Bello-Fadile: How Buhari threatened to kick me out of the army over a letter

Babatunde Bello-Fadile, a retired colonel of the Nigerian Army, says former President Muhammadu Buhari threatened to kick him out of the military over a letter he wrote in 1981.

In his book entitled ‘Nine Lives: The Bello-Fadile Memoirs’, the first military lawyer said at the time, Buhari was the general officer commanding (GOC) of the infantry division of the army in Ibadan, Oyo state.

The retired colonel said his first brush with Buhari happened when a general court-martial found some officers guilty of an offence.

The then GOC allegedly ordered that some of the officers should be detained in the guardroom and others confined to an officers’ mess, he said.

“Those in guardroom then wrote petitions to the chief of army staff, who was then Lt General Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi. All the proceedings of the court-martial were reviewed, with recommendations made by Director of Personnel Services ‘A’ (DPS ‘A’), A Branch for final approval by the COAS,” he said.

“The petition from those in the guardroom, which was sent to COAS, was forwarded to A Branch for review and necessary actions.

“Brigadier Shelling endorsed it to DPS ‘A’, Colonel Ode, who, in turn, initialed it to me for action. By the time I read the petition, I was the only one in the office, with Major Demsa as the most senior officer.

“I did a draft requesting the Division to send the record of proceedings to the AHO immediately and that those officers in the guardroom should be moved to the Officers’ Mess too.”

Bello-Fadile said in the letter addressed to division led by Buhari, he wrote that the officers should not be treated as if they were in “Germany’s gestapo custody” – and that infuriated him.

The lawyer said when he was summoned and was waiting to see the army chief, Buhari walked in and asked Wushishi’s assistant; “Is this the captain? Either I leave the army, or he will leave the army”.

Bello-Fadile said everything was resolved after he informed Wushishi that he had withdrawn the letter and apologised for using the word “gestapo”.

“That was how I was able to escape my first encounter with brigadier-general Muhammadu Buhari in 1981 unhurt, so to say,” he said.

The lawyer said years later when Buhari was head of state, he did not want to see him at Dodan barracks which was the seat of power at the time, adding that he had to leave Lagos to Kaduna where he went to study obtain a PhD in international law.