Last week, this column ran the interview with retired Brig.-Gen. Oluwole Rotimi on the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Ikemba Nnewi; and promised to serve the continuation of the extensive interview. The promise is here fulfilled in continuing tribute to the late Ikemba.Chief Rotimi was not only one of the earliest university graduates to go into the Nigeria Army, he also, like Ojukwu, attended the Kings College, Lagos, and had served as deputy to Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu when he was Quartermaster-General of the Nigerian Army from 1963-1965.In the Army, Rotimis intellectual disposition, disciplined and principled mind, uprightness and outspokenness for truth, justice and fairness stood him out. And once made him face a court-martial.He recalls:"I had petitioned the Army Council for unfair treatment. The story was that although I was the second most senior officer eligible to go to Staff College (something every officer craved), when the list of officers nominated came out, my name was missing! "Out of seven vacancies, five went to Igbo officerswho were junior to meone went to a Yoruba officer, Adegoke, who was senior to me, then the seventh one went to Bisalla who was also junior to me. So, on the basis of that, I petitioned the Army Council. "Meanwhile, before the posting was out, Ifeajuna who was my friend (we had joined the Army on the same day and we were both graduates of the University College, Ibadan), had called me that I should not sit back, that I should start lobbying for the Staff College nomination, that if I just waited that everything would be done on merit that I would be disappointed. That the order of merit under the British officers had gone, that we now have the first (Nigerian) GOC (Ironsi) who was not likely to imbibe the same principle of meritocracy. "But that was not for me and I told him I wasnt going to lobby. Lo and behold, when the list came out, my name was missing! After my petition, I was sent on compulsory leave"Rotimis traits were the ones he shared with Odumegwu-Ojukwu and which were not unnoticed by the Ikemba, as Chief Rotimi recounts:"You know, when I had this thing with Maduekwe, when Maduekwe, out of his own manipulation, his own lack of standard and everything, manipulated the whole thing and went to tell lies to YarAdua; I read something which Ojukwu said, which, of course, impressed me tremendously. He said that he did not know the details of the rupture between Maduekwe and me, but he said that in any case, whatever Wole Rotimi has become, that he wants everybody to know that Wole Rotimi has been a part of him."I asked Chief Rotimi, "But considering the fact that there were some of you soldiers who felt sympathetic to the Igbo cause, for what they went through, the pogrom and everything, how did you feel carrying a gun yet against them' Did it not affect your loyalty to Nigeria'""That is a very good question youve asked," he said. "The truth is that it did not. At the end of the civil war, a committee was set up to screen all officers that served under Biafra. General Adebayo was chairman, I was a member. And we screened everybody, all those officers, senior and junior. "Now, one of the officers who appeared before us, Mike Ivenso, was a colleague of minewe were in the same rank, when I was deputy Quartermaster-General, he was deputy Adjutant-General (one of those I told you we didnt greet when we met in the corridor (laughs))."I now put a question to Ivenso; I said, Mike Ivenso, you are known to be very close to Gowon who was Adjutant-General, just as I was close to Ojukwu as Quartermaster-General, I said let us take this scenario: we are at war, if you got intelligence and you were at the other end of Onitsha Bridge to defend it against federal troops who are wanting to cross; now in that intelligence, you also got to know that someone like Gowon was one of the officers trying to cross to the other side. In view of your closeness to Gowon, what would you do' "Ivenso said, what will I do' Of course at that stage Gowon is an enemy, I will not blink an eye, I will rain mortars on that boat. "That is professional; question of sentiments didnt arise anymore, you understand' That is why, for soldiers, when they do court-martial and they sentence people to death to be shot, they dont feel much about it, they have no qualms about it. No! You are said to have committed an offence, youve been tried and sentenced to death, you have to be shot, whether hes your friend or not. "It was on that basis that Ojukwu ordered that Victor (Banjo) should be shot, he ordered that Ifeajuna should be shot; it was on the same basis that Obasanjo ordered that Bisalla, who went to Imperial Defence College with him on a course, should be shot; it was on the same basis that Babangida ordered that Vatsa, his childhood friend, should be shot. Its the training.""But," I said, "The Igbo are of the opinion that the Yoruba betrayed them. Do you think there was a betrayal'"Chief Rotimi riposted, "I dont subscribe to that accusation of betrayal because at no time did we sit down, that is talking of the Igbo and Yoruba to say this is what we are going to do. If any group sat down, I would say they were officers from the West and officers from the North who collaborated. How does the sense of betrayal come in' The closest you can get to that notion of betrayal is probably when Awolowo went to Ojukwu and you saw how Awolowos statement that if the East was allowed to go, West would follow, has been subject to all sorts of interpretations. All he was saying was that everything must be done to ensure the East did not go. So, the question of betrayal is nil. There was no betrayal at all."I asked Chief Rotimi, "What do you see of Nigeria, now that the war is over by many years' Whats your view on Nigeria'" "The war is over, the war has been over, but some of the points that Ojukwu was making at the beginning of the crisis have not been addressed. We keep on living in denial. That is what Nigerians are doing. A lot of us know what is right, but we refuse to do what is right. Because our own selfish reason is involved, we jettison principle, we jettison merit. These are the crux of our problem. "The sense of injustices and unfairness that Ojukwu fought against is still pervasive. Today, after so many years of successive military regimes and successive civilian administrations, Nigeria has not moved forward much. Today, Nigeria is drifting. There has been an almost complete loss of sense of values. Everybody today is scrambling for money. There is so much stealing going on in this country today that is unimaginable. The level or depth of corruption is unfathomable. There is so much decay in the country today."He continued: "Even a lot of our elders, when you are over 70, how much time have you got left to spend on this earth' Why cant you speak the truth to power' Nobody is going to live forever. But because you think there is a particular advantage you want to derive, you suppress your conscience. Thats what a lot of our people are doing. Very sad."Comments (SMS only) 08057335921
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