I first met Enitan many years ago in his dad’s house at 8 Imaria St , Anthony Village. He was a 2nd Lieutenant in the army then. He came visiting his dad Dr Beko Ransome Kuti, the human rights activist and my mentor. Enitan was introduced to me by Beko as ” meet my son in the army”. Beko’s son in the army? I said to myself in surprise. It was at a time when Beko and his senior brother Fela were engaged in a battle with the military that made them come in and out of prison. ” Are you surprised?”, Beko asked me. At the time I had just joined Beko and Alao Aka Bashorun as a volunteer to organize a sovereign national conference.
We both left the residential section of the twin duplex for his office which also double as a clinic where we talked more about Enitan , his relationship with him and his military career.
I will not see Enitan again until the death of his dad and I think then he had become a full Colonel in the army.
Sometime in 2013 my Committee of Defence and Army in the Senate was on oversight function to the Army Headquarters in Abuja. In the course of the introduction of the officers there stood Enitan in his majestic military attire , a Brigadier General. I shook hands with him and introduced myself as Babafemi Ojudu, a friend and followers of his dad and uncle Fela Anikulapo Kuti. I gave him my card and I could see surprise written on his face. He promised to give him a call. He never did.
I will not hear from or about Enitan until early this year when I got a distress call from Lande his younger sister. ” Senator , Enitan has been arrested”, Lande shouted across to me on the phone. “What is the problem “, I asked. ” It is over the Boko Haram saga, ” she said. I promised her I was going to find out what the matter was. I put a call through to Mr Femi Falana, another friend and associate of Enitan’s late dad. He too promised to tap his contacts in the army to know why he was arrested. We later got to know that he was sent to fight Boko Haram insurgents in Baga and things went bad for lack of requisite equipment and supplies. The army in its wisdom still expected him to perform wonders. For failing to rout Boko Haram insurgents on that assignment he was recalled to the headquarters , arrested and facing trials with others.
Anyone who has related with the Kuti’s from their patriarch and matriarch Dotun and Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, to Olikoye who actually raised Enitan, Fela, Beko, Nike, Femi and the younger Seun will know that these are men and women of courage. They are patriots per excellence who loved their country and actually gave everything for her. Enitan going by the family pedigree could not have behaved cowardly and betrayed his country. For the sake of the sacrifice the Kuti family have made for Nigeria we are pleading with the army authority to set free Enitan and other Nigerian soldiers who were incapacitated in the battle against Boko Haram for no fault of theirs.