Remember the man popularly known as ‘Jerry Boy’? Yes, retired General Jeremiah Timbut Useni, right hand man of the late General Sani Abacha when he was head of state from 1993 to 1998. The former Federal Capital Territory minister, now 71 years old, describes himself as a retired general doing general things. He was military governor of the old Bendel State from 1984 to 1985 and has also been minister of transport and a quarter master general of the Nigerian Army.
After his retirement from the army as a lieutenant general, he joined politics and was appointed the deputy national chairman of the defunct ANPP in 2003. He dumped the party to form a new one named Democratic People’s Party (DPN), of which he became the pioneer national chairman in 2006. In 2011, he contested for the seat of Plateau South senatorial district on the platform of the DPP, but lost.
He spoke to LEADERSHIP Friday’s BODE GBADEBO and DAYO ODUNSI in this exclusive interview, on why he missed being appointed head of state in 1998. He also spoke on the antidote to the current insecurity situation in the country, why there are no senior police officers from his hometown of Lantang, which is regarded as the ‘Home of Generals’, and a situation that almost cost him his military career, among other things. Excerpts:
What was joining the army at the age of 14 like?
It was a wonderful experience. Most of my uncles were soldiers who fought in the Second World War. In fact it was one of them that stood for me before I was taken at the military school because at that time, you needed to have a military relation, otherwise, no way. Then, my father was a member of the Native Authority Police. You see now that some people are asking for state police, we used to have what we called Native Authority Police. In the West, it was called Local Government Police. There was even an IG Local. I operated in the West when I was a lieutenant. So I will say I have the blood in me. When I was in primary school, I thought I would join the NA Police, because I liked the uniform. Next was the army, because we used to see them like gods. They had so much power and everywhere they went they were given free drinks.
So, those were the two things I aspired to. When I applied to the police – then the junior officers’ recruitment was going on – they said no, that I was too small. Then I heard about this military school in Zaria and I applied. There were seven of us and as God would have it, I was the only one that passed. I spent one and a half years at the military school and I found myself in the United Kingdom for three and a half years and later in India for further military training. I graduated, was commissioned and returned home. By that time, the Tiv riots were on and I had to go to Tiv land to partake in the operations.
So, I enjoyed my military career. It didn’t matter whether it was the army or navy, all I wanted was to be in uniform, but I was very happy that I joined the army, because I realised that our people didn’t like the police. We regarded the police force as a women’s job. You would be surprised that of all the generals we have in Lantang, retired and serving, we don’t have anybody at the full rank of commissioner of police. We don’t like the job; it is for women! As far as we are concerned, it is either you are a teacher or a soldier, or else you don’t have respect in Tarok land.
Some years ago, there were allusions to the existence of a Lantang Mafia. Is there any truth to the insinuation?
No! You see, when suddenly a few or many of you come up in the view of the public, they will start attaching all sorts of names. Nothing like a ‘mafia’, because it is a very serious thing that has to do with drug cartels and so on. I have never seen a drug in my life, apart from what I see on television. It is just that these areas are military areas. Either your father is a military man or your uncle or someone else related to you. From Lantang alone, we have people like General Bali, myself, Dogon Yaro, Temlong, Joe Garba, Shagaya, etc.
The government of the late General Abacha, in which you served as the FCT minister, did massive infrastructural development in Abuja. Is the dream for the capital city you had then what you see developing today?
More development has taken place. I left the scene on October 19 1998 and we are in 2014 now. Definitely, Abuja could not have remained static. Not only that, the amount of money available now was not available then. When I was minister here, of all the states of the federation, there were only four of us that could budget up to N1billion; myself at the FCT, then Kano, Lagos and Rivers states. Now, Abuja is becoming congested. There is a need for more road networks and more flyovers. During my time, I built the National Assembly from scratch. We did our best with what was available and I am very sure that there would have been more development, because with more money, it’s more development.
In 1998 when General Abacha died, as the most senior serving military officer then many people thought you would be the next head of state. Can you explain what happened?
I have explained this many times and people were right to think so. It is only natural to think so, but things don’t happen like that. It was a military government and we had two ways to choose; either by seniority in rank, which would have been me since Diya was already in jail, or by protocol, which was Abdulsalam, who was then the CDS. Some people voted for seniority and the majority voted for protocol and that was all, no problem.
Given your background and the fact that at a point in time you were referred to as the oldest Nigerian general serving, looking at the current security challenges in Nigeria, where would you say we got it wrong?
Many people may have different views and I am happy that Mr. President in his own wisdom has found it fit to convene this conference, where we are going to discuss in detail national security. In fact, I am one of the members of the National Conference Security Committee. I have my views based on my experience. There are many also that have their views. So, what I can say is that, yes, the security situation is very bad, unlike before. After the civil war, fought to keep Nigeria one, we embarked on reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement, which went on very well and we had some peace, but later started having pockets of crises here and there. We had crises in the North; we had crises in the Delta area and so on. Currently, the one in the North is more worrisome, like Boko Haram.
The killings are no longer restricted to a particular religion. Initially, we were told it was the Fulani herdsmen, but there are questions begging for answers. That is, if it were the Fulanis, are they Nigerian Fulanis or from outside the country? These are the questions on the lips of Nigerians. Fulanis are known to be in the bush herding their cows, but I learnt they move around with sophisticated weapons, coming in military manner they strike and disappear, using guerrilla tactics and that is why it is very difficult to get them. In a conventional war it is easy, but fighting a guerrilla war, it is difficult to get the enemy.
So, it takes everybody’s effort to do what we can to subdue or crush these insurgents. People thought that with the deployment of troops, the police and others, things would have been okay by now, but it cannot be okay, because of the level of infiltration by the insurgents. Remember that they once hoisted their flag on Nigerian soil and that was uncalled for. So where the troops get information, they move in and where they don’t, they don’t go. For example, Borno State is very vast. How many troops will you deploy to cover the area? The troops need information from the locals to carry out their operations.
What some of us are suggesting is the education of everybody to know his or her responsibilities and not only that of those in uniform. Also, the local government councils should encourage the vigilante groups in their areas and finance them to be on guard round the clock, in order to provide information. Only then can the security forces be able to do a lot. So, it is everybody’s responsibility. But if things get worse, then I would recommend the declaration of a full state of emergency in the affected states, whereby all the political office-holders would be removed. Everybody would wake up then.
What are the prospects of the final recommendations of the ongoing National Conference being implemented?
Well, they gave us past reports and most of them contained very useful recommendations. So, we hope our report will be implemented, because if it is not, we would have wasted our time. In fact, we go through the past reports, we may not need to sit down at all, but things are changing, so we have to sit down.
What is your relationship with other top-flight retired generals like the former heads of state?
They are all my friends. Some of them were my seniors, some were peers and some were juniors. I have no problem with anybody as I sit here. I am a jolly good fellow and that is why they call me ‘Jerry Boy’; and Jerry Boy doesn’t fight with anybody.
What do you do for leisure Sir?
I enjoy dancing; very good disco and I enjoy football. I’ve suffered bone fractures twice. The first was when I was at the military school and I was nearly thrown out of the school, because the authorities thought I would not get well again. And suddenly they said they should look at me again and since I was still very young, behold, the bone had quickly healed. Then I had another fracture in India after commissioning, which made me to spend four months in a town in India and after we came back to Nigeria, I remained hospitalised. As at when I retired, I didn’t have any problem with anybody; I enjoy my friends and we visit one another. As I said, I am a jolly good fellow.
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