‘‘If you are depending on the armed forces to stop the killings, you’ ill all die one by one. The ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba State; it must stop in all other states, in Nigeria. In this state and of course the riverine state in Nigeria we must resist it. We must stop it. The armed forces are not neutral. They collude with armed bandits that kill people, kill Nigerians, they facilitate their movement, and they cover them. I ask everyone of you to be alert and defend your country, defend your territory, defend your state. The ethnic cleansing must stop otherwise, Somalia would be a child’s play’’

– T.Y Danjuma at the Taraba University Convocation Ceremonies 2018.

Before she suffered its irredeemable slip into steep level conflicts, the Banana Republic of Somalia was a distinct, harmonised, bright, expectant, African nation. Professing to one Islamic religion, Somalians were mainly pastorians, and unlike many other African countries, the entire populations speak one language and fraternize as one tribe.

T.Y’s warning in his thunder statement last weekend therefore brought back sad memories as reflected in my poetic lines after our visit to the city of Mogadishu eleven years ago….

Before the boy General and baby Brigade

Mounting the parade of machine gun salute

Inside the besieged red city of Mogadishu

Of the camouflaged uniformed teenage soldiers

Tapping and drumming in raw symphony

At the AK rifles slung across those lithe torsos

(See Emma Okocha, Last Dance On The Niger)

Love him or loathe him, General T.Y Danjuma unlike the Marodonna, or Generals Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo is not in love with the camera. While those principle actors who during his time ruled the waves as military Heads of State or civilian Presidents may, not be forthcoming, General T.Y Danjuma on the other hand, is most of the time taciturn. But whether in silence or making a brief statement, his exact stand is never in doubt. As he stated last week at the Taraba University Convocation, he is not a politician and what ‘am going to say the politicians would not like it.’ The General who was appointed a Chairman of a North East Relief Agency by the Federal Government last week in less than ten minutes address confirmed that the crime against humanity, that Genocide is taking place in his State Taraba. T.Y the most renowned Nigeria army Chief Staff revealed that the Nigeria army is now a rabble and the armed forces have lost its constitutional brief. He coroborated the charges pointedly directed against the Nigerian army by the Amnesty International that the Nigerian army facilitate the killings of fellow innocent Nigerians, and go further to cover the bandits. He stated that the Nigeria army is now compromised and surprisingly flying the flag of Nnamdi Kalu he beckoned on the people to rise up and resist this army of bandits and ethnic cleansers. Before he sat down he warned the people not to make any further fatal mistakes. The people should never trust the army but rather defend their territories and their states or they would die one by one!

T.Y had barely sat down when the Nigerian army released a statement. Credited to its spokesman, Texas Agbim was tottering and we have waited for him to join issues with the General on those explosive revelations which we will now highlight to enable the people find out who is flying a kite.

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Ethnic Cleansing: otherwise referred to as Genocide, is a cold deliberate plan by a group aimed at targeting another group with the aim of wiping out that other group  or causing enough mayhem as to violently chase out the community from their original location or residences. T.Y is right and the army has further questions to answer as the army has not stopped the ethnic cleansing. The massive continuous killing of the people and burials of hundreds of victims confirmed genocide of the select groups.

Army Cover Up Of The Bandits: Army’s neutrality is doubtful as the weapons used by the bandits seem to be military. Why has the army not protected the people from the bandits and who are these so called bandits and headsmen. Are they Yorubas, Igbos Ijaws, Igalas somebody without employing the hate mantra must tell us who these bandits and Gun Ho herdsmen are!? Even T.Y did not clear the air over these questions. What did Governor Umahi the man who announced the banning of Biafra, present to the Federal Government after his wasted findings on those wanton bandits and ravaging herdsmen?

After the outburst of the General on the genocide which has unforgivably wandered to the North, the mother abode of the Nigerian genocide of 1966 and after, it is not for me to stop the avalanche of cross fire going on for the former perpetrators and those holding the karma historic accounts of the blood tainted officers. Whatever side you are on, the law guiding the terrible crime expects us to rise and condemn the crime no matter who is suffering from the crime now or who is unleashing the dragon. On balance it also necessary for the correct reflection of our almost deliberately obscured history to remind ourselves at this time the past activities of some our actors who though they are eliciting our sympathy now as a result of the unforgiving genocide were in no long time ago were leaders of hyena platoons who like the voracious herdsmen of today were in the streets of Ibadan, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Jos etc cutting off human heads and limbs in unprecedented orgy of blood. In Markurdi, a remarkable, deliberate animalistic decapitation of an innocent Igbo giant and the unforgettable scorn of pushing in his bloodied body into the escaping train to Enugu prompted the masses to rise and in the end decided for the suicidal war! 

Significantly, we publish Gboyega Adejumo as he shares his own perceptive as we continue to be bombarded from all sides following the bombshell from Taraba.

In a book, “Danjuma: The making of a General”, written by Lindsay Barrett, we read that the call came at 5 am to the government house Ibadan. At the Lagos end was a Lieutenant Colonel Gowon making a random call to know the exact situation and a Major Danjuma who had broken into the ground floor of the government house at Agodi, Ibadan, was the one who picked the call.

“Rankash Dede sir”, was Danjuma’s answer when he recognised the soft voice of the most senior northern officer, Yakubu Gowon.

“We are here to arrest the Supreme Commander”, continued Major Danjuma.

“Can you do it”, “Yes Sir”, quipped Danjuma.

Gowon then gave the order, “Go ahead”. And that was how The fate of Africa’s most decorated soldier and Africa’s first British appointed General was arrested, beaten until he could no longer stand up and then SHOT!

Same treatment was given to his host, Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi.

This book was published in 1979 and I read it for the first time in 1980.

It was even meant to celebrate Danjuma as the author Lindsay Barrett tried to throw off his readers, by infusing a queer story of how Danjuma only wanted to arrest Aguiyi-Ironsi, but his soldiers rebelled, then they drove off without him to kill both Ironsi and Fajuyi.

• To be cotinued