Even if Lagos Island – born Major – General Tajudeen Adeniyi Olanrewaju, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army (1993 – 95) and Minister of Communication (1995 – 97), had personally offended former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Head of State and Commander – in – Chief from May 6, 2010 – May 28, 2015, I did not expect him to have callously treated him, his Special Assistant, late Lt – Colonel Olu Akinyode and Colonel Edwin Jando, the way he did. Especially given the fact that as a Christian, he is aware of what Jesus Christ said during the Sermon on the Mount on forgiveness when he admonished in Matthew 5:38 – 39 that people should not take revenge against those who wrong them. And in verses 43 – 45 that one should love ones enemies and pray for those who persecute one, so that one can become the son of the Father in Heaven.
General Olanrewaju, my friend of about 30 years now, and the two colonels, along with Lt – General Oladipo Diya, the then Chief of General Staff and Deputy Military Head of State (November 17, 1993 – December 20, 1997), his Chief Security Officer, Major Seun Fadipe and late Major – General Abdulkarim Adisa,  Military Governor of Oyo State (1993 – 95) and later Minister of Works and Housing (1995 – 97), were in March 1998 sentenced to death by a military tribunal over the phantom coup General Sani Abacha said they were planning to topple him from power. Their lives were spared because of Abacha’s sudden death from heart – attack in the night of Sunday/Monday, June 8/9, the day he was said to have planned to execute them.
General Abdulsalami Abubakar who took over granted Diya and the others clemency in March 1999 and released them from prison, but did not pardon them. Neither did General Olusegun Obasanjo who succeeded him do so throughout his eight years in office as an elected president (May 29, 1999 – May 28, 2007), nor Mr. Umaru Yar’Adua who took over on May 29, 2007 and died on May 5, 2010. It was Dr. Jonathan who acted in March 2013, but instead of pardoning and bringing joy to all the six, he bizarrely limited the grace to the trio of Diya, Fadipe and Ilorin, Kwara State – born Adisa, who died in a car accident in Kogi State, eight years earlier in 2005. That meant that while the three qualified to have their ranks restored to them and be paid their gratuities and placed on pension, Olanrewaju Jando and Akinyode were not.
I wrote about the issue the week after Jonathan pardoned Diya and the others, pleading with him to extend the benevolence to Olanrewaju and co and letting him know that Lt – Colonel Akinyode died late in 1998 of an illness in Makurdi prison, about three or four months before General Abubakar released Diya and the others and that his wife and children were suffering.
I have evidence that Dr. Jonathan, like the other Heads of State before him read my column when was in office. His famous statement during a church service in Aso Rock on Sunday, September 25, 2011 that he was not an Army General or a despotic ruler like Kings Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar in the Holy Bible and so could not be ruthless in dealing with people was in reaction to my column of September 7, 18 days earlier. In which I had written that Boko Haram insurgents were getting more deadlier in their attacks because he had given himself out to them as a weakling and spineless leader. It was also a column I wrote in 2014 or so with the headline of I fear for Nigeria’s future that Jonathan was reacting to when he said a few days later that the prophets of doom would see that the country will not break up.
But in spite of my write – up in 2013, Dr. Jonathan did not grant General Olanrewaju and the two colonels pardon until he left office on May 28, last year, two years and two months after my appeal to him. Meaning that his behaviour was a vindictive act of cruelty and wickedness done on purpose. If not how could the ex – president have pardoned General Diya, who was the leader of the phantom putsch and leave out General Olanrewaju, Colonel Jando and Lt – Colonel Akinyode whom he recruited for the insurrection?
This glaring act of injustice and wickedness by the ex – president is believed to have been influenced by one of the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State who had political disagreement with General Olanrewaju. The man, who is a very controversial, cantankerous and loquacious evil character, is said to have poisoned Jonathan’s mind by telling him the lie that Olanrewaju was not only a chieftain of Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) but actually the party’s main financier in Lagos State.
The invidious PDP leader is reported to have asked Jonathan why he would pardon Olanrewaju who campaigned and financed Buhari’s efforts during the 2011 presidential election and was already doing do so for the 2015 poll? Given the recent revelations of the high – level and unprecedently reckless corruption during Jonathan’s abysmal God save our country presidency, how are we sure that those he pardoned did not pay for his act of clemency to have been selective and discriminatory.
To be continued next week

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