Date Published: 10/04/09
02-10-2009 PRESS STATEMENT
ARG SALUTE AKINRINADE AT 70
Afenifere Renewal Group rejoices with Lit. Gen. Alani Akinrinade former Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defense Staff as he clocks 70 on Saturday 3 rd October 2009.
In Akinrinade we celebrate a man of integrity, deepest commitment to common causes and unending devotion to higher values in a clime of moral depravity and odious charlatanism.
In spite of having the gate pass to the club of ruinners of Nigeria, as a retired General, Akinrinade has chosen to identify with the reformative forces in Nigeria in clear negation of the roles men of such caliber play in the affairs of our country.
Instead of chasing oil clocks in the corridors of power and see no evil in the land, the Jagunmolu of Ife has denied himself all such lucre to identify with the struggles to make Nigeria a better place for all its peoples.
The Late Gen. Sani Abacha could not understand why Akinrinade would choose such a path of honour and saw to it that his home in Opebi was burnt in 1995 for his role in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).
Akinriade was also one of the main targets of Abacha goons in exile in those dark days. On one occasion the Directorate of Military Intelligence boys closed in on him and some colleagues in Coutonou when he showed the veteran soider in him. The DMI boys had agreed to drive their cars behind Akinrinade and his colleague’s chartered cars out of the hotel where they were “intercepted”. The General asked his other colleagues to enter the car in the front while only him entered the second one. As they got to the gate of the hotel the engine of the car Akinriade was in went off, he came down to see what was wrong, checked in to the car in the front with his colleagues and sped off as the DMI guys were blocked by the car that broke down.
When the June 12 crisis was ” resolved” and Obasanjo came into power, Akinriade came under tremendous pressures be a minister in the regime but he refused because he was convinced that Obasanjo would not run the Nigeria of his vision. Eight years after he was proved right. While many people would have taken such for personal benefits, not our General as he stood by his conviction and it took him 9years after he return to rebuild his home that Abacha burnt.
As he clocks 70, we are happy to be associated with this man of candor and character who has stood the test of time.
In a time of deep moral crisis in Yoruba land and in Nigeria, the lives of people like Akinrinade give cause for cheers that we still have people to look up to.
We welcome him into the fast diminishing club of “Agbasanko” (precious and reliable elders). May God grant him many more years in peace and good health of invaluable service to humanity.
Yinka Odumakin
National Publicity Secretary
Afenifere Renewal Group.
