Saturday September 7th, 2013 HOME
NEWS Q & A JOBS MORE No peace in Nigeria’s 53yrs of Hausa, Igbo
rulership — Gen. Alabi-Isiama on september 07, 2013 at 8:40 pm in interview By Clifford Ndujihe, Deputy Political Editor A former Principal General Staff Officer (PGSO)
of the Nigerian Army and Chief of Staff of 3
Marine Commando Division (3MCDO) during the
1967-70 Nigeria-Biafra war, Brigadier-General
Godwin Alabi-Isama, is a reporter’s delight
anytime. He canvasses his views with passion and emotion, not minding whose ox is gored.
He was at his best, literally shooting from the
hips, during a visit to the corporate
headquarters of Vanguard in Apapa, Lagos. In
a two-hour chat with Vanguard’s senior
editors on his book, ‘The Tragedy of Victory, On-the-spot Account of the Nigeria-Biafra War
in the Atlantic Theatre,’ the civil war hero
made startling comments that are bound to
raise dust and generate controversy in the
polity. For instance, he said the Northern and
Eastern Nigeria have jointly been ruling the country since independence in 1960 and
Nigeria has not known peace; there was no
pogrom against the Igbo during the war; Biafra
would not have lost the war if her military
leaders had been tactically disciplined and
prosecuted the war professionally; and that Nigeria neglects her heroes and heroines. He said the problem of Nigeria is disloyalty, not
corruption; Obasanjo lied in his book, ‘My
Command’; the first 1966 coup is not an Igbo
coup but it ruined Nigeria. A Delta Igbo by
paternal lineage but a Yoruba-cum northerner
via maternal links, Alabi-Isama said God has destined Nigeria to be one country and those
trying to dismember the nation labour in vain.
He prayed that Nigerians should not witness
another war because people are now very
vicious. Excerpts: Motivation to write the book I did not know I have what it takes to be a writer. We
all left secondary school to join the Army because
they will not take you if you are from the university
due to lack of trust at that time. They thought
graduates would leave after a short while. The point
has been proven that graduates did not do well in the Army then just as the likes of Rotimi and Emmanuel
Ifeajuna, who were recruited from the university to
the infantry, did not do too well. Victor Banjo was a
graduate but he was recruited for the engineering
aspect of the military where they have always
recruited graduates. In the medical (corps), you had to be a doctor, but in the infantry they never did.
However, they decided to experiment on recruitment
of graduates, which yielded no positive results. For you to be a general in the Army, you would have
done a minimum of seven to eight years of training. If
you went to the university, I don’t think you will
spend up to that to get a Ph.D. I went through all the
military training, and when I was to write the book,
there were a lot of thoughts on why I’m writing a book. I discussed with some friends, including
Adekunle (Adekoya) who is here. They encouraged me to carry on with the book based
on the ideas and my experience. Kunle told me that
the book will make a good read. So we started
working on it. On my 70th birthday, General Alani Akinrinade came
with a book, My Command, written by General
Olusegun Obasanjo. I had heard about it but I had not
read it then. He said that Obasanjo, who was our
commander, said something about me in the book;
that I will have stomach trouble if I read it. I questioned that comment; he then bought two copies
and gave me. How his mother preserved war materials When I finished reading chapter one of ‘My
Command’, I was so annoyed that I wanted to write.
Luckily for me, I went to renovate my mother’s
house in Ilorin for my 70th birthday. When I got there,
I found a big box locked up. With a thought that my
mother had kept money for me again, I broke the lock and found my military uniform, cap and so many civil
war pictures. Though not arranged, the pictures had
been saved for 40 years. When I got hold of them, the
pictures were clean and clear. So every picture I
looked at, I remembered what happened. ‘Obasanjo
had lied,’ I said. *Gen. Alabi Isama *Gen. Alabi Isama So, I started writing. Obasanjo has claimed so much
for what he did not know, and where he didn’t visit,
let alone attack. He didn’t attack anywhere, or
capture anywhere; he didn’t command a battalion
or even a brigade. Now he was saddled with a
division, the best division of the Nigerian Army at the time and that was difficult for him. But he didn’t
want us to see that it was difficult for him. I didn’t write because of Obasanjo A lot of people would have thought that the book was
written because of Obasanjo which is not true. In this
book, I have gone beyond personalities, but you
can’t avoid talking about one or two people and, as
a soldier, I had never thought that I should be saying
‘oh that man, oh that woman, oh that division, oh that state.’ In my book, I mentioned the states, I
mentioned the names of those concerned and if they
have any concerns, then they could get in touch with
me. In this book, there are 450 pictures and I still have
over a thousand pictures. I have gone beyond
personalities. What I want really is to discuss my vision in our diversity, to discuss this country. How
can we move forward? Where are we now? How did we get here? If we are satisfied, let’s
remain so, but if not, how are we going to get out of it?
We did not agree with unitary system of government
that was introduced by General Aguiyi-Ironsi, but here
we are. We couldn’t get away from unitary
government. Why did Ironsi die, why did the Army kill Ironsi or anybody for that matter because he (Ironsi)
suggested unitary government?

hmmmm