The whereabouts of these former public servants are not known despite their robust public service. Years after they left office, questions are being raised as to where they could be at the moment; SUNNY IDACHABA writes.
Sarki Muktar
Maj.-Gen. Abdullahi Sarki Muktar (retd.) is a former military officer whose last public appointment was as the National Security Adviser between 2006 and 2010 under former president Olusegun Obasanjo up till the regime of late former president, Umar Musa Yar’Adua before he was replaced with Mohammed Gusau by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Before then, he had served as Military Administrator (MILAD) first in Katsina state when it was created from 1987 to 1988 before he was moved to Kaduna as administrator from 1988 to 1990.
In his military life, he had a fantastic career, for example, he was Commanding Officer, 1 Division, Nigeria Army Kaduna and also participated in several peace missions abroad including Liberia where he was the Chief of Staff. He was often described as a principled and charismatic officer who earned the respect of President Obasanjo especially when he refused to bulge to the demands of Sani Abacha, on the treatment of coups suspects in 1995 because of his concerns over the detention and trial of Obasanjo and his former deputy, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. Because of this stand, he was allegedly removed as Chief of Army Staff by Gen Abacha. Therefore, years after, it is a general belief that his appointment as national security adviser by Obasanjo was a sort of compensation for his principled posture on that phantom coup for which Abacha puts Obasanjo on trial.
Born in Kano state, he was commissioned into the army as Second Lieutenant in 1971 and later attended various courses including Commanders Course in Pakistan and US respectively. He was at various times in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and Nigeria Law School where he bagged his LLB. These are beside other military positions he has held while in service. However, since he was removed as NSA by Jonathan in 2010, not much has been heard about him anymore thereby prompting the question of where he could be at the moment.
Rufus Ada George
Rufus Ada George is the former governor of Rivers state between January 1992 and November 1993. This was during the build up to the aborted Third Republic just before the late Chief Ernest Shonekan was appointed chairman Interim National Government (ING) until late General Sani Abacha (retd.) interrupted the regime. He was elected on the platform of the National Republican Convention (NRC).
Ada-George, a former employee of Shell Petroleum Nigeria, was alleged to encourage the exploitations the oil giant carried out in the region, a development that made the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) to embark on a violent protest in 1993. It took the intervention of the federal troops to quell the uprising..
Following the restoration of democracy in 1999, he joined the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in his bid to serve his people once again, but following the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he lost out; however, he was said to have sponsored ‘boys’ to unleash mayhem in the state in 2001, a development that damaged his reputation badly. Throughout the regime of Peter Odili as governor of the state, he was never at peace with Ada George. It got to a point that the son of George was allegedly arrested by the police on the order of Odili, for which he cried out to then Inspector General of Police, Musuliu Smith, over the safety of his son.
Ada George has not been popular in recent times, especially in the present APC regime, except when in the early life of this administration when he spoke about the deregulation policy of the government saying, “Hopefully, a fairly deregulated downstream sector of our oil and gas industry would completely eliminate the massive, under-the-table, ‘the-more-you-look; the-less you-see’ corrupt petroleum subsidy and some of their pseudo beneficiaries, many of whom were remotely galvanised and became overnight subsidy billionaires. They flagrantly displayed, showed off and taunted other Nigerians.
“Many of such overnight brewed ‘money-miss -road petroleum subsidy billionaires’ flaunting their petrodollars, successfully decorated some of our ill-equipped airports with their then newly acquired sleekly subsidy aircraft.” It is not certain what he is doing presently and where he is now.
Dubem Onyia
Chief Dubem Onyia is a former minister of state for foreign affairs under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He resigned his position as a member of the House of Representatives to take up the ministerial appointment. Onyia, a native of Enugu state, in one of his last public interviews canvassed for restructuring as the only panacea for progress, saying, “If they do not restructure the country, it means they are not really interested in the progress and development of the country. The only way we can live as one united country is to look at our problems and restructure Nigeria.
There is no reason you would produce oil in the Niger Delta and there, they cannot even drink clean water; they cannot provide employment but they lay the eggs that we eat every day. So, if we do not restructure where we can take our destiny in our hands, we are not going anywhere. You set up the Ministry of Niger Delta and you put the office in Abuja here and the contracts for that area are awarded here; you cannot put the ministry in Port Harcourt or Yenagoa; that is not right. I am only using the Niger Delta as an example. Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us restructure the country and when we restructure the country, then, we can now say we have a country called Nigeria.”
Chief Onyia has, for a long time now, been out of public space even though many say he still has the advantage of age to serve the country in many capacities.
