…says we’ve had enough bloodshed, coup tragedies Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned the various ethnic and political groups in Nigeria to imbibe the culture of peaceful coexistence and avoid pushing the nation to the brink of another civil war. He also warned members of the Nigeria Armed Forces to remain focused on their constitutional responsibilities and avoid the temptation of staging coups, saying Nigeria has had enough of coups, bloodshed and tragedies. Obasanjo, who spoke at the public presentation of a book: “The First Regular Combatant: Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari”, a biography of the late Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari, who was assassinated during the January 15, 1966 mutiny in the Nigeria Army, said that it was tragic that after training a crop of brilliant military officers in the best of military institutions across the world, the nation had to lose them to coups staged by some ambitious military officers. The former President noted that like many others, the late Maimalari was assassinated at the prime of his career, adding that had he been allowed to live and possibly lead the Nigeria Armed Forces, the nation would have been better for it. According to him, the bloodshed in the land resulting from sacrifices made by both soldiers and civilians, should suffice for a country that is struggling to build a sustainable democracy. He said that though he neither knew Brigadier Maimalari as a young man nor was he one of his schoolmates, he came in contact with him when they became part of the Nigerian contingent to the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission in Congo in 1960. “The most particular thing about Maimalari that is interesting is his interest in the welfare of his officers and men and it is extremely rare and admirable. I was a beneficiary as an officer who served under him. Maimalari was a soldier of soldiers; he is such a man that can be used to describe a soldier. But the tragedy that took him prematurely, those who worked with him as soldiers and know him are still contemplating what could have happened if he had lived to be in charge of the Nigeria Army. “In my own knowledge of him, the Nigeria Army would have been better, and Nigeria as a whole would have been a better place. “What lesson can we learn? The lesson is that we have had enough tragedy, we have had enough bloodshed. The Nigeria Army, particularly, has had unfortunate situations where officers that the country spent a lot of money to train and people who would have been of great service to Nigeria Army and the country were cut off in the prime of their lives. The lesson is that it is enough and should never happen again,” he said. Obasanjo disclosed that it was in a bid to keep the military out of politics and prevent further coups that he took a drastic decision to retire from military service, all officers of the Nigeria Armed Forces who had held political positions before the rebirth of democracy in 1999. “It is because it is necessary to stop this sort of thing that took the life of Maimalari prematurely that I took the decision that all officers who have tasted political power which they should not have tasted while serving should be booted out of the Army, so that we can have the Army that will be completely free from political aberration. So since 1999, it seems we have got it right and I hope we will continue to get it right. Nigeria has had enough bloodshed and Nigeria has had enough sacrifices by those victims, that Nigeria deserves peace and progress. Let the sacrifice of people like Maimalari be sufficient,” Obasanjo said. A former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, who was the Chairman of the book presentation, said the ceremony was an important spotlight on the heroic figure which Maimalari represents in the history of Nigeria. He described Maimalari as a simple, kind, gracious and inspirational officer. Gowon said that though he attended the same famous Barewa College as Maimalari, the deceased was several years ahead of him both at school and in military service. “However, our institutional paths crossed again in January 1966, when just 36 hours before his tragic death in the hands of those he loved, I was posted to take over as Battalion Commander, 2nd Battalion, Ikeja, under Brigadier Maimalari’s Brigade. No one less deserved the sort of death visited on Brigadier Maimalari. I have sometimes wondered just what might have been had he survived the mutiny of that night of hate. “To my mind, Maimalari would perhaps have used his huge influence to re-establish civic order and governance. Perhaps, in which case there might have been no further killings. Perhaps, in the absence of the killings, the violence which became part of our nation’s vernacular would have been absent. Perhaps, there would have been no Biafra, no Ojukwu, no Gowon as we know them; no war and our democratic governments would have grown in state as vehicles of popular service,” he said. Gowon lamented that the greatest tragedy of the first coup in Nigeria was not that it took the lives of many innocent Nigerians, including that of Maimalari, but that it also took the life of the Nigeria Army and violated its political innocence. According to Gowon, the events of January 15, 1966 poisoned the lifeblood of the Army and left in its wake a trail of dysfunctions that has left the military and the people of Nigeria poorer than they were before the tragic incident. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, General Ike Nwachukwu, who reviewed the book, paid glowing tributes to the memory of Maimalari]]>
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