A military coup is the
violent or non-violent overthrow of an existing political regime by the
military. There have been a large number of successful and failed military
coups in Nigeria since the country's independence from the British Empire in
1960. Between 1966 and 1999 the army held power in Nigeria without interruption
apart from a short-lived return to democracy between 1979-1983.
The
January 1966 coup
The January 1966 coup
was carried out by mostly Igbo army officers including Major Kaduna Nzeogwu,
Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna among others. The casualties of the coup included the
Prime Minister Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Sardauna of Sokoto Sir Ahmadu
Bello, the Premier of the Western Region Samuel Akintola, the finance minister
Festus Okotie-Eboh among others.
The
July 1966 coup
Popularly known as the
Nigerian Counter-Coup of 1966, in July, saw Major-General Gowon succeed Ironsi.
It lasted from July 28 to July 30th 1966.
The
1975 coup
General Yakubu Gowon
was ousted in a palace coup on July 30, 1975, which brought then Brigadier
Murtala Muhammed to power as Head of State.
The
1976 coup
Popularly and
erroneously known as the 'Dimka Coup', this bloody and aborted coup led to the
assassination of General Murtala Muhammed. Upon General Muhammed's death and
the foiling of the coup, then Lt General Olusegun Obasanjo became Head of
State.
The
1983 coup
The Nigerian Military
Coup of December 31, 1983 was led by a group of senior army officers who
overthrew the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari.
Participants included Majors General Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari,
Brigadiers Ibrahim Bako, Sani Abacha, and Tunde Idiagbon. Major General Buhari
was appointed Head of State by the conspirators.
Details
Ibrahim Bako (then
Director of the Army Faculty at the Armed Forces Command and staff College,
Jaji) and acting GOC 1 Mechanised Division, Kaduna was tasked by the coup
conspirators (see below for list of conspirators) with arresting President
Shehu Shagari presumably after Shagari's Brigade was killed.by Col Tunde
Ogbeha. Author Max Siollun notes that Bako was chosen for the arresting role
because Bako's father was a personal friend to Shagari. Unknown to Bako was the
fact that the coup plot had leaked to President Shagari whose guards were on
high alert. After arriving at the Presidential residence (in non military
attire) with an armed detachment to arrest the President, Bako was shot dead,
while sitting in the passenger side of a UNIMOG utility truck,in an ensuing
fire fight between troops from Bako's detachment and the Brigade of Guards
soldiers under the command of Captain Augustine Anyogo. The UNIMOG utility
truck that Bako was killed in is on display at the Nigerian Army Museum in
Zaria, Nigeria.
The sole men who headed
the coup of 1983 were:[6]
- Major General Muhammadu Buhari*
(General Officer Commanding, 3rd Armored Division, Jos) others who
assisted him are
- Major General Ibrahim Babangida (Director of Army
Staff Duties and Plans)
- Brigadier Ibrahim Bako (Brigade
Commander)
- Brigadier Sani
Abacha (Commander, 9th Mechanized Brigade)
- Brigadier Tunde
Idiagbon (Military Secretary, Army)
- Lt Colonel Aliyu Mohammed (Director
of Military Intelligence)
- Lt Colonel Halilu Akilu
- Lt Colonel David Mark
- Lt Colonel Tunde
Ogbeha
- Major Sambo Dasuki (Military
Assistant to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Wushishi)
- Major Abdulmumuni Aminu
- Major Lawan Gwadabe
- Major Mustapha Jokolo (Senior
Instructor, Basawa Barracks - Zaria)
- Major Abubakar Umar.
The
August 1985 coup
This was a palace coup
led by then Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Babangida who overthrew
the administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
The
alleged Vatsa coup of December 1985
Hundreds of military
officers were arrested, some were tried, convicted and eventually executed for
conspiring to overthrow the Babangida administration. The conspirators were
alleged to have been led by Major General Mamman Jiya Vatsa.
The
1990 coup
Major Gideon Orkar
staged a violent and failed attempt to overthrow the government of General
Ibrahim Babangida.
The
1993 coup
Facing pressure to
shift towards a democratic government, Babangida resigned and appointed Chief
Ernest Shonekan as interim president on 26 August 1993. Shonekan's transitional
administration only lasted three months, as a palace coup led by General Sani Abacha
overthrew the Interim government. In September 1994, Abacha issued a decree
that placed his government above the jurisdiction of the courts, effectively
giving him absolute power
Current
status
Nigeria today is
seemingly democratic with there having been no military coups since 1999,
however the decades under military rule have had a resounding impact on the
nation with all today’s 36 states created by the military and there still being
a considerable military influence evident.
Role
of regional rivalries
The regional rivalries
which have played such a large part in recurrence of coups were a result of
colonialism creating an artificial state encompassing several different
distinct ethnic groups. These distinct ethnic groups were represented by regional
parties, which ensured that “none of the parties could govern Nigeria on its
own, and… that conflict was only a matter of time away.” Therefore, there was
no centralised opposition to military rule; when a coup occurred, it was
therefore just another faction of military rule.
Ogoni
Bill of Rights
However, one exception
to this recurring pattern of factions was the Ogoni people (Mosop), who managed
to articulate their grievances into the Ogoni ‘Bill of Rights’ in October 1990.
They worked closely with the campaign for democracy as well as attracting the
attention of the UN and the support of international NGOs to protest against
the Abacha regime. Despite these unified efforts, the military reacted with
forceful violence, terrorising villages and holding a corrupt trial with no
right of appeal; this resulted in the hanging of 9 activists in 1994. This
demonstrates that even when unified support did challenge military rule, the
military had the totalitarian power to suppress this opposition.
Effects
of military rule
The economic effects of
military rule were disastrous. The traditional agricultural based economy was
abandoned and they became extremely dependent on exports of oil which due to
frequent fluctuations in oil prices led to an unstable economy. The Babangida
regime of was characterised by “gross incompetence and unbridled, waste and
mismanagement, the privatisation of public office and public resources, the
neglect of non-oil sectors and misplaced priorities”. Essentially the focus was
on the private sector as opposed to the good of the nation. As a result of the
military economic policy of the 1980s, 45% of foreign-exchange earnings were
going into debt servicing and there was very little growth. This led to a rise
in poverty, crime, child abuse, disease, institutional decay and urban
dislocation. The instability and dissatisfaction caused by these policies was
one of the causes of the consistent pattern of coups.
Bibliography
O. Ihonvbere, Julias,
‘Are Thing’s Falling Apart? The Military and the Crisis of Democratisation in
Nigeria’ in The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, (1996)
Onwumechili, Chuka,
African Democratization and military coups (Westport: Praeger, 1998)
Siollun,Max, Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria’s Military Coup Culture (1966–1976), (New York: Algora Publishing, 2009)
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