It was not a theatre of war, but generals were there in large number.
They came to show solidarity with their colleague, Brig Gen Godwin Alabi-Isama (rtd), Chief of Staff of the Third Marine Commando, who launched his memoirs on the civil war titled: The Tragedy of Victory.
Like Alabi-Isama, many of the generals also fought the war, which echoed at yesterday’s gathering.
They relived the bitter enterprise in which one million people reportedly died.
The book launch was held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Former Defence Minister Gen Theophilus Danjuma chaired the event. With him on the high table were Ambassador Moses Kehinde, who represented former Head of State Gen Yakubu Gowon, High Chief Omowale Kuye, representative of the Olubadan of Ibadan and the representative of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Sulu Gambari.
Some civil war heroes, victims and relations relived their ordeal.
Mrs, Grace Oto, whose late husband Edet was injured during the war, told the gathering how she was shunned when she went to seek help from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo took over the third Marine Commando from Brig-Gen Benjamin Adekunle.
Alabi-Isama’s book, according to the author, is to correct some impressions in Obasanjo’s memoirs titled: My Command.
According to Mrs Oto, her late husband was shot in an ambush when he was in the Third Marine Commando under Obasanjo’s command. He was shot in the thigh.
Mrs Edet said when the bullet lodged in her husband’s thigh was giving him pains, she went to Obasanjo’s house to seek for financial assistance to take him to hospital. She said she did not see Obasanjo because his gate was locked. “My husband died the following day, she added.
The book reviewer, Mr Kunle Ajibade, the Executive Editor of The News Magazine, said it was thoughtful of Alabi –Isama to have chosen Nelson Mandela’s birthday to present his book because Mandela, in so many ways, exemplifies the generosity of spirit which a reader will constantly encounter in the book.
Ajibade said Alabi-Isama was prompted to write the book, because of what he calls “lack of generous spirit in Gen Olusegun Obasanjo”. “Three years ago, when Gen Godwin Alabi-Isama turned 70, he came to Nigeria from the United States to celebrate his birthday. His close friend Gen Alani Akinrinade, who attended the ceremony, gave him two copies of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo’s My Command.
“Akinrinade had told his friend that the book would turn his belly. It surely did. Gen Alabi-Isama discovered that there were so many distortions of fact in the book, and he immediately dimissed it as a tapestry of inaccuracies. As he read the book, he marked out 82 passages in My Command where Gen Obasanjo simply told outright lies to massage his ego and damage the reputation of his colleagues. Alabi-Isama then thought that since he was still a moving encyclopaedia on the 3 Marine Commando, it was time to tear the painted mask of Obasanjo.
Ajibade said Obasanjo’s book left out the achievements of “gallant officers like Benjamin Adekunle (The Black Scorpion), Alani Akinrinade, Godwin Ally, Ayo Ariyo, Ola Oni, Isaac Adaka Boro, Ahmadu Aliyu, Roland Omowa, Sani Bello, S.S. Tomoye, Yemi Alabi, Philemon Shande, Musa Wamba, Mac Isemede, Sunny Tuoyo, Audu Jalingo , Ignatius Obeya, and their informants like Ndidi Okereke-Onyuike, Margaret Eyo, Florence Ita-Giwa and many other women who made the 3 Marine Commando Division such a formidable force.”
The author’s responses to Gen Obasanjo’s claims, according to the reviewer, showed that he was a more competent soldier, military strategist and theorist than Obasanjo “who tends to mistake goodluck for profound gift and talent. Alabi-Isama simply did his duty and left politics in the army for all the crafty war profiteers”.
He added: “As the Chief of Staff of 3 Marine Commando, Alabi-Isama was very demanding of everyone. He was hard on his men and women without ever losing tenderness. “The 3 Marine Commando Division operated in a very difficult terrain of creeks and mangrove forest comprising thepresent Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states. It was the war at the Atlantic.
Gen. Alabi-Isama said in the book that he warned Colonel Benjamin Adekunle against the operation to capture Owerri, Aba and Umuahia, which was a big tragedy for the Federal troops. The case became so bad when he decided to get both the author and Akinrinade killed in an ambush but the duo escaped to Lagos and reported to General Gowon the crisis of confidence in the 3 Marine Commando.
When Obasanjo took over from Adekunle on May 16, 1969, he sidelined the winning force, including Akinrinade and Alabi-Isama. Four days after his resumption, his first battle as a Commander was a disaster for what Alabi-Isama described as a complete disregard for the sound advice of his sector commanders.
Gen Gowon said having had the privilege of reading Alabi-Isama’s book , “I am proud to say that he as a representative of the qualitative officer cadre Nigeria had at the time. That he kept such detailed records and even accopmpanied them with numerous properly captioned photographic shots is highly commendable.
Gen. Gowon said from the series of events recorded in Asaba and the Midwest during the civil war, one came to the conclusion that Alabi-Isama’s posting to the Midwest at that crucial time of “our nation’s history was not only fortuitous, it was God-sent”.
“Although he was arrested and was enlisted into the Biafran army, he planned and executed a masterly escape to link up with the troops of the Second Division of the Nigerian Army sent to liberate the Midwest. By his account, he later reported to Army Headquarters in Lagos following a radio message that the Commander-in Chief summoned him. As Head of State and Commander-in-Chief then and up till today, I have no recollection of asking that Alabi-Isama be recalled from the war front to see me in Lagos.
“At any rate, that unexplained invitation supposedly by the Head of State became the unknown factor that obviously saved him from being among the precious souls that perished in the Second Division’s attempt to cross the River Niger to Onitsha at Asaba which I had strongly objected to and had ordered the Divisional Commander not to undertake, but did at heavy cost.
“On learning about the tragic occurrence at Asaba, I had lamented the sad loss of so many fine officers like Alabi-Isama and Alani Akinrinade. Even at that no one told me that Alabi-Isama was in Lagos under some “protective” custody in Kirikiri Maximum Prison.
“This book , therefore has thrown into relief the fact that unknown to the Commander-in-Chief, some of his aides did use his name to do things he had not authorised. This fact could only have explained Alabi-Isama’s incarceration in Kirikiri Maximum Prison without my knowledge.
“ I commend Alabi-Isama’s incredible ability to keep records even to the minutest details. This is one thread that runs through the entire work.”
On Alabi-Isama’s grouse that he was prematurely retired, Gowon told him to take solace in the fact that he is not alone. Gowon said he too was not “only prematurely retired but shoved aside”.
Gen Danjuma launched the book with N10million.
Gen Akinrinade,Gen Ike Nwachuku, Gen Femi Daramola,Gen Mobolaji Johnson’ Prof Wale Omole,Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, representative of Emir of Ilorin, General Emmanuel Abisoye, renowned essayist Prof Adebayo Williams, former Ogun State Governor Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Lagos State Chief Judge Justice Ayotunde Phillips and The Nation’s Editorial Board Chairman, Mr Sam Omatseye.
