Domkat Bali at 80: IBB (allegedly) maliciously killed Vatsa..
posted 23rd February 2025
Domkat Bali at 80: IBB allegedly maliciously killed Vatsa..
"I think there must be something between the two of them. I think they went to the same secondary school or something like that. There was something between them since secondary school days. I think that they didn’t seem to trust each other much. It may have5 been something that started when they were in secondary school that created that long-term hatred."
General Domkat Bali who turns 80 today (he was born on 27 February, 1940) was Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, member, Armed Forces Ruling Council and Minister of Defence when General Ibrahim Babangida was military President. Bali was the one who, by virtue of his office, announced the execution of General Mamman Vatsa who was tried for an alleged coup plot.
In 2006, TheNEWS team, made up of Babajide Kolade-Otitoju (now of Television Continental, TVC), Ademola Adegbamigbe, Sylvester Asoya, photographer, Akin Farinto, interviewed Bali at Ikoyi Golf Course, Lagos. They asked him that when he worked with Babangida, did he remember one action he took and later thought he should have acted differently? For example the coup trial that involved General Vatsa.
General Bali answered: “I don’t know whether I would. My regret is that up till now, I am not sure whether Vatsa ought to have been killed because whatever evidence they amassed against him was weak. My only regret is that I cannot say, don’t do it’. I am not so sure whether we were right to have killed him.
When pressed further that the lot was on him to announce the execution, Bali responded:
“That was ok. He was not the only one. There were others involved and the decision of the Council then was that, I being the Chief of Defence Staff (which covers the three services), would be the one to make the announcement. And not only that, we made sure that those who were connected were killed before my announcement. And I said so in my statement that those who were involved had already been executed. And I have asked myself whether I was crazy to have announced something like that.”
Below is the Bali interview, published in the 22 May, 2006 edition of TheNEWS, entitled:
General Vatsa Unjustly killed- Domkat Bali
Apart from his retirement and the Vatsa coup, General Bali, in this interview with Senior Editor, BABAJIDE KOLADE-OTITOJU, General ‘Editor, ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE, Assistant Editor, SYLVESTER ASOYA and Photojournalist AKIN FARINTO, condemned IBB’s attempt to return to power, murder of Mamman Vatsa and the third term plan of President Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as the economic policies of the two leaders.
For a long time, Nigerians have not heard from you. Why have you, until now, chosen to lie low?
I don’t know whether that is very fair. I was not always talking when I was the Minister of Defence. But then you people knew me as frank. But outside the government, I don’t have to go about talking unnecessarily. So I don’t talk much, not by design, but by my nature.
What have you been doing since you left office as Minister of Defence?
It has not been easy to adjust after the military because the military is a routine (wake up in the morning, have your breakfast, go to the office, a scheduled programme every day). So it became part of me. But from the point of retirement, it became strange to wake up in the morning and not knowing what to do. I had to adjust. It was not easy initially, but now I am happy with it. I am happy because you are now the architect of your own program and life. You decide what to do and what not to do. You are not told to do one thing or the other. So you can say I am at home with myself now.
In Nigeria, it is customary for retired Generals to be on the board of companies. They even chair many. Some even own companies. Where do you belong?
I wish I had a company of my own. Talking about being chairman of companies, I have benefited from that up till now. I don’t know why. But I was chairman of HFP Engineering,
