The Worst Civilian Rule Is Better Than The Best Military Dictatorship”-Chief Obafemi Awolowo

In Nigeria, no military coup against a democratically elected government has ever produced a better leadership than the one they overthrew. Historically, such undemocratic change in leadership has always resulted in a worse administration. Much worse!

The only military coup that has ever led to a better government in Nigeria was a coup against another military ruler, and that was the Thursday, July 29, 1975, palace coup that toppled the Gowon government.

Not only did the Murtala/Obasanjo administration instil discipline in the nation, but it also moved Nigeria from a 1975 negative GDP growth rate of -5.2% to a 6.8% positive GDP growth rate by the time General Obasanjo handed over to President Shehu Shagari in 1979.

But from when President Shagari was overthrown on Saturday December 31, 1983, to when democracy was restored on Saturday, May 29, 1999, Nigeria retrogressively went downhill, from having an army that the late Lt. General Salihu Ibrahim described as an army of “anything can happen” to a loss of fundamental human rights, and a situation where letter bombs killed journalists, with media houses shutting down, to Nigeria losing her visa free status to the United Kingdom, to state sponsored assassinations, and looting of the Central Bank of Nigeria in an industrial scale, to the point where, but for Bernie Madoff a Nigerian military ruler, Sani Abacha, would have continued to hold the record as the world’s biggest thief!

It is easy to forget how bad things were under military rule, but let me remind Nigerians that, under the military, a minister for communications once said, “Telephones are not for the poor!” Today, even beggars have phones!

Is that an era that anybody would wish to return to?

Igbo men say tufiakwa!

The Nigerian public may never truly have an accurate count of the number of coups our nation has experienced. We can only count the ones that came to light, including the following:

The January 15, 1966 coup, successfully led by Majors Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Chukwuma ‘Kaduna’ Nzeogwu, resulted in the deaths of the top echelon of First Republic politicians from every region, except the Eastern Region, and brought Major General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi to power.

The July 29 1966 countercoup, which was to be led by Lt. Colonel Murtala Ramat Muhammed, but which was preempted by the Abeokuta Garrison before Murtala was ready, and led to a mutiny in which over 200 Igbo officers and men were killed, including the Head of State, Major General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, and his host, Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, who refused to give him up.

Both these coups resulted in the Nigerian Civil War, in which an estimated one million people died.

The July 29, 1975, coup, which occurred exactly nine years after the last coup, was led by Lt. Colonels Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Joe Garba, who toppled the Gowon administration and ushered in the joint Murtala-Obasanjo government.

The February 13, 1976 coup, which was the first known unsuccessful coup in Nigeria, during which Lt. Colonel Bukar (short for Abubakar) Dimka assassinated the Head of State, General Muhammed, and his co-plotters wounded then Colonel Raymond Dumuje, thinking he was Lt. General Obasanjo.

The December 31, 1983 coup, which ended the Shagari Presidency as well as the Second Republic, was led by a group of senior officers, including Brigadiers Sani Abacha and Ibrahim Bako, among others. It resulted in Major General Muhammadu Buhari assuming power.

The August 27, 1985, palace coup, during which a group of officers known as the IBB Boys arrested the Head of State, Major General Buhari, and replaced him with his Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who took on the title of Military President.

The Vatsa coup of 1986, of which the Nigerian public knew very little and cannot reasonably be certain if there really was a coup or not. It was the second known unsuccessful coup, if it was indeed a real conspiracy at all.

The April 22, 1990, Orkar coup, in which Major Gideon Orkar unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow General Babangida, whose life was saved by Lt. General Abacha, who was rewarded by being promoted to a full General after the coup, the first time that Nigeria had two serving full-time Generals (IBB and Abacha). It was Nigeria’s third unsuccessful coup.

The November 17, 1993, bloodless coup, at which General Sani Abacha gently eased out the Head of the Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan, and assumed power as Military Head of State.

The March 1, 1995 Gwadabe coup, of which we cannot be reasonably sure if this was a real coup or a phantom coup, given the subsequent testimonies of Gwadabe himself, and Colonel Bello Fadile. If it were indeed a genuine plot, it would have been Nigeria’s fourth known unsuccessful coup. But I strongly doubt that this coup was real.

The December 1997 Diya coup was the only coup in Nigeria’s history where the Second-in-Command plotted against the Head of State. Despite protestations to the contrary, this was actually a genuine coup, albeit a set-up involving the then-Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi, whom I interviewed at Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in January 2000. He was very arrogant and rude. I also interviewed Major Hamza al-Mustapha and Mohammed Abacha. I found al-Mustapha to be one of the most charming, intelligent and humble fellows I had met up until then. Mohammed Abacha appeared to me to be in some sort of dazed state.

It was Nigeria’s fifth known unsuccessful coup.

The 2004 Hamza al-Mustapha coup. Al-Mustapha was accused of plotting to overthrow the Obasanjo government and was arrested. The trial dragged on, and he was released by the Umaru Musa Yar’adua administration, which abandoned his trial in 2008. It was Nigeria’s sixth known unsuccessful coup.

In total, of the coups that were made public, Nigeria has had six successful military coup d’états and six unsuccessful coups, bringing the total to 12 coups.

Apart from the very first coup, all coups in Nigeria’s history have been planned and executed, either admittedly or allegedly, by Northern military officers, including the Diya coup, which, if we are to take his word, was the brainchild of Ishaya Bamaiyi.

And hate him or love him, Nigeria owes her present political stability more or less to one man, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who ended the Nigerian Civil War on January 15, 1970, then returned the country to civil rule on October 1, 1960, before returning to stabilise the country in civil rule on May 29, 1999.

Given that the best predictor of the future is the past, any undemocratic changes of government in Nigeria would set the country back and may even, God forbid, result in another civil war.

Therefore, it is in the interest of every Nigerian, especially the media, to prioritise Nigeria and our democracy, and refrain from coup-baiting, because, as Chief Obafemi Awolowo put it, “The worst civilian rule is better than the best military dictatorship.”

That quote is all the more poignant, especially now that we have one of the best democratically elected governments in history, which has expanded Nigeria’s GDP by $67 billion in just two years, moving us from a ₦269.29 trillion economy on May 29, 2023, when Asiwaju became President, to ₦372.8 trillion today, and has equally increased our national prestige by achieving the upgrading of Nigeria’s passport from the 97th strongest in the world under General Buhari to the 88th most powerful passport on Earth today, according to the the latest Henley Passport Index.

Reno Omokri

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