[Goddy]

Dear Max,

I must commend you for a job well-done. Unlike most guys who come up on the internet to tell stories “authoritatively” about “dem say” events they never witnessed and those with tall tales “passed down” from very biased, unreliable sources, you obviously did a very good research. While, for now, one is not privileged to know the entire contents of the up-coming book, the excerpts you provided here are wonderful….except for the sad emotions evoked in some of us by the trip down memory lane.

I was in high school (in Kwara State) prior to the Dimka coup. I remember Major Gagara, Lt. Waya and Sgt Rege.

Typical of his antecedents as a fearless soldier, it was Major Gagara who had earlier looked at me and a couple of rascally school mates one day and decided that “you these boys should become soldiers…” I remember the time I went home on holiday and thrust my NDA form into my father’s hands. The old man had thrown it back in my face when he read the portion that stated that “…you agree that your son or ward may sustain serious injury or death while in training…” Back in Kwara when I told Gagara, he simply snatched the NDA form from my hand and signed it. “Don’t mind your papa jare…” I will never forget that this brave man was sick and in hospital bed when the coup was rushed into execution by Dimka and co against Gagara’s counsel that it be delayed for strategic reasons. In spite of this lapse, he simply shrugged his shoulders as MPs stormed his hospital room to cuff him to his bed. Even, when he was subsequently bundled to the tribunal in bad physical condition, he didn’t flinch, beg or express regrets except for the emotional message he passed to his wife. That touched me till today!

As for Waya, even though he was just a Lieutenant, he was very powerful and popular in Offa town. He was a no-nonsense officer who had the habit of walking with the gait of someone with super authority. Even his wife was well-known in the town, especially at Owode market.

And the Sergeant…while playing soccer with Sgt. Rege I once asked him about a huge scar on his thigh. He smiled as he told me of his exploits in the civil war and the eventual enemy’s bullet that ended the war for him. He was among the soldiers that were drafted to arrest and shoot Col. Ibrahim Taiwo. And I remember his defense…which became “funny” and popular (because of its sensitive effect on the nature of military orders). Confidently, he told the Tribunal: “Na my Oga ordered me make I shoot am.” The Oga was Lt. Wayas and the victim was Col. Taiwo. This would later generate a huge argument in the military---so much that the then Army Chief (Danjuma) had to declare that “whenever a superior gave you an illegal order, you have the right to refuse.” But the subsequent argument among all cadres in the military was the effect that declaration would have in a profession where you were never to reason except to take orders? And how do you even determine when an order is illegal?

A case in point---in 1983, a Major went to his C.O. (Gen. Buhari) in Jos to report his being approached for participation in a coup plot against the govt of Alhaji Shagari. To his surprise, he was promptly arrested and locked up! His offense was that he failed to believe his “recruiter” who had claimed that Oga Buhari was behind the plot. He survived the ordeal but in 1986 when he was approached for a similar thing, he didn’t know what to do other than to “play” along. Unfortunately, the Tribunal would not sympathize with his situation. He was convicted and executed! This is the extent to which the nation’s military had been *******ized! Ironically, it took two major players in the same military (Obasanjo and Danjuma) to do something very drastic but quite successful in 1999 when they launched a massive restructuring of the military. Only those in the military can really attest to the extent and effect of that restructuring.

Once again Max, thanks for the great, factual but sad trip down memory lane.