Retired Major General David Jemibewon, a former military governor of Oyo State and ex-Minister of Police Affairs, discusses his childhood, profession, ideals, interests, war experience and others with SIMON UTEBOR
Having risen to become a Major General in the Nigerian Army, how would you describe your childhood?
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I was born on July 20, 1940 in a place called Iyah-Gbedde in the Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State. My parents had five children. I am the first child, followed by a set of twins – a boy and a girl. The boy died and the girl survived. The boy’s immediate brother, Idowu, died two years ago. The last child of my mother, who is a woman, is alive. Only two of us are left.
Recently, I became an orphan. My father died some years ago while my mother died in 2016. I grew up as a young child in the village. Sometime during my childhood, my father sent me to his younger brother – my uncle, who was then working with United Africa Company in Burutu (in present Delta State). He was a technician working in a generators’ plant at the time.
What was it like growing up in Iyah-Gbedde and Burutu?
I started schooling in Burutu in 1949. I left our village in 1948 or thereabouts. There was not much life apart from village life – going to the farm, returning home, eating dinner and going to bed. It was a routine exercise every day until I was sent to my uncle in Burutu. I am grateful to God and to him, as it was there that I was sent to CMS Primary School, Burutu in 1949. However, something happened – I fell seriously ill. My uncle was scared that if I died, it would raise some problematic questions. He found a way to send me back to my parents. To be honest, I can’t say precisely how long I stayed in Burutu but I must have spent more than a year there.
Did you continue your education in the village?
After I left Burutu, I went home. When I got to the village, my parents took care of me. Thereafter, my father didn’t want me to go to school. But the headmaster in the primary school in our village, the late Ademola Fagbemi, convinced him and he agreed to send me to school. I went back to school in mid-1949. It was Native Authority Community School and we were only nine in class.
At what point did you join the army and what was your motivation for joining the force?
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After graduating from Offa Grammar School, I worked briefly. In 1960, I joined the army.
Talking about my motivation to join the army; first, I didn’t like a sedentary occupation. I thought the army provided a good opportunity to avoid that. My determination was strong because I had a friend who was in the army. From the moment I was in Form 2, I used to visit him during my holidays. He was in 2nd Battalion in the Queen’s Own Nigerian Regiment (as the Army was called then). He was there at Lafenwa in Abeokuta. I liked the smartness of soldiers – they were disciplined. My friend was unmarried, but unmarried soldier could not have guests. As I got to Abeokuta, where to live was a problem. But luckily, he had a colleague who could live on his own. He pleaded with that colleague, Jackson Mgbanti, from Adamawa to host me. I stayed with Mgbanti. That also fuelled my ambition to join the army. Of course, while in secondary school, I was in Boy Scout. I led my ‘troops’ and we did it well. Therefore, there was already a kind of enthusiasm to show that I was equipped. That increased my interest in joining the army.
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You are a former military governor of Western Region and Oyo State as well as Minister of Police Affairs, how have the experiences you had holding the positions helped in shaping you?
I’m still pained when I remember killings during Biafra W
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They were sources of good experience and I believe that I discharged the responsibility that was associated with those offices. However, one does not need to say certain things about oneself. But if one has the opportunity and one doesn’t say those things then, probably no one else will. I think I did well and succeeded. I was fair-minded and approached my responsibility seriously.
What were some of the things you did as a military governor?
Today, we read so much about corruption but since I left Oyo State, I have not read anywhere they associated my name with corruption. Also, I think I can honestly say with absolute pride that there is nowhere my name has been associated with bribery or whatever. I also want to believe the love the people of Oyo State have for me is genuine. Based on my assessment, they value me more than my state, perhaps. It is unfortunate that as I move forward, I am losing my close friends and associates that became close to me.
How do you think the corruption in Nigeria can be tackled?
I think principally, corruption is caused by greed. A lot of people who are found to be corrupt are people who are living comfortably. For some people, because we have different levels of corruption, it could be caused by poverty or laziness. Some people don’t want to work but want to live comfortably rich.
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I think in fairness, it is being tackled, maybe not seriously enough. Government has put in place institutions to curb and investigate corruption. It can also be tackled through punishment and by educating people about the disadvantages and bad side of corruption (because it deprives the people the opportunity to develop). The commonwealth of people is being diverted by a few people. I think education also plays a significant role in tackling corruption.
Some people would expect that as someone who rose to the rank of a major general, one of your children should follow in your footsteps…
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It must be their choice; it is as simple as that. In recent times when we sit down and joke, I understand when they make fun of me for the way they felt I harassed them. You will laugh if you see them doing that. Based on that, I am not too sure any of them would have gone close to the army. But they feel very proud of me because they believe Jemibewon is a good name. It is a valuable name and it shows in all the places they have been.
It is believed that behind every successful man is a woman, how did you meet your wife?
My first wife is dead. I have to make this clear. Again, when we talk about corruption, if you lie, it is called corruption. I met my wife, who passed away about four years ago, in Zaria. It is part of the lessons I have learnt in life. I told a lady, Dupe Otokhi, who has passed on now, that I needed a good woman to marry. Dupe was teaching in a primary school in Zaria then. I had returned from Congo and was transferred to Zaria. I told Dupe that some of my colleagues had girlfriends and that I came from the village. I told Dupe I wanted her to introduce a good girl to me.
She came later with this lady, Comfort, who later became my wife. We got married in 1965. My first child was born on May 11, 1966. I got married just before the Nigerian crisis started and had my first child during the crisis period. That is how we met. That is why I believe that anything anybody wants to do, if you put your heart to it and follow the right steps, you are likely to succeed. Today, people may disagree with me. When people talk of love, it depends on how you approach the relationship. I never knew her before we met. I only told her friend (Dupe) to give me a girlfriend that would continue to be mine and that was all. We coped well and we loved each other until she breathed her last in 2016.
There is also Dupe Jemibewon. We started as friends before I became governor in Oyo State. She is still my wife.
Many people believe that the police in Nigeria are corrupt. You are a one-time Minister of Police Affairs; do you agree with that assertion vis-à-vis the poor ratings of the police by local and international bodies?
I cannot say categorically that I believe the ratings or disbelieve them because I don’t know the criteria they used. As for the views of people regarding corruption in the police, I do not think that the police as an institution would have taken a position to say they have to be corrupt. Maybe it is the attitude of some personnel when put together that makes people to come to that conclusion. I am not too sure that random judgment without a scientific approach will be fair and correct. Therefore, I would not associate myself with that view.
What is your view on the current political situation in the country?
By my assessment today, we are in a very deep mess and I am very worried. I am not worried because of myself alone but for our children, children’s children as well as the future generations. We fought a civil war – it was an attempt to make the country a better place. We went from four regions to states but things seem to be getting worse politically. When we had four regions, the political competition was healthy. Each region fared well. Some villages had electricity and today, they are back in darkness. Some villages that had tap water now lack water.
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A lot of people are building well-constructed houses but their people are getting poorer. Existing infrastructure cannot be maintained, broken down roads dot the length and breadth of the country and today, if you go to ministries, you see many people queuing for jobs and the jobs are not there. In places where vacancies exist, those in charge know how to get them and give them to the people they want. Whatever jobs that are advertised are for the purpose of records as the positions have already been filled. So, the future is bleak.
What would you like to be remembered for?
What I want to be remembered for is one thing and what I deserve to be remembered for is a different thing. However, whatever the people decide to remember me for, I think I will leave it to them. By and large, let me be remembered really for what I represent.
What do you think about the security initiative of the South-West governors, known as Operation Amotekun?
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Let us look at a hypothesis: If someone has information that some people want to rob them and their family, don’t you think such a person would be stupid to wait for their house to be robbed? I think a reasonable person will put in place security measures to secure their house. And I don’t think you need to take permission from anybody to secure your house. If you live among people, you could tell them: look, I have been experiencing consistent armed robberies and therefore, I am beefing up my security. I don’t think anybody will ask you why you have to secure your house. And I have always said that if the purpose of the government is to secure lives and property, then as long as you don’t violate the provisions of the law, you should make sure you put in place means of exactly securing your people and their properties. Governors are the chief security officers of their states. When you say someone is the chief security officer and you say they cannot secure their people, then I cannot understand that logic.
You fought during the Nigerian Civil War. In your own perspective, do you think the war was necessary?
Under what conditions can you say war is necessary or not? But looking at it today, one may think it was not necessary but we are saying so because that time is different from now. I think what we should do is to research into why there was a war. With that, we will be able to know what brought it about and try to guard against a repeat of the circumstances that triggered it.
What is your take on the call for the restructuring of Nigeria?
I just feel that a lot of people don’t understand what restructuring is all about. The advocates of restructuring are forward-looking people. And for people saying there is no need for restructuring, is there any human endeavour that does not require reevaluation with a view to further improving that idea or structure? Restructuring goes on every day but I think the advocates of restructuring are emphasising it because it involves the political structure of the country. Everything we do requires restructuring on a periodical level. Restructuring is either to rearrange, restructure or leave it the way they are. I don’t know how it will start but restructuring is an absolute necessity for any human organisation.
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What do you think the people opposed to restructuring are afraid of?
The fact remains that we are not making progress in Nigeria and if we are to make meaningful progress, we need to do certain things differently from the ways we do them.
How do you suggest Nigeria go about it?
I wrote a book some years ago when I left the army and in that book I advocated state police. The issue of state police is now a subject of national discourse. If one is capable of making law, one should be able to enforce it. If you can’t enforce it, of what value is that law? And if the local governments, state governments and the federal government can make laws, there should be power to enforce the law.
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Even the community police they are talking about, many people don’t know what it means. The mere fact that you give something a name doesn’t make it to function well. It is your attitude that will justify the creation of that establishment. When I was a minister, I came up with the idea that we should break the Nigeria police to zones. It was then I suggested that if state chief executive officers would misuse state police, we could break it into zones where more than one governor would be in charge of a certain area called zone, and so, no governor has power to misuse it. I suggested we have zones – South-East, South-West, South-South, North-Central, North-East and North-West and that they should work in conjunction because the zones have territorial definitions and are interconnected.
I want to believe that having 36/37 police commands may be too unwieldy; we can then go to the zones.
When you retired, you went to the University of Lagos to study law. What motivated you to study law having reached the pinnacle of your military career?
Actually, I started studying law at the Ahmadu Bello University and for one reason or the other, in my second year, they said I could not continue because I was not regular in class. I know a bit of politics was involved, otherwise, they didn’t call out names and I did well in all the courses. In a way, I withdrew. When I retired, I felt I had more than enough time so I applied and from the signal I was getting, if I went to ABU, I would have started from year one again. Some people helped me and I applied to the University of Lagos. UNILAG asked for my transcript and a recommendation from ABU and ABU was gracious enough to supply everything. I went to UNILAG, did well and finished.
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How has law practice been since you finished?
A lawyer practises until he enters the grave. It is not only when you go to court that you are a lawyer – there are documents that only lawyers can sign. The idea of people thinking that if you are a lawyer, you must go to court is not correct. To that extent, if you look forward to seeing me in court, you are likely going to do that in vain.
How do you relax?
When I retired, I was relaxing by writing papers, granting interviews, playing squash, etc. But by the time I was minister of police affairs, I had a terrible accident and God saved me. Since then, I have not been active in any sport.
What is your favourite food?
If I am hungry, just give me any good food, I will eat. But in recent times, I enjoy plantain and amala with okra soup. I have a good cook but I don’t eat much anymore.
What periods in your life would you describe as your saddest moments?
There are many but I can mention a few. Some of my sad moments can be related to the Nigerian Civil War. We were attacked at Nkalagu Cement factory area. We sent troops there to assess the situation and they went with railway car and after it was confirmed that the rebels were there, three days after, we sent troops there to clear them. But somehow, my soldiers went with the car without adequate security. They attacked and while trying to run away from there, they opened fire. Of course, when you get to such a situation, you find everything disorgansied. And so the local commander asked everybody to withdraw because it was not an organised withdrawal – there was a particular soldier who was shot and the bullet came out through another part – people did not know he was shot – they just thought he was lazy, that he was not fast and they abandoned him. I don’t like remembering that because I don’t think there is anything that pains me as much as that.
Also, my battalion was given the responsibility to capture Abakaliki. We camped there and my sector commander, the late Abisoye, came in company with Major General Muhammadu Buhari, to visit us. Buhari was commanding 2nd Battalion and I was commanding 27 Battalion. As they came to say hello to us, Abisoye decided to see the front troops. Abisoye was talking with one of the soldiers, who led security men (even within security, there was security). From nowhere, a bullet hit the soldier and killed him.
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Also, from Abakaliki, we were advancing towards Afikpo, they (rebels) hid in the river. We crossed the river and ran into fire. We took cover, and one soldier was shot dead. I don’t like to remember all those things. Sometimes when politicians are saying they need war, they are talking rubbish. Whatever is the circumstance, war is basically not the option.
– THE PUNCH
www.sojworldnews.com (c) February 29, 2020
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