Unmasking Sambo Dasuki

Col. Dasuki’s appointment came on the wake of violent attacks and bombings by the Boko Haram insurgents culminating in series of deadly suicide bombings at churches in Zaria and Kaduna on Sunday, June 17, followed by waves of reprisal attacks. Yet there was another carnage in Damaturu, Yobe state in which over 70 people were […]

Col. Dasuki’s appointment came on the wake of violent attacks and bombings by the Boko Haram insurgents culminating in series of deadly suicide bombings at churches in Zaria and Kaduna on Sunday, June 17, followed by waves of reprisal attacks. Yet there was another carnage in Damaturu, Yobe state in which over 70 people were dead.

 

Interestingly, Nigeria’s outlay on security has grown to record levels under the Jonathan administration. Pretty little, aside the routine, tepid reassurances that government is on top of the situation, not much has been delivered in terms of making Nigerians feel safer. But the security situation has worsened.

Thousands of lives have been lost and billions of naira worth of properties destroyed as a result of persistent bomb blasts in most part of the North. Without doubt, the unrest and serial killings perpetrated by the Islamic group poses a threat to Nigeria’s corporate existence. It was in the light of this development that many observers tend to criticize and analyze the choice of a quiet and unassuming Col. Dasuki at the head of the nation’s security apparatus.

So much is expected of him. Although his appointment has been generally well-received, the question in everybody’s mouth is whether the 57-year-old urbane, but highly-disciplined Sokoto prince is the messiah that Nigerians are waiting for to set them free from the menace of insurgency.

We dredge the past to uncover and bring to light the story of Col. Sambo Dasuki which encapsulates his career in the military as an artillery officer; his relationship with Generals Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Aliyu Gusau; his tenure at The Mint; his ties to the Sokoto Sultanate and above all his involvement in Nigeria’s political development during the chequered history of military rule.

HIS background

Born in Wusasa, Zaria on December 2, 1954 into the family of Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, the 18th Sultan of Sokoto, who was then serving as an account clerk at Gaskiya Corporation in Zaria, Col. Dasuki is a member of the Buhari royal house of the Sokoto Caliphate and a great, great, great grandson of the 19th Islamic reformer, Shaikh Usman Bin Fodio. He attended Kaduna Capital School and later Government College, Kaduna. He joined the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in 1972 after the Nigeria Civil War. At the Academy, Col. Dasuki met other course-mates and friends-to-be such as Lawan Gwadabe and Abdulmumini Aminu. The trio would come to play a vital role in the August 1985 palace coup that toppled the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari. Instructively, Col. Sambo, along with other cadets who would also be crucial to General Ibrahim Babangida’s take-over in 1985, had cultivated their relationship with the former military president between 1970 and 1972 when then Major Babangida, having recovered from war injuries suffered as Commanding Officer of the 44th Battalion in the 1st Division under Colonel Shuwa, was made an Instructor and Company Commander in the Short Service Wing.

Col. Dasuki passed out of the Academy in 1974 and began a remarkable career in the Nigerian Army. He was first posted to the Army Headquarters as platoon officer/field artillery and later rose to become Staff Officer AHQ Corps of Artillery before the August 27, 1985 palace coup.

“Agreed, he is a retired colonel, like me, but he is my senior in the Army. I didn’t meet him at the Defence Academy [NDA]; he left early December in 1974 and I came in on the December 30 that same year that he left the Academy, but luckily enough, we served together at the Nigerian Army Corp Artillery and I got to know him as part of the larger artillery family. The only time I got close to him was when he was Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the president, General Babangida, and I was also ADC to General A. B. Mamman, then Commander, Corp of Artillery.” These were the words of Col. Aminu Isa Kontagora (rtd), a former Military Administrator to Kano and Benue States, during the regimes of Gen Sani Abacha and General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Kontagora said this in an interview with Sunday Trust in which he gave some valuable insights into the new NSA’s career in the Army.

A PROFESSIONAL SOLDIER

Describing Col. Dasuki as a thorough professional soldier, Col. Kontagora further said that the new security chief is a humble man, who is very accessible and has contacts within and outside the country, which would help him to deal with the security situation in the country.

In August 1985, Col. Dasuki participated fully in the coup detat that ousted General Buhari. In that military exercise, he, along with four other majors, namely, Abdulmumini Aminu, Lawan Gwadabe, Abubakar D. Umar and John Madaki, were assigned to effect the arrest of the then Head of State at his residence in Dodan Barracks in Lagos. Though, he might have involved himself passively in the December 1983 military takeover, the event of August 27, 1985 was a turning point in the life and career of young major. Col. Sambo was appointed the ADC to the new military president Ibrahim Babangida and served in that capacity until 1988 when he fell out with Chief of Army Staff, General Abacha.

Relating how it all happened to another publication newspaper few years ago, the deposed Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo, said that General Abacha learnt Col. Dasuki was blowing the whistle on him.

Jokolo narrated: “Abacha was Chief of Army Staff. Abacha got to know that Sambo was reporting what was going on to Babangida. Maybe, IBB confronted Abacha. By the time he knew Sambo was responsible for that, Babangida and Sambo were on medical checkup in France. That was when Babangida was with Radiculopathy or whatever it is called. Abacha got Sambo posted out of Dodan Barracks without even Babangida knowing to somewhere in Onitsha or Ohafia or somewhere in the East. When they came back, Babangida rescinded the posting and that was a stab in the back for Abacha as far as he (Abacha) was concerned. I am trying to make you see the problem did not start overnight. Eventually, they got Sambo removed from the position and Sambo was lucky to go to America to do his Staff College and degree programme there.”

While as ADC to the president, Col. Sambo was noted as one of the president’s fiercest loyalists and a close confidante. He was always by the president’s side, controlling and directing personal matters that concern his boss. He became very influential behind the scene. As a result, he attracted goodwill, jealousy and envy to himself.  Throughout that period, Ambassador Abubakar Udu, who as the Chief Protocol Officer to General Babangida, had watched closely how Col. Dasuki discharged his responsibilities, told Sunday Trust that the new NSA is very sincere in whatever he does.

“Sambo is academically sound and capable to deliver on whatever responsibility given to him.  I have no doubt that he will perform efficiently as NSA because he is matured and intelligent.

“Also, he is a perfectionist as far as his work is concerned. I have confidence in his ability to deliver on his new assignment. Above all, he is passionate about the unity of Nigeria,” he said.

At the United States, Col. Sambo received military training in several institutions, including the US Army School of Artillery, Oklahoma and the US Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.  He also obtained his first degree and Masters Degree in International Relations from the American University and MA in Security Policy Studies from George Washington University both in Washington DC respectively.

SAMBO’S ROLE IN FOILING 1990 ORKAR COUP

While in far away United States in 1990, Col. Sambo assisted in the foiling of a coup attempt by Major Gideon Orkar.

Ambassador Udu recalled how it happened: “I recalled how he (Sambo) foiled the 1990 Orkar coup against Babangida while he was in Washington D.C, United States.  I was also outside the country that year so, when I heard about the coup, I tried to reach him but he didn’t pick my call.  When he later called back to acknowledge my call he told me I should not worry because he had taken some measures to foil it. He promised that before seven P.M it should have been taken care of and it was so.  Unknown to me that day that when I was trying to reach him he was already aware of the coup and had contacted military officers like Col. Abubakar Umar Dangiwa, Brig. General Ahmad Daku, Brig. David Mark, Col. Lawan  Gwadabe,  late Col. Yohanna Madaki, Col. Dantsoho and Capt. Bala Gusau to crush the mutiny and that was the end of it.”

Col. Dasuki subsequently operated in the background until 1993 when he, with other military officers were prematurely retired from the military in September 1993 by the then Secretary of Defence, General Sani Abacha, who emerged as the Head of State later that year. His father, who became the 18th Sultan of Sokoto under General Babangida, was to be deposed by General Abacha.

In 1995, Col. Dasuki was fingered by the Abacha regime as one of the alleged masterminds of a ‘phantom coup’, allegedly led by Col. Lawan Gwadabe. He subsequently fled to the United States and later Brunei.

He returned in 2001 following the restoration of democratic rule two years earlier.

In 2002, former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed him the Managing Director, Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company Limited, a position he relinquished in 2003 in the aftermath of the controversial privatisation of the Mint.

At the Mint, the new NSA displayed an uncanny ability of getting things done as he miraculously turned around the fortune of the country’s moribund security printing outfit.

“Col. Dasuki did not require a previous experience as a security printer to turn around the Mint. He completed and commissioned the Abuja Factory despite paucity of funds. He embarked on policy of staff training in key operational areas of production, engineering and security, who were sent overseas for attachment,” said a close associate of Col. Dasuki who pleaded for anonymity.

Even though, the highest political position Sambo Dasuki held in the Army was the ADC to President Babangida and had never commanded a division or becoming a Chief of Defence Staff like his wobbly predecessor, both Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo, the deposed Emir of Gwandu, and Col. Kontagora insisted that the new NSA is the right choice for the job.

CAN HE DO THIS JOB OF NATIONAL SECURITY?

On Col. Dasuki’s purportedly reserved mien as it relates to the new challenges, Col. Kontagora said: “I will say they are strength to him now because he is well connected in this country and overseas. Also, his manner of approach to issues will help him a great deal in this present assignment. Don’t forget that he was appointed as an adviser on security not Commander-in-Chief of Security. Agreed he will be open to a lot of advice, lot of information that you and I may not know and considering his person, I believe he will make maximum use of that to deal with the security situation in the country.  He is well read and this is very important in the field of security and he has once held a very sensitive position as the ADC to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria this will help him to act on any information that he may come across in the course of his duty. I cannot give you anything more than what the president has said that he wanted new approach to the security situation. But the present NSA, I can tell you is in touch with people, I believe with his past experience and connections he will succeed in his present responsibility.”

On his part, the deposed Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Jokolo, who told the Voice of America and Radio France International in a recent interview that he knew Col. Dasuki for over 40 years and the new NSA met him at NDA in 1972, said he is renowned for honesty, experience and professionalism.

“Col. Dasuki has done well as Managing Director, Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company. He has his contacts and qualifications; he is a very patient man who has a good human relation,” said Alhaji Jokolo.

On how Col. Sambo got the president’s nod, feelers are suggesting the handiwork of General Babangida and the spy master, General Aliyu Gusau, who is married to Col. Dasuku’s younger sister, Hajiya Jamila. But Presidency insiders say Jonathan handled the matter entirely on his own which may have left both General Babangida and General Gusau perplexed as to how this came about.

Be that as it may, the need for a paradigm shift in government policy in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency necessitated the appointment of the new NSA. The president, observers say, must have been convinced after consulting widely that Col. Dasuki would succeed where a retired four-star general has failed. President Jonathan may have decided to put a Northerner in charge of national security as a new way of engaging the North and this may have informed his judgment to appoint Col. Dasuki, who many Northern leading lights regard as someone who can eventually become a rallying point for Northern leaders to come together to address the Boko Haram insurgency.

As Nigerians wait the long overdue overhauling of the country’s security architecture that will pave way for an effectual security network and organization, Col. Dasuki set forth into action like a man with a mission and sense of duty. He visited the ravished Borno and Yobe states few days ago in what is being recorded as the first visit by a Federal Government delegation since the beginning of Boko Haram attacks more than three years ago.

Col. Dasuki sympathized with the people of both states and assured them that President Jonathan is making headway in trying to bring back peace to the states.

He announced a new counter-insurgency measure including dialogue and negotiation with the insurgents as well as government desire for a cease-fire before the commencement of Ramadan fasting possibly on July 20.

“If one considers the colossal collateral damage these confrontations cause due to the unconventional methods of the insurgents, the option of resolution through dialogue and negotiation should be pursued as a priority,” he said.

During meetings with community leaders in Damaturu and Maiduguri, he called for actionable intelligence from the people, promising that information received would be treated with the highest level of confidentiality.

Before now, the Jonathan administration was seen not doing enough to tame the Boko Haram menace but the appointment of Col. Sambo as new NSA saw a change of strategy toward rapprochement and peaceful resolution. How far and successful this will be would depend on tackling the baseline causes of the insurgency and the deployment of intelligence, operational dexterity, tactful engagement of local communities and negotiations.