Nigerian Army – Chronicle of Command

 

NAME	POST
Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike	Chief of Defence Staff
Lt-General Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor	UN Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations, UN Headquarters – New York
Lt-General Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau	Chief of Army Staff
Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin	Chief of Air Staff
Vice-Admiral Isaiah Iko Ibrahim	Chief of Naval Staff
Major-General Kamaldeen Role	General Officer Commanding, 1 Division, Kaduna
Major-General Lawrence Ngubane	General Officer Commanding, 2 Division, Ibadan
Major-General Saleh Maina	General Officer Commanding, 3 Division, Jos
Major-General Eugene Nwanguna	General Officer Commanding 81 Division, Lagos
Major-General Mohammed Isah	General Officer Commanding, 82 Division, Enugu
Major-General Moses Obi	Chief of Operations at Army headquarters
Rear-Admiral G J Jonah	Commandant, National Defence College – Abuja
Air Vice Marshal Emmanuel Roberts Ejeh	Commandant, Command and Staff College – Jaji
Major-General Mohammadu M Yerima	Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy
Major-General Aminu Maitama	Deputy Commandant of the National Defence College, Abuja
Major-General Babagana Monguno	Chief of Defence Intelligence*
Major-General TI Oliomogbe	Commandant, Army College of Logistics
Major-General UT Usman	Chief of Logistics at Army Headquarters
Major-General Augustine Ogumedo	Commandant, Training and Doctrine Command
Major-General AM Jubrin	Chief of Administration, Army Headquarters
Major-General SU Abdukadir	Military Secretary – Army
Major-General BC Azurunwa	Chief of Army Standard and Evaluation (CASE
Major-General O Akinyemi	Director, Peacekeeping at Defence Headquarters
Major-General Ihejirika	Director of Engineering at Defence Headquarters
Major-General ID Penap	Chief of Training and Operations (CTOP)
Major-General FN Osukogu	Chief of Research and Development
Major-General EE Bassey	Director of Administration, Defence Headquarters
Major-General Bala Usara	Director of Sports at Defence Headquarters
Major-General DM Edi	Commander – Army Headquarters Garrison, Abuja
Major-General JA Okunbor	Director of Policy at Army Headquarters
Major-General Nnaemeka Charles Maduegbunam	Commandant, Nigerian Army Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (NAEME)
Major-General G.G. Umoh	Commandant, Nigerian Army Signal Corps
Brigadier General AT Umaru	Director of Military Intelligence
Major-General AK Amao	Commandant, Special Vehicle Plant (SVP), Bauchi
Brigadier General AS Mustapha	Commander, Guards Brigade, Abuja
Brigadier-General AB Marwa	Commander, 22 Brigade, Ilorin
Brigadier General Emeka Onwuamaegbu	Commandant, Nigerian Army Peacekeeping Centre, Jaji,
Brigadier-General KTJ Minimah	Commander One Brigade, Nigerian Army, Sokoto
Brigadier-General OM Sho-Silva	Director of Physical Training
Brigadier-General BM Badewole	Commandant, Nigerian Army School of Military Police
Brigadier-General OO Oshinowo	Commandant, Nigeria Army School of Artillery
Brigadier-General Yusuf Bomoi	Commandant, Nigeria Army School of Engineering
Brigadier General G Bauka	Director Foreign Liaison, Defence Intelligence Agency
Brigadier-General YD Pyeng	Provost Marshal
Brigadier-General AK Kwaskebe	Director of Training at Army headquarters
Brigadier-General JS Kwabe	Director of Operations at Army Headquarters
Brigadier-General Labaran	Director of the Defence Industries Corporation
Brigadier-General Audu	Defence Attache in New York
Brigadier-General Chima	Commander, 4 Brigade, Benin
Brigadier-General AC Olukolade	Director, Army Public Relations
Colonel Mohammed Yerima	Director of Defence Information

 

*Son of Alhaji Shettima Monguno – Nigeria’s first Petroleum Minister

BBC Documentary on Rebranding Nigeria – *Part Two*

Rebranding Nigeria – Part 2:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/10/091026_rebranding_nigeria_part2.shtml

This is a continuation of the BBC documentary on rebranding Nigeria. This second part contains an interview with Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and the Information Minister Dora Akunyili. The BBC’s website asks:

“Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image?  Nigeria is campaigning for a new image and a new reputation in an effort to attract some much needed investment.

Reporter Henry Bonsu follows the many steps of this charm offensive.

First there is a need to gain public support by showing that those in power are listening. People such as Lagos’ Governor Fashola, known locally as “Nigeria’s Obama”, a man who is planning a sustainable capital city 25 years into the future. Changes he has made have already been felt across the city: infrastructure has been improved, abandonned schools and hospitals are being reopened.”

This is a continuation of the documentary I posted at:

http://maxsiollun.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/bbc-documentary-on-rebranding-nigeria/

BBC Documentary on Rebranding Nigeria

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p004lf19/The_Wednesday_Documentary_Rebranding_Nigeria_Episode_1/

This is a BBC documentary on the “Rebranding Nigeria” project. The blurb from the BBC website describes the programme as follows:

“Can the home of 419 internet scams, corruption and voodoo ever transmit a positive image?

Reporter Henry Bonsu talks to furious Nigerians exasperated by poor infrastructure, lack of jobs, extremes in wealth and poverty, and government corruption.

Nigeria is campaigning for a new image and a new reputation in an effort to attract some much needed investment.

Is changing Nigeria’s image an impossible mission?

Can reversing the poor perception of a country really make a difference to its fortunes?

Henry meets Dora Akunyili, the woman who stamped out Nigeria’s illegal drug market who is determined to change the view of this vast, naturally resource-filled country.”

Government to Transfer 10% of Oil and Gas Ventures to Niger Delta Residents

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e85dd6a-bc04-11de-9426-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

A very interesting report from the Financial Times. Apparently the federal government has plans underway to transfer 10% of oil and gas ventures to Niger Dlta inhabitants.  This is on the trails of the government’s amnesty for Niger Delta militants.

If Yar’Adua manages to peacefully end the Delta insurgency, bring peace and development to the region, it will be the greatest Nigerian peace making effort since the cessation of hostilities at the end of the Nigerian civil war. If Yar’Adua pulls this off, I will become convinced for one, that Nigerians are masters at reconciliation after conflict.

Do Corrupt Nigerian Politicians Need Psychiatric Help?

That is a question posed by EFCC Chairman Farida Waziri.  An article on the BBC website quotes her as saying that:

“The extent of aggrandisement and gluttonous accumulation of wealth that I have observed suggests to me that some people are psychologically unsuitable for public office……We have observed people amassing public wealth to a point of madness or some form of obsessive or compulsive psychiatric disorder.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8302729.stm

So has corruption in Nigeria reached the level of a psychological disorder requiring treatment? ….

African view: Insane with greed

The current corruption harks back to Africa’s most notorious kleptocrats

In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Sola Odunfa considers the possibility that Nigeria’s corrupt officials may need psychiatric help.

I was settling down to write this letter when a back-page column in the Punch newspaper seized my attention.

We have observed people amassing public wealth to a point of madness or some form of obsessive or compulsive psychiatric disorder EFCC’s Farida Waziri

The Punch is a daily published in Lagos but its distribution spans the length and breadth of Nigeria, and it claims to be “the most widely read newspaper”.

The columnist in that issue dealt with the well-flogged subject of corruption in the country.

I had thought that there was hardly anything more to say about the brazen ravage of the Nigerian treasury by public officers and officials but this columnist brought a fresh insight into the subject.

Obsessive, compulsive

That insight was provided by the executive chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Farida Waziri in a public lecture.

Her statement bears quoting verbatim: “The extent of aggrandisement and gluttonous accumulation of wealth that I have observed suggests to me that some people are psychologically unsuitable for public office.

Some say the Delta crisis and amnesty are rooted in greed

“We have observed people amassing public wealth to a point of madness or some form of obsessive or compulsive psychiatric disorder.”

How else does one describe a situation in which a public officer who has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from the public purse acquires property in key Western countries and, of course, South Africa, maintains multi-million bank balances abroad and yet continues to steal?

They can hardly keep track of their wealth, the full extent of which they must hide from even their spouses and children.

Their obsession with stealing is such that they are totally incapable of having any feeling for the scores of millions of other Nigerians around them who are bearing the consequences of their action in poverty, deprivation, disease and hopelessness.

Business as usual

The Niger Delta crisis is a direct product of that obsession.

Officials at all levels cornered so much of the revenue from oil and gas that there was nothing left for the welfare of the hapless populace.

Dollars will also start flowing again – into the permanently open mouths of gluttonous public officers

When youths of the region rose in protest the army, backed by helicopter gunships, was sent in.

The youths responded by stealing oil to acquire weapons. Eventually revenue into the public purse was reduced by half.

There was less money in the kitty to steal. Panic set in! Amnesty came to the rescue. High-profile militants have since surrendered their arms. They are now talking peace with the government.

What happens in this new era of peace in the region?

I think oil and gas will resume flowing in the pipelines. Dollars will also start flowing again – into the permanently open mouths of gluttonous public officers.

The situation will return to normal. Business as usual.

Honestly, Mrs Waziri’s concern and suggestion of psychiatric evaluation of some people in public service made comic reading only here.

Something tells me that the legacy of Mobutu Sese Seko, Jean-Bedell Bokassa and Sani Abacha (former leaders of Zaire, the Central African Republic and Nigeria respectively) is alive and well somewhere not far from here.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – The Danger of a Single Story

This is a lovely video featuring a talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie where she discusses her writing passion, childhood and some of her humorous experiences with foreigners.  She is as usual, articulate, and a delight to listen to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

Nigeria and United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

For the past two years, Nigeria’s General Martin Luther Agwai has been the Force Commander of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).  In September UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced that Agwai would be succeeded as UNAMID Force Commander by Lt-General Patrick Nyamvumba of Rwanda.

Nyamvumba’s appointment might cause a storm with Nigerian officers on the UNAMID mission. Nyamvumba trained at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and is now commanding Nigerian officers who enlisted before him and who have been in service far longer than him. Surprising that the United Nations made such a botch and did not do its homework on this.  Even more surprising given that the UN’s Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations is the Nigerian officer Lt-General Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor.

In seniority terms, Nyanvumba is far junior to his predecessor.  Agwai was already a Colonel when Nyamvumba was still a cadet training at the NDA!

The issue of seniority is a very pertinent issue and has an angry precedent. During the early stages of ECOMOG, a rancorous situation erupted when the senior Nigerian officers refused to work under the Guinean deputy force commander, Lt-Col Lamin Mangasouba.  General Sani Abacha (then the Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff) sent a letter to the Ghanaian force commander General Quianoo, ordering all Nigerian officers above the rank of Major to immediately return to Nigeria (including the Chief of Staff Brigadier Cyril Iweze). Even when Guinea promoted Mangasouba to full Colonel, the Nigerian officers still refused to serve under him.

Here is a video showing the handover ceremony from Agwai to Nyamvumba.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU0XM5JAGss

Will Yar’Adua’s Delta Amnesty Reward Armed Violence?

President Yar’Adua’s amnesty for Niger Delta militants is set to expire next week. Although many people consider it to be a great feat of lateral thinking aimed at curbing the violence in the Niger Delta, some people NOT involved in insurgency have criticised the plan for rewarding armed violence.  Rather than discourage violence in the Niger Delta, critics say that by paying militants for handing in their weapons, the government is rewarding them for violence and kidnapping.

Some residentsin the Delta not involved in violence say it is they, and not militants who should be financially compensated.  Additionally a miliant who goes by the name “Osama Bin Laden” (real name Solomon Ndigbara) has threatened to resort to violence if he is not allowed to have a handshake with President Yar’Adua, and a house in Abuja.  Is the amnesty turning into an economic exercise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G13rn6l7NTM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x44Xv8h5Mfs

Eyewitness Report from The Trial of James Ibori’s Associates in London

http://www.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3815:my-experience-attending-the-trial-of-iboris-associates&catid=69:gbloggers&Itemid=195

Why is Africa Poor?

BBC documentary examining this question…

Part 1: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/08/090821_why_is_africa_poor.shtml

Part 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/08/090827_why_is_africa_poor.shtml

Part 3: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00447qt/The_Monday_Documentary_Why_Is_Africa_Poor_Episode_3/