USA Africa Dialogue Series - OBI - OBASANJO'S ANOINTED 'YOUTH' AS PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA (1)

On January 1, 2023, the former military Head of State (1976 -1979) and former civilian President of Nigeria (1999-2007), Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote a letter to the Nigerian youths in which he implored them to vote for Peter Gregory Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Presidential election in Nigeria. To the Nigerian youths, Obasanjo wrote among other things the following, "My dear young men and women, you must come together and bring about a truly meaningful change in your lives. If you fail, you have no one else to blame. Your present and future are in your hands to make or mar. The future of Nigeria is in the same manner in your hands and literally so. If for any reason you fail to redeem yourself and your country, you will have lost the opportunity for good and you will have no one to blame but yourselves and posterity will not forgive you. Get up, get together, get going and get us to where we should be. And you, the youth, it is your time and your turn. 'Eyin Lokan' (It is your turn). The power to change is in your hands. Politics and elections are numbers' game. You have the numbers, get up, stand up and make your numbers count." The implication of Obasanjo's letter is that it gave the false impression that Peter Gregory Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the coming election, is a youth and since majority of Nigerian voters are young, they should vote for their fellow youth, Peter Obi.

Official birth date of Olusegun Obasanjo was 5^th March 1937, which means that when he accidentally became military Head of State in February 1976, he was about to be 42 years of age. When he returned as civilian President in 1999, Obasanjo was 62 years old. If his anointed youth, Peter Obi, were to win the coming Presidential election in Nigeria, he will be ascending office at the age of 62 years just as Obasanjo was in 1999. In other words, Obasanjo was also a 62-year-old youth just like Peter Gregory Obi even though Obasanjo messed up the country which is why Nigeria is where it is today politically and economically. In civilised countries Obasanjo should be hiding in shame for what he did to Nigeria when the power to govern Nigeria accidentally fell on his lap. His road to power was paved when he was appointed the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3^rd Marine Division, in May 1969 to replace Lt. Colonel Benjamin Adekunle who, through his military prowess, had reduced Biafra into a tinny enclave but was prevented from winning the war so as not to become a hero. Obasanjo was never an infantry Commander and he had no combat experience. He came to the 3^rd Marine Division because he had attended military courses on how to place pontoon bridges (already designed by engineers and built by technicians) over rivers. He was not a pontonier although he was trained to place pontoons where needed for military purposes which was why Obasanjo was designated an army engineer. In the Nigerian climate where titles are more important than the actual work done, a motor driver will title self a mechanical engineer. However, the terrain where the 3^rd Marine Division under the Command of Lt.-Colonel Adekunle operated during the war was not only swampy but contained rivers. That was where the skill of Obasanjo as a pontoon layer became useful to the combatants under the command of Lt.-Colonel Adekunle.

Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Adekunle was tremendously a hard-working, diligent and proud professional soldier who many Africans regarded as Malcolm X and Black Power advocate. On 25^th July 1967, Bonny Island, the only sea terminal for crude oil export at that time was captured in a sea-borne assault led by Lt.-Colonel Adekunle. When the Biafrans invaded the then Midwest State in August 1967, Adekunle was relocated to clear the Delta area of Biafran troops which he did swiftly and returned to Biafra to capture Ikom, a key town on Biafra's eastern border with Cameroun in mid-September 1967. The following month, Calabar was captured in another sea-borne assault. Noteworthy here is that Major Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma had captured Enugu the capital of Biafra on October 4, 1967, forcing Ojukwu to relocate the capital of Biafra to Umuahia. In February 1968, Adekunle led his soldiers to capture Afikpo, Ugep, Ediba, Itigidi and Obubra, paving way for the capture of Ikot Ekpene in March 1968, followed up by the capture of Port Harcourt in May 1968. Thereafter, General Gowon in Lagos ordered Adekunle to halt military advance into the main Igbo speaking towns of Aba, Owerri and Umuahia. It was rumoured that information had reached Federal Government that Ojukwu was willing to renounce secession and to negotiate peaceful settlement. After the capture of Port Harcourt in May 1968 instead of peace negotiation, Adekunle's troops were subjected to heat and run tactics by Biafran soldiers, therefore he decided to discountenance the order from Lagos to stop advancement into the remaining Biafran enclave. Against the order from Lagos, Adekunle's troops captured Abba and Owerri in September 1968 and was planning the capture of Umuahia, the new capital of Biafra and the only Igbo major town still held by the Biafrans. The Federal Government decided to starve Adekunle and his troops of arms. Consequently, as Adekunle's troops captured Umuahia on April 22, 1969, the Biafran soldiers recaptured Owerri on April 25, 1969.

In March 1969, the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson was on official visit to Nigeria during which he specifically asked for the permission of the Federal Government to visit Adekunle's Division in Port Harcourt. After the visit it was rumoured, that Wilson had counselled Gowon not to allow Adekunle to finish the war. At the beginning of May 1969, Biafra deployed the use of MINICON planes to bomb oil and military targets in Delta, Benin and Port Harcourt. It then became obvious for Gowon regime that Ojukwu's rumoured peaceful settlement of the war and renunciation of secession was false but it looked, at the same time, as if he wanted to adhere to Harold Wilson's rumoured advice not to allow Adekunle to finish the war. Therefore, towards the end of May 1969, Gowon announced changes of all the three Divisional Commanders at war front against Biafra. Lt.-Colonel Muhammed Shuwa, the Commander of 1^st Division was to handover to Lt.-Colonel I. D. Bissala, and Lt.-Colonel Ibrahim Haruna of the 2^nd Division was to handover to Lt.-Colonel Gibson Jallo while Lt.-Colonel Benjamin Adekunle was to handover to Lt.-Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo. While Bissala and Jallo had combat experience, Obasanjo lacked such experience as he had always belonged to Army Engineer Corps. Why Gowon chose to replace Adekunle with Obasanjo instead of Lt.-Colonel Alani Akinrinade remains a mystery up till today. In fact, and beside Akinrinade, Lt.-Colonel Alabi-Isama and Lt.-Colonel Ayo Ariyo had soldiered together with Colonel Adekunle in the difficult terrains of war that reduced Biafra to a small enclave. Of course, when Biafra's acting Head of State Major-General Philip Effiong and his most senior civilian officers surrendered on 13 January 1970, it was to Lieutenant Colonel Alani Akinrinade, General Staff Officer 3^rd Marine Commando and Major Samson Tumoye, the Commander of 17^th Brigade, Nigeria Army, that the Biafrans surrendered. Olusegun Obasanjo's claim as the sole architect of the defeat of the Biafrans in 1970 is like a hunter claiming gallantry for discovering a dead lion killed by another hunter. (To be continued)