By BASHIR ADEFAKA
“I said his performance, under 100 days in office as Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), rekindled our sweet memories of his Operation Sweep experience in Lagos, especially as he now helps kill drug abuses and trafficking to kill insecurity in Nigeria.”
This Thursday 9 September – exactly seventh day after Thursday 3 September when I clocked 49 – energetic and charismatic boss of bosses, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), will be 68.
General Marwa, a fantastic, quintessential administrator, is a pragmatic person and, better put, an enigma. I didn’t quite notice his military leadership of Borno State (1990) until he became the Military Governor of Lagos State (1996). His coming to the Centre of Excellence was a landmine, in the real sense of it, against the forces of backwardness.
As a man in kaaki, he proved to the civillian world of intelligence and capability of a soldier to build a virile state community that is safe, security wise, socially and economically, for all. I fondly call him ‘Baban Albarka‘. Meaning of that is a matter of time to come.
As a victim of post-June 12 anger
Marwa was practical to the core, from the depth of administration to the peak of authority as Military Governor of Lagos State. I remember how the Adamawa born soldier risked his life on many occasions during the June 12 saga that dragged from 1993 until it climaxed in the sad death of the icon of botched Third Republic democratic experience on June 9, 1998 when Marwa was Military Governor of Nigeria’s most economically viable but also politically versatile state of Lagos.
That was when some Yoruba people of South West, specifically miscreants, had taken to the streets of Lagos attacking and, sometimes killing members of a certain region in sight. They had carried for long in their primitive skulls that three military heads of state from that region were, in succession, responsible for the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election, believed to have been won by Alhaji Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, popularly called MKO Abiola.
Sadly, they had short memory to remember that the media organisation, Triumph Newspaper, that launched MKO Abiola into Nigeria’s political headquarters, Kano, and the rest of the North, as the “Hope ’93”, as well as its General Manager/Editor-in-Chief, Malam Garba Shehu, and other Journalists of the time, were of the same region, whose members they were killing as reprisal in Lagos for his death.
They also had short memory to recall how Kano electorates, whose region’s people they were killing in Lagos, shunned their own Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC) and voted for Abeokuta, Ogun State born Abiola as Third Republic President of Nigeria. That could have been the most unifying electoral process for Nigeria but it just did not work. No thanks, however, to Arthur Nzeribe, his unpatriotic Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) and the unfortunate judgement by a judge of the High Court, now late Justice Bassey Ikpeme, who, acting on Nzeribe’s obviously orchestrated anti-June 12 campaign, gave the ruling that threw the baby away with the bath water. The rest is now history.
And the man, MKO Abiola, died in a ‘mysterious’ circumstance aided by zipping from a suspicious diplomatic cup of tea on 9 June, 1998 a day after the death of Head of State General Sani Abacha and General Abdulsalaam Abubakar had taken over as new Military Head of State. The crisis that brew was huge. And, as the man in charge of the state, the then Colonel Marwa readily made himself available as he zoomed to every centre of the storms anywhere the miscreants were making their troubles in the name of revenging the death of Abiola. He always successfully doused the tensions and stopped the killings. I witnessed the one at Moshalashi Alhaja, in Agege, on a Friday. Military Governor Marwa came on ground amidst the crowd and tactically spoke even in Yoruba Language. That way he became loved by even the angry mobs and crisis ended.
General Marwa was not only a solver of security related problems, he also clearly tackled economic related issues that endeared him to the hearts and souls of the people. Inflation that has brought life to a standstill under successive civilian administrations in Lagos today had reared its head that time but Marwa said ‘no way’. How did he achieve that? He simply summoned market men and women, who were connected with direct sales of food items: rice, beans, palm oil, vegetable oil, to stop their price hike and maintain the status quo.
I remember, as a young bachelor then, a derica tin of rice that was jacked from N25 up to N50 was directed to be cut back to N25 on persuasive order of Governor Mohamed Buba Marwa.
The Military Governor was not done yet. He put in place a policy that made agbero and other touting activities impossible across motorparks and bus stops in Lagos. Anyone found – in the act – by soldiers was picked up, given a t-shirt uniform and taken to a state established farm centre somewhere along Lekki Free Trade Zone.
He then worked out the possibility of some Korean or Indian tricycle manufacturing companies, who brought in the technology, assembled the tricycles in Lagos and gave it out to an operator to move Lagosians to and from designated parts at stipulated number of passenger per trip. The tricycle project, branded KEKE MARWA, enjoyed checkpoint-free rights and whoever messed up with the operator had the government of Lagos State to contend with, directly.
The KEKE MARWA was released to approved operator/owner at a giveaway price of N300,000 while weekly deliver was N10,000 for specified period and it was fantastic. The operator was seen by police as Omo Ijoba (son if government) and life was easy. Unlike today that KEKE transport business has been hijacked by agbero and the tricycle’s purchasing price has risen skyrockedly to as high as One Million Naira due to Hire Purchase activities. It is sad. Major General Adekunle Abdullahi Martins (Rtd), former Commander, Nigerian Army Corp of Ordnance, was therefore right recently to ask Federal Government to take the economy of Lagos State to its heart against the activities of hoodlums controlling same.
I can continue to list General Marwa’s excellent performances as Military Governor of the Centre of Excellence that is Lagos. Just before I put the listing to a stop, he did the Direct Labour (DL) by which the governor declared a state of emergency on public works in Lagos. Roads in Lagos metropolis received timely and adequate rehabilitation attention. Lagos-Ikorodu road through Majidun to Ogolonto and beyond was opened up. Gallops patched. Lagos was great.
Transport fare from Oshodi to Ikeja Inside, Cement, Egbeda and Iyana Ipaja, remained consistently as low as between Five Naira and N20 for as long as General Marwa, then a Colonel, was governor. Up till May 1999 when he handed Lagos over to Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, transport fare charges across Lagos were reasonably under control of a Sheriff in Town. Living system was good therefore. A room was rented at Adekunle Village, Adeniyi Jones Arnie, Ikeja, and parts of Lagos for between N300 and N500. Minimum wage of N5,000 at that time was enough to take a lot of workers home. Artisans had great deal of patronage and achieved a lot of personal growths for themselves. That was Marwa’s Eko Akete that I witnessed as young bachelor.
Operation Sweep? I leave that to security experts because I don’t want to be seen as megaphone of a man government. What if I am? Marwa’s security organisation for Lagos State was so accurately and effectively established that assassins, daredevil armed robbers and other criminals had sad tales to tell. I will want to go to come again on that. Before then, the last time I saw a safer, better and well secured Lagos was when Marwa was Military Governor.
I rightly said it to him, while speaking at a courtesy visit by Defender Media Limited, publishers of The DEFENDER Newspaper Nigeria, led by its President of the Advisory Board, AIG Mu’azu Idris Hadejia (Rtd), accompanied by others including AIG Mohammed Mustafa (Rtd), earlier this year, precisely Thursday 6 April. I said his performance, under 100 days in office as Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), rekindled our sweet memories of his Operation Sweep experience in Lagos, especially as he now helps kill drug abuses and trafficking to kill insecurity in Nigeria.
General Mohamed Buba Marwa was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on 28 February 2021. He took over from Colonel Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (Rtd), who completed his tenure in office before his appointment.
Marwa is a retired officer of the Nigerian Army, who served as governor of Borno State, and then Lagos State during the successive military administrations of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Late General Sani Abacha and General Abdulsalaam Abubakar.
Birth and military career
General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) was born on September 9, 1953 in Kaduna, Kaduna State, North West Nigeria. He hails from Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State and attended the Nigerian Military School, Zaria and the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
Later, while in the Army, he studied at Pittsburgh University, where he obtained a master’s degree in International Relations, and he also obtained a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University.
As a military career man, General Marwa was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the Nigerian Army Reconnaissance Corps before moving to the Armoured Corp. He held various positions in the Army, including Brigade Major (23 Armoured Brigade), Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Theophilus Danjuma, Academic Registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy and Deputy Defence Adviser in Washington DC, United States of America.
In 1990, he was appointed Governor of Borno State. In 1992, he became the Defence Adviser to the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
From 1996 to 1999 Marwa was Military Governor of Lagos State. During his administration, he implemented programs such as “Operation 250 Roads” which greatly improved motoring conditions in the state. He revamped public health institutions, and ensured that free malaria treatment was available to all.View pictures in App save up to 80% data.
His administration upgraded infrastructure in the poor neighborhoods in Lagos state. He proclaimed an edict to regulate rents, stopping the “Jankara” method of eviction of tenants and ensuring that due process was followed.
Marwa became well respected in Lagos because of “Operation Sweep”, a joint police and military venture that helped reduce Lagos state notorious crime rate.
In February 1998, Buba Marwa said on Nigerian state radio and television that unknown persons were again trying to assassinate him, and that he and his entourage had been the target of several bomb attacks starting in 1996. But he said that he would not be intimidated.
In May 1998, Mohamed Buba Marwa imposed fuel rationing in Lagos State in an attempt to tackle petrol shortages and reduce chronic queuing at petrol stations. In July 1998, Marwa opened a new asphalt plant in Lagos, the largest of its kind in Nigeria.
Later career
After retiring from the Nigerian Army at the end of his term as Lagos State Governor, Brigadier General Marwa founded the Albarka Airlines and the Buba Marwa Endowment. In September, 2003, Buba Marwa gave up his position of Chairman / Chief Executive Officer of Albarka Airlines. In May 2007, the government of Nigeria withdrew the operating licenses of Albarka Airlines in controversial circumstance, were some says it was for political reasons.
In December 2006, Marwa announced that he would be running in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries to become the party’s candidate for Presidential election. His bid was unsuccessful, were he gave his support to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who succeeded to become the president.
In 2007 he was appointed Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the Republic of South Africa. Marwa then in 2011 became the gubernatorial candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in his Adamawa home state against the then incumbent governor, Murtala Nyako. Marwa decamped from APC due to complaints of unfair treatment of his followers after his party CPC merged with ANPP and the ACN, following the decamping of Governor Nyako to the same party.
In June 2015, Marwa returned to the APC with his followers following the swearing in of President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2015.
The new NDLEA boss had worked as Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) between 2018 and December, 2020, along with others to develop a blueprint on how to end drug abuse in Nigeria.
Marwa was once military attaché, Nigerian Embassy, Washington DC, USA, and defence attaché, United Nations, New York, as well as former ambassador to South Africa and the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland.
*WAKE UP is opinion article column of Akure, Ondo State-born Prince and Lagos-based Journalist, Bashir Adefaka. Reach him viahis email: omope72@gmail.com and phone: 08163323906.
