Danjuma Buys Alabi-Isama’s Book For N10m

General TY Danjuma

General Danjuma

Former Chief of Army Staff, General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, retd, Thursday bought five copies of Brigadier General Godwin Alabi-Isama’s book, The Tragedy of Victory: On- the- Spot Account of the Nigerian-Biafran War in the Atlantic Theatre for N10m.

Danjuma made this purchase while presenting the book at the Bolaji Akinyemi Auditorium, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

Whille presenting the war memoir, Danjuma commended the author for a job well done and for filling the void. He also said the war narrative was an excellent book and well written. He recommended it for everybody.

Before then, Danjuma had corrected the things Alabi-Isama said about him in the book. He refuted the allegation that he and Obasanjo conspired to throw him out of the army.

“I followed due process. And I have no regrets for whatever actions I took,” Danjuma said.

R-L: HRH Oparaku Peter Ado, General T. Y Danjuma, former minister  of Defence, Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama (Book Author) and Dr. Amuda Aluko, ofida of Ilorin during the book presentaion  titled '' The Tragedy of Victory'' written by Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama held in Lagos State yesterday. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi
R-L: HRH Oparaku Peter Ado, General T. Y Danjuma, former minister of Defence, Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama (Book Author) and Dr. Amuda Aluko, ofida of Ilorin during the book presentaion titled ” The Tragedy of Victory” written by Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama held in Lagos State yesterday. Photo: Emmanuel Osodi

Danjuma also said, contrary to what Alabi-Isama said in his war memoir, he, (Alabi-Isama) did not resign from the army.

“You don’t resign. Commissioned officers cannot resign from the army. You can be allowed to go but not resign from the army; because if you allow that during war, everybody will resign. I don’t know how you managed to resign and I didn’t throw you out,” he noted.

The former Chief of Army Staff also queried the author’s insertion of his biography in the book and denied being a partaker of the goodies that Alabi-Isama’s motther brought to him in England as the author narrated in the book.

Mr. Dayo Ogunniyi, Chairman, Spectrum Books Liimited, publishers of the book, also set the records straight when he said the publishing company, and not the author, was to blame for both the size of the book and the biography that the author included.

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Ogunniyi also praised the autthor for coming out with such a beautiful book and for accompanying it with pictorial illustrations, adding that pictures don’t tell lies.

While reviewing the book, Mr. Kunle Ajiibade, Executive Editor of TheNEWS magazine drew a round of applause from the audience when he started his speech by saying it was fitting and thoughtful that Alabi-Isama had chosen Nelson Nandela’s birhday to present the book.

“For Mandela, in so many ways, exemplifies the generosity of spirit which you will constantly encounter as you read this sprawling book. Part of the genorosity of spirit is that he has brought someone he had attacked in his book to present it. That is part of the genorosity of the spirit of this book. And I hope that General Danjuma will look at it that way,”  Ajibade said.

Ajibade, the autthor of Jailed For Life and What A Country, also said when Alabi-Isama read Obasanjo’s account of the Nigerian civil war and discovered that there were so many distortion of facts, he immediately dismissed it as a tapestry of inaccuracies.

“Gratitude matters. Appreciation of the good contribution of others humaniees us all. When you recognise the goodness of others, you are actually laying the building blocks of what will make humanity endure and surviive. It doesn’t diminish you; the world is incredibly rich for it,” Ajibade said.

While making his remarks, Alabi-Isama used the opportunity to affirm his belief in Nigeria. He also said the mere fact that Nigeria still exists, despite the attempts of some ethnic groups to secede in the past, means that Nigeria would remain an indivisible entity.

The author also said the reason why he gave his book the title The Tragedy of Victory is because, though Nigeria won the war, the tragedy of the victory is that those who had sacrificed a lot durng the war have been neglected.

“Those who suffered in the war are not just those who died … We neglected those who fought the civil war,” he lamented.

—Nehru Odeh

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