Major General Martin Adamu (rtd)
By
Nowa Omoigui
nowa_o@yahoo.com
October 16, 2004
Indications are that Major General Martin Adamu
(rtd), N/142, one time acting Chief of Staff (Army) (July
1975) and later GOC of the 2nd Division (August 1975 to June
1978) has joined his ancestors. He joined the Army on
April 1st 1960 and was commissioned 2/Lt on March 3rd, 1961 after officer training at the
Mons Officer Cadet
School, Aldershot,
England. He retired voluntarily,
effective August 1st, 1979 .
As a Captain, based in Lagos
at the 2nd Battalion and at AHQ, Martin Adamu was one of
the three inner circle officers (the others being then t/Major TY
Danjuma and then T/Lt. Col. Murtala Mohammed) who organized and
coordinated the "Northern Counter-Coup" of July 29, 1966.
Following the uprising, he was deployed to take command of the
mutinous 2nd Battalion which was moved
from Ikeja to Kaduna at about the same time the
mutinous 4th Battalion was being redeployed away from
Ibadan (under Major TY Danjuma).
On July
6, 1967, when the Nigerian civil war began, the opening
offensive, launched from Vandekya in present day
Benue State, on the Ogoja front, was
led by then Major Martin Adamu. Martin was Acting Chief of
Staff (Army) in July 1975 when the substantive holder of the
position, Major General David Ejoor, was away on leave. Adamu (who
was not part of the conspiracy) was approached by then
Lt. Col. SM Yar'Adua (RIP) and Colonel
Anthony Ochefu (RIP) to make the radio broadcast announcing the
overthrow of the Gowon government. He bluntly refused. Then
Col, later Major General JN Garba (RIP) was nominated in
his place to make the announcement.
In 1976, as a member of the Supreme Military
Council, following the failed coup attempt by Lt. Col. BS Dimka
and the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, Martin is on
record as having been among those who insisted on Lt. Gen. Obasanjo
succeeding the late Mohammed. At that first post-coup meeting at
Dodan Barracks, with tensions running high, he said words to
the effect that there would be no credible explanation to offer the
public if Mohammed were not succeeded by his surviving deputy.
On a personal note, in 1978, I was invited by
fellow student leader Wulma Damlong of the Plateau Students
Community at the University of
Ibadan to attend Major
General Martin Adamu's send-off party at the 2DIV Officers
Mess, Agodi, Ibadan. I vividly recall then COAS, Lt. Gen
TY Danjuma, announcing at the party that Martin was leaving the Army
"on his own, completely unstampeded." I have also had the opportunity to meet
the late General several times, in Nigeria
and once in the UK (at Victoria
Station). He was a very pleasant, dignified and reserved officer and gentleman.
May his soul rest in peace.
