Until May 29th last year, Chief Femi Adesina was the lead spokesman of Former President, Mohammadu Buhari. This gentleman journalist did his best to polish the image of his erstwhile boss. I learnt also that he could also be very generous as a philanthropist. A friend told me this much last December. And I found it to be true. Early this year, I read a review of his book: “Working With Buhari” and felt I must get a copy to read and learn. I sent him a text on my phone telling him my desire to get a copy of this book at a subsidized rate. He not only replied the text but sent his driver to deliver the book to me free of charge! The book remains my first new year gift this year, from a professional colleague who seemed to have seen it all. I thank him profusely for this unexpected generosity. But I digress.
Since January till now I’ve been reading this book and learning therefrom! (Pls don’t be surprised, I’m a slow reader who reads many books at the same time). I digress again!
Back to the title above: Adesina and Dodan Barracks. What has Adesina got to do with Dodan Barracks, the former seat of immense power in Lagos then?
Afterall, Buhari left that place in 1985 a General disgraced out of power by his juniors who initially unanimously asked him to lead them in shoving civilians aside. The way and manner Adesina told this story in his book indicates that Adesina and his Principal are still unhappy about the change of power that occurred in 1985. I could smell some subtle mischief in Adesina’s narrative of the event.
In Chapter 23 of his book, Adesina discusses the return of Buhari to Dodan Barracks after 37 years when Buhari left that seat of awesome powers “as a captive.” Apart from being fascinated by this chapter because of its content, I could smell a whiff of anger in Adesina’s presentation while admiring the didactic lessons of life he wants to impart. Quite unlike him, he appears to be celebrating whatever misfortunes the anti-Buhari coupists had to endure several years after the event while his boss triumphed over all of them.
So, this seat of power has been this abandoned, a decrepit, ugly ‘housewife’, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything in 2022, and perhaps now! What a shame!
Hear him: “Buhari left Dodan Barracks as a captive in 1985. He returned there 37 years later, not as only as a free man, but as President of the country, democratically elected, and running to the end of a second time in office. Right is the person who said the downfall of a man is not the end of his life…”
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And he rubs it in: “Where were most of those who plotted to remove Buhari from power, on the day he returned to Dodan Barracks? Not as well favoured as the man…” Can you read between the lines?
But Adesina is not through yet. He wrote: “As we drove through Dodan Barracks, I saw vestiges of a former fortified city, where men of power lived. But the place had lost its glory. Structures had been erected indiscriminately everywhere, the buildings were dilapidating… The tall fence, with barbed wires, was standing like a flag at half-mast. Thy glory oh Dodan Barracks is slain upon the high places. How are the mighty fallen!”
At this point, Adesina drew some tears from my eyes when quoting Shakespeare in his (Shakespeare’s) portrait of the seasons. He quips: “‘Last scene of all,
That ends this strange and eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.’ That is the state of Dodan Barracks.”
As a writer with immense descriptive powers, Adesina paints a grim and slimy picture of Dodan Barracks that gets me really upset and moody. So, this seat of power has been this abandoned, a decrepit, ugly ‘housewife’, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything in 2022, and perhaps now! What a shame!
I became angrier when Adesina’s principal did nothing about this historical monument during his eight years in power! Was this neglect by Buhari punitive? Was it a ploy by Buhari and others before him to destroy a house whose powerful tenants ‘misbehaved’ then?
Now, who will bail Nigeria out of this embarrassment? A cheeky Adesina even poses this question thus: Who will energise and invigorate Dodan Barracks again?” And he warns: “A vital part of our history goes, if that place goes down.” I agree with him, but who will bell the cat? Tinubu?
