Ishaya Bakut (16 August 1947 – 21 March 2015) was Military Governor of

Benue State Benue State is one of the North Central states in Nigeria with a population of about 4,253,641 in 2006 census. The state was created in 1976 among the 7 states created at that time.The state derives its name from the Benue River which is th ...

in Nigeria from September 1986 to December 1987 during the military regime of General

Ibrahim Babangida Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (born 17 August, 1941) is a retired Nigerian Army general and politician. He served as military president of Nigeria from 1985 until his resignation in 1993. He rose through the ranks to serve from 1984 to 1985 as Ch ...

. He was Field Commander in

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

of the

ECOMOG The Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) was a West African multilateral armed force established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOMOG was a formal arrangement for separate armies to work ...

West African multinational force from September 1991 to December 1992.

Birth and education

Ishaya Bakut was born on 16 August 1947 in Kurmi-Bi,

Zonkwa Zonkwa is the Zangon Kataf Local Government Area as well as the Bajju Chiefdom headquarters, in southern Kaduna state in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. Geography Landscape Zonkwa possesses an elevation of 798m. Climate Zonkwa has an avera ...

Kachia Kachia Hausa Fulani and Kadara and Jaba is a Local Government Area in the southern part of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Kachia. It has an area of 4,570 km and a population of 252,568 in the 2006 census. The postal ...

LGA in

Kaduna State Kaduna State ( ha, Jihar Kaduna جىِهَر كَدُنا; ff, Leydi Kaduna, script=Latn, ; kcg, Sitet Kaduna) is a state in northern Nigeria. The state capital is its namesake, the city of Kaduna which happened to be the 8th largest city in ...

. He attended Government College,

Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Region, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the ...

(1961–1965) on a Shell BP Scholarship. In 1966 he went to the

Nigerian Defence Academy The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) is a military university based in Kaduna, Nigeria that trains officer cadets for commissioning into one of the three services of the Nigerian Armed Forces: the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The duration of t ...

, Kaduna, graduating in March 1969, when he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant. He attended

Ahmadu Bello University Ahmadu Bello University Zaria is a federal government research university in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. ABU was founded on 4 October 1962, as the pioneer university in Northern Nigeria. It was founded and named after the Sardauna of Sokoto, Al ...

, Zaria (1971–1975) where he earned a BSc Engineering. He attended the United States School of Engineering (1977–1978), the

Command and Staff College, Jaji Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

(1979–1980) and the National Defence College, New Delhi in 1985 where he obtained his MSc

Early military career

He was a Company and Battalion Commander in the Infantry during the

Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence f ...

(1969–1970). He was appointed Commander of 41 Engineers Brigade, Kaduna in 1976 and became a Senior Operations Officer, Operational Engineering. He served in the Nigerian contingent of the

UNIFIL The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ( ar, قوة الأمم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان, he, כוח האו"ם הזמני בלבנון), or UNIFIL ( ar, يونيفيل, he, יוניפי״ל), is a UN peacekeeping m ...

peacekeeping mission in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

(April 1980 – February 1981). Other positions were Directing Command and Staff College, Jaji (1981–1983), Colonel, General Staff and Army Headquarters, Lagos, and Commander 41 Engineers Brigade, Kaduna.

Later career

Col. Bakut was appointed Military Governor of Benue state on 18 September 1986. There were no major developments in the state during his rule, which ended in December 1987. He was appointed Field Commander in

of the

West African multinational force on 28 September 1991. He declared his intention that ECOMOG would be an impartial and non-political peacekeeping force. Shortly after, troops from

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

arrived to strengthen ECOMOG, and were later deployed to

Bong County Bong is a county in the north-central portion of the West African nation of Liberia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has twelve districts. Gbarnga serves as the capital. The area of th ...

in preparation for a planned disarmament of the rebel forces. However, Charles Taylor ordered his troops to attack the Senegalese, whom Bakut persuaded with difficulty to remain on the defensive. Soon after the Senegalese withdrew from the mission. His replacement by Brigadier

Adetunji Olurin Adetunji Idowu Ishola Olurin mni ( yo, Adétúnjí Ìdòwú Ìṣọ̀lá Olúrìn; 3 December 1944 – 20 August 2021) was a Nigerian one-star general in the national army, who served as the military Governor of Oyo State and Field Commander o ...

had just been announced in October 1992, when Charles Taylor launched a terror attack on

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As the ...

. His troops barely maintained control of parts of the city until Olurin arrived in December 1992. In 1995 he was Principal Officer to Chief of General Staff, Lt. General

Oladipo Diya Donaldson Oladipo Diya (born 3 April 1944) is a Nigerian general who served as Chief of the General Staff, (''de facto'' Vice President of Nigeria) under military head of state General Sani Abacha from 1994 until his arrest for treason in 1997. ...

. On 21 March 2015, he died at the age of 67.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakut, Ishaya Nigerian generals 1947 births 2015 deaths Governors of Benue State Library of Congress Africa Collection related Military personnel of the Nigerian Civil War Ahmadu Bello University alumni People from Kaduna State Nigerian Defence Academy alumni National Defence College, India alumni