Gen Godwin Abbe: The Snarling Tiger with A Milk of Human Kindness

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By Gen Cecil Esekhaigbe (rtd) PhD.

I had the opportunity of meeting the seasoned Infantry Czar in 1997 when he was the Commander, Training and Doctrine Command, which conducts promotion examinations for the Nigerian Army Officers.

He was a household name in the Army as a military Governor, a General Officer Commanding the 2nd Mechanised Division and the Chief of Policy and Plans.

I was the Secretary of Geo Politics Team during the Captain to Major Staff Qualifying Examination and we were asked to defend our examination questions before him. He tried to rattle me with a strong and bold face exhibiting his vast knowledge, but I held my ground.

After the scrutiny, he managed a smile and asked what part of Esanland I hailed from and that his mother was an Esan Queen. He admonished me to continue to work hard and that from our part of Nigeria, only that can take you to the top.

I had a bumpy but rewarding experience serving Gen Osagie Abbe as his Principal General Staff Officer (PGSO) at the Ministry of Defence. For him your best is never enough and you continue to look forward to the day he would say well done.

Your peace of mind in any working day is always in suspence depending on his mood that day. When the mood is fouled, his orderly would come to me and say: “Sir, Barrack ‘don’ spoil.”

He was thorough, adverse to incompetence and loathed any form of indiscipline and sharp practices. His darling wife, Aunty Eniye Patience would call me aside and say, “don’t mind the looks on his face as he was always singing your praises when he came back home.”

I didn’t believe her as I thought she was just encouraging me. Besides the scaremongering, my boss was one that I would loved to work with again if truly there is re-incarnation.

I learnt the practical aspect of the art of command, the politics in soldiering and the science of innovation. When my daughter was hospitalised, I saw the kind and soft side of the Snarling Tiger. He left his office to visit us at the hospital and paid the bills.

A thorough bred Professional, a fountain of knowldege with an insatiable appetite for distinction.

He championed the Federal Government Amnesty Programme with an uncommon zeal and quest for peace in the Niger Delta region. His courage and determination overcame the skepticism and subterfuge in some quarters about the programme.

Though his efforts were not so recognised in the creation of the Amnesty Programme, he remains the unsung Hero.

The day he handed me my Evaluation Report with a smile on his face, was when I confirmed his wife’s statement about how he truly felt about my services to him. It was a brilliant score. I became his first son though not biologically.

I bonded with his entire family as such. He would always call to find out how I was doing with my family even on his sick bed. I did not fully grasp what he meant when he paraphrase Samuel Huntington that: “Politics was too sophisticated to be left alone in the hands of the politicians”

Now that I have become a politician, I know the meaning. That we would miss the General of Generals is an understatement. I am consoled that, his legacies would not diminish but last for ever.

Good night the ‘Snarling Tiger with a Milk of Human Kindness’. Your Soul would Rest In Peace!