Nigerians woke up on this day, 38 years ago to hear of the coup plotted and executed by a faction of mid-level Armed Forces officers, led by the Chief of Army Staff Major-General Ibrahim Babangida.
It was the 6th coup in the history of the country and most of the plotters were part of previous coups which of course includes that of December 31st, 1985.
The coup was announced on the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) in the morning by Major General Joshua Dogonyaro. Later that day Babangida flew into Lagos from Minna to address the nation where he unveiled himself as the new Head of State.
Records have it that following the coup d’état of 1983, General Babangida (then Chief of Army Staff) started scheming to overthrow military head of state General Muhammadu Buhari. The palace coup of 1985 was orchestrated with a degree of military deftness hitherto not seen in the history of coup plotting.
The whole affair carried out by Babangida as ringleader was planned at the highest levels of the army cultivating his strategic relationship with allies: Sani Abacha, Aliyu Gusau, Halilu Akilu, Mamman Vatsa, Gado Nasko, and younger officers from his days as an instructor in the military academy (graduates of the NDA’s Regular Course 3), and gradually positioned his allies within the echelons of military hierarchy.
The execution of the palace coup was initially delayed due to General Tunde Idiagbon the 6th Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters and ruthless second-in-command to General Muhammadu Buhari.
At midnight on 27 August 1985, the plot metamorphosed with four Majors: Sambo Dasuki, Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, Lawan Gwadabe, and Abdulmumini Aminu detailed to arrest the head of state.
By daybreak, the conspirators had taken over the government and Babangida flew into Lagos from Minna where he was announced as the new commander-in-chief in a radio broadcast by General Sani Abacha. Babangida justified the coup in a speech describing General Muhammadu Buhari’s military regime as “too rigid “rigid, uncompromising and had demonstrated inconsistency and incompetence”.
It was a coup that brought mixed feelings to Nigerians. Some were happy that the rigidity of the Buhari regime seen through the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) program was done with. Others opine that the Babangida coup was just a quest for power by officers who felt they were not carried along by the Buhari administration despite their contributions in the December 31st coup d’etat.
After several years,Col. Sambo Dasuki, retd, became a National Security adviser to former president Good luck Jonathan and his arrest was ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari at that time over allegations of fictitious award of arms supply contracts, yesterday, countered the Federal Government.
He alleged a deliberate campaign to rubbish him by the present administration.
President Buhari ordered Dasuki’s arrest after receiving an interim report of the panel set up on August 31 to probe arms procurement between 2007 and 2015, which allegedly indicted him and others.
