How Obasanjo Forced Me Out of Military -Brig. General Godwin Alabi-Isama

General Alabi-Isama

On 24 December 2024, Retired Brig. General Godwin Alabi-Isama, a Civil War veteran who was the Chief of Staff of the 3 Marine Commando Division (3MCDO) of the Nigerian Army throughout the 30-month war between Nigeria and the secessionist Biafra Republic, clocked 84. He was born by an enterprising Muslim Yoruba woman in Ilorin, Kwara State to an Ukwani Christian father from Delta State on Dec. 24, 1940. He attended Ibadan Boys’ High School (IBHS). An ardent athlete whose sporting competition activities brought him into contact with the Army was enlisted in 1960. A graduate of the Mons Officer Cadet School in the UK and Senior Tactics School and Staff College in Quetta, Pakistan, he was a tactics instructor at both the Nigerian Military School in Zaria and the Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC) at Kaduna.

In this exclusive interview conducted by ISA ISAWADE at the elder statesman’s country home in Ilorin, the General and author of Tragedy of Victory, a war memoir elucidates some significant events that shaped the outcome of the civil war.

You had a rare privileged background. As an Army officer in  Lagos, you rode a private boat to and from work. You also had bought a car by 1960. No wonder Gen Olusegun Obasanjo described you as ‘flamboyant’ in My Command. Could the displayed envy towards you at different times in your career have stemmed from that?

First of all, I don’t know why he would envy me. He is older than I am. He was two years ahead of me in the military. So, what could be the reason for the envy? What was it that it was going to benefit him if he envied me? Envy me for what? When he took over from Adekunle, the same thing that took Adekunle away brought him to Marine Commando. There wasn’t a handover between commander and commander and I was the Chief of Staff. If they looked for a pin they called me. If they looked for ammunition they called me. If they looked for weapons they called me. So, I was there. There is a picture in the book where I was with Obasanjo. This was how we fought, this was how we got here, this is the ammunition, this is the weapon, it remains only thirty days to go home. He said he was going to attack Owerri! We don’t need Owerri, I want to finish the war in thirty days. For six months, he was still there rigmarole, completely confused about what to do. He was going from one unit to the other saying that he was visiting units. That’s abnormal.

Perhaps, you were too brilliant for his liking?

God in his mercy has given everybody his brain and the way to use it and all that, some are doctors, some are lawyers, and some are engineers. I am just a strategist and I spent all my money buying books. I have all the books here (shows his library of books on war strategy which littered his living and bedrooms). Some on how to win a war without fighting, without killing anybody and without your people being killed. I have over twenty Chinese books on that here which I have been reading ever since I was a 2nd lieutenant and I was lucky to be an instructor at the military school teaching thirteen-year-old children- David Mark, Ogbeha, Adisa and that group and those in the secondary school that were recruited- Babangida, Buhari, Gumel, Abdulsalami, Abacha. Because I was an instructor at the military school and at the Nigerian Military Training College where I had done many of these things, teaching captains and majors and so on, I was able to practicalise them during the war. I would take them to Rigacikun for instance in Kaduna, you do not attack troops that are backing a river, that is a frontal attack, and their machine gun will be on you. That was what Obasanjo did at Arochukwu and troops were killed. So, what is the envy about? What is it that I had that he didn’t have? I was showing him, the picture in the book, how we wanted to do it- this is how in thirty days the war will be over. We spent six months, soldiers were dying! There is a new book where he was trying to blame Gen. Gowon. They sent him 8,000 troops, 6,000 died! Throughout the Marine Commando, we never had 8,000 troops at the same time. The story is in that book. 6,000 soldiers died! From Calabar to Port Harcourt I lost only eight soldiers and two officers. One was Capt. Fashola and the second one was Isaac Boro. With superior strategy we were able to capture Port Harcourt, I explained everything.

Do you think if Capt. Bamidele had known that he would still be framed and killed, he would have revealed the names of the ‘senior officers who pressured him to do the wrong memo to you.

Capt. Bamidele was my officer. He was a sports officer. I transferred him to Army Headquarters to help me organise sports. I went to a war military shooting competition in which Nigeria won. When I came back, I was smiling from ear to ear that Nigeria won the championship. The first person that met me at the airport was Irubor, my secretary, he died last year. He said Oga trouble dey o. What trouble? He said there was a rumour that Abisoye and Akinrinade were organising a coup. I said forget about such stupid rumour. As soon as I got to Army Headquarters to tell Danjuma that we had finished the shooting competition, that the next thing in two weeks, there would be a Military sports competition and Units 1, 2, 3 Divisions were ready and that it’s going to be at Calabar, we have already gotten our money ready, about three hundred thousand naira with the paymaster. We were in April and the competition was in May that the paymaster advised us that we could cash our money ready for the sports in May because the financial year will end in April and the money may lapse to revenue in April if not cashed in April.  The next thing Danjuma said was that I didn’t get permission to travel. What! I, Alabi-Isama did not get permission to travel. I designed the form. I went to my secretary asking for the form. My secretary told me that Danjuma’s secretary tipped him off that he overheard them saying they would come and ask for the file to remove the document from the file and they did. But my secretary took the document they were looking for, and made a hundred copies before they came for the file, the story is in the book. Nobody has denied any of the stories in my book since 2013 that I wrote the book. No one including Obasanjo has denied anything revealed in my book. The next person that came to meet me was Capt. Bamidele, ‘Oga, they told me to sign a paper which will implicate you that the money which you told us to go and cash, you would be paid apart.’ He added, “They told me to sign a paper but you will see that the paper was paymaster’s letterhead instead of my letterhead” Then, Danjuma said I was on house arrest! That same morning, Gen. Olutoye saw me and said Alabi, why are you in civil dress? I said we just came back from a shooting competition and that we won and all that. He said you people promoted twenty officers from the North, making them senior to officers from the West. I said, oga I just arrived from a shooting competition, the paper you are showing me I have not seen it, can you give me today to look into it and I will give it back to you tomorrow? He said no, he was going to meet Obasanjo. He went to Obasanjo. He told Obasanjo about the promotion that people like Ola Oni, Adeniun and the rest of the Yoruba officers were not promoted, and that these officers that have been promoted have now become seniors to all these Yoruba officers. Obasanjo just pressed the button and asked Yar’Adua to come and he said okay Olutoye, tell Yar’Adua exactly what you told me! He said this is between us, Obasanjo said no, no, tell him. He repeated the story and before he got back to his office, they had retired him on radio.

And then, Bamidele said they wanted to rope me and others with the paper he signed. They said all this while I knew about this. I said me, Alabi-Isama? My secretary said Oga, don’t worry I have that document, I did a hundred copies, I am keeping some in the barracks and I have distributed others to all my people all over Nigeria. He said, “I told them that my boss will be in trouble when he comes back from abroad, keep this document for us because without that document it means he went abroad to plan a coup.” So my secretary brought a copy to me and I went to Dajuma and said this is what you are looking for. He said who signed it? Then they published a fake gazette that I was court-martialed. Where did the court-martial take place? Who were my lawyers? Who was the judge? They just lied. So, why would you lie? I don’t know why you have to be jealous of Alabi. What is it that I have that they don’t have? Except that I had a good mother who took care of me well. My mother bought a car for me even when I was a cadet. I rode a car before any of them. Even my Limousine, my mother bought my Limousine for twenty-one thousand naira, completely new from Leventis and paid cash. Because I had six children at the time, anytime I was going out with my wife and children, we had to take two cars, my mother didn’t like that. She didn’t like us to ride Volkswagen with Danfo. So, Alake of Egbaland and Alaafin of Oyo came to  Lagos for a meeting with General Gowon. During the meeting, they didn’t want to eat with everybody at the buffet that Gowon had arranged for them. They came to meet me for pounded yam. Then, I called my mother to come and pay homage to the Alake of Egba, Oba Lipede and the Alaafin of Oyo. My mother saw and admired the Limousine Alake and Alaafin came with. Where is this type of car sold? The driver said that it was at Leventis Motors in Apapa. My mother did not even enter to greet Alaafin and Alake, she went straight to Leventis and asked “Do you have a car with six doors?” They said yes, they brought the catalogue. My mother pointed to it and said yes, it’s this one. I want white, how long would it take to arrive? They said if you pay in full you can get it faster, depending on how much you pay. They asked: You want a radio? She said yes, you want television? Yes. You want this and that, she said yes. My mother paid N21,000 cash down to Leventis. I was riding a Limousine with my children while in the Army.

Even my boat, I went to Danjuma to tell him that look, I would not like to be waiting for the staff car, if you give me a boat it’s okay. In case there is traffic I can come by boat. That Falomo Bridge was not there then. So, they didn’t get a boat, saying no it’s not possible. What’s not possible? I told my mother and then she went to Charles Harden who was the MD of First Bank at the time. He was my friend, my mother knew him. So, they went to Apapa boatyard, there was no one for sale. They went to Ikoyi Boat Club, there was one for sale. My mother paid for it. And it was that boat on the day of Dimka’s coup that saved us. There was so much traffic. Danjuma came to my house with Domkat Bali and Navy Commander Adelanwa. They came to my house to go by boat, so we missed the traffic. They would have shot all of us. And then, Rabo who was charged with duty to shoot us was standing by the roadside and reported back to Dimka that he did not see us. Dimka then said maybe they went with Alabi by boat. But if Alabi was there, don’t shoot them we will come and deal with them in the office. That was how we missed the coup.

Brig. General Godwin Alabi-Isama12

How was Dimka finally captured?

Well from newspaper reports, they were captured in the Afikpo area

Mama was an enigma, an extraordinary human being to have courageously been with you on the war front and taught you and your colleagues many lessons and strategies that became very useful both during and after the war. How did she come to the idea that you should rather feed and kindly handle deserters than punish or kill them, as the military won’t do, advice which gave you wonderful results?

First of all, my mother could not read or write. Her name was Jeminatu. She was only able to write Jemi throughout her life. But when she came to the war front, she said we should open girls’ schools, boys’ schools, markets, etc. We were like, ha! There is no money, let alone somebody having pepper, oil, rice and so on. But she insisted and ensured that markets were opened, hospitals were opened for women and children. International observers were surprised at the brilliant idea. 1 Division didn’t do that, 2 Division didn’t do that. And then we were feeding the people, even the soldiers were almost mutinying but by the time I explained that if we didn’t feed these people they would fight us and if they fought us, some of you would die, finally it worked. What my mother went there to do was to say, my only son left, for one bullet to hit him, the second one must hit her, so let’s go.

How could Obasanjo have been so confident to claim authorship of the war strategies which had been drafted before he came into the picture? Did he think that you, Gen. Akinrinade and other major participants would never come across ‘My Command’?

Well, I didn’t come across it until Akinrinade gave it to me. That’s part of the tragedies of the victory. In My Command, he said I went through Ekang into Obubra. I didn’t do that. That’s why I put my map side by side his own in the TRAGEDY OF VICTORY. He said he did a lot of engineering work with 1 Division. What engineering work did 1 Division need at the time? They were on dry land. We were in the mangrove forest. We had to build roads, we had to build culverts, we had to build bridges, we had to build pontoons. We needed military engineering in our sector and since they couldn’t provide that, Adekunle authorised us to recruit engineers and we did. Then, we achieved results. All he wanted was to demonise all of us. There was a situation where he said all the places we had captured which was more than 50% of Biafra were less than ideal. He has been somebody like that. He is like a sadist.

What do you think made Biafra commit the error of trying to overrun the Midwest and  Lagos?

I don’t know who their strategists were. But they had brilliant officers- Nwawo, Njoku, Ojukwu, Nwajei, Ochei. They had brilliant officers. Madiebo was their Army Commander. I don’t know how they got the idea. If I were Ojukwu, we would not defeat Nigeria but we would have Biafra. It would be like North and South Vietnam or North and South Korea. You didn’t need to cross River Niger. The people of the Anioma area, Kwale, Agbor are already on your side. Those are intelligence to tell you Nigerians are coming. You will stay by the River. Awolowo and Tarka were in jail together. So, Benue people were not on the side of the Northern control.

So, if I were Biafran Commander, we would go to Benue. When you are at Benue River and you command the Niger River and command the Atlantic Ocean, anybody that will cross any of the rivers must die. But, again they underrated the enemy. During the first coup, they had 37 officers, the North had 8 and the West had 10. They killed the Northern officers, they killed in the West. The coup did not succeed in the East, they didn’t kill anybody there. The second coup led by the Hausa did not succeed in the East either because nobody was killed there. But they had captured Lagos. That was what led to the war. What caused the war was the fact that the Igbo wanted a unitary system. Ironsi did the decree and the Nigerian side did not want a unitary system. We wanted federalism, so we went to war. Two million people died. After two million people had died we suddenly realised that ha, the unitary system was okay. That’s what we are doing now. We will not get it right in this country until we go back to the error. The error was we didn’t want a unitary system, we wanted federalism. Now we are practising feudalism. We are sharing money, we are having monthly allotment. If that monthly allotment is not there, many of the states would not survive because many of them have not even thought of the fact that look if there is no money to share, what would any of the states do to have money? They just get an allocation, share it and everybody will go back to bed.

Gen. Gowon, in his foreword to your book, lamented the use of the weight of office by people in authority to hurt perceived personal enemies and recommended that cases of such injustices including the one done to you be reopened and investigated to right the wrongs. Have there been steps toward that by concerned authorities?

I didn’t care. I went away to the world and I was doing very well. And when Obasanjo who was instrumental to my leaving the Army heard how well I was doing, he sent his wife, Stella to come to my house in the United States and find out why Alabi was doing well. I don’t know. He must have hated my gut. I don’t know why. But, again t’Oluwa o ba fe ko ri be, ko le ri bee (If The lord did not want it to be so, it wouldn’t be so). There must be a reason for it.

At 84, if you look back, what would you consider as your greatest regret?

My greatest regret was having Akinrinade introduce Obasanjo to me and up till today I have the regret. I didn’t know this man, I never met him before. He wanted to marry, he called me. He wanted to visit Baptist Boys High School, so he called me. I have nothing to do with him, I never served with him, I never worked with him. He didn’t know me, I didn’t know him. It was Akinrinade who introduced him to me. That’s my greatest regret in my life. Well, t’Oluwa o ba fe ko ri be, ko le ri bee.

 What would you regard as your happiest moment?

My happiest moment? It was when I left the military. I was so sad. I was completely confused, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know any other job. So, when I got abroad I went to a school. I developed an appreciation of the situation in the world and the country. Number one to ten of the biggest companies in the world were oil companies. Then, the rest were telecom. I looked at it again, making a plan like a soldier. Looking at the appreciation of the situation, at that time there were 5 billion people in the world. They would need telecom. If I could only get 10 million of them, I would be a millionaire. So, I went into telecom. By the time I finished my training, today as we are talking the first ten companies are telecom companies, and IT companies. So, it was from the school I was recruited to go and build a message filtering system somewhere. I made a complete success of it. I was given a job to be done in nine months. I told them I would finish it in six months but I finished it in four months. The man said, no it’s not possible, you can’t finish it in four months. Even the six months you said you would finish it would be tough. Then, they came to check and recheck. They checked again and were surprised. They paid me for nine months. But the job was done in four months. And so I went and bought a big house, you know Nigerians- once you have arrived (mo ti arrive ni yen), you show it (laugh). So, the news was everywhere that Alabi was doing well abroad and all that. Obasanjo sent his wife to come and find out. This man did not want me to do well at all, for what? I don’t know you, you don’t know me!

At 84, you still look fit and agile, what is the secret of your youthful energy in old age?

Well, I think that is the grace of God. There is nothing other men do that I have not done, even I did more. I have 24 children, 49 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren now. So, I did everything that a man would do. But I think it’s the grace of God. If you have peace of mind- you came through my gate, did you see any gateman? Then, my doors are open up to my bedroom because I have nothing to hide. As my mother told me: ‘When it’s the time, Yekini o le ye (it won’t pass the time). So, just go about your life and live your life.