By Madu Onuorah
Major General Mohammed Christopher Alli (rtd), former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and one of Nigeria’s principled and respected military officers, is dead. He was aged 79.
General Alli served as COAS between August-November 18, 1993 to August 1994 under General Sani Abacha as Head of State, in the turbulent days of June 12 struggle to actualize the mandate of Chief MKO Abiola.
His principled stand on this led to his sack and retirement from the Army.
A much-decorated officer, he received professional training at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Warminster in the United Kingdom; in Pakistan and the National Defence College of India.
Born on Christmas Day in 1944 to Malam Alli Adakwo Alaburah and Mrs. Rebecca Ojumori Nanashe Abayomi, the family later migrated from Lokoja to Onitsha, along the Niger River, Anambra State.
General Alli had his primary education in Onitsha and later passed out of Metropolitan College, Onitsha in 1962 with a first division in the West African School Certificate (WAEC). He moved to Kaduna and secured a job as a Laboratory Assistant with Kirkpatrick and Partners.
Later, he applied and was appointed an Archive Assistant in the National Archives. However, in October 1964 he went on parade as a cadet-in-training at the Nigerian Air Force then under the German Training Team of Advisers. He concealed his enlistment in the Air Force until he got to Germany as a Base Operator-in training, when he wrote to inform his parents.
His move into the Army came in 1967 when the civil war started and, tired of guard duties at the Air Force, he applied for a Short Service Commission. Alli was admitted. He completed the six-month Officer Cadet training at the NDA in October 1967 and fought in the Nigeria-Biafra war. The 56 officers commissioned include former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Alli saw action as a Battalion Commander during the Nigerian Civil War. As an officer, he held various appointments at Infantry and Brigade levels. Later, he became Nigeria’s Defence Attache to Zimbabwe; Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) and General Officer Commanding (GOC), One Mechanized Division, Nigerian Army.
On February 13, 1976, when Army coup plotters led by Colonel Bukar Dimka assassinated the then Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed, Alli was investigated for involvement in the coup attempt, but was exonerated.
A one-time Military Administrator of Plateau State under General Ibrahim Babangida (1985-86), General Alli was the officer who rose to the occasion in 1990 as Commander, 3rd Infantry Brigade, Nigerian Army, Kano who made a counter-broadcast in the wake of the Gideon Orkar coup that was to topple General Babangida and balkanize Nigeria. He also instructed several Army commanders to make the same counter-broadcasts.
Alli was drafted back to Plateau State as Administrator by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004 when the State was engulfed in intractable ethno-religious killings in Shendam, Yelwa Local Government under former Governor Joshua Dariye and the federal government declared emergency rule, suspending the Governor and State House of Assembly.
General Alli developed the Plateau Peace Programme involving dialogue between religious, ethnic and community leaders and a statewide peace conference, giving amnesty to holders of weapons and a reward for their turning in their arms. Alli’s measures were successful in calming the situation, and he handed back to civilian rule in November 2004.
On retirement, an anthology was organized as a symposium on General Alli’s work with title: ‘The Federal Republic of Nigerian Army: The Siege of a Nation,” in 2017. Professor Maduako Dukor, a Professor of Philosophy, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), commented on the book, saying: “Alli is identified as one of those critical and rational thinkers, philosophers, albeit, a General in the Nigerian Army whose work finds a befitting logical space in the contemporary African philosophical tapestry.”
Alli noted: “This book is not an indictment of the military of which I was part. It is my perception of the conduct of my generation and the multifarious forces at work amongst and about them. It is not a verdict on society; rather it is an articulation of the ecstasy, the fears, the constrictions of a nation in turmoil, a nation pulling itself apart.”
The book chronicles the activities of Army officers in Nigerian politics and society since the first military coup of January 15, 1966, specifically an eyewitness account of the events of 1966, the civil war and December 31, 1983 when the military made a re-entry into Nigeria’s political arena.
Alli thus showcased his close involvement in the administrative and intelligence matters as a member of the former Head of State, General Abacha’s caucus where he was strategically positioned to expose several myths about military rule and the workings of Nigerian politics.
On his pulling out parade following his retirement, General Alli described the Nigerian Army as one of “anything is possible.”
In January 2020, he said in an interview said: “I am ready to die for the unity of Nigeria for which I fought for three years.” He surmised that we had to fight the last war because the country was led by young officers whose maturity was not sufficient to resolve the issues at stake by other means.
In the interview granted Vanguard Newspapers, General Alli explained his principled stance on the June 12 crisis, saying: “I didn’t know M.K.O in any way. I was just doing my job and believed that soldiers should not be in politics and that a man who won an election should be allowed to govern the country.
“I heard things like Nigeria was owing Abiola and I asked if he was not entitled to what he was owed if he did not win election. And were people Nigeria did not owe not taking money from the country.”
“At a point Abacha set up a committee and made me the Chairman with General Oladipo Diya, Paschal Bafyau and Adams Oshiomhole as members to deliberate on Abiola. The work of the committee was tough as it was not easy to have a consensus. Eventually we agreed Abiola should be released with some conditions and they went to brief Abacha.
“We agreed a plane should go to Benin to bring Abiola who would be taken there. I can’t remember why we agreed on Benin. I was not comfortable that Abiola on whom all the discussions were taking place was not involved in the discussions. And on the appointed day, the plane waited but the detainee was not brought.”
General Alli stated that when he went to Aso Rock to ask Abacha why Abiola was not brought, he said: “Abacha told me that the Inspector General of Police and some persons were not ready to release him. I left the Villa that day with a resolve not to be involved in the politics of the country again but to concentrate on training the Army. And I kept to that until they asked me to leave.”
He was convinced that the involvement of soldiers in politics had destroyed the Army, stressing: “The continued stay of the Army in politics was affecting us negatively. It was no longer well equipped because of fear of coups by those in power. We already became an Army of politicians. It got so bad that the civil populace started throwing stones at soldiers. My convoy was once stoned on my way to the Airport. It was that horrible.”
The death of General Alli marks another decline in the ranks of astute officers of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) who stood their grounds, ready to pay the supreme sacrifice for the evolution of a new Nigeria where the crisis of confidence bedeviling the nation is a thing of the past. They believed in equity and fairness as a path to a viable Nigeria and prosperous nation.
Major General Mohammed Christopher Alli (rtd) was part of this vanguard. He will be sorely missed by the Nigerian Army, Armed Forces of Nigeria, Nigeria and humanity. May his soul rest in peace.