A retired Brigadier-General and Chief of Staff, 3rd Marine Commando, during the Nigeria civil war, Godwin Alabi-Isama, has disclosed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was not only clueless during the war, but acted as a weakling in many instances.
According to General Alabi-Isama, Chief Obasanjo exhibited a lot of weaknesses that did not portray him as a gallant soldier throughout the period he served the army during the war.
In an interview published in the current edition of TheNEWS magazine, our sister publication, the retired General punctured a lot of claims in My Command, a book written by the former President chronicling his experience in the war.
According to him, Obasanjo never wanted to be part of the war. He was so scared of death that he evaded every opportunity to go to the battle front.
He disclosed that retired General Alani Akinrinade picked Obasanjo to lead the troop after Benjamin Adekunle was dropped as the commander following an alleged unethical conduct.
“Gowon was not sure that Obasanjo would want the job of replacing Adekunle because he was an engineer…Gowon said we should contact him.
“When we met Obasanjo, we told him our mission and gave him a comprehensive briefing on the situation at the war front. We went with maps and explained to him the defects of Adekunle’s plan to attack the Igbo heartland.
“We aso told him about Operations Pincer 1, 2 and 3 and explained that if Pincer 2 was adopted, the war would end in 30 days.
“We spoke for three hours without food or drink. Obasanjo simply listened.
“And when he spoke, he said he was an engineer and he was not going to the war front. He also said we wanted to have him killed by nominating him for a spot at the war front,” the retired soldier said, adding that this comment got him angry and that he reacted instantly by reprimanding Obasanjo.
He said he reminded Obasanjo at the venue of their meeting how he and his engineering corps were unable to blow up the bridge in Ore when the Biafran army were advancing to Lagos and how the situation was salvaged by Mr. Akinde of the Public Works Department at Ibadan, assisted by men of the Ministry of Works.
“I was so incensed that I continued to pour venom on him,” he added.
Alabi-Isama said as against Obasanjo’s claim that he ordered the bridge to be blown up, the idea actually came from the wife of then Governor Adeyinka Adebayo. He explained that she was the one who suggested to Obasanjo that the action be carried out.
When Obasanjo eventually took over as the Commander of the 3rd Marine Commando, Alabi-Isama said he and Akinrinade gave him a comprehensive briefing, but that he refused to listen because of the grudge he haboured from his first encounter with Alabi-Isama.
As a result of this, his first battle experience, according to Alabi-Isama, was a disaster.
Emphasising Obasnajo’s cluelessness, he said the first decision he made when he took up the leadership of the troop was to start paying the soldiers on the battle field by allotment.
“He ordered an attack on Ohoba, some 40 kilometres from Owerri, just four days after taking over from Adekunle. He did not even know that we had to plan,” Alabi-Isama explained, adding that Obasanjo lost 1, 400 men in the attack, something that never happened before he took over, because he refused to listen to advice.
In another incident, the retired General said Obasanjo ran away from the scene of an attack claiming he was heading to Port Harcourt, an eight hour journey, to get ammunition for the same battle when he could ordinarily radio the army headquarters.
He described Obasanjo as completely incompetent and inefficient, saying the former President never went to battle even as a commander during the war.
“For instance, he went to inspect Colonel Iluyomade, but when he got there, there was shooting. He quickly got into his jeep and ran away.
“He was shot in the buttocks while running. A general will be shot in the chest, and not in the buttocks,” said the army general, who is set to launch a book titled The Tragedy of Victory: On-The-Spot Account of The Nigeria-Biafra War In The Atlantic Theatre, his own version of the war experience aimed to counter some of the ‘lies’ by Chief Obasanjo.

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/06/20/obasanjo-was-a-clueless-war-commander-gen-alabi-isama/

Hahahahahahaha..fowl nyash don open.

Ojukwu equally called him a coward when he was alive , he must be referring to the war period.But Baba retired most of the people who fought the war : Col Iluyomade , Gen Isama ,Late Gen Something ,he a Minister of works during Gowon or Murital regime.

Not surprised at all for we know of many loop holes on Nigerian side. The only problem the Biafrans had in crushing Nigeria was because the then Western world did'nt want to see a country that will challenge their monopoly in technology market.

How does this affect the fact that Nigeria won the civil war and starved the igbos to death?

Either baba is clueless or not,coward or not that doesnt matter now but what matters is that baba is alive, strong, well and had a record of d first military civilian democratically elected president of Nigeria.Baba is alive to tell his story and now enjoying himself everywhere he goes. What has this Alabi achieved as a general and who knows him self? Can he step into where obj step both locally and internationally? Bad belle man seeking media attention.We no sabi u abeg go sit down somewhere. Them just dey beef obj cos he is more successful than them mtwwww

Obj was running away from war zone and was shot in the buttocks !! Lol LWKMD kai

obasanjo is about to fork this man up - bet me

Capnd143: How does this affect the fact that Nigeria won the civil war and starved the igbos to death?

exactly, if nigeria really won the war, y are they revisiting those war events today?

That should be the main concern. I thought if sb wins sth, he forgets about it happily. I mean y the frequent war blames that go on these days(by the same side that won?). The other day ,it was Gowon..........

Food for thought

It's possible they are calling for Biafra's existence afterall. Na from clap dem dey enter dance.

Granted that Obasanjo and loudmouthed punk called Adekunle were not soldiers of tactical repute, Gideon Alabi-Isama is a deceitful attention seeker. I wonder why anybody who has donned khaki as uniform is yet to call the goon to order. How could a junior and field commander such as Alani Akinrinade, transplant of 3MCDO, pick his GOC?

Alabi-Isama said as against Obasanjo’s claim that he ordered the bridge to be blown up, the idea actually came from the wife of then Governor Adeyinka Adebayo. He explained that she was the one who suggested to Obasanjo that the action be carried out.

I was reading with keen interest until I saw the bolded and behold,I realised the man is suffering from senile dementia. So we should believe that the woman asked OBJ to see her and she ordered him to blow the bridge because a whole general lacked strategy and tactics to know he needed to blow up a bridge to cut off access to the enemy ?

Clueless or no clueless,the simple reality is that Obj took over from Adekunle; chased ojuku to Ivory Coast, won the war, killed Biafran dream and kept Nigeria united. If y'all want to start killing yourself over what one frustrated old man is spewing, you are welcome to the party. Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy yourself !

"Mojamosa laa fi nmo akinkanju, akinkanju ti ko mojamosa, a bogun lo"


They are only beefing OBJ, i thank God for him and respect him as wise military man, he is alive to tell the story, that is enough to confirm that he is a strong military man, otherwise, he go don "quench" for war.

More years to you jare, OBJ.

Say this to his face at Otta and i wonder what becomes of you. So you hold this grudge against him since, why not say it while he was the president.

Akin-David:
Say this to his face at Otta and i wonder what becomes of you. So you hold this grudge against him since, why not say it while he was the president.

Atleast he didn't wait until OBJ die before opening up unlike the other man.

~Bluetooth:




I was reading with keen interest until I saw the bolded and behold,I realised the man is suffering from senile dementia. So we should believe that the woman asked OBJ to see her and she ordered him to blow the bridge because a whole general lacked strategy and tactics to know he needed to blow up a bridge to cut off access to the enemy ?

Clueless or no clueless,the simple reality is that Obj took over from Adekunle; chased ojuku to Ivory Coast, won the war, killed Biafran dream and kept Nigeria united. If y'all want to start killing yourself over what one frustrated old man is spewing, you are welcome to the party. Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy yourself !

Shut your putrid mouth for once. The two clueless field commanders such as Obasanjo and Adekunle could not chase ants out of a bread talk less of Biafran soldiers and Ojukwu. Alabi-Isama maybe a joker too but he has iota of truth in his overly exaggerated recollections.

ENVY AND JEALOUSY

DerideGull: Granted that Obasanjo and loudmouthed punk called Adekunle were not soldiers of tactical repute, Gideon Alabi-Isama is a deceitful attention seeker. I wonder why anybody who has donned khaki as uniform is yet to call the goon to order. How could a junior and field commander such as Alani Akinrinade, transplant of 3MCDO, pick his GOC?

Shut up Dede!

So Ojukwu and all the ragtag Biafran soldiers are soldiers of "tactical repute"..... It's time you go on exile permanently from this forum. You keep ridiculing common sense with everything you writes here...on the forum.

Top_Bayo:

Shut up Dede!

So Ojukwu and all the ragtag Biafran soldiers are soldiers of "tactical repute"..... It's time you go on exile permanently from this forum. You keep ridiculing common sense with everything you writes here...on the forum.

I had wished you showed up with your noted handle and be shown what “common sense” is all about, olodo.

DerideGull:

I had wished you showed up with your noted handle and be shown what “common sense” is all about, olodo.

This is my handle,...the way DerideGull is your handle...senior Olodoo

You always belittle others...meanwhile there is no success you can point at with your Biafran misadventure

DerideGull: How could a junior and field commander such as Alani Akinrinade, transplant of 3MCDO, pick his GOC?

Junior? Al was Lt Col, just one rank following the Scorpion who was a Colonel. And in battlefield all the bigness don't count, as everyone must co-operate, not knowing who is about to drop dead, or seriously injured, even without warning.

DerideGull:


If the reasons are piled on the ridge of your nose, you should still tribally doubt them. For umpteenth time, Nigeria did not defeat Biafra instead British, USSR, Egypt, Australia, Canada and Cameroon did.

Hahahahahaha

Funny Dede1, have you ever seen a war in which all sides were balanced? That is where strategy and execution come in. If your enemy is superior to you and you don't have the nous to defeat him/her, why get into the fight in the first place? Did tiny Vietnam not send the mighty US out of Vietnam? What strategy did Ho Chi Minh execute to win the war?

Olusegun Obasanjo is called clueless, and you see nothing wrong in it. You even joined in calling him clueless. If GEJ is called clueless or retardeen some of you would stop at nothing in defending. How clueless you are. Yes, you, you know yourself.
The fact remains that Nigeria won the war and Ojukwu escaped.
Moderators, watch this thread, if anybody drags it like that of Benjamin Adekunle to tribalism, we will speak out.

Obj is a cheeky chimp,he has always been.Only cowards like him steals indiscriminately and subject hapless infants to predestined miseries.