Babangida's Coup Against Buhari Hatched For Selfish Reasons- Obasanjo

Babangida's Coup Against Buhari Hatched For Selfish Reasons- Obasanjo

…why I refused to rejoice when Abacha died

…Abacha died like Mobutu Sese seko

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the 1985 military putsch that terminated the administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (as he was then referred) was carried out by some senior military officers for selfish reasons.

Former President Shehu Shagari who secured the second mandate in a controversial general election was not allowed to go far before the military struck and General Buhari was named the Head of State by the military junta.

However, Buhari too was not allowed to remain for long in the office as the same officers who sacked Shagari came calling and replaced one of them, General Ibrahim Babangida the military President.

But Obasanjo has given three reasons for the 27 August, 1985 coup which removed Buhari while his deputy, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon was away to Mecca for the holy pilgrimage.

According to the account given by Obasanjo in his memoir, MY WATCH, the coup was staged primarily to spare the commission of the duo of General Aliyu Mohammed and General on issues bothering on discipline.

His words: “One of the most defining events in my life was my arrest and subsequent imprisonment  by Sani Abacha. Militarily, Sani Abacha was no much below average as an officer that no serious attention was paid to him until he was made to announce the coup that removed Buhari and enthroned Babangida. Why was that coup necessary in the first instance?

“I was made to understand three somewhat interrelated reasons for the removal of Buhari and Idiagbon. Firstly, the two arch-planners ad executors to oust Shagari and install Buhari- Ibahim Babangida and Aliyu Mohammed – were being left in the cold in the way Buhari and Idiagbon ran affiairs. Secondly, Buhari was about to deal with Aliyu Mohammed by removing him from the army for a case of indiscipline involving finances. There was a need, therefore, for a pre-emptive strike to save Aliyu and prevent Babangida from being alone and possibly being the next to be removed. Thirdly, there was Babangida’s personal ambition to be at the top militarily and politically, and he built a following within the army for that purpose in what were known as Babangida ‘’Boys’’. The plan to discipline Aliyu was the last straw that pushed Babangida to strike against Buhari.

“Most of Babangida’s boys were used in the coup that ousted President Shagari. They were adequately compensated in appropriate military and political appointments, and they were still available to do Babagida’s bidding any time. Obviously, one such boy was Abacha; he was not picked for his brightness or military performance, but for his utilitarian value to Babangida. Having been used to announce the coup, he had secured for himself a payback in the form of an appropriate appointment and access to funds to go with the appointment, it was a part of the payback that Babangida left Abacha behind in the military when he was ‘’stepping aside].’’’  

Recalling the demise of General Abacha who jailed him and a few others for participating in a phantom coup, Obasanjo said he did not believe the story until he was told the news was on CNN.

Interestingly, Obasanjo disclosed that he refused to rejoice over Abacha’s death instead he had to write a condolence letter to his widow, Mrs Maryam Abacha.

His words: “There were three shifts for warders- the morning shift, the afternoon shift and the night shift. There was a day when one of the morning shift warders came to me and said, ‘Congratulations, our enemy is dead.’ It did not mean anything to me because I did not know who is enemy was, and I had never told him I had an enemy, let alone sharing any enemy with him. He realised that I did not pay any attention, so he came to me again and said, ‘Abacha is dead.’ That was 8 June 1998. At that point, I said to him that if he wanted anything from me, he did not need to go to the extent of fabricating such a story. I walked away from him. When the afternoon shift came, another warder cme to me just before I went for Christian fellowship at 4.00PM and said that Abacha was dead. Then I asked him how and where he had heard the story. He told me that he got the news from CNN. At that point, I started the process of beliving, because CNN would not give such news unless there was an element of truth in it…

“By the following morning, Abacha’s death was no longer news. What we heard in prison was that people were jubilating in most parts of the country. For me, nobody’s death should be a cause for jubiliation. After all, it is a journey that we must all undertake. What we may not know is when and how. The Bible teaches us to mourn with those who mourn and to make merry with those who are in merriment. I wrote a letter of condolence to Mrs. Abacha. To me, it was the end of an era. I delivered the letter to the prison superintendent to be delivered to its destination. One could see some similarity between the end of Mobutu and that of Abacha…”