MR. Daniel Aiyanyo Omoigui, father of the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui Okarau, and former Surveyor General of the Federation, turned 80 last Thursday. In this interview on the milestone, Omoigui speaks on why students run away from mathematics and his narrow escape from death during the civil war.
He also speaks on Bakassi Peninsula, which, according to him, has never been part of Nigeria but has always belonged to Cameroun. He adds that he was forcibly retired as Director of the Federal Survey because he refused to do the bidding of a former minister that would have transferred oil wells belonging to Bendel to Ondo State.
How would you describe life at 80?
First and formost, I have to give glory and honour to God for what he has done for me. I think God has done so much for me for the past 80 years. That is my wife sitting with me here; we have been married for 53 years. Therefore, God has been very kind to me.
When I look back to those years, most of my age mates, colleagues have died; most of them did not have the opportunity of formal education, and some of them were even older than me. Therefore, when I look back, I thank God for blessing me and my family. I am now thinking of relocating back to Benin because I have been in Lagos all these years.
‘How would you describe your early school days?
I was born in the village. I did not start primary school until I was 14 years old. When I started school, I used to trek from the school, a distance of 25 kilometers on foot. Every year, precisely on May 24, we used to celebrate the Empire Day; so, to that extent, we celebrated colonialism.
Some people used to say that Nigeria getting independence from Britain was too early unlike India. There were so many good things during the colonial days; the streets were clean; the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) was running well; the crime rate was low, etc. My parents did not go to school, but they encouraged me to go to school to learn.
What would say about your early working experience?
After my education at St. Patrick’s College Asaba in 1949, I came back to Benin- City and took a teaching appointment at Niger College, Benin, in 1950. Besides, I also read at home to prepare for my future challenges while there.In 1953, I took the entrance examination into the University College, Ibadan, passed and I took the Inter.
B.Sc examination of the University of London. I entered the University College, Ibadan to read mathematics in October of that year, but, in December, the result of the Inter. B.Sc University of London came out and I passed. Therefore, I had to move to the next class and graduated in 1957.
How would you describe the Benin- City of your days as a young man?
Benin City was a very small place compared to what it is today. The whole area where we now have the Government Reservation Area (GRA) and where I now have my house was all bush; a vast rubber plantation. Boundary Road was so-called because that was the end of the GRA. You are a graduate of Mathematics. What would you adduce for students’ hatred for the subject?
I read mathematics at the University College, Ibadan. I can tell you that one of the reasons students run away from studying mathematics is the attitude of the teacher. There was nothing like mass education in those days; there was something about the quality of the school environment; the school buildings and the teachers. At that time, even though the teachers were few, they were well trained and disciplined.
However, government’s takeover of schools from the missionaries is part of the problem we have in our educational system today. At that time, Government Colleges were very few. We had here in Benin, Edo College and Government College, Ughelli.
MR. Daniel Aiyanyo Omoigui
The missionaries then had many good schools such as St. Gregory College; Igbobi College; CMS Grammar School; Methodist College, all in Lagos; Christ the King College Onitsha, CIC Enugu, among others. These colleges have produced Nigerians that have occupied eminent positions in the country.
Therefore, if the government had allowed the missionaries to continue to run the schools, things would have been better. Every school is a government school since the takeover. I visited a school in my village some months ago and the school is now a shadow of itself, dilapidated. My junior brother, who practises medicine in England, was a product of that school, but everything there has gone under.
How did you find yourself in the Federal Service and rose to the position of Surveyor – General of the Federation?
I joined the Federal Survey Department in 1957 in Lagos and the job took me virtually to all parts of Nigeria. In 1958, I was at the Royal Military Survey Institute, London, for further studies and I came back to Nigeria in 1959. I got married to my wife in 1958 and she came to join me in the United Kingdom in 1959.
My first son, who is a cardiologist in the United States, Dr. Nowamwangbe Omoigui, was born in London. When I returned to Nigeria, I was posted to Kiama in present Kwara State, but I had to leave my family behind at Ilorin.
From Kiama, I was posted to New Bussa because the Kainji Dam was being constructed, and from New Bussa to Nikki in Benin Republic. In 1961, I returned to London as an attaché to the Director of Overseas Survey, War Office.
I found this experience very useful later in life. On my return from London, I was posted to Lagos and made the Chief Computer Analyst at the Federal Survey Department because of my background as a mathematician.
In 1964 – 65, I was posted to do Geodesic Survey throughout the country and, because of this nomadic life, I decided to keep my family in Lagos permanently. In 1966, I was posted to Markudi to take charge as the only office outside Lagos then.
This was a very trying period in the history of the country because of the tension generated by the 1966 coup d’état. I was still in Markudi when the second coup of July, 1966 took place and there was trouble all the country. In September 1966, there was trouble in Markudi and so many people were killed.
So, what was your experience during the civil war?
I would have lost my life in Markudi if not that God used one Lt. Col. Adeniran to save our lives. At that time in Markudi, the town was essentially made up of Igbos because the Tivs were predominately farmers. Lt. Col. Adeniran gave us non-natives a platoon of soldiers that escorted us from Markudi to Lafia, then Suleija and to Jebba.
At Jebba, it was a terrible and horrible experience at the River Niger Bridge. People were asked to identify themselves. When I told them I was a Benin man, an army sergeant from Zuru who had lived in Benin came and spoke to me in Benin language, and I replied.
That is what saved my life. After the civil war, I started the boundary demarcation of the entire country, so, my stay in London helped me a lot in this assignment. Most of the documents today on boundary demarcation were produced by my team.
Then you were involved in the demarcation of the boundary between Nigeria and Cameroun Yes. In August 12 – 14 ,1970, the first meeting of the Nigeria/Cameroun Boundary Committee took place in Beau, Yaoundé. The Nigerian delegation was led by the late Chief R.O Coker.
I was like the technical secretary to the committee. There were representatives from the Customs. Immigration, Cabinet Office in the delegation. When we came back from Yaoundé, the delegates from the External Affairs Ministry did their report to their Commissioner, the late Dr. Okoi Arikpo, who then wrote to the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney – General of the Federation, Dr. Teslim Elias, for his opinion on the Nigeria/Cameroun boundary issue. Elias’ reply has remained a landmark legal opinion that Nigerian has no claim to Bakassi peninsula; that all we needed to do was the maritime boundary between both countries.
The General Yakubu Gowon administration followed Dr. Elias’ opinion. From 1970 -1975 when General Gowon was removed from office, I took part in the negotiations.
I have all the documents. What Gowon did then was to convene a meeting of the Supreme Military Council to brief them on the legal opinion and Col. Olusegun Obasanjo, as he then was, was the Commissioner for Works while Col. Murtala Muhammed, as he then was, was the Commissioner for Communications.
I was then the Assistant Director in charge of the Mapping Section at the Federal Survey Department and, in 1978, Chief Coker retired from the service and my colleague took over as Director of Federal Survey.
In 1979, we had a civilian administration and, in 1981, the Cameroonian gendarmes invaded Nigeria and five of our soldiers were killed. With my experience, even though not heading the maritime section, I was requested by the National Asembly to tell them the exact location where the killings took place.
I told them it was in Cameroun, east of Ekeng. Although they knew it was in the Cameroun, they started to flex muscles. When Buhari took over in 1984, he set up a task force on Nigeria’s boundary with Chad Republic and I was a member of the task force.
It was then we knew that Richard Akinjide had sought the opinion of a Cambridge Director for his opinion. I was then brought in to supervise the technical report while the main report did agree with Elias that Bakassi was in Cameroun.
The Permanent Secretary was Ambassador Edwin Dove in the External Affairs Ministry while Hamzat Ahmadu now Chairman of Leventis was the Director – General. They were aware. Chief Uffot Ekaette was the private secretary to General Gowon and he knew about the issue.
In 1984, as the Director- General of the Federal Survey, following a re-organization in the Federal Ministry of Works, I initiated the establishment of National Boundary Commission when I was told that Cameroun had established its National Boundary Commission because of the sensitive nature of the issue. The Vice President was made the Chairman because of the sensitive nature.
In 1977, the Obasanjo administration set up the Justice Mamman Nasir Boundary Commission and, following its report, the boundaries of some states were changed. Part of Western Ijaw went to Rivers State, part of Bendel went to Ondo; part of Rivers went to Cross Rivers and part of Imo went to Rivers.
Because of this, some oil wells changed hands. There was an oil well in Rivers very close to Imo and I was asked to demarcate where the oil well was actually located. After the exercise, it was found that the oil well was in Rivers.
Moreover, because parts of Bendel had gone to Ondo, there were five oil wells very close to the boundary. Initially, the Ondo people wanted the royalty to be shared 50-50 because they were very close to the boundary between both states.
In 1981, a Yoruba man, who was Director of Survey, wrote to the Ministry of Finance on the issue and, after charting, it was found that the oil wells were in Bendel State. He wrote to the Ministry of Finance that the Yoruba would not take this.
He went to Lagos, met with the Director of Survey and reported that a Bini man was behind the charting. Then my Director said no, he charted it. In 1984, Bamidele Otiko became the military governor of Ondo State and came to Lagos to meet my Director. At the meeting, my Director told Otiko he was responsible for the charting.
When Chief Olu – Falae became the Secretary to the Federal Government, he directed me to write a letter that pending the resolution of the Ondo – Bendel boundary adjustment issue, they should be sharing the royalty 50 – 50. I declined to write the letter.
They then posted one Ondo man to be the permanent secretary. He was reported to have said he was posted there to do their bidding and they would call him an outcast if he did not. After reading the file, he said I should do something, on the issue and I said, ‘No, you are the permanent secretary, draft the letter and sign it.
He refused. The then Minister of Works, Alhaji Abubakar Umar, was a witness to all these. Later some people did a letter purportedly written by me. When Mamman Kantagora became the Works Minister, he told me that the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) had retired me.
That was in 1988. The following week, the then Ondo governor called a press conference and told the media that I forged the map of Ondo – Bendel States to remove oil wells from Ondo to Bendel. The newspapers that published the story were sued for libel and I made them to write apology letters.
Since I was retired, they have not carried out any survey on the Ondo – Bendel boundary issue.
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