Tomorrow marks the silver jubilee of the shocking execution of the late General Mamman Jiya Vatsa, the soldier who made more social impact with his poetry, cultural documentary works and general contribution to the growth of Nigeria’s modern literature than his equally outstanding military carreer. Correspondent, EMMANUEL AGOZINO, takes a retrospective look at the one-time Nigerian Army chieftian whose passion for writing was as enduring as his love for life despite being trained in the art of war:
NOT always do figures like the late Gen. Mamman Vatsa feature in the arena of literature. He was a well garlanded soldier with illustrious war front records but he left behind feats in humane intellectual attainments and prolificity in creative writing.
Interestingly, Vatsa largely worked himself up the intellectual ladder to attain the status of a recognised author, poet and key player in Nigeria’s intelligentsia during his short but active life time. Surrendipituously, he caused flowers to sprout in the thiterto barren land of children literature.
Vatsa was an accomplished poet and writer. He published eight poetry collections for adults and eleven for children. His titles comprised Back Again at Wargate (1982), Reach for the Skies (1984) and Verses for Nigerian State Capitals (1973) among others.
He wrote about life among commoners, for ordinary people. His lines and prose were simple. He also wrote in the common Nigerians’ Pidgin language as his collection Tori for Geti Bow Leg (1981) butress. Beyond being a prolific writer he was equally vast in his literary scope. His cultural-orientation picture book in Hausa language, Bikin Suna , establish him as an intellectual with passion for documenting lifestyle and tradition. There is also his pictorial storybook, Stinger the Scorpion (1979) which casts him as a witty and observant creative writer.
In his short but eventful life time, Vatsa was a facilitator of several endeavours in the creative industry and patron of the arts in Nigeria. He organised writing workshops for his fellow soldiers and their children and got their works published. He helped the Children’s Literature Association of Nigeria with funds, built a writers’ village for the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), and hosted one of the latter’s yearly national conferences.
Beyond being an avid writer and cerebral member of the intelligentsia he was also rounded refined soldier with clear record of field and administrative experinces. Born on December 3, 1940, Vasta attended Government Secondary School Bida, Niger State before joining the Nigerian Army on the December 10, 1962. Following preparatory training at the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna, he was sent to India Military Academy.
He later attended many military courses inside and outside Nigeria during his career, comprising courses in Intelligence, Security, Policy and Strategic Studies, Equitation, Physical Training, among others. He ascended through the officer ranks of the Army from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. Along the ladder, he handled several highly-challenging bmilitary responsibilities, including being, at one time, in charge of the Command and Staff College of Nigeria. He commanded the 21 Battalion during the Nigeria Civil War (1967 – 1970) and was one of the few officers who actually wrote academic articles about the operational aspects of certain battles.
After the war ended in 1970, he was an instructor at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna before he was posted to the Nigerian Army Headquarters (Army HQ) as a Principal Staff Officer. Subsequently, he commanded the 30 Infantry Brigade in Ogoja, Cross River State until July 1975, 13 Infantry Brigade, Calabar until February 1976, and the Brigade of Guards until 1979. It was during his tenure there that the headquarters of the Brigade of Guards was moved from Dodan Barracks to Kofo Abayomi location in Victoria Island before subsequent transfer to Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
As an army Colonel, and commander of the 13 Brigade in Calabar, Vasta was military officer to take the airwaves to oppose the February 13, 1976 bloody coup led by Lt. Col Buka Suka Dimka which killed the Head of State, Gen. Murtala Mohammed. During the Dimka coup investigation, Vasta was Secretary of the Court-Martial Tribunal. It was from that position that he became the Commander, Brigade of Guards under the regime of then Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo.
Vasta was Commandant of the Nigerian Army School of Infantry (NASI) from late 1979. Along with Lt. Col. Musa Bitiyong he developed the Special Warfare Wing and established the doctrinal basis for the establishment of the 82nd Composite Division of the Nigerian Army in Enugu.
While he strove to achieve his many feats in the military, his clear desire to make remarkable social impact with his literature was manifest. He was especially keen on his poetry. This led him to identify with some of the accomplished writers active in Nigeria at the period. Such frontline creative writers as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Pepper Clark Bekederemo, the late Ken Saro-Wiwa among others were his friends.
He was also an avid believer in a bigger and better Nigeria. This he laid bare in his writings. “When I do write about events in Nigeria, in Africa, I try to paint a positive picture about life because there are many things we can teach the children through literature,” the late soldier once said in a newspaper interview.
Vasta’s sudden journey to extinction began on December 17, 1985 when the military authorities arrested over 100 officers from the Army, Navy and the Air Force. Vasta was picked up seven days later. They were, for two weeks, investigated by the Brigadier-General Sani Sami-led Preliminary Special Investigation Panel. After the probe, 17 of the men were referred to a Special Military Tribunal, set up by Gen. Domkat Bali, the Defence Minister, at the Brigade of Guards Headquarters, Lagos. The accused officers brought before the tribunal, chaired by Major General Ndiomu were Lt.-Cols: Musa Bitiyong, Christian A. Oche, Micheal A. Iyorshe, M. Effiong; Majors D.I Bamidele, D.E. West, J.O. Onyeke and Tobias G. Akwashiki. Others were Captain G.I. L. Sese, Lt. K.G. Dakpa, Commodore A.A. Ogwiji; Wing Commanders: B.E. Ekele, Adamu Sakaba; Squadron Leaders: Martin Luther, C. Ode and A. Ahura.
The officers were tried under the Treason and Other Offences (Special Military Tribunal) Decree 1 of 1986 . Other members of the tribunal were Brigadier Yerima Yohanna Kure, Commodore Murtala Nyako, Col. Rufus Kupolati, Col. E. Opaleye, and Lt. Col. D. Muhammed. A commissioner of police, Alhaji Mamman Nassarawa, and Major A. Kejawa, the Judge Advocate, were also members.
Vatsa and the others were acused of ploting to overthrow the then ruling military government of Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), and hiding behind a farming loan to Lt. Col. Bitiyong, to execute a coup de tat , a charge which the general denied.
As Nowa Omogui, a military analyst wrote in his essay, The Vasta Conspiracy , Bitiyong was allegedly tortured to implicate Vatsa gby making reference to certain private political conversations they had, which Vasta denied.h
There were further allegations that Luther, Oche, Ogwiji and Bitiyong held a meeting at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel and Towers in November 1985. Iyorchie, Bitiyong, Oche, Ekele, Sakaba and Bamidele also allegedly met in Makurdi, Benue State. Allegations such as the diversion of the presidential jet to a pre-arranged location by the pilots in the executive fleet, Luther and Ahura, were floated. Oche allegedly held a meeting with Major Akwashiki, the Commander of the Sixth Battalion, Bonny Camp, and Onyeke, after a game of squash in Lagos and spoke about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan. Akwashiki was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment. He was however released 10 years later during the military government of Gen. Sani Abacha who took over, via coup de tat from IBB’s successor.
Oche, it was also alleged, mentioned the plot to his nephew, Peter Odoba, a young lieutenant of the Brigade of Guards who, as Omogui wrote, informed then Lt. Hamza al-Mustapha, an intelligence officer then working with Abacha who was the Chief of Army Staff. Obada was charged with gconcealment, recommended for dismissal and a long jail term.h
On March 6, 1986, however, Vasta, Iyorshe, Bamidele, Ogwiji, Ekele, Sakaba, Luther, Ahura were executed. Vasta took his trial and sentence camly, with cheers and equanimity. He beamed smiles, and his comment upon the sentence was revealing. gI leave you with smiles as smiles surprise people. But I will tell members of the Nigerian Army that the day you start insulting yourselves, others begin to join you,h he said.
There is also a very strong belief that Vasta may have been a victim of political intrigues because of his intellectual sagacity, being a writer and soldier-poet, and his significant indifference to the military politics at that time. In fact, during his ordeal three leading members of Nigeria’s literary community, Professors: Achebe, Soyinka and Clark-Bekederemo, reportedly went to plead to then President Babangida for his pardon, only to be shocked by news of his execution few minutes after departing the President’s office in Dodan Barracks, Lagos.
His execution spurred several engaging tributes from fellow writers. The tributes ran for a long period on the pages of Nigerian newspapers. Events around his execution also lingered for a long while in the memory of the intelligentsia. It was also the reason why the Nobel Laurate for Literature, Soyinka opposed IBB’s appointment, at one occasion, to chair the ceremony of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Prize for Literature.
Twenty-five years after, Vasta’s name remains boldly emborsed in the history of Nigeria’s modern literature. He is particularly notable on the realms of children literature, pidgin language poetry while still retaining his elite spot in the annals of military operators in Nigerian politics. His contribution to the development of literature as a benevolent patron will also be remembered.
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