23052021 - Reps others demand probe of military plane crashes

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PAGE 8—SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 23, 2021 BIAFRA: Injustice against Igbo started under Obasanjo — Gen Alabi-Isama (2) •‘Killing of IPoB leaders won’t stop violence in S/East’ By Kennedy Mbele In this second part of his interview with Sunday Vanguard, Brigadier General Godwin Alabi- Isama (rtd), Staff Officer in the Third Marine Commando during Nigeria’s Civil War, speaks on how injustice against the Igbo started in the polity. Alabi-Isama warns that the secessionist bid in the South-East is an idea that cannot be eliminated with the killing of the leaders. He relives some segments of the Civil War, including how the highest number of casualty was recorded under then General Olusegun Obasanjo as war Commander. Are you suggesting that banditry, Boko Haram insurgency and other forms of insecurity in Nigeria can end in 15 days? Many people may be wondering how banditry, kidnapping, insurgency and other forms of insecurity can end in 15 days. I didn’t say I will end it in 15 days. I said it can end in 15 days if… Some have asked why I am getting involved in the Nigerian project despite all they did to me. But six years of my military training were on tactics and strategy. It was this country that trained me and I am still passionate about the nation. When I discuss issues like that, it is because I am concerned. I fought for Nigeria, not for Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, or anybody. The first point is, if an appreciation of what is happening in the country today is made, there won’t be Operation Lafiya Dole, meaning peace would be achieved by force. Rather, what we would have is Operation Lafiya. With what is happening today, Operation Lafiya is enough. The President went abroad and said the money for weapons was shared as if those in charge were going for dinner. Senator Ndume, who is Senate Committee Chairman on Army, also said bandits have captured many of the weapons belonging to our military. The economy is struggling and there is no political stability. When you put all these together, you would do it exactly as I did it during the Civil War. During the war, I told my boss, Gen Adekunle, it would take only 30 days to finish the war. He didn’t believe me. The second one, Obasanjo, didn’t believe me. But as soon as they went away, we started the plan. Not only that we were able to finish the war within that time limit, but we also finished it on the 24th day. People couldn’t believe it. The same thing happened in the case of Maitatsine. People didn’t believe me when I said we would end the crisis in 30 days, but I went there and finished it in 15 days. In this case, I am saying we should forget about the fighting. The economy is struggling. And it’s in big trouble. There is no political stability. Everybody is unhappy. We started from militants to Boko Haram , kidnapping and banditry. They are now kidnapping foreigners. A judge was kidnapped while sitting in court. This is called a dirty war and the answer to a dirty war is very simple: diffuse the project completely. Whether we like it or not, we would still discuss with Boko Haram insurgents. We would still discuss with herdsmen. We would still discuss with every element in the crisis. Re-strategise Why don’t we discuss it now? Let government call everybody together and hold a meeting anywhere it wishes. They should tell government what their pains are so that government would see what it can do about that. The more weapons you buy, the more weapons the bandits would steal from you, according to Senator Ndume. Since the President said people had stolen money for weapons, let us restrategise. Therefore, let us call Boko Haram leader, leader of bandits, herders and everybody concerned because the KEY TAKEAWAYS •OBJ didn’t end Civil War, he lost 1, 500 soldiers to Biafrans in one hour •How Akinrinade ended war •Women, party in Justice Aniagolu’s house & how life returned to Enugu after battle •Gowon feared Adekunle might organize coup after war money we are voting for weapons can be used to rehabilitate these people and their victims. We would achieve more results that way and achieve more political stability and economic growth. I have done it before and I am telling them to do it. I am 80 years old. There is nothing I am looking for in Nigeria. There is nothing that I wanted in Nigeria that I haven’t got. I am an old man and I am interested in having the issue resolved. And •General Alabi-Isama the issue is: how do we do it? Who is benefiting from the chaos? The whole country is experiencing food crisis because farmers can no longer go to farms. The farmers are afraid to go to their farms. That will also affect the economy. That is why government should diffuse the whole system. And I am assuring you that this dirty war would end immediately. There is no need to blame anybody again. It has been 11 years of destruction and deaths. Don’t you think dialoguing with the elements that have taken up arms against the state would mean admittance of failure on the part of government? The Vietnam War lasted for so long. The people of Vietnam defeated America and France. They still went to Geneva to discuss. These people are Nigerians. You can’t kill all of them. It is an idea. You can’t kill an idea with weapons. The more people die, the more people will pity them and join them. There is a need for a strategy for trust and peace. The situation does not require buying more weapons. You should pity the soldiers and the police, they are tired. As an 80-year-old man and a war veteran, I have never seen the way they are killing policemen and soldiers before. It is a disaster. There are deaths everywhere. Let us diffuse the whole system, let our economy start to grow and let people believe in our country. Because it is a dirty war, you now find IPoB, you now find some people in the Niger Delta and others in the South-West. And the pattern would continue to multiply. We can’t continue to fight a dirty war. This is not the time of ego. This is the time of understanding. Let their emirs and religious leaders bring them for discussion. Let us have Operation Lafiya and not Lafiya Dole. The dialogue should include IPoB, Oduduwa agitators, bandits, Boko Haram, kidnappers and others. Let us talk now before it is too late. 11 years of fighting are enough because it doesn’t look as if the conflict will end next year. Many people are criticising these suggestions, but they are not coming up with better suggestions. What are they suggesting to ensure there would be no war? Let us listen to whatever they are asking for. We are spending so much on this dirty war because the centre of gravity of any dirty war is logistics. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not reply to your claim that he didn’t win the Civil War for Nigeria but he only claimed credit. It is like he accepted the claim or Continues on page 9
SUNDAY VANGUARD, MAY 23, 2021, PAGE 9 'OBJ didn’t end Civil War, he lost 1, 500 soldiers to Biafrans in one hour' Continued from page 8 what do you think? I think you already answered the question. He could not reply for many reasons. The first one was that he was not at the war front with us. General Adekunle worked so hard as Commander. He would pick the dead. He would pick the wounded, remove his shirt and attend to them. He was a busy Commander. He was somebody I would always like to work with. At one point, I told my boss, Adekunle, “You are getting tired.” It was just like me driving from Ilorin to Lagos for my 80th birthday celebration. What did I do when I arrived in Lagos? I was just drinking and dancing. Many people of my age would have collapsed having driven six hours from Ilorin. Adekunle and Obasanjo were two different people. I didn’t know Obasanjo very well but Akinrinade did. We went to General Gowon and suggested changing Adekunle because of his tiredness. But you see, in my new research, I discovered they didn’t trust him anymore. They thought he was an officer that could organise a coup after the war because he had so many Yoruba officers around him. They did not trust any of us, particularly I. I have found some letters and other documents Adekunle wrote to Gowon and almost everybody, including the Chief of Staff, but they starved him of supplies. It was too late for the North. I think they wanted to capture Nigeria through the war but it was too late. The Chief of Staff and Akinrinade had enough reserve to finish the war. When we went to brief Obasanjo in Ibadan, it was a very difficult situation. Akinrinade asked me to do the talking. We told him the war would end in 30 days. After talking for about two hours, the man didn’t offer us a drink. He asked us, “How do you know that Ihiala is the center of gravity of Biafra?” I said, “I don’t know the training school you attended but the one I attended showed me that Ihiala is the center of gravity of Biafra.” I asked Akinrinade to continue with the talk because I was tired. We had told him that it will take 30 days to end the war. Anytime the battle was hot, Obasanjo would go and brief Gowon. We told him, “Oga, we don’t need to capture Ohoba to end the Civil War”. We didn’t want to run the Marine Commando like One Division. We didn’t want to go from village to village. We just wanted to capture key areas and end the war. He didn’t quite understand. He even told us he wasn’t going to the war front. He said we suggested his name so that he will die on the war front. We told him that we were also peoples’ children. We just told him to remain where he was and let us finish the war in 30 days. The man was there for six months and people were dying. We advised him against going to Ohoba, but he went to Ohoba and lost 1, 500 soldiers in one hour of battle. Have you seen Obasanjo of late…? I was one of the speakers at his 80th birthday in October 2014 in Abuja. After my speech, he said “Alabi, you didn’t even mention your being Kirikiri for 15 days. I didn’t put you in Kirikiri.” I replied, “Your Excellency, God put me in Kirikiri, but He had to use somebody and He used you to keep me there and I am alive today. Where are the other soldiers? Everybody died except me talking to you now. It is by His grace, favour and mercy that I am here in front of you.” To end that story, Gowon sent an order and we briefed him that it will take 30 days to end the war and that we were tired as it was our third year at the war front. Anyway, when Obasanjo arrived, he thought we were in the barracks and said he wanted to “inspect this and that”. And our soldiers were dying. The Biafrans defeated us at Ohoba with his plan after we told him not to go. Biafrans were emboldened by their success and were also coming to capture Port Harcourt. If they had captured Port Harcourt, I would have still defeated them. We made a plan. As he (Obasanjo) left for Lagos to brief General Gowon, Akinrinade called Yoruba officers namely Anifowoshe, Obade, Oni, Tuoyo and Isemede. Akinrinade was not a Commander but a staff officer. He took the officers and they went. Innih (George Innih) had 3,000 troops that were supposed to join Akinrinade’s 4, 000 troops to make 7,000. Obasanjo now took Innih to Arochukwu. We didn’t need to capture Arochukwu to end the war. That was where we were going. It was such a diversionary movement. Anyway, Akinrinade was not happy. He told Obasanjo that he would kill Innih if he saw him but it was not Innih’s fault, it was the Commander that gave him the wrong order. Akinrinade ended the civil war with 4, 000 soldiers. General Akinrinade ended the war? That was how the Marine Commando ended the war. In line with our plan, I was sent to Enugu. When I got to Enugu at One Division, there was nobody in Enugu town. The war was still on. I went there as Quarter Master General and saw the way they were fighting. I didn’t like it. I went to Shuah who was the Commander and requested that I wanted to organize a party. He asked if I was crazy. He said I was thinking One Division was like Marine Commando. “This is One Division, the heart of Igboland”, he said. I answered, “Sir, I captured Afikpo in 24 hours. If you permit me to organise a party, you will see how it will go.” “Who are you going to dance with?” he asked and I told him there were women around. He said there was nobody in town but I insisted, saying “just permit me to organize the party and you would see what I will achieve”. It was in Justice Aniagolu’s house. We went out looking for women and got about four of them. They were crying that we came to capture them. We told them they were not captives. When we got to the house, I served them the food I had prepared and some drinks. They were too shy to eat the food and I said, “Look I am going out for five minutes, if I come back and you still have not eaten the food, I will take away my food and drink”. Before I came back, they had finished the food. Then I played music and we began dancing. Then I went and called Shuah, the Commander. He opened the door and saw what I had arranged and said “Alabi, you again?” I said “Oga, no problem, if I do anything wrong, sack me from the Army”. Afterwards, I took the women to their various homes. They were shocked. One Nigeria Before the death of Justice Aniagolu, I went to his house with one lady called Perpetual Onyejekwe and I greeted him. He had a lot of drinks. I painted the picture of his house and how I cleaned it up after the party. He said they told him it was one Yoruba man that did it though I am a Delta man. When we dropped the women off they said, “Don’t come to capture us next time but if there is a party, inform us so we can bring our sisters.” From then, I could just send my driver to pick them up whenever there was a party. Remember the war was still on and Marine Commando was still moving on. There was a lady called Maria. There was no toothpaste, no toothbrush. In fact, there was nothing in Enugu. We sent this girl to Lagos, gave her some money to buy things and she started selling in Enugu. Within 24 hours, she sold everything she bought. At the time, there was a band in Nigeria called Geraldopino. That was the best band in Lagos at that time. We brought it to Enugu to play. This is just to tell you how we got people back in Enugu the Marine Commando way. We were saying we could have one Nigeria. We were not fighting to kill Biafrans but to achieve one Nigeria. Biafra defeated us at Ohoba, Aba, Owerri and Orlu. We had to sit down and think about what caused it. The cause of the defeat was more important than anything else. Why should we lose Aba? The same thing happened at Ohoba where we lost 1, 500 soldiers in an hour. That was the highest number of soldiers we ever lost. From Calabar to Port Harcourt, only eight soldiers and two officers were lost in one hour battle, but we lost 1, 500 soldiers under Obasanjo in one hour. The Marine Commando was moving, but One Division was not moving. Marine Commando had no arrangement for spending the night anywhere but was always on the move. That was how we got people into Enugu. My mother came to Enugu at the time. When Akinrinade called Obasanjo and said “Oga, e done finish o, Biafra say dey no fight again”, Obasanjo got lost. He didn’t know where to go Your mother came to Enugu? My mother was in the war front, advancing with us. She felt that “if this boy should die, the next bullet should kill her. This boy must not die”. When the war ended, we hugged each other. That was how the Nigerian Civil War ended. When Akinrinade radioed Obasanjo to say the war had ended, the Biafran officers who gathered with their soldiers did not surrender with their hands up. The officers said, “We are not fighting anymore. What are the terms and conditions? We have to go and meet Gowon.” That was how they came to meet Gowon and that was how the war ended. When Akinrinade called Obasanjo and said “Oga, e done finish o, Biafra say dey no fight again”, Obasanjo got lost. He didn’t know where to go. If you were the Commander, where did you send your troops? Obasanjo could not argue with me. He didn’t know but he was the boss. There is nothing wrong with you being the boss. I was telling him “don’t do it that way”, but he did it his way and so many soldiers died. The issues then are the same issues troubling Nigeria now with calls for Biafra rising in the South-East. How do you feel? Igbo want to bring Biafra back because they didn’t get justice from Nigeria. You journalists know. I wish I were a journalist because you report news, you don’t make it. If it is fake news, government will step in and give us the real news. Let me give you an example of the injustice I mentioned. Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, was established in 1978 by the Obasanjo administration, not the Buhari administration. But we blame Buhari for almost everything. For instance, the railway to Maradi was not started by the Buhari administration. It was started during the Jonathan administration. RUGA wasn’t created by Buhari. The Land Use Decree was promulgated by the Obasanjo regime. When you are talking about justice, it started from JAMB. They said 10 percent will come from town A, 50 percent will come from town B. 70 percent will come from Town C and all that. These children attended the same Law School. They knew one another and t h e n government promoted 30 judges out of which 24 came from •General Alabi-Isama the North, according to the story we r e a d . F o u r c a m e from the South-West and two from the South-South. No single one was from the South-East. This South- East was the one that made 60 percent in JAMB. How do you justify that? IPoB They felt that it was wrong. There is injustice. This is just one of the numerous examples. But, if that story is not correct, government did not say anything. Maybe if we look at the totality of all the lawyers in Nigeria, we will discover that the North had less. Easterners felt aggrieved among many other reasons. For instance, there was a piece of news, whether fake or not, that the Army and Police killed IPoB leader. If it was that easy to kill IPoB leader, why has Shekau (Boko Haram leader) not been killed? Everybody will begin to wonder why things are happening like this. In 11 years, we could not defeat Boko Haram. It is not Buhari’s fault. He didn’t start it, he inherited it but he could end it. The painful part of it was that he granted an interview to a white lady at CNN in London during which the lady asked about the civil war in Nigeria and Buhari told her that his officers and Commanders shared the money he gave them to buy weapons as if they were sharing cake. Today, nobody has refuted that report with its video clips as evidence. But the same President dismissed a journalist on arrival with a wave of hand even after a very warm greeting aimed at getting his attention. You will go abroad and respond to a white journalist’s question by disclosing to her the information you should have given us at home so that we can understand your problem. What do you think of IPoB, MASSOB? I think they are doing what they are doing as a result of pain. You know that pain speaks. Killing their leaders will not prevent them from their operations. Osama Bin Laden was killed several years ago but Al- Qaeda is still there. It is an idea that has to be defeated with a superior one. That was what happened to the Nigerian Civil War. The people started to trust Nigerian troops. Government said they are capable of handling the situation. But people are dying in the North and crying in the South.
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