Raji Alagbe Rasaki (born 7 January 1947) is a retired brigadier general in the

Nigerian Army The Nigerian Army (NA) is the land force of the Nigerian Armed Forces. It is the largest component of the Nigerian Armed Forces. The President of Nigeria is the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Army, and its professional head is the Chie ...

who served as military governor of

Ogun State Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. It is bordered to the south by Lagos State and the Bight of Benin, to the east by Ondo State, and to the north by Oyo and Osun states while its western border forms part of the national borde ...

Ondo State Ondo () is a States of Nigeria, state in Points of the compass, southwestern Nigeria. It was created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State (Nigeria), Western State. Ondo borders Ekiti State to the north, Kogi State to the northeast fo ...

, and

Lagos State Lagos State (, ) is a States of Nigeria, state in South West, Nigeria. Of the 36 States of Nigeria, Nigerian states, Lagos is the second List of Nigerian states by population, most populous state but the List of Nigerian states by area, smallest ...

between 1986 and 1991 during the military administration of General

Ibrahim Babangida Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (born 17 August 1941) is a Nigerian statesman and military dictator who ruled as military president of Nigeria from 1985 when he orchestrated a coup d'état against his military and political arch-rival Muhammadu ...

Background

Raji Alagbe Rasaki was born on 7 January 1947 in

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...

, Nigeria. He received his elementary education at Christ Apostolic Church Primary School, Ita-Olugbode, Ibadan between 1955 and 1960. For his secondary education, he attended

Nigerian Military School, Zaria The Nigerian Military School, Zaria, popularly known as (NMS), is a military boarding school in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, affiliated with the Armed Forces of Nigeria. History Boys Company It was founded as the Boys Company of Nigeria i ...

between 1962 and 1966. He then enrolled as an officer-cadet at the

Nigerian Defence Academy The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) is a military university based in Kaduna, Nigeria, that trains officer cadets for commissioning into one of the three services of the Nigerian Armed Forces: the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The duration ...

in September 1967 and graduated in March 1970, when he was commissioned an officer in the Nigerian Army. He held many command and staff positions: he was

Adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...

, Lagos

Garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

Signal

Regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation. In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...

(1970–71), Commanding Officer Second Signal Regiment, Commander Signal Support Brigade (1978–79), Commander Army

Signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

Corps,

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

Army Headquarters Garrison & Signal Group.

Military governor

Raji Rasaki was a one time military governor of

(1986–87) before his re-deployment to the nation's

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

nerve center,

, becoming that state’s military

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

in 1988. Soon after, he embarked on a massive

demolition Demolition (also known as razing and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction (building), deconstruction, which inv ...

exercise of illegal structures to rid the State of shanties. That singular act resulted in the re-vitalization of Lagos, and a boom in the real estate market. It also earned him the nickname of "acsion governor" (action governor), a mockery of the way in which he referred to himself. A member of the armed forces ruling council, he gained national prominence during the 22 April 1990 unsuccessful coup against the

regime. The plotters led by the late Major

Gideon Orkar Major Gideon Gwaza Orkar (October 4, 1952 – July 27, 1990) was a Nigerian military officer who staged an attempted violent coup against the government of General Ibrahim Babangida on April 22, 1990. Orkar and his conspirators seized the FRCN ra ...

had attempted to overrun the then seat of the Federal Government,

Dodan Barracks Dodan Barracks is a military barrack located in Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. The barrack was the Supreme Military Headquarters during the Nigerian Civil War and from Supreme Military Council of Nigeria (1966–1979), 1966 to 1979 and Supreme Military Cou ...

, and in that process killing Babangida’s Aide de Camp, Major U.K. Bello. Late Major Orkar had announced many far-reaching declarations, which included radical restructuring of the federation bordering on the excision of five core northern States until the coup was foiled by officers loyal to Babangida. The first announcement to this effect came from the then military governor of Lagos state, Col. Raji Rasaki, who declared in a

radio broadcast Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

that the

rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

was already being contained.

Later career

Following his retirement from the military in 1993, Rasaki wrote several policy papers and memoirs. In addition he pursued a career as a

statesman A statesman or stateswoman is a politician or a leader in an organization who has had a long and respected career at the national or international level, or in a given field. Statesman or statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States ...

, participating in numerous

conferences A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

and forums. As a public speaker, he addressed audiences across the country and abroad. In 2005 he joined the Nigerian Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In 2016, he celebrated 40 years of his marriage to Senator Fatimat Olufunke Raji-Rasaki., Tayo Fajorin-Oyediji, CityPeopleNG.eng, Retrieved 14 February 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rasaki, Raji 1947 births Living people Nigerian Muslims Nigerian generals Yoruba military personnel category:People from Ibadan Governors of Ogun State Governors of Ondo State Governors of Lagos State Yoruba politicians Nigerian Military School alumni Nigerian Defence Academy alumni