Adebayo mourns Useni, describes him as angel in army uniform

By Sunday Ani

Leader and 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, alongside other party’s stalwarts have paid glowing tribute to the late General Jeremiah Useni, former Chief of Army Staff, describing him as an angel in the army uniform.

Adebayo said this when the SDP hierarchy paid a condolence visit to the family of the late army general and former senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He recounted several memorable personal experiences with the deceased, including how he brought to an end students’ uprising at the University of Ife as an army officer without shot and how he counseled him before he took a dive into the presidential race in 2023.

“We are here because of our father. We are here to show that we are his children. We are here as SDP, but if you talk to everybody here, they all have a personal relationship with Baba. As of five weeks ago, I still spoke with him to say that we were coming to see him and he said then that he was due for treatment and we prayed together. He was an angel in army uniform.

“There was a story I heard about him at the University of Ife, where I schooled. During the crisis in Ife, when the government changed the western region, General Useni, then a major, was asked to go and disperse the trouble makers as the police had tried everything they could without success.

“When he got to the scene, he was able to disperse them without firing one shot. He said that when he got to the scene, he asked his boys to bring out their bullets and he called all the trouble makers out and said to them if I shoot this bullet to a tree, it will come out at the other end; are you as strong as a tree? I don’t want to shoot anybody. Please leave this place. He was surprised that he was able to disperse them without firing a shot,” he said.

On his encounter with him when he wanted to contest for president in 2023, he said: “When I told him that I would be running for president, he didn’t care whether he knew me or not. He granted me a lot of interviews after which he said you truly can be president of Nigeria. I will talk to more people about you. But let me tell you from my personal experience. Take up the country first. If you don’t get it, don’t make trouble. In my own time, I let it be. If it’s God’s time, you will get it.

“Politics is very difficult for soldiers, but Baba was able to do a smooth transition from being a soldier to a senator, and on many occasions, people who have done politics with him will never leave him.

“When you talk to leaders of the Middle Belt, they always rally round General Useni. When I met General Danjuma, one of the first questions he asked was if I had seen Useni, meaning that everybody loved Baba.”

Also speaking at the condolence visit, the party’s national chairman, Shehu Musa Gabam, described the late army general as a great patriot, who loved his country and gave his all to it.

“He was somebody who paid his dues; we lost a great man, who served this country with his all. We hold it as a duty to come and sympathise with the family, the military and the nation, and of course, his constituency, Plateau State.

“His caliber is very rare now. Whenever the nation loses people like that, it’s quite painful. For some of us around them, we know the kind of sacrifices they made on our behalf. We shall continue along that line of uniting the country which was one of the things he stood for,” he said.