‘Akinrinade Now Regrets His Participation In Civil War’
It has been revealed that a major participant in the fratricidal Nigeria’s civil war and former Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade, now regrets his participation in the war fought to keep Nigeria one 50 years after it ended.
An elder statesman Chief Femi Olopade disclosed this Wednesday at the presentation of Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade’s book “My Dialogue With Nigeria” held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos.
According to Olopade who chaired the occasion, the General is now the chief proponent of the restructuring of Nigeria in order to save it from imminent collapse.
He warned that if detribalized people like Akinrinade now advocate restructuring then something is wrong with Nigeria as it is presently composed and he must be listened to.
According to him, the General who does not “carry the baggage” of partisan politics on his shoulders is in the best position to tell the true situation of Nigeria, saying that Akinrinade was a NADECO chieftain at the height of battle to wrest the country from the clutches of Gen. Sani Abacha and paid dearly for it when his home was bombed and burnt by unknown persons during the struggle.
In his contribution, veteran journalist and director of Mayfive Media, the publishers of the book, Mr. Ray Ekpu pointed out that Akinrinade as a young man fought to keep Nigeria one, hence he cannot now, as an old man want to country to disintegrate, saying his call for the restructuring of Nigeria must be taken seriously.
Ekpu recalled that during the coup of 1975 led by Lt. Col. Bukar Sukar Dimka in which for Head of State, Gen. Murtala Muhammed was killed, it was Gen. Akinrinade as the General Officer Commanding the 2nd Division of the Nigerian Army in Kaduna that first stood up the coup plot before the putsch was put down.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to listen to the calls by Gen. Akinrinade by going ahead to restructure Nigeria now because it is an idea whose time has come and the outcome will be good for all peoples of the country.
Prominent Nigerians that graced the occasion include chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga; Otunba Alex. Duduyemi; Pastor Tunde Bakare; Alake of Egbaland, Oba Gbadebo, who served under Akinrinade as an officer; Governors of Ondo and Osun states, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola respectively; Chief Bisi Akande; Gen. David Jemibewon, among others.
