22/04/2023
THE MAN I MET THAT CHANGED MY LIFE!!!
Diya played the power-game, then almost lost
By Dare Babarinsa
30 March 2023 THE GUARDIAN
Lt. General Donaldson Oladipo Diya was a substantial personage in contemporary Nigerian history. When he died at 78 on Sunday, March 26, 2023, what most people remember was his last act of defiance before the military tribunal that sentenced him to death in 1998.
“This is a setup,” he shouted with handcuff on his hands and chains on his feet. “Where is Bamaiyi? He is the master-minder!”
General Ishaya Bamaiyi, the former Chief of Army Staff, wrote a book to refute those few sentences. Diya lived long enough to maintain his innocence. He knew he fell into temptations and believed he got a reprieve to live another day because of the benevolence of God. In his final days, he was surrounded by the love of his family as he battled the encircling darkness of the void. He enjoyed the love and devotion of his courageous senior wife, Josephine, his children and grandchildren. It was apparent to his family and friends that he had been captured by the silence of eternity.
There was a time Diya’s voice could change the world. That was what happened when he was appointed the military Governor of Ogun State in 1984 after Major-General Muhammed Buhari seized power from the elected President Shehu Shagari.
Pending on his table was the decision to deposed Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, Ogbagba II, the Awujale of Ijebuland, who had ran afoul of the old regime of Governor Olabisi Onabanjo. Adetona was already out of the palace, waiting for the predictable decision of the government. Diya invited Adetona and after a robust discussion, he signed the warrant returning the Awujale to his throne.
Payback time came in 1998. Diya was in detention over the set-up coup and General Sani Abacha had invited leading traditional rulers to come and watch the secretly recorded video of the alleged Diya’s confession.
All the leading traditional rulers in Nigeria were summoned to watch the so-called Diya vide
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