Alabi-Isama was born on 24 December 1940, in
Ilorin,
Kwara State, to a
Ukwani (
Delta State) father and a
Yoruba (Ilorin) mother. He attended Ibadan Boys High School. In 1960, he joined the Army and attended the
Mons Officer Cadet School in the
United Kingdom and the Senior Tactics School and Staff College in Quella, Pakistan. Alabi-Isama was a tactics instructor at the
Nigerian Military School in
Zaria,
Nigeria and the
Nigerian Military Training College (now Nigerian Defence Academy) in
Kaduna prior to the civil war. Brigadier-General Alabi-Isama served as the commander of the troops stationed at the Niger Bridge in Asaba, After the war, Alabi-Isama assumed the role of the Nigerian Army's Principal General Staff Officer. In 1973, he served as the Acting Governor of the
Mid-Western Region, where he notably received the first group of
National Youth Service Corps members, as recounted in his autobiography. Following his retirement as a Brigadier-General from the Army in 1977, Alabi-Isama relocated to the United States. == Role in the Nigeria Civil War ==