Admiral Augustus Aikhomu 1939-2011: An outstanding officer and astute politician

This rare human being, aptly described by Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie as ‘a detribalised Nigerian’, would be remembered for his commitment and dedication to the cause of peace within Nigeria and between her and her immediate neighbour states in the West and Central African sub-regions as well as the upliftment of the down-trodden, especially the […]

This rare human being, aptly described by Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie as ‘a detribalised Nigerian’, would be remembered for his commitment and dedication to the cause of peace within Nigeria and between her and her immediate neighbour states in the West and Central African sub-regions as well as the upliftment of the down-trodden, especially the historically adversely affected populations in the widely neglected and structurally disadvantaged border areas of the nation vis-a-vis limitrophe countries in the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States). This special tribute is aimed at drawing attention to this relatively little known and, yet critical dimension of the late Admiral’s public life. The focus is on his inestimable role as the indefatiguable and highly inspiring foundation chairman of Nigeria’s National Boundary Commission, from the formal inauguration in 1988 to his formal disengagement from active service, following General Babangida’s decision to ‘step aside’ from governance in 1993. In this position, Admiral Ackhomu left an indelible mark as a dogged fighter for innovative and meaningful state institution building and moderniser.

A Presidency-Level ‘Category A’ Federal Executive Body, the National Boundary Commission was enacted into existence by Decree 38 of 17 December 1987 which statutorily conferred the role and function of Chairman on the Vice-President of the Federal Republic and a predominantly ex-officio membership, on Federal Ministers and Heads of Other Executive Bodies with duties that connect with boundary and territorial issues – Defence; Foreign Affairs; Interior – that supervises the Department of Immigration Services; Works and Housing that hosts the office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation; Justice; Finance, which controls the Department of Customs and Excise; National Intelligence Agency; and Office of the Inspector-General of Police. The Decree also provided for two non-ex-officio members of requisite knowledge and experience, drawn from the public or private sector of the economy as well as conferred occasional membership on state governors, especially those with areas of jurisdiction abutting on any of the international boundaries, when matters concerning their areas are in focus. The Commission’s mandate was to step into an overwhelming tide of boundary disputes and conflicts within the nation and, more especially, between her and her neighbours and resolve such disputes peacefully; engineer cross-border cooperation; promote a widely recognised special development focus on the structurally disadvantaged border areas and bring succour to infrastructually deprived local border communities.

Aikhomu’s major achievement is in the rare leadership qualities that he brought to bear on the actualisation of the dream behind the 1987 enactment. Thus, if, as it is today, the National Boundary Commission has evolved as Nigeria’s flag-ship border policy institution and an exemplar for the rest of Africa, bedevilled by perennial border problems and the ubiquitous challenges posed to issues of peace, security and sustainable development, then Nigeria and the wider African continent should be held as heavily indebted to the solid foundations laid in the era of Admiral Aikhomu as Chairman. The fact that the commission became a permanent parastatal, enshrined in the 1999 constitution, and did not disappear with the regime that created it, much like such other contemporary organs as DFRRI (Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure) and MAMSER (Directorate of Mass Mobilization for Social Justice, Self-Reliance and Economic Recovery), must be credited directly to Admiral Aikhomu’s tenacity of purpose and responsiveness. Not only did he know how to accept the statutory responsibility as Chairman of a heavy-weight and security-sensitive innovative institution; he was also endowed with the insight that enabled him place the Commission at the top of the priority of his myriad duties as Chief of General Staff and, subsequently, military Vice-President and Chairman of several other bodies and task forces.

By his correct focus, Admiral Aikhomu was able to effectively steer the Commission in the right direction. He prevented its being reduced into an appendage of the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation and vigorously shielded it from the over-bearing postures of certain senior civil servants, especially some who were initially posted to the Commission as its Secretary, thus ensuring a firm insertion as strictly a technical and specialized border problem-solving agency with a mandate that transcends boundary making and maintenance of boundary vistas, important as these may be. He personally and single-handedly ensured the initial entrenchment of the Commission into the 1989 constitution and thus paved the way for its retention in the current 1999 constitution as one of the scheduled Federal Executive Bodies.

Equally significant, he was strongly supportive of such foundation policy initiatives and programmes that determined the outline of the Commission’s action till date. These included the series of bilateral consultative transborder cooperation workshops with each of Nigeria’s limitrophe neighbours (Benin at ASCON, Topo, Badagry, May 1988; Niger, Bagauda, Kano, July 1989; Cameroon, Yola, May 1992; Equatorial Guinea, Calabar, November 1992), some, like the first with Benin, and the third, with Cameroon, which he personally attended in spite of his other duties; the critical preparatory and follow-up confidence-building missions to the neighbouring countries including that to Cameroon in 1991, which he caused to be personally led by the then Honourable Minister of External Affairs; the series of cross-border sensitization missions by Nigeria’s Ministers of Internal Affairs, jointly with counterparts in the neighbouring countries, beginning with Benin in 1986; the first ever National Planning Conference for the Development of Nigerian Border Regions, Lagos, August 1989, which he officially opened and caused to be actively attended by the then Governors of all the states abutting the nation’s international boundaries.

While the programmes of bilateral consultative workshops and cross-border mutual confidence-building missions laid the foundation of the enduring policy stand on cross-border cooperation with our neighbours, including the particularly ‘troublesome’ eastern border with Cameroon; the recommendations of the historic National Planning Conference led to the creation of a special border region development fund and the establishment of a National Border Region Development Committee in 1990, which was a committee of the entire Commission and, therefore, chaired by Vice President Aikhomu himself. The committee and the modest fund were what eventually evolved as today’s Border Communities Development Agency with a bureaucracy that avoidably duplicates rather than being integrated for greater cost-effectiveness with that of the National Boundary Commission, as was the case in Aikhomu’s time as Chairman of both the Commission and the Committee.

In short, Admiral Aikhomu’s tenure as the first statutory Chairman, simultaneously, of the National Boundary Commission and the National Border Region Development Committee, was one in which much was achieved with extremely prudently managed little resources: the creation of an impressively organised and well supervised administrative secretariat, rather than the current executive structure, where staff recruitment, especially the senior cadre, was particularly sensitive to competence, federal character policy requirements, especially the need for regional balancing between the North and the South; the creation of a vigorous Research and Documentation Centre and the initiation of a critical publications series, that publicised the Commission within and beyond the shores of Nigeria; visible though slow pace of infrastructural development of the hitherto neglected border regions; and accelerated demarcation and redemarcation of problematic inter-state boundaries within the federation and, more particularly, the international boundaries vis-a-vis neighbouring countries.

There is, perhaps, no better indication of the phenomenal achievement recorded during Admiral Aikhomu’s tenure as the pioneer chairman of the National Boundary Commission than as was perceived and innocently articulated towards the end of the tenure by the man himself. He was reported to have stated confidently and categorically in March 1993 that:

Nigeria will not go to war with its neighbours over issues that can be resolved amicably. It will instead, take the path of peaceful negotiation. We believe in resolving crisis through dialogue. Towards the realization of this objective, the federal government has established a Boundary Commission with a mandate to examine Nigeria’s boundary problems as well as finding solutions. In the past three years alone, the Commission has organised workshops and seminars in which Nigeria’s neighbours participated. These measures have been building confidence among the parties’ (The New Nigerian, 9 March 1993).

Though this optimism was soon to be dented by the subsequent militarization of the border with Cameroon, leading to incidents of armed skirmishes and an eventual 8-year litigation at the ICJ from March 1994 to October 2002, the substance of Admiral Aikhomu’s declaration and claim in 1993 has remained unchallenged. Nigeria’s Boundary Commission has remained the model for ECOWAS and the African Union, judging from the discernible influence and impact it has made on the design and ongoing implementation of the Cross-border Initiatives Programme of 2005 in the one, and the African Union Border Programme of 2007 in the other. It is against this background of Admiral Augustus Aikhomu’s yet-to-be rivalled achievements as Chairman of the National Boundary Commission that we lament the demise of this truly august Nigerian.

Asiwaju is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Lagos, Pioneer Commissioner (International Boundaries) of Nigeria’s National Boundary Commission.