Teardrops for Shehu Iyal, ‘captain of the federal republic’

It was not the kind of news you expected, when it rode on the wings of the evening breeze of Thursday May 15, 2025. The opening months of the year have been bad enough with reference to the very sad, untimely departures of well-known colleagues with whom we served in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The ranks of “alumni” of principal officers who served in that circa, had been depleted this year alone by the eternal exits of notable members of that team. Major General Christopher Jemitola, who was aide-de-camp to Obasanjo, during his second term, and Dr Doyin Okupe, the first of three media advisers who served the former President, had passed in quick succession in the months of February and March this year. But here on the telephone was Oladimeji Jimoh, a technician who managed heavy duty appliances for the genial Captain Shehu Usman Iyal and I, relaying the unpalatable news of his transition.

Iyal and I first met in the earliest days of the politicking which produced Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former military Head of State, as presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP). His aviation outfit, Dana Afri-Air International Ltd, it was, which flew Obasanjo around and about Nigeria during those tasking meetings with prominent individuals, engagements with various political tendencies and jaw-jawing with disparate groups, preceding the party’s primary and the subsequent presidential poll. Iyal’s Afri-Air provided the 19-seater Dornier 228 turbo-prop airplane, which we flew between October 1998 and February 1999, when Obasanjo was elected President. I was Obasanjo’s campaign media attache which implied I travelled with him wherever he went. I managed a trim team which consisted of a photographer, Tumo Ojelabi, and a videographer, Taiwo Akinyemi, who moved around with us.

Travelling together in that small plane the days, weeks and months was something of a unifier. As the unmistakable regulars on every trip, we all became close-knit working on the same project with a unanimity of resolve. Apart from Obasanjo, there were Otunba Oyewole Fasawe; Chief Tunde Osunrinde; Dr Femi Majekodunmi; Ad’Obe Obe; Tokunbo Adeola; Bodunde Adeyanju; Andy Uba; Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, among others. It was a function of Iyal’s commitment to the Obasanjo presidential project, that he elected, dedicatedly, to travel with us all through the campaign trail, rather than sit back in the comfort of his office. He diligently ensured operational fluidity and availed his pilots his variegated experiences garnered over the years.

Following Obasanjo’s inauguration as President, Commander-in-Chief on May 29, 1999, Iyal was appointed Special Assistant to the President on Aviation Matters. True, there was an Aviation Minister and a Commander for the Presidential Air Fleet, (PAF), Obasanjo usually needed second opinions on issues. To be sure, it was the same way Obasanjo benefited from the aggregate wisdoms of retired, very senior military officers, who served in his administration. Generals Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma and Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, for instance were both former Chiefs of Army Staff, (COAS). Abdullahi Mohammed was pioneer head of the defunct Nigeria Security Organisation, (NSO). They are all very distinguished and decorated military icons, who were within earshot to dissect issues with the President. Such was the multilayered, experiential resources Obasanjo benefited from in many sectors.

As the Obasanjo administration settled down, his appointees who were quartered in hotels for several months, were finally allocated residences, mostly in housing estates. Providentially, Captain Iyal and I found ourselves in the same estate in Maitama District, Abuja. Our colleagues in the State House who were in the same estate included: Dr Gbolade Osinowo, (of blessed memory); Handel Okoli; Tokunbo Adeola; Ajuji Ahmed and Ambassador Baba Gana Zanna, Director of Protocol to the Vice President. It soon became imperative to have an estate chairman to coordinate common services, principally security and sanitation, in the estate. At the very first meeting we had, Iyal nominated me for the job. Since we had 13 houses in the compact estate, the thinking was that the brief would be rotated on an annual basis. When we called a meeting to effect change after a year, Iyal suggested that I had done well and should be retained on the assignment. I thought he took advantage of my being the youngest landlord in the estate who he fondly addressed as his “junior brother.” And that was how I served as Chairman of the estate for over 20 years!

I had a special relationship with Captain Shehu Iyal. We flew around the world with President Obasanjo as he strove to imprint the name of Nigeria on global consciousness after long years of military rulership had strained the country’s relationship and perception in the eyes of the world. We enjoyed jokes and banters in our corners of the presidential jet. Our relationship went on the ascendancy when he realised that I was born in Kaduna, capital of the primordial North Central State, his home state. He hailed from the historical city of Zaria, reputed for being host to one of Nigeria’s largest concentrations of citadels of learning within one city. Iyal and I were never short of subjects to talk about. Iyal indeed attended the famous St Paul’s College, Kufena, Zaria, an Anglican school, despite being from a Muslim family. The realisation that my brother, Dr Toba Olusunle attended the same institution years after he, Iyal, graduated, brought Iyal and I even closer. Since he had adopted me his younger sibling, I deferred to him being evidently younger.

His cultivated, cosmopolitan, carriage became clearer to me after these findings. The puzzle around his liberal outlook began to straighten out as I pieced aspects of his constitution together. His vocation as an aviator would also have exposed him to people and publics, across tongues, creeds and cultures. Captain Iyal loved dialogue. He would invite me for dinner and the meeting would snowball into robust discussions, typically about contemporaneous issues, the state of the nation. He “conferred” a doctorate on me before I eventually got one. He would hail me as Mallam Tunde, PhD English, usually because of what he perceived as my grammatically elevated perspectives. We would both laugh. I reciprocated by serenading him as Captain of the Federal Republic, (CFR)! Iyal, by the way, never served spirits or liquors in his house. Occasionally, however, he indulged me. Especially whenever feigned I couldn’t put my thoughts together because I needed a kick by way of a tot or two. He seemed to have a liking for journalists and had many friends amongst us. On a casual visit to his home, you were likely to find Steve Itugbu or Yomi Odunnuga or Henry Ugbolue, all experienced media practitioners. He trusted our analytical objectivity.

Captain Iyal listed me on the inaugural British Airways direct flight from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, (NAIA), Abuja, to London Heathrow Airport, (LHR), back in February 2001. Segun Runsewe, my friend and former Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, (NCAC), was on the same trip. That innovation by BA which has been sustained into the 25th year now, has reduced the hassles, troubles and traumas of travellers who previously had to board local flights from Abuja to Murtala Mohammed International Airport, (MMIA), Lagos, before connecting to London. He had so much belief in my ability to make so much authorial capital out of situations and experiences with my pen, even when others cannot seem to find that pin in a haystack. His generosity of spirit knew no boundaries. When yuletide hampers streamed in for him, he would typically invite me to his home to take my pick from a host of gifts, boxes and baskets in his place.

Iyal, who would have been 70 this year, was an alumnus of the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria. He was trained in some of the best flying schools around the world, beginning from the iconic Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, (NCAT), Zaria. He was certified as assistant flying instructor at Rogers Aviation, Belford, United Kingdom, and logged four full decades in the cockpit, classroom and administrator’s desk, all within the aviation ecosystem. He was knowledgeable, immensely articulate and was never shy of facing the cameras and mini-recorders of prying journalists who desired information on the state of the aviation industry. He once served as a Board Member of the Skyway Aviation Handling Company Ltd, providers of ground handling services. He equally headed the aviation committee of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, (NAHCON), responsible for the safe and seamless freighting of Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, for years.

Captain Shehu Usman Iyal, who was deservedly decorated with the respected national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger, (OON), for his services to national development was a genuine gentleman. He would typically walk his guests to their cars or to their homes, like when we resided in the same housing estate. This was the same way he accompanied them to the elevators of the serviced apartment he lived in Abuja in recent years. He will be missed for his inquisitiveness, his laughter, his smiles, his infinite capacities as an exemplary brother and host. He passed in Lagos Thursday May 15, 2025, and his body was flown to Zaria his birthplace early the next day, Friday May 16, for interment. May his soul rest peacefully in the bosom of the Most High God.

Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja