When Major Daniel Bamidele found out about the coup plot against President Shehu Shagari he rushed up and reported the issue to his GOC, Major-General Mohammadu Buhari, thinking he was reporting to a dedicated commanding officer with integrity.
Poor Bamidele did not know that Buhari was actually the chief conspirator in that coup! Buhari quickly arrested and locked him up until the coup was successfully executed with Buhari himself as the new head of state.
Bamidele learnt his lessons -he decided never to talk when next he sees or hears about coups. If his GOC could do that to him for doing his duty as a dedicated and loyal soldier, then he should never trust his superiors hence. But the gods, those willy beings will cause water to hang between your teeth just to amuse themselves.
So it came to pass that Bamidele would learn of another coup again -this time against Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida who had kicked out Buhari and installed himself as head of state. Thinking he can outwit the gods, Bamidele pretended he didn't hear nothing and so didn't report the plot. Poor Bamidele, he was again arrested -this time for not reporting a coup he heard about.
A forlorn Bamidele would later plead for clemency before the Special Military Tribunal (SMT) saying:
"I heard of the 1983 coup planning and told my GOC, General Buhari who detained me... Instead of a pat on the back, I received a stab. How then do you expect me to report this one? This trial marks the eclipse of my brilliant and unblemished career of 19 years.
I fought in the civil war with the ability it pleased God to give me. It is unfortunate that I'm being convicted for something which I have had to stop on two occasions... It is an irony of fate that the president of the tribunal who in 1965 felt I was good enough to take training in the UK is now saddled with the duty of showing me the exit from the force and the world."
Ibrahim Babangida wouldn't care for his pleas.
On March 5, 1986 inside Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, alongside other condemned men, Major Bamidele would match to the firing squad singing:
"In the resurrection morning when the prison bars are broken, we shall rise, Alleluia, we shall rise"...6:30pm the guns rang and Major Daniel Bamidele was gone, sent off to a gruesome early grave by Babangida, the wiliest, vilest, evilest and deadliest of them all.
May your case not be like Bamidele's.
©️ From the book, Soldiers of Fortune by Max Siollun.
"one of the more reasons i dread this World"
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