If
there was one man that had a profound effect on our history, perhaps
more than any other, it was Gen. Murtala Ramat Mohammed. Sadly he was
assassinated 40 years ago, on February 13th 1976. In a clime and a
nation in which there are few true heroes, he was certainly one of them.
I
could write a whole book on this man. It is a pity that the younger
generation of Nigerians don’t know much about him or about what he did
and achieved for our nation both before and after he became Head of
State in 1975. Forty years after his murder his name still brings joy
and admiration to his associates, friends and loved ones and terror and
trepidation to his detractors and foes.
Of all the former Heads of
State and leaders in our country I admire him the most. His courage,
focus, brazenness, righteous anger, strength of character, bellicose
nature, passion and ability to take the bull by the horns and do what
needed to be done, no matter whose ox was gored and no matter what the
consequences were, was exemplary and outstanding.
In these days of
cowardice, guile, deceit, doublespeak, subterfuge and political
correctness, Mohammed would not have found much pleasure or joy and
neither would he have been fully appreciated. He was blunt, fearless and
irrepressible and, as they say, he was ”as tough as nails”. He was all
that a real warrior ought to be. Most important of all he was
inspirational: he scorned death and he had no fear of it.
What a
man this was: truly the first among equals. He was a living example of
the veracity of the adage that says “who dares wins”. His life was a
manifestation of the fact that truly “fortune favors the bold”. Our
domestic policy under his watch brought positive and monumental changes
to the fortunes of our country and the character of our people. Our
foreign policy under him, throughout the six months that he was Head of
State, was a sight to be seen. It was Nigeria at her proudest and her
best.
In those days we were rich, loud and boisterous. We could
boast of having Africa’s strongest army and her most outstanding and
best- educated middle class. We were big, strong and powerful and when
Nigeria spoke the world listened.
When we sneezed Africa literally
caught a cold. When we roared, the world shook. We wielded this great
power and influence on the world stage with immense dazzle and
razzmatazz. Yet we were also cautious, restrained and deemed as being
highly responsible. That is when Nigeria was regarded as the Giant of
Africa and rightly so.
Without General Murtala Mohammed the
eventual liberation of Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa would not have
been achieved when it was. Though he did not live to see it, he set the
ball rolling and he threw down the gauntlet to the western powers and
all those that supported racial tyranny and apartheid in the nations of
southern Africa.
Some historians have even argued that that is
precisely why he was eventually murdered. Yet if that was the motivation
for organizing his assassination it did not stop anything because the
cat was already out of the bag and his legacy had already been
established and taken root.
This is confirmed by the fact that his
extraordinary and dynamic foreign policy vis a vis the total liberation
of our brother African nations and his unrelenting opposition and
resistance to white minority rule in South Africa and Rhodesia (as it
then was) continued under the able leadership of his second in command,
General Olusegun Obasanjo, after he took over as Head of State on Feb.
14th 1976.
The rest is history.
May General Murtala Ramat
Mohammed’s courageous soul continue to rest in peace and may those that
are in power today resurrect his spirit and build on his great legacy.
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