Former COAS Major General Chris Ali is dead

Major-General Chris Ali (rtd), former Chief of Army Staff from 1993 till 1994 is dead.

The general, said to be sympathetic to pro-democracy struggles of the time, died on Sunday in Lagos at a military hospital. He was 79 years old.

Reacting, President Bola Tinubu sympathized with the Ali family and the Nigerian Army over the passing of the general.

President Tinubu described the passing of the former Chief of Army Staff as a painful loss, saying he served his country faithfully.

“I condole with the Ali family and the Nigerian Army over the sad loss of the former Chief of Army Staff. He served his country with honour and retired meritoriously. May the Almighty God rest his soul and grant his family the fortitude to bear the huge void,” the President says in a statement by spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale.

While in the army, Major-General Ali also served as Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) and as military governor of Plateau state.

After his retirement from the army at the age of 50, he wrote a book entitled: ‘The Federal Republic of Nigerian Army: The Siege of a Nation’.

While writing about his book, according to The Guardian, Gen Ali noted, “This book is not an indictment of the military of which I was part. It is my perception of the conduct of my generation and the multifarious forces at work amongst and about them. It is not a verdict on society; rather it is an articulation of the ecstasy, the fears, the constrictions of a nation in turmoil, a nation pulling itself apart.”