy till September 1993. He held a number of onboard and shore appointments. He was Commanding Officer of a Patrol craft, a landing craft and the first missile carrying ship of the Nigerian Navy.
In February 1976, the late Head of State, Murtala Muhammad, appointed Nyako Governor of the newly created Niger State and served in the post until December 1977.
Later, he became the Chief of Naval Operations at Naval Headquarters, Flag Officer Commanding the Western Naval Command and Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Training Command, from where he was appointed Chief of Naval Staff in January 1990.
Two years later, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Defence Staff and retired in September 1993 with the rank of Vice Admiral.
Nyako holds the national honours of Commander Federal Republic (CFR) and Grand Commander Order of the Niger (GCON).
At 71, he is, for whatever it is worth, an elder statesman. Statesmen don’t fan the smouldering embers of war. They don’t deliberately engage in sabre-rattling. They don’t lose their heads even when others do. They don’t play politics with national security. Elders make peace.
That is why it is a shame that Nyako could write to fellow Northern governors accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of committing genocide against the North without evidence.
But it is good that Nyako is talking about genocide now and the need for Nigerians to speak out against it.
“Let me paraphrase what humanity has been humming over the ages: A call to Action,” he wrote.
“When they killed the Jews, we watched unconcerned because we were not Jews. When they murdered the Blacks we were still unconcerned because we were not Black. When they massacred the Asians we kept mute because we were not one of them.
“Then we saw the Marauding Murderers coming and we realised they were coming for us and we were not safe. That was when we knew that if we had collectively protested the Killing of the Jews, the Murder of the Blacks and Massacre of the Asians, we would all have been safe.
“Right here at home, they started killings in Borno State, we kept quiet. The hired killers got to Yobe State, we remained mute. They proceeded to Adamawa State, we watched. They attacked Kano, Katsina and Sokoto, we said nothing. The North East is under occupation. The North West is under assault.
“Now their tanks and marauders have begun rolling into the North Central. The North is under occupation. Yet we are still silent! Nigerians, stand up and talk! Injury to one is injury to all!”
This is sheer paranoid. But Nyako needs not look far. Rather than Jews, he would have said when the Igbo were massacred in 1966, the North clapped.
It is amazing that Nyako is alleging genocide against his people (whoever they are) while at the same time justifying the senseless mass murder of a defenceless people whose only crime was that they were from another part of the country.
Nyako wrote: “We have the duty not to allow our country to be taken to the abyss! We should always condemn any action by any group of people that would set our communities and nation aflame.
“One is quite sure that if you (Easterners) had condemned the cold-blooded murder of political and military leaders of Northern and Western Nigerian origins in the night of January 15, 1966 by your sons it would not have led to the subsequent massacre of the innocent and the Nigerian Civil War.”
Really?
It is amazing how short human memory is and how men can lie so shamelessly to achieve a selfish goal.
In all the purges and mass killings of “Easterners” in the North since the 1960s, I have never heard Nyako raise his voice.
Was he part of the blood-thirsty mob that orchestrated the killing of millions of people of Igbo extraction in 1966 all in the name of avenging the “cold-blooded murder of political and military leaders of Northern and Western Nigerian origins” even after they had purged the Igbo military elite, including the Head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi?
Then when the late Professor Chinua Achebe rightly stated in his last book, There was a country, that there was genocide against the Igbo in 1966, they hauled abuses at him. When Muslim fundamentalists went into a prison in Kano State and beheaded Gideon Akaluka, Nyako was dumb.
In all the years that Muslim fundamentalists killed and maimed Easterners in the North, ruining families, Nyako lost his voice. In all the months that Boko Haram bombed churches and killed Christians, mostly of Eastern Nigeria origin, Nyako didn’t raise an alarm.
It is a shame that a man who rose to become a service chief in the military could be so incoherent in his analysis of the serious security problems facing the country. The Boko Haram tragedy preceded the Jonathan Presidency. The indigene/settler crisis in Plateau State started long ago. The Fulani herdsmen/farmers brouhaha is legendary.
So, how could they have been caused by Jonathan or Easterners? What Nyako has done with his letter is to incite the North against the East. And the goal is obvious.
But truth be told, Northern leaders, including Nyako, are responsible for the woes of the region. In finding a solution, they should look inwards.
Pointing fingers of blame at others is puerile and senseless. As I wrote last week, it is obvious that fifth columnists are at work. Nyako’s letter only confirms that.
If the idea is to instigate a military putsch against the Jonathan administration, it will fail because even if there is a successful coup, there will be no Nigeria for the junta to superintend.
