A lot of mundane claims over the centuries have been issued to justify the 1985 coup that ousted the former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari.
According to some analysts, they lay claims that some of the issues that triggered the removal of the then former Head of State from office by Rtd. General Ibrahim Babangida can still be seen happening even during his current administration as the Executive President of Nigeria under democratic rule.
When he (Buhari) was the military head of state, he initiated some laws which ironically did not sit well with the masses.
Also, the sacking of high-profile members of the SMC could have triggered Buhari’s removal as Head of State. Also personality clash and divergence of expectations and priorities among the officer who put their lives in danger to effect the removal of President Shagari in 1983.
We can’t actually say which of these claims were enough to justify the 1985 coup that led to the removal of Buhari.
Factually, the events of August 1985 can’t be emphasized properly, if history isn’t taken back to its genesis.
BACKGROUND
President Muhammadu Buhari was the former Head of State during the Military Rule in Nigeria (1983-1985) and the current president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces of Nigeria.
Former General Officer Commanding the 3rd Armoured Division in Jos, Muhammadu Buhari became the Nation’s Head of State in 1983 after a successful coup carried out to oust the last civilian president Late Alh. Shehu Shagari.
On the last day of 1983, the army abandoned the barracks in order to “save the nation from imminent collapse”.
President Shehu Shagari was overthrown only three months after being re-elected for his second and final term of office, even though the election that declared him the president was claimed to be rigged.
However, The coup of 1983 was without bloodshed except for the killing of Brigadier Ibrahim Bako and a few policemen who were killed while trying to arrest President Shagari in Abuja.
After the success of the coup, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was installed as Head of State, and as the Chairman of a new Supreme Military Council (SMC) and his Deputy, Late Major-General Tunde Idiagbon, the disciplined, tough and stoic Brigadier.
The Night of the coup attributed as the last days of the Second Republic prompted the Armed Forces to strike at midnight on December 31, 1983, and installed Major General Muhammadu Buhari (then GOC 3rd Division, Jos) as the new Head of State.
The Buhari regime fought against indiscipline knowing fully that indiscipline is the rot and bedrock of Nigeria’s ills and therefore decided to fight and stop corruption at all costs, unfortunately, his regime was cut short.
However, the Buhari regime was based on the idea of the different phases of the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) which becomes a slogan and chorus in many Nigerian homes.
There were five phases of WAI, namely:-
- Queuing
- Work Ethics
- Nationalism and Patriotism
- Anti-Corruption and Economic Sabotage
- Environmental Sanitation.
1985 PALACE COUP
A Palace coup also called coup, is the sudden and violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group.
The control of all or part of the armed forces, the police, and other military elements. Unlike a revolution, which is usually achieved by large numbers of people working for basic social, economic, and political change, a coup is a change in power from the top that merely results in the abrupt replacement of leading government personnel.
An example explaining this concept was the event of August 1985 when the then Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) ousted the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
On 27 August 1985, a palace coup was carried out by former Head of State, Major General Ibrahim Babangida, who was then Chief of Army Staff overthrew the government of Major General Muhammadu Buhari after a successful coup.
However, Buhari was arrested and detained for three years until 1988. It was this agony and sorrow that led to the death of the mother of Former Head of State Buhari while trying to save his son from prison.
THE MORNING OF 27 AUGUST, 1985
Tuesday, August 27, 1985, at about 06:00 hours, a radio announcement was made. It was an unfamiliar voice… the announcer said: ‘A small group of individuals in the Supreme Military Council had abused their power and failed to listen to the advice of their colleagues or the public, about tackling the country’s economic problems.
‘He went further to announce that the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari had been deposed. The voice was coming from Colonel Joshua Nimyel Dogonyaro, Director of Manning (“A” Branch) and concurrent Director of the Department of Armour at the Army Headquarters.
Hours later, an announcement was made by Brigadier Sani Abacha, who was then GOC, 2nd Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army, based in Ibadan, came on board to declare the appointment of Major General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, then Chief of Army Staff, as the new Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE CAUSED THE COUP
After the announcement of the installation of the new Head of state by Brigadier Sani Abacha, then GOC, 2nd Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army, based in Ibadan.
The new head of state Major General Ibrahim Babangida made an official announcement that declared the removal and arrest of the former Head of State.
The official line of his statement was… “the erstwhile Head of State and his deputy (Major General Tunde Idiagbon) were guilty of dictatorial lack of consultation with their military colleagues, gross abuse of human rights, exemplified by mass detention of politicians and others without due process, proscription of professional organizations, muzzling of the Press and promulgation of retroactive laws (e.g. execution of drug peddlers).To this was added insensitivity to respected leaders of thought in various parts of Nigeria, the issue of counter-trade and alleged intent to take the IMF Loan against popular wishes.
Babangida justified the coup by saying that Buhari failed to deal with the country’s economic problems by implementing Buharism, and promised: “to revitalize the economy marred by decades of government mismanagement and corruption”.
While Buhari believe that he was overthrown by corrupt elements in his government who were afraid of being brought to justice as his policies were beginning to yield tangible dividends in terms of public discipline, curbing corruption, lowering inflation, and enhancing the workforce and improving productivity.
Another issue that can be considered as a reason that triggered the 1985 coup was the retirement of Brigadier Aliyu Gusau by Buhari/Idiagbon regardless of the protestation of Babangida.
It was believed that Gusau was retired as a result of the allegation against him which had something to do with import licence.
However, Gusau pleaded innocence but he was handed a letter of retirement by the newly appointed secretary to the Army Council, Brigadier Ele Peters.
Babangida, Chief of Army Staff, after realizing the implication of the retirement of his trusted ally, Aliyu Gusau, he (IBB) knew that he was next in the firing line.
He went ahead to stage a palace coup, knowing fully that Buhari’s deputy, Idiagbon was on a trip to mecca.
To elaborate further, in an interview in Kaduna on 20 March 2002, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) (MB) had the following conversation with Antony Goldman (AG). the interview was basically on the 1985 coup that saw the removal of former Head of State, Buhari:
”AG: What prompted the coup in 1985?
MB: We had confirmed evidence that for the second time Aliyu Mohammed had been making money from passing on contracts to the tune of N1m, which was worth $1.4m at the time. It was brought before the army council and Aliyu was retired. Some of those involved are dead. But enough of us who were there are still alive and they know this is what happened.
AG: Do you think you should have found any way also of retiring Babangida?
MB: I had no idea, I had no intention of retiring Babangida. It’s just like what they cooked up. They said I took away the passport of Sheikh Mahmud Gummi, a former respected mullah here, that I had stopped his salary, that I had ordered his house to be searched. But all of these things I didn’t do as Head of State. But it was part of the campaign to subvert me and to subvert my authority.
AG: And that was the trigger for the coup?
MB: Yes, Babangida felt threatened, he was close to Aliyu and perhaps he was afraid. He was head of the armoured corps, he could move.”
Source: The Palace Coup Of August 27, 1985 by Nowa Omoigui.
Also, In an interview with the Interview Magazine a few years ago, former head of state, Buhari raised the issue saying that General Aliyu Gusau, one of the coup plotters that brought him to power was to be retired for several reasons including alleged corruption.
He said that he forwarded the proposal for Gusau’s retirement to the Army Council and some forces rallied against his government and Gusau was saved.
From Buhari’s standpoint of view, the retirement of Aliyu might have been the motivating factor that inspired Ibrahim Babangida to stage a coup knowing fully that Aliyu was IBB’s close and trusted ally and he (IBB) can be fired anytime.
Buhari said in a rare interview with the Sun newspaper published weekend.
“I moved to retire his Director of Military Intelligence,” Mr Buhari said. “I took a paper to Army Council. Babangida was there… Idiagbon was there, Bali was there as Minister of Defence, and I was there as the head of state and commander-in-chief. And reasons for him to be removed was in that memo. Go and find out from him or from Babangida. They are both alive.”
He continued, “…But if you touch Gusau, his intelligence chief, invariably, you were going to inch towards the Chief of Army Staff, Babangida. Eventually, he might have been touched. I didn’t know but at that point, it was Aliyu Gusau.
Buhari knew IBB was planning a coup
In a 2014 interview, Buhari told TheCable that he was aware IBB was plotting to overthrow him.
Buhari said…“It is true that I learnt he (IBB) was planning a coup against me. And I sat and discussed it with him in my office”.
“He brought the news that he went to Kano and people complained that I pulled a pistol during a council meeting. I said Ibro ─ I called him Ibro because I was just senior to him by a few months ─ I said whoever wants to sit on this chair let him come and sit here. And he decided to do it.”
Reminded that the punishment for coup plotting was death and that he could well have put Babangida on trial, Buhari replied: “Yes. Remember how many people he killed subsequently for trying to overthrow him? But when I came in, there was no bloodshed. I think a couple of policemen were killed and [Brigadier Ibrahim] Bako also died in an ambush.
“But deliberately, nobody was killed. I was in the front, the real front in the Nigerian civil war. I had seen enough of death and I know what God means by human life. Any human being, God values their life. And anybody who hopes to meet God, he should be careful about killing…He added.
Also, the anti-press and anti-media laws could be another reason for the coup. The infamous Decree 4, under which the Buhari regime jailed journalists who tried to spread fake news or news that was embarrassing to official personnel.
Ironically, this law did not earn him the expected praise and applause from the press or the general public. As of the time when Decree 4 was initiated, we saw the arrest of Mr Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor of The Guardian.
Both were jailed for one year under that decree and there was a national uproar.
In an interview, the former military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari claimed he had no regrets whatsoever regarding the launching of Decree 4.
He said… “What we did was that you must not embarrass those civil servants. If you have got evidence that somebody was corrupt, the courts were there.
Take the evidence to court; the court will not spare whoever it was. But you don’t just go and write articles that were embarrassing,” he said.
“Those who did it, the editors, the reporters, we jailed them. But we never closed a whole institution, as others did.”
Another factor to be considered as a reason for the 1985 coup is the displeasure among junior Army officers. After Buhari’s installation into office as the Head of State, one of his first actions was the appointment of Late Col. Tunde Idiagbon as the deputy Head of State. His appointment of Col Tunde Idiagbon, who is considered a northerner and a Moslem like himself as his deputy did not sound fairly enough to non-northerners and non-Moslems considering the multi-ethnic, multi-religious nature of Nigeria.
That biased appointment with other issues made the coup plotters feel aggrieved that they were not amply rewarded or rewarded at all for putting their lives on the line.
CONCLUSION
To a certain degree, the majority of Nigerians would agree that the coup of 1985 that ousted the former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari is justifiable.
On the part of the Former Head of State, Babangida, he justified the coup by saying that Buhari failed to deal with the country’s economic problems by implementing Buharism, and promised: “to revitalize the economy marred by decades of government mismanagement and corruption”.
While Buhari believes that he was overthrown by corrupt elements in his government who were afraid of being brought to justice as his policies were beginning to yield tangible dividends in terms of public discipline, curbing corruption, lowering inflation, and enhancing the workforce and improving productivity.
On the part of the Journalists who thought that better days laid ahead Buhari regime due to the anti-press or anti-media Decree (Decree 4) that was initiated, should also flashback to the death of Dele Giwa who was murdered to see how wrong they were.
Also, the prisoners who thought that things would be easy and less difficult during the Babangida regime could as well recall the death of Gani Fawehinmi and Moshood Abiola respectively who were arrested and detained after a successful presidential election.
When severe Decree 2 of 1984 – the State Security (Detention of Persons) was initiated, people complained hoping they will breathe a sigh of relief once Babangida takes over, if the Decree was revoked. Ironically, Babangida not only retained it but extended the detention period under Decree 2 to six months and used it as a weapon to suppress those civil liberties and pro-democracy movements that had not welcomed his ascent to power by detention.
Should we say the 1985 coup was JUSTIFIABLE?
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