General Murtala Mohammed: Forty Years On- By Femi Fani- Kayode

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