OBITUARY: General Oladipupo Diya, a Fine Officer who Lost Everything over Alleged Attempt to Topple Abacha
By Ozumi Abdul
Nigerians were in the wee hours of Sunday, 26th of March 2023, thrown into mourning when the exit of former Military Vice President, General Donaldson Oladipupo Diya, was announced.
General Diya was among the famous generals that dominated the public space in the turbulent days of military dictatorship in the 80s and 90s.
He was during the course of his enviable career in the Army one of the elite officers who occupied key, strategic positions that required brain, tact and brilliancy. He was military administrator of Ogun state, GOC, 82 Division, Commandant, National War College and also Chief of Defence Staff.
He got to the peak of his glittering career in 1993 as Chief of General Staff, Supreme Headquarters, and Vice Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC). That was however the beginning of his downfall as he was implicated in the coup of 1997 and was sentenced to death by a military tribunal.
Born on April 3, 1944 at Odogbolu, Ogun state, Diya was educated at the Methodist Primary School, Lagos and the Odogbolu Grammar School.
Diya joined the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna and fought during the Nigerian Civil War. He later attended the US Army School of Infantry, the Command and Staff College, Jaji (1980–1981) and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.
While serving in the military, Diya studied law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he obtained an LLB degree, and then at the Nigerian Law School, where he was called to the Bar as Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Diya was Commander 31, Airborne Brigade. He was appointed Military Governor of Ogun State from January 1984 to August 1985. He became General Officer Commanding 82 Division, Nigeria Army in 1985. General Diya was Commandant, National War College (1991–1993) and then was appointed Chief of Defence Staff.
He was appointed Chief of General Staff in 1993 and Vice Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council in 1994. As Chief of the General Staff, he was the de facto Vice President of Nigeria during the Sani Abacha military junta from 1994 until he was arrested for treason in 1997. His Principal Staff Officer during this period was Bode George.
From Diya to ‘Kun-iya’
As military administrator of Ogun state, General Diya brought discipline into the state. He enforced the compulsory use of pit latrines (and WC) and banned open defecation.
He banned free range rearing of goats and fowls and Government could commandeer your ‘pets’ if found roaming around.
Diya also banned the cultural norms of shutting down whole streets for parties like burial ceremonies which was the regular occurrence then. He also made people who held extravagant parties to pay a token into Ogun State coffers. Diya also introduced school levies.
With time, Ogun indigenes who didn’t like the rapid social changes he caused with his WAI policies, changed his name from Diya (Mitigate Suffering) to ‘Kun-iya’ (Add to Suffering)
Alleged Coup Plot
In 1997, Diya and some soldiers in the military allegedly planned to overthrow the regime of Sani Abacha.
The alleged coup was uncovered by forces loyal to Abacha, and Diya and his cohorts were jailed. Diya was tried in a military tribunal and was given the death penalty.
Upon the death of Abacha in 1998, Diya was pardoned by the late Head of State’s successor, General Abdusalami Abubakar.
Most people believed that the much-hyped coup was, in fact, a ploy by Abacha to do away with Diya, who was increasingly becoming popular among the elite and opposition parties, for his cosmopolitan nature and moderate views on the situation in Nigeria.
Earlier on, Abacha’s loyalists had allegedly attempted to assassinate Diya at least twice, once at the airport and then in the streets, using bombs.
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But most analysts said that whether motivated by a real coup plot or not, the arrest of General Diya signalled deep divisions within the Nigerian military and reflected rising tensions over General Abacha’s apparent intention to remain in office by engineering his own election as President.
The fact that General Diya and almost all of the others arrested were ethnic Yoruba from the already deeply disaffected southwest was seen by some as a virtual provocation at a time when a country of powerful regional rivalries was entering into a period of renewed civilian politicking.
Death Sentence
After his arrest, a military tribunal sitting in Jos, Plateau state, sentenced six people including Genera Diya to death by firing squad in April 1998.
The accused were brought to the main military barracks in Jos for the trial. Security was tight, and the men on trial were chained at their ankles during the proceedings. In a dramatic statement at the outset of the trial, General Diya asserted that he had been entrapped by another officer close to General Abacha, Gen. Musa Bamaiyi, who approached him with the idea of plotting a coup. Given the explosive nature of the charge, the government then closed the trial to the public.
The head of the military tribunal, General Victor Malu, the former commander of the West African regional peacekeeping force ECOMOG, responding to Lieutenant General Diya’s defence that people at the very top framed him, said it was not necessary to know who had initiated the conspiracy. He noted that all Lieutenant General Diya had to do was prove that he had not been part of the plot at any stage.
General Malu assured the defendants that they would be given a fair trial and unlimited access to information they needed to defend themselves.
“This tribunal will not conduct or tolerate a trial by ambush”, he said.
The South African government questioned the secrecy surrounding the trial and warned of the probability that there could be an unfavorable reaction, both in Nigeria and internationally, to a carrying out of the sentences.
The sentence was later commuted by the Head of State, Abdusalami Abubakar, who succeeded General Abacha.
General Diya was released but the Abacha junta had discharged him from the Army, stripped him of his rank, barred him from using his military titles and seized his properties.
Oputa Panel Drama
Upon the return to civilian rule in 1999, the Olusegun Obasanjo administration set up the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission (HRVIC) headed by Retired Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.
The former CGS had petitioned the commission over what he described as a set-up phantom coup plot. He claimed his trial and conviction was a violation of his rights.
He bluntly denied being part of the plan but he admitted he knew about the plan. The latter may have been the reason he was found guilty because in the military tradition, officers and men who knew about coup plots without reporting were often executed alongside the coup plotters.
He said that a group of generals deceived him into believing that a four-point demand on ways of breaking the political logjam was to be jointly presented to the then Head of State.
He named Lt.-General Ishaya Bamaiyi, Major Generals Bashir Magashi, Patrick Aziza and Air Vice Mashal Idi Musa as being among the senior officers who approached him to endorse the presentation of the demands. Diya said there was no way he could have turned down the request.
On why he didn’t expose the coup plot as required of him, he said he was afraid of being killed by the coup master planner.
Later Life
He spent most of his time attempting to recover possession of various properties seized by the government on his arrest. He was also stripped of his military titles and privileges which made him to live his later life in regret and pain.
On 18 May 2020, General Diya lost his second wife Folashade Diya a few days to her 65th birthday.
He would be remembered as that fantastic officer who rose through the ranks by diligence, patriotism and brilliancy but who tragically lost everything he laboured for in decades within weeks of trials and tribulations.
May his soul find the peace that eluded him in his final years.
