“After the training I was posted to the Nigerian Army Signal Corps and incidentally, Murtala Ramat Mohammed was a Colonel then and the Inspector of Signals,” he added.

Otuwe said Muhammed personally chose him because of his discipline and neatness.

“He told me that he noticed how immaculate I was in my army dress when we do master parade. He picked me to be his orderly when I was a Lance Corporal,” he said.

He explained that he served closely with Muhammed through various postings, including during the civil war when the late General became the first General Officer Commanding of the Second Division of the Nigerian Army.

“I worked with him till he was killed, and that was 11 years,” Otuwe said, noting that during the period the General had three children, Aisha, Zakari and Fatima.

Otuwe described Muhammed as a strategic and disciplined military commander.

“He was an organiser of men and their welfare. He was smart and hardworking and thought of Nigeria first before anything,” he said.

He recalled an incident when Biafran soldiers encircled them.

“He did a wonderful tactical manoeuvre and retreated that baffled even we that were with him. When many wanted to surrender, he made a quest to fight and to win for Nigeria to continue as a united country.”

Surviving Ambushes

The retired soldier recounted several ambushes encountered during the war. He said, “We encountered many ambushes and attacks but one of the most memorable was when we were encircled at Ukpo Junction in Abbagana. Murtala did a tactical manoeuvre and withdrew and prepared for a defensive attack that led to the capture of many towns and cities.”

Otuwe added that after some operations, troops moved through Asaba and later to Idah in present-day Kogi State to prepare for further offensives.

“In 1968, there was a reshuffle that took General Murtala back to Lagos as Minister of Communications and Inspector of Signals. That meant he was doing two jobs at the same time,” he said.

Speaking on how his job affected his family, Otuwe said his wife had become accustomed to military life.

“She was married to a soldier, and she had become part of the system. When she saw us at home, it meant we were off duty,” he said.

He added that his children rarely saw him due to his demanding schedule.

“Most of my children almost forgot me as I left home at dawn and came back late in the night,” Otuwe noted.

Secret Visits, Price Monitoring

Otuwe also recounted how Muhammad disguised himself to monitor market prices in Lagos.

“I and his ADC, Lieutenant Akintunde Akinterinwa, once followed him to survey prices and the rising cost of goods,” he said.

“He wore a tracksuit, a face cap and dark goggles and rode a horse to a filling station, disembarked, tied it and entered Sangross (Lagos Island), then Ajegunle and later Agege markets. The ADC pretended that we were not together, and the ADC was writing the prices, and I was pretending to be a window shopper. A market woman told him to give other buyers a chance as people were more disciplined then, as everybody queued for their turn. After two weeks goods and meat came in ships. People tagged the meat as ‘Murtala Meat’”.