ADEOLA BALOGUN speaks with Commander Umo Monde, 67 who was compulsorily retired from the Nigerian Navy after a court martial. He looks back at this episode and others in his life
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Eastern Nigeria in an area called the Annang Province. I was born in 1946 and I attended government school between 1952 and 1960 when I sat for my First School Leaving Certificate examination. In December 1960, I left the East and came to Lagos and I stayed in Yaba. I attended City College, Yaba in 1962 and had my school certificate in 1966. After my exams, I worked briefly with the West African Examinations Council before I joined the Nigerian Navy.
How did you get into the navy?
Not really. At that time, it was just whatever you could do to secure a job. I entered into the navy in 1967 and interestingly, because of the developing situation of the civil war, there was a need for me to go to the Nigerian Defence Academy, which I did in 1968 to be a member of the full regular course. In 1969, I graduated from the NDA and became a midship man. In that position, I joined the Nigerian naval ship, NNS Nigeria, which was the flagship at that time. We went to the UK for ship repair and maintenance at Liverpool. We were flown back to Nigeria, leaving the ship behind for repairs. I progressed from there to getting a commission in 1970 and later on, commanded so many patrol ships. I remember specifically a situation in which my ship caught smugglers and at that time, the rules were very specific: catch the smugglers and hand them over to the Customs and Excise Department which I did and the value of the goods was worth millions. That was in 1975.
How was your first time at sea, did you vomit?
I was not a sea sickler, but there were some who suffered such.
Who were your contemporaries, those you trained with?
I had Tunji Alabi, Ibrahim Ogohi who later on became the Chief of Defence Staff. I had somebody like Andrew Ogude who was arrested, tried and shot in respect of planning a coup; whether that was true or not, I do not know. We had people like J Ajumogobia and so many others.
How was the relationship between the elite group and the recruits in the navy then?
In those days, it was mandatory more or less that if you had the right educational qualification, you would be given the opportunity to become an officer. We were recruited into the navy as ordinary seamen, but after about a year, the naval authorities saw the qualifications that I had and I was then allowed to apply to go to the NDA. And I can tell you that the performance we put in the Nigeria Defence Academy Certificate Examination which was affiliated with the University of Ibadan turned out to be the best. I was of the science department where I took maths, physics and chemistry. With our qualification, Ibadan was willing to admit us; some of my colleagues who went to Ibadan and Zaria did very well. In my own case, I wanted to command a ship and I didn’t want to be an engineer and so when I was offered the opportunity to go to Royal Engineering College, I declined. My colleague, Ibrahim Ogohi, decided to go to the engineering college but later on changed his mind to come back to seaman branch. He was transferred and joined us to take sub-technical course for seamen. To become a seaman officer commanding a ship, you must have sound technical education to manage the resources of a war ship. A warship is a small battlefield which comprises about 100 ratings and about 10 officers and you must be able to manage such a system functionally. The smaller ships that I commanded included NNS Argungu, NNS Otobo, NNS Epe, NNS Makurdi and later on Frigates. In 1977, I was part of the team that went to South America with the ship, Ruwan Yaro, which was formerly known as Oginaberato owned by Rivers State but the ship was compulsorily acquired by the Federal Government. That was the ship we used as a training vessel for midship men. A midship man is the equivalent of a Flying Officer in the air force and a second lieutenant in the army. It is the rank between the officer and rating cadres. I was second in command to the commanding officer, Jubril Ayinla, who was a lieutenant commander while I was a lieutenant. The other ship that was the seadog ship, NNS Dorina, was commanded by Emmanuel Omoterinwa and his second in command was Michael Akhigbe. The passage to South America and the Caribbean waters took us a whole month and we visited so many ports.
What was the essence of such trips?
The navy calls it flag showing and training. Some people will call it a war tour. But essentially, it is for you to show the flag of your country because there is nothing more important than for other people in the world to know that your country can do that. When we got to a place called Tananarivo, the blacks there decided to leave the farmland to come and see a Nigerian naval ship. The question they were asking was where are the white men, because they were only seeing black sea men. They were shocked to know that a black man, Ayinla, was the captain and I was the second in command. The woman who asked the question was overcome with emotion and started weeping. She said they had been told that only whites could command a ship. In fact, we were serving them Fanta and Star beer from Nigeria and at the end, a lady wanted to take away an empty bottle of Fanta to show her grandchildren the product of Nigeria. I had to give her a bottle with the content and she began to cry in disbelief. We gave her a bottle of Fanta labelled ‘made in Nigeria;’ that is the pride of a country. Such trips too gave the shipmen the opportunity to learn astro navigation in theory and practice.
You were talking about your ship that caught smugglers. Where was that and what did they smuggle?
It was just off Lagos waters and they were offloading midstream. We challenged them and caught them with about nine boats and about 13 men. They were carrying bangles, women pants and other items. They were handed over to the customs but I noticed that my life was threatened. Some hired killers came to my house but to God be the glory, they saw me in shorts and they were asking me who was Lt. Umo. I told them he had just left the house, but they said but he had just driven the car in. I said yes, when he came in, he left almost immediately through the back door to another compound. I then asked the men what message they had for him and the leader of the gang said I should not worry, that when they want him, they would get him. They left in an unmarked car and I ran back to the navy to tell them that I needed to be armed.
Who did you suspect that was after your life?
I wasn’t very sure of who actually sent them but the reaction of the commanding officer of the Western Command, Patrick Koshoni, was very shocking and embarrassing. He didn’t quite believe me, thinking that I was only making up a story. All the same, I drew arms to protect myself.
Why would he think that way?
I would not know, but the truth is that after about two months, I was sent to India to do my specialisation in navigation in 1975. My second in command, Victor Mbu, who was on leave at that time, was replaced with O P Ayeni, one time governor of Bayelsa State. Ayeni, who was transferred to Calabar, was followed by the same gang and opened fire on their ship but they escaped.
In your book, you talked about NNS Erinomi. What happened to the ship under your command?
My joy is that there was no appointment given to me in favour of anything. I worked in the navy for 19 years and during that period, I was exposed to various critical assignments. Erinomi was not sea worthy because of a hole and nobody was interested in taking it out to sea for about two or three years as it was with Otobo before 1983. I commanded Otobo in 1979 after it was abandoned. I had to break protocol to make sure that the container for its spare parts was opened and we discovered that it was parked with rubbish among others. I made Otobo functional in 1979 and my engineer then was one Lt. Isa who later on became the Commandant of the National Defence College. The officer worked days and nights for me to take Otobo out and that was when Vice Admiral Adelanwa was retired from the navy. That was the only ship that was functional at that time. When I was made a member of the team that pulled him out of the service as a lieutenant commander, some people said I was too junior to be there. But good enough, Wole Bucknor had asked me whether I was not too junior to be a member of the party and I told him that I was the only sea going commanding officer of the Nigerian naval frigates. Later on, when Commander Opeisa raised the alarm that I must get out of the line, the train stopped and Adelanwa demanded to know why I, as a Lieutenant Commander towing a vice admiral out of the navy. It was the same Bucknor who said ‘Monde Umo is not here as an officer, he is here as the only sea going commanding officer of a frigate to be able to pull a seaman out of the navy.’ Nobody was able to say anything again.
You still have not told us about the Erinomi controversy?
Erinomi had a hole in it, about a foot above the water line and I took it out to sea without knowing it. Erinomi was not seaworthy but interestingly, I was told to manage and go out. I managed but Erinomi never came back because I lost a generator. Erinomi was bought around 1980 and commissioned by the then Vice President, Alex Ekwueme, and became unseaworthy just after four years.
Why?
It was simple. There was no maintenance. It is the same story of diverting money voted for maintenance. Erinomi remained there without going to sea; even the Commanding Officer before me, Alison Maduekwe, when he left the ship, he left it with one Lt. Commander Adams, but the ship never went to sea. Today, people claim that they commanded so so and so ship, ask them, ‘did you take the ship to sea?’ The ship log is there to tell the story. If you went, how far did you go? I took the ship as directed on March 14, 1983 and about 6.30pm, I lost my generator. We used wood to wedge the frequency regulator but if there was any tension in the ship, or a gun was fired, it would trip off. I was moving with my anchor in the water but if it was an aircraft, I would have told my second in command (co-pilot) to bail out. In a war ship, you must be the last person to leave and so you must do everything within your power to keep the ship.
So what did you do to keep the ship?
What I did was to pull my anchor up from the water. I did that but when some people came and saw that it was Monde Umo that was the commanding officer, they told me in clear terms, ‘you think you know too much, then sort yourself out’. So, an operation that was supposed to take a day or two took us 33 days because they abandoned me there.
You reported that your ship had a hole, why were you treated that way?
I don’t know, but my Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Akin Aduwo, was in a position to help. I don’t think he was interested in helping because between that time and December 1983, nothing happened except that they created a court martial to try me for negligence. We pulled the ship out after 33 days, a board of enquiry was set up but before then, the Chief of the Naval Staff had already told men and officers of the navy that the fault was that of the commanding officer. There was no report whatsoever; I did not send any letter by way of incident report to the naval high command stating what happened. But he decided before hand to say I should be held responsible. They then set up a court martial and the person who was supposed to be my prosecutor was Mike Akhigbe, a colleague commander. He did Course 3 of the NDA. I was promoted above him though junior to him based on performance. The man who ended up becoming Chief of Naval Staff in January 1984 was Commodore Aikhomu. I was retired after the whole show.
So, you were retired for negligence?
They didn’t put it that way. They said I was retired for ‘services no longer required.’ When you look at the details of the process, all those who acted there were from the old Bendel State. So I believe I was removed from the Nigerian Navy on the basis of tribalism. Even the journalist who reported the case in The Guardian was from Bendel State.
Why do you think some people from the same place treated you that way?
I don’t know but in the case of Akhigbe, when he came to the naval college where at the time I was acting captain in 1982 before the incident of Erinomi, I raised the issue of imbalance between those degree holders and those who had higher certificate. Akhigbe, as a student of staff college which I had already attended in 1981 at Jaji, stood up to oppose me. I wanted to answer him but then the Head of the Department of the Navy, Captain Ebitu Ukiwe, told him to sit down, after tongue lashing him. Maybe I should tell you something; the problem between Yakubu Gowon and Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu was more of an ego trip. I believe Akhigbe used the opportunity of Erinomi to take his pound of flesh. I believe those who read my book, Unchain Nigeria, will find the details there. Erinomi was not lost, it was only beached. There is a difference between beaching a ship and grounding a ship. Everything is documented for posterity.
After you were retired, what did you do because I am sure you weren’t prepared for it?
I first of all went to my village to rest before thinking of what to do. As at that time, I just finished paying a N40,000 federal housing loan that I took to build a house. I went into private business for a while before taking up an appointment as chairman of my local government area. When you go to my area today, you will see some of the things I did. When I was chairman, I was given the appellation atan anam (what you say you will do you do).
Why did you have to go back to the university?
I discovered that when I left the navy and people were talking about balancing an account, I got lost. As I earlier said, I was in love with mathematics and in the navy, it was easy for me to use that. But outside, I thought I needed additional knowledge. So, I decided to go to the University of Lagos to read Business Administration. It became very useful when I got to the local government and found the accounts in a complete shambles. I fired the council treasurer and was in Uyo for the duration of the two years I spent in the council. My expectation was that he would be sent away from the service. I made enemies because of my stance but I did not bother.
When did you decide to get married?
I married at about 32, 33 years when I was still in the navy.
Probably you wooed your wife with your uniform?
What we used to do as dashing young officers was that when we put on the white uniform, we would put new naira notes in the breast pocket for people to see that we had money. But the salary paid to us then was not much; it was the uniform that put the aroma, the impetus to take you high. The means of rewarding service in the service was very faulty then. You give a young lieutenant a command appointment to take a ship from here to Calabar and you are not giving him a kobo. When I was commanding a frigate worth about a N120m, my salary was about N1,200 and when you remove tax, it was N1000.
How did you get your first car?
I got it after a course in India through the help of my overseas allowance. When I came back, I had almost £2000 in my bank account. Then a flat back Volks Wagen was about N1300 and later on as a lieutenant commander, I bought a Peugeot 504.