Anambra mourns ex-Lagos SSG Adeniran-Ogunsanya, ex-Biafran warlord Gbulie

This was contained in a statement by the Anambra state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Don Adinuba, titled, ‘Anambra condoles with Gbulie and Adeniran Ogunsanya families’.

Adeniran-Ogunsanya died last Tuesday at the age of 74 after a brief illness.

The commissioner condoled with the Ogunsanya family, noting that the deceased’s father, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, was for decades the closest political associate and personal friend of Nigeria’s first President, Nnamdi Azikiwe, a “worthy son” of Anambra State.

In a letter to the Ogunsanya family, Adinuba commended the late Princess Aderenle Adeniran-Ogunsanya for being “principle-centred like her legendary father, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who was at different times Commissioner for Education in Lagos State, a Minister of the Federal Republic in the First Republic of 1960 to 1966 and the NPP National Chairman in the Second Republic of 1979 to 1983.”

“History will always be kind to nationalists like Dr Azikiwe, Chief Ogunsanya and Princess Aderenle Adeniran –Ogunsanya,” Adinuba said.

Gbulie, a soldier and author who rose into national prominence for his role in the January 1966 coup which ended Nigeria’s First Republic, died last Sunday, January 23, 2022, at the age of 82.

Mourning Gbulie, the commissioner said, “Ben Gbulie and his group obviously meant well for Nigeria when they plotted and executed the coup but they were out of touch with the Nigerian reality which, in a way, is understandable because they were young men in their 20s driven by sheer patriotic exuberance.”

Hailing Gbulie on his book, Adinuba observed, “It is a mark of his brilliance that his books like Nigeria’s Five Majors, which was published in the early 1980s, remain among the most quoted and cited works on the country’s recent history.”