The Labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain
Guest Speaker’s Address at the Public Presentation of Prof. John Ngamsa’s Books on the Late Lt Gen G.S. Jalo and the Late Maj Gen Abdullahi Shelleng at the Army Resource Centre, Abuja, on 12th November 2026
Delivered by Ahmad I. Sajoh, fnipr
PROTOCOLS
I do not know exactly why my brother and friend Professor John Ngamsa selected me to deliver this speech at a very historic yet emotional event of this magnitude.
But I feel highly honored to stand before you today, and I am humbled by it. It is no small thing to be asked to speak where soldiers, scholars, families and friends have gathered to remember two men who gave their lives to this country in uniform and in service.
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No matter how you try to contextualize the magnitude and value of military service you will not understand it very well until it is very close to you. I have a son in uniform and every day I notice a unique sense of duty in him that is completely different and exceptional.
In addition, I have had the rare privilege of serving some distinguished Military Generals as an aide or a close contributor to policy, governance or in advisory capacity.
Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd) whom I served as Director Press, Brigadier General MB Marwa (rtd) who chairs a group I serve as head of media and His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto who mentors me in peace building are all distinguished service personnel who are exemplary in their conduct, service and commitments to what they do.
The theme of this occasion is a promise: the labours of our hero’s past shall never be in vain. A promise is only as good as the people who keep it. So let me say at the outset what I believe this gathering is really about. We are not here merely to launch two books. We are here to keep a promise.
Why we write about those who have gone is not just to celebrate them but to underscore the importance of nation building and the people who shaped the building blocks, who lifted them and put them together. These are the heroes of nationhood. And military personnel are ahead of all others. While we build with our sweat, service men and women build with both their sweat and blood.
Every nation is built twice. It is built first by the hands that do the work, and again by the memory that preserves it. A nation that builds but does not remember soon finds that its foundations have been forgotten. And what is forgotten is easily neglected, and what is neglected is easily lost.
The late Lt Gen GS. Jalo and the late Maj Gen Abdullahi Shelleng were men of Adamawa and sons of Nigeria. They answered the call of duty at a time when service was measured not in applause but in sacrifice. Incidentally both of them functioned as trainers of young military officers along their career path. Both of them held positions of trust. And both left indelible marks on the sands of time.
Their careers belong to the story of the Nigerian Army and to the story of Nigeria itself. But stories do not preserve themselves. Memory needs a keeper. History needs a witness. And it is the writer who stands in that gap, taking what the living still carries in their hearts and setting it down so that the unborn may inherit it.
To Professor Ngamsa I feel nothing but pride. A scholar’s main calling is the dispersal of knowledge. Universities carry three mandates which Professors embody. These are Teaching, Research and Community service. These highly valuable books represent all three.
That is why I salute Professor John Ngamsa today. Professor Ngamsa could have chosen an easier path. Write a biography of a living icon and celebrate the accorlades in the presence of the subject matter. But he choose to celebrate hero’s who are long gone. That deserves real commendation.
Just to write a single biography demands years of patient research, of listening, of verifying and of weighing one account against another. He has done it twice. In doing so he has done something the rest of us talk about far more often than we do: he has acted and did so in the direction of knowledge.
I have known him as a brother, a friend and as a colleague, and I can say that this work is of a piece with the man. It is careful, it is loyal, and it is generous. He has not written to flatter. He has written to preserve, and that is a nobler purpose. Professor, on behalf of everyone gathered here, I thank you. You have placed this country in your debt.
What does the labours of the heroes teach us? Let us ask ourselves plainly: what were the labours of these men, and what do they ask of us? First, they teach us duty above self. A soldier’s oath is not a career plan. It is a pledge that the safety of others will come before one’s own comfort. The generation of Jalo and Shelleng understood this, and they lived by it.
Second, they teach us service across divides. They served a Nigeria that was larger than any one region, tribe or creed. They wore one uniform and they defended one flag. In a season when our differences are too often turned into weapons, their example reminds us that unity was never an accident. It was built by people who chose it.
Third, they teach us integrity in public life. A name is the only inheritance that cannot be stolen and cannot be bought. These two men left names that their families, their communities and their comrades still speak with pride. That is wealth no ledger can measure.
However, the harder questions come in different forms and formats. I would therefore be failing in my duty as your guest speaker if I only praised the dead. The theme does not say the labours of our hero’s past are remembered. It says they shall never be in vain.
That is a charge to the living. What does it mean for a labour not to be in vain? It means that the peace they defended must be protected. It means that the institutions they served must be strengthened. It means that the young officer, the young student and the young citizen reading these books must find in them not only a record, but a standard.
If we celebrate our heroes and then abandon the values they stood for, we have honored them with our mouths and betrayed them with our lives. The best tribute we can pay to Jalo and Shelleng is not a book, a plaque or a speech. It is to conduct ourselves, in our own offices, barracks, classrooms and communities, in a way that would make them nod in recognition.
Unfortunately, that is our biggest challenge today. We have lost our values and descended from our moral high grounds.
Painful as it is, let me wind down with a word to the young, and to the Army. To the young people here: read these books. Do not read them as history that has nothing to do with you. Read them as a conversation with those who came before you, who faced hard choices and made them with courage. Ask yourself what you will leave behind. A good name with integrity or a name that fades away immediately you are gone?
To the Nigerian Army, and to the officers and men present: your institution has always understood the weight of memory. You honour your fallen, you celebrate your veterans, and you pass on tradition from one generation to the next. These books are a gift to that tradition, and I am confident that you will give them the place they deserve.
To the families of the late generals: today the nation says to you what it should say more often. Your loss was ours, and your pride is ours. We are grateful for the lives you shared with the country. In the memories of these two gallant and brave generals, you gained more than you lost.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me close where I began, with the promise. The labours of our hero’s past shall never be in vain, but only if we make it so. Let us make it so by remembering them honestly, by learning from them humbly and by living in a way that proves their sacrifices bought something worth keeping.
May the souls of the late Lt Gen GS Jalo and the late Maj Gen Abdullahi Shelleng rest in perfect peace.
May God bless their families, bless Professor Ngamsa and his labour of love, and bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
