A FINE SOLDIER AND GENTLEMAN. MY IMPRESSION OF RETIRED GENERAL ALABI SHARMA.

General Sharma brooks no political ambitions. He strikes me as a very intelligent man....and yet I had ony 3 opportunities to see him....on TV! Two talk shows and a brief interview during a newscast.

At the prime age of 27 and as a major in the Nigerian army during the 1960s, he was the Chief of Staff to the late Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle (then a colonel) of the Marine Commandos.

What strikes me particularly is his analytical approach to issues and penchant for detail. When pressed to provide explanation on an issue, he would proceed to render a (geo) graphical illustration on the board...complete with maps!

Yet, if he was merely 27 during the civil war, his age should range between 74 and 77 years now.....bilied by his smart and athletic frame. What a way to age!

His explanations reek of sheer intelligence. He recommends an inclusive approach to the civilians even on the enemy side....providing them with food and groceries....even recruiting them into our army after gaining their trust....while the enemy isolates them, starves them, tortures them and kills them! Such civilians thus readily provided our army vital information on enemy secrets and movements. He opines that no army can win a war without the support of the local people.....that peace is preferable to war....and justice a prerequisite for peace! He talks about the tragedy of victory in war.....underscoring the fact that in war, there is no true victor.....as both sides lose!

He talks about how our Marine Commandos cordoned off the Atlantic coast and our border with Cameroon thus blocking access to imported arms and supplies by Biafra.

He wonders why the war with Boko Haram lingers for so long and suggests that such is impossible without internal Boko Haram sympathizers and ideologues. He recommends that we step up border patrols in collaboration with Niger, Chad and Cameroon....or close our borders with these nations to curtail cross- border movement of Boko Haram fighters and supplies.

He admonishes our soldiers to desist from killing civilians but rather befriend them to gain their trust and support as our federal troops did during the civil war.

He exonerates his deceased commander, Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle from any wrong-doing during the war. He states clearly that Adekunle ordered no mass killings during the war as Adekunle was never physically on the front. He denies any statement or boast credited to Adekunle on that score by news media. He speaks no evil of his boss....a rare form of loyalty beyond death....even as he confirmed that Adekunle wanted to kill him.

This man is simply a gem! He has just done a rendition of his account of the war in a book ( I do not even know the title!)

I am thus led to wonder if our retired military officers ever relate with their juniors to imbibe them with the fine attributes that personified soldiering in those days. What we often see these days are senior officers of the armed forces who have a weird obsession for bestiality to civilians....not sparing our ladies!

Do we still have "fine soldiers and gentlemen" in our armed forces?

Dr Tosin Akindele is a Lagos-based Medical Practitioner, a former Secretary of AGPMPN Ikorodu zone, a former Secretary of the Quackery Committee of AGPMPN Lagos State Branch, founder of Analytical Minds, a good health advocate and social critic.


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Articles by Tosin Akindele