I implore Obasanjo to stop lying before he dies...
By Godwin Alabi-Isama
I am gravely pained to be trading words
with General Olusegun Obasanjo once
again on the history of Nigeria-Biafra War. He is an elder and a former ruler who, ordinarily, should be treated
with utmost respect.
*Alabi-Isama (pix: vanguard)
But how can one genuinely
respect an old man who tells lies like a badly raised child? Obasanjo has
obviously not recovered from the shock inflicted on him by my book, The
Tragedy of Victory in which I exposed the tissues of lies in his
civil war memoir, My Command. It is said that a lie may travel for a thousand miles, but it takes just
one step of truth to catch up with it.
I’m alive to stand up to him on the lies he has
told on the war because I was a major participant in it. I kept
records. With facts and figures at my finger tips, I have debunked
Obasanjo’s lies in part three of my book, consisting of one hundred and
sixty five pages, sixty nine pictures, thirteen military strategies and
tactics, maps and documents. This was the same Obasanjo who
published a fake Federal Government gazette that I was found guilty by the
Army when I was never tried. I have proved that Obasanjo was an
incompetent commander. I have proved that he was a wily and cunning fellow, and
an incredible opportunist who reaped where he did not sow.
I have proved that he was an ingrate and a hypocrite.
More importantly, I have proved that he was a coward, who ran away from
the war front to go and look for phantom ammunition. Rather than
respond to my claims the way a gallant officer should, he has now responded
like a motor-park tout, impugning my person and questioning my
ethnic lineage. I never said I was from Ibadan . I only schooled there.
General Obasanjo, this bolekaja
style is so demeaning. You live in a glass house, so stop throwing
stones. We, who have facts, pictures and documents, meticulously kept over
the years, can tell the whole world one or two things about you.
Have a look at this attached picture at your wedding to your
first wife Remi. When the photographer wanted to take the picture of
the bride and groom and their parents, you said a few things about
your parents which I still remember. It was only Remi’s mother that
took the picture with us. Please, don’t mess with the memory of my
dear parents. You know my mother, an Ilorin
woman, and you also saw her at the war front. She told me who my father
was and she spoke his language, and took me to his home town when he died. I
went to primary school in Owu, so I know your family very well.
You should be honest enough to tell the world the story of the man
who was your father. I told you and wrote in my book that any person
who does not appreciate the efforts of women has had no good mother.
Please, don’t go beyond military tactics and strategies when dealing with
me.
*Obasanjo
You say in volume three of your book My Watch that I could be
in bed with a woman while radioing my commander that I was in pursuit
of rebels. Hundreds of thousands of those who have read my book The Tragedy
of Victory — a six hundred and seventy-page book, complete
with four hundred and fifty pictures and thirty nine military
strategies and tactics, maps and documents— will call you a liar. I am
so surprised and even embarrassed that a man of your status is still trading
in gutter rumours. An elder with a filthy mind, a leader who lacks wisdom
of age, does not deserve any respect.
I’m the same Godwin Alabi-Isama that commanded the troops that liberated
today’s Cross River State
in thirty days of battle from Calabar to Obubra with no single casualty.
This is the same Alabi-Isama that advanced 480 kilometres in 30
days from Calabar to Port Harcourt ,
liberating today’s Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa States with
35,000 men and women with 15000 on logistics, building roads and pontoons,
with 8 men and 2 officers as my casualties. Obasanjo ordered the attack of
Ohoba, a mere 24 miles
from Owerri, in one hour of battle, more than 1000 Nigerian soldiers were
dead.
Obasanjo claims that when I once played squash with him, I cheated.
This incredible liar has forgotten that there were witnesses to
that game. Those witnesses are still alive, and they remember what
really happened. I played squash with him once in my life. He could
not make a point because I was not one of his sycophants who would allow
him to win a game just to massage his huge ego. Look, General
Obasanjo, there was no way you could have beaten me in any game. You do
not have the physique and agility to do that. Apart from being a popular
sports man and soccer captain in Ibadan Boys High School, I was
Sports Officer in the Nigerian Army, playing games from soccer to
tennis, athletics etc. You never played any games at school let alone in
the Army. If you had been diligent at your physical exercises as we
were taught to be, your protruding tummy would not have become a butt
of joke to many officers and men of the Army.
General Obasanjo may try but he cannot deny the evidence of the
civil war tragic history. While he got over a thousand soldiers killed
at Ohoba, myself, Alani Akinrinade, and the brilliant and
hardworking Pincer Team of Ola Oni, Iluyomade, Isemede, S.S. Tomoye,
Salawu, Okwarobo, Sunny Tuoyo, etc. did a better job at the Third
Marine Commando. I have stated how it was done in The Tragedy of
Victory, by writing to set the Civil War records straight. Obasanjo
says I only wanted to make money that was why I wrote my book, after all I
was broke. I thank Obasanjo for unwittingly giving credit that I did
not steal money in the Army. I believe that this country Nigeria
ought to know by now all the crooks parading themselves as saints.
Now I know why Obasanjo was surprised at my financial successes
abroad, and then sent his wife Stella of blessed memory to me. She was my
guest in Houston Texas for a week. We have video and pictures
of the visit with witnesses like Jack Gonsoulin, Rod Anthony, and Tom
Britton.
I challenge Obasanjo to a debate on military tactics and strategies
on the Nigerian Civil War. He wrote about his team. Who were they? George Innih went the wrong way to Arochukwu when Akinrinade needed reinforcement
for the final battle to capture Uli Ihiala airport.
Akinrinade told him that he would shoot George Innih anytime he
showed up. Where was Obasanjo’s fake Apollo Battalion that operated
behind enemy lines, when he could not capture Ohoba? When Akinrinade
called him that Biafra troops had surrendered
to him and the Pincer team, Obasanjo, who was coming from a party, got
lost looking for them, as he did not know where to go and did not know the
way to Amichi.
I am not qualified to comment on Obasanjo’s political
achievements, if any, for this country. The people and posterity will do
that. There is no president in this country that he has not condemned.
Haba! He always thinks that he has the preserve of knowledge on how to rule this
country. Did the country move forward when he was Head of State or
President? He destroyed the heart of the national security. We can see the result today. He destroyed education in many ways. We see
the result today. He destroyed a lot of other things. As for
how he has treated his family shabbily, his wife and children have openly
made their comments. Those comments are in public domain today and
forever, even though Obasanjo cleverly brushes them aside in his current
book.
I implore Obasanjo to stop lying before he dies.
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*This piece which has appeared on several media is being being reproduced here to call our readers' attention to it.
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