Obasanjo’s Great Purge.

List of Military Officers Retired by President Olusegun Obasanjo in June 1999

The newly-inaugurated civilian president, who had been a military Head of State between 1976 and 1979, made it a policy to retire all serving members of the armed forces and the police who had held political office between 1985 and 1999.

These included positions such as military state governors and those who served on the boards of companies.

Obasanjo’s objective was to bolster the idea of military subordination to civilian authority and to promote the professionalism of the Nigerian Military.

Major General(s)
1. Major General S. O. G. Ango
Former Comptroller General of Nigeria
Customs Service.
2. Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi
He is Nigeria present Minister of Defence.

Brigadier General(s):
3. Brigadier General Yakubu Mua’zu
4. Brigadier General Abu Ali
5. Brigadier General Ibrahim Aliyu
6. Brigadier General Muhammed Manna
7. Brigadier General Muhammed Buba Marwa
8. Brigadier General Olagunsoye Oyinlola
Former Civilian Governor of Osun state.
9. Brigadier General Cletus K. Komein
10. Brigadier General Dominic O. Oneya
11. Brigadier General Bassey Asuquo
12. Brigadier General Chinyere I. Nwosu
13. Brigadier General Salihu T. Bello

Colonel(s)
14. Colonel Dauda Musa Komo
15. Colonel Umar Farouk Ahmed
16. Colonel Jubril Bala Yakubu
17. Colonel Rasheed Shekoni
18. Colonel Theophilus O. Bamigboye
19. Colonel Augustine Ifeanyi Aniebo
20. Colonel Habibi Idris Shuaibu
21. Colonel Bzigu Lassa Afakriya
22. Colonel Paul Uzoama Omeruo
23. Colonel John I. Ubah
24. Colonel Mike E. Attah
25. Colonel Bala Muhammed Mande
26. Colonel Musa Sheikh Shehu
27. Colonel Musa Muhammed
28. Colonel Muhammed Inuwa Bawa
29. Colonel Peter Asum Ogar
30. Colonel Moses Fasanya
31. Colonel Ahmed Usman
32. Colonel Lucky Mike Torey
33. Colonel Sule M. Ahman
34. Colonel Yohanna Dickson
35. Colonel Daniel Akintode
36. Colonel Aina Joseph Awoniyi
37. Colonel Tanko Zubairu

Lieutenant Colonel(s)
38. Lieutenant Colonel Abubakar Sidiq Zakari Maimalari
39. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Iorshagher Akaagerger
40. Lieutenant Colonel Ahmadu G. Hussaini
41. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Obi
42. Lieutenant Colonel Paul Edor Obi
43. Lieutenant Colonel David John Dung

Navy Commodore(s)
44. Navy Commodore Emmanuel Acholonu
45. Navy Commodore Walter Feghabo
46. Navy Commodore Kayode Olofin-Moyin
47. Navy Commodore Temi Ejoor

Navy Captain(s)
48. Navy Captain Rasheed Adisa Raji
49. Navy Captain Musbau Atanda Yusuf
50. Navy Captain Joe A. Kalu-Igboama
51. Navy Captain Benson Adewumi Agbaje
52. Navy Captain Anthony Ibe Onyearugbulum
53. Navy Captain Christopher Osondu
54. Navy Captain Anthony Udofia
55. Navy Captain Ominiyi Caleb Olubolade
56. Navy Captain Oladipo Philip Ayeni

Air Commodore(s)
57. Air Commodore Ibrahim Dada
58. Air Commodore Ibrahim Kefas

Group Captain(s)
59. Group Captain Rafiu Garba
60. Group Captain Joshua O. Obafemi
61. Group Captain John Ibiwari Ben
62. Group Captain Eyepeiyah John Ebiye
63. Group Captain Baba Adamu Iyam
64. Group Captain Baba Adamu Iyam
65. Group Captain Sam Ewang

Wing Commander(s)
66. Wing Commander Abdul Adamu Mshelia
67. Wing Commander James Yana Kalau
68. Wing Commander Lawal Ningi Haruna
69. Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim

Assistant General(s) of Police:
70. Assistant Inspector of General (AIG) Simeon Olasunkan Oduoye
He was a former Senator from Osun State.
71. Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Dayo Aliyu
72. Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Amen Edore Oyakhire

Commissioner(s) of Police
73. Commissioner of Police Mustapha Ismail
74. Commissioner of Police Habu Daura

AND

75. Major General Patrick Aziza
Aziza presided over a military tribunal which in 1995 had sentenced Obasanjo to 25 years life in prison, later commuted to 15 years, on charges of plotting to overthrow the military regime of General Sani Abacha.

Note:

There were further purges.

“In January 2000, Obasanjo retired 150 air force officers, prompting several northern emirs to urge the National Assembly to intervene to keep their kinsmen in the ranks. “The first thing he [Obasanjo] did was fire all the military officers who had held political office,” says a PDP state leader. “He then weakened the power of the north so the military would not belong to any one section of the country”. Yet, northerners remained palpably nervous throughout Obasanjo’s first tenure. Hausa-Fulani had dominated the military for decades and were nervous about losing it as a lever of power under Obasanjo, a born-again Christian from the southwest. The purging thus added a strong ethnoregional element to the precarious civilian hold on the military. When Obasanjo met with northern governors in 2000 shortly after twelve states had passed Sharia law, the administration allegedly became concerned that Sharia was really a potential pretext for a coup led by northerners.

When Obasanjo’s Chief of Air Staff retired thirty-seven more officers in September, ten were singled out for “over ambition” and “plotting to change the present social order”. To be effective, Obasanjo had to consider ethnicity, military service, and rank; many officers had acquired influence beyond their rank by accumulating wealth in political positions under previous dictatorships. It was these officers who feared they had the most to lose as civilian government cut off their traditional routes to wealth and status, and who were retired for “over ambition” in January 2001. A high-level wave of retirements hit in April when Obasanjo dismissed all three service chiefs. The last straw for Lieutenant-General Malu, after his declaration of faith to the previous military regime, was his public criticism of new bilateral ties between the military and the United States.”

– Excerpt from “The End of a New Beginning: Nigeria’s Transition, 1999–2015”, Chapter 2 of Contemporary Nigerian Politics: Competition in a Time of Transition and Terror by A. Carl LeVan.

Photo: Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi.

Sourced from; West African Military Rulers: 1960s-1990s