The first time I met General John Shagaya was about 20 years ago, in Jos naturally. I was a pimply 14-year-old and had gone along with my late uncle, Samson Ocholi, to the Octopus Golf Club in Rayfield. The city’s elite were winding down there with beer and banter. That evening, our attention was drawn to the fairway somehow and we all saw a caddy make a near impossible birdie. General Shagaya, who was there, was enthusiastic and remarked how the caddies grew up in the village surrounding the golf course and lived and breathed golf. I was drawn to him, a tall man with the furrowed forehead but very kind words. My uncle said, “That’s General Shagaya” and we went to say hello. I mumbled through it. It breaks my heart to hear the General died in a car accident on his way to Jos last week.
The second time was two years ago, while I was on the staff of Brigadier General Saleh Bala while he was Chief of Staff/SSA at the Ministry of Interior. I worked on a think tank called the MSG set up to do strategy management for the Minister, General Dambazau. One of the projects we worked on was on a draft policy on Public Safety and Security in partnership with the US Africa Centre for Security Studies (ACSS). General Shagaya was one of our panelists at the Strategic Leaders Seminar on the draft policy. General Shagaya spoke from his experience as Minister of Internal Affairs from 1985 to 1990. We and our American partners were impressed by his helpful thoughts on how to work at interagency coordination and cooperation being critical to the success of our draft policy.
After the event, I introduced myself, told him my father had worked at Lion Bank where the General had been a director for many years. We talked about his presentation and about Lion Bank. I also told him about my novel, City of Memories, set in Jos and the civil crisis that inspired it. He gave me his number and said, “Save it as Malam Shagaya.” I did. I sent him a text message later that night which he kindly replied. I sent another a few months ago, when he was named to chair the board of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru. I felt the appointment was a perfect fit and said so. It is hard to believe General Shagaya is no more.
My last e-interaction with him was a few weeks ago, on the pages of Daily Trust, where he gave the most informed weigh-in on the sedentary farmers versus pastoralist herdsmen conflict wracking central Nigeria primarily. The interview was only four questions long, but General Shagaya delivered a thoroughly well-informed analysis. He gave a historical background and then highlighted three issues-desert encroachment and the drying of the Chad leading to a downward pressure on pastoralists who now pasture longer, and secondly, the breakdown of authority between pastoralists and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association. Further:
“The third dimension is arms and banditry and what have you. With the fall of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, we must remember that a lot of soldiers of fortunes who came from Chad, Niger and Nigeria who found themselves making good money in Libya. Some of them are still being deported today. Some went as soldiers of fortune to work to defend Libya and when that government was dismantled, some of these very serious weapons fell in the hands of some fellows that moved down to Niger and Chad and mingled with the militants. You find there were already some trained soldiers of fortune, they had these weapons and I believe it could be part of the build-up that today we face in the North-East. You will notice that within the first few months of this administration, the President had to make some tours of these friendly neighbours in order to know which direction the problem was coming from and not limiting and pretending it was only within Nigeria. That is what has helped us and many people don’t understand that.”
He continued: “The other dimension could be the politicisation of the issue by whichever ethnic group and I think a lot of propaganda has to be carried out by government. Nigerians have to start seeing certain national problems as a problem of the country and not a problem of one religion or a problem of Buhari because he is a Fulani man and a Fulani man entered a farm. We have to outgrow that, after all, down in the South-East, South-South where kidnapping became an industry, it wasn’t done along religious line and yet there are governors there who come from some of these communities. So why don’t we go round there and say it is this community that is perpetrating it because they come from this governor or that governor’s area is shielding these people. It is not a problem. But if it happens in the North then it is a Hausa Muslim or Christian issue, I think those are issues that we must outgrow.”
Even at his very last, General Shagaya was educating us, arguing for a nuanced engagement with Nigeria’s problems, identifying the pettiness we must outgrow and correcting with kindness. This is the man we just lost. I am devastated. Plateau, central Nigeria and Nigeria as a whole has lost a truly remarkable man.
John Nanzip Shagaya was born in 1942 to the Miri-Wazhi family, he was a member of the Tarok ethnic group of Plateau State. He attended the Nigerian Military School from 1960 to 1964 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant just as the Nigerian Civil War broke out. He was in the 3 Marine Commando unit through the war and after that, rose to be the General Officer Commanding the 1 Mechanized Division, Kaduna. He served as Minister of Internal Affairs from 1985 to 1990 and was the ECOMOG Commander from October to December 1993 before being discharged from the Army by a vindictive Abacha junta. He held several titles, most notably Danburam Langtang, and served as a Senator for Plateau South from 2007 to 2011.
In an archived 2013 interview, General Shagaya said: “One thing my upbringing dictates for me to do is to be upright, be truthful in whatever I do. In my relationship with other beings and lesser mortals. One has to do so with fairness. And in carrying out the challenges of duty and responsibilities, one should do so as a good ambassador. This has been all I have tried to do-hard work, truthfulness, honesty-sometimes to a fault. I also set very high standards and expect that subordinates and colleagues would take on and achieve results.” This is the man I have written this tribute to mourn. Farewell, Malam Shagaya, we shall continue to strive to carry on your principles and Nigerian vision. Good night, sir.
Ali, an award-winning author, wrote from Abuja.
