Another 27th August Has Slipped By

By Bashorun JK Randle

Memory can be deceptive and unreliable. Consequently, the date 27th August may have little resonance for most Nigerians as they go about their daily struggle for survival in a most daunting economic environment combined with the ding-dong of political turmoil.

Regardless, 27th August, 1985 is a date some of us will never forget – not out of choice but on account of a huge gamble with death, albeit unknowingly.

Let us wind the tape back. Without any warning (except amongst the more discerning) towards the end of Ramadan – a period of utmost sanctity to moslems – Brigadier Joshua Dongoyaro was on radio and television to deliver a special message, with the opening line:

“Fellow countrymen,”

I, Brigadier Joshua Nimyel Dogonyaro, of the Nigerian Army, hereby make the following declaration on behalf of my colleagues and members of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Fellow countrymen, the intervention of the military at the end of 1983 was welcomed by the nation with unprecedented enthusiasm.

Nigerians were united in accepting the intervention and looked forward hopefully to progressive changes for the better. Almost two years later, it has become clear that the fulfilment of expectations is not forthcoming. Because this generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no other country but Nigeria, we could not stay passive and watch a small group of individuals misuse power to the detriment of our national aspirations and interest.

No nation can ever achieve meaningful strides in its development where there is an absence of cohesion in the hierarchy of government; where it has become clear that positive action by the policy makers is hindered because as a body it lacks a unity of purpose.

It is evident that the nation would be endangered with the risk of direction. We are presently confronted with that danger.

In such a situation, if action can be taken to arrest further damage, it should and must be taken. This is precisely what we have done.

The Nigerian public has been made to believe that the slow pace of action of the Federal Government headed by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was due to the enormity of the problems left by the last civilian administration.

Although it is true that a lot of problems were left behind by the last civilian government, the real reason, however, for the very slow pace of action is due to lack of unanimity of purpose among the ruling body; subsequently, the business of governance, has gradually been subjected to ill-motivated power play considerations. The ruling body, the Supreme Military Council, has, therefore, progressively been made redundant by the actions of a select few members charged with the day to day implementation of the SMC’s policies and decisions.

The concept of collective leadership has been substituted by stubborn and ill-advised unilateral actions, thereby destroying the principles upon which the government came to power. Any effort made to advise the leadership, met with stubborn resistance and was viewed as a challenge to authority or disloyalty. Thus the scene was being set for systematic elimination of what, was termed opposition.

All the energies of the rulership were directed at this imaginary opposition rather than to effective leadership. The result of this misdirected effort is now very evident in the country as a whole.

The government has started to drift. The economy does not seem to be getting any better as we witness daily increased inflation. The nation’s meager resources are once again being wasted on unproductive ventures.

Government distanced itself from the people and the yearnings and aspirations of the people as constantly reflected in the media have been ignored.
This is because events have shown that the present composition of our country’s leadership cannot, therefore, justify its continued occupation of that position.

Furthermore, the initial objectives and programmes of action which were meant to have been implemented since the ascension to power of the Buhari Administration in January 1984 have been betrayed and discarded.

The present state of uncertainty and stagnation cannot be permitted to degenerate into suppression and retrogression. We feel duty bound to use the resources and means at our disposal to restore hope in the minds of Nigerians and renew aspirations for a better future.

We are no prophets of doom for our beloved country, Nigeria. We, therefore, count on everyone’s cooperation and assistance. I appeal to you, fellow countrymen, particularly my colleagues in arms to refrain from any act that will lead to unnecessary violence and bloodshed among us. Rest assured that our action is in the interest of the nation and the armed forces.

In order to enable a new order to be introduced, the following bodies are dissolved forthwith pending further announcements:
(a) The Supreme Military Council
(b) The Federal Executive Council
(c) The National Council of States.

All seaports and airports are closed, all borders remain closed. Finally a dusk to dawn curfew is hereby imposed in Lagos and all state capitals until further notice.

All military commanders will ensure effective maintenance of law and order. Further announcements will be made in due course. God bless Nigeria.”

Most of the audience readily completed the rest on their own!! We had gotten used to military coup d’états. The only difference this time was that it was the military toppling their own government headed by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari. His deputy, the Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters Major-General Tunde Idiagbon who was generally perceived as the strongman behind the throne had been sold a dummy. He was lured into undertaking the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, just to get him out of the way.

Till today, his loyalists swear that if Idiagbon was in the country, the coup plotters would not have dared to strike. If they did, it would have been the bloodiest counter-coup in the history of military putsch in the world. The news soon leaked that General Buhari had granted approval to General Idiagbon to the effect that on his return from Saudi Arabia, the Supreme Military Council would immediately announce the retirement of Major-General Babangida as Chief of Army Staff.

Dongoyaro’s announcement came at dawn followed by intermittent announcements that we should await further announcements. Going by what prevailed in Lagos, the shock of dismantling a government that was barely eighteen months old was somewhat mitigated by relief that the guilty and the innocent would be saved from the harsh measures which had been imposed by the Buhari/Idiagbon regime. Some even jubilated that the draconian penalties for the looting of the public treasury or political misadventure had crashed.

Anyway, by 7pm it was then Brigadier Sani Abacha, the General Officer Commanding the Second Division of the Nigerian Army, based in Ibadan who confirmed that the Buhari/Idiagbon regime had been removed and we should await further announcements.

In faraway Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a friend of mine called to say that he was staying in the same hotel as Lt General TY Danjuma who on learning that the government had changed in Nigeria coolly declared straightaway:
“Ibrahim Babangida is going to be the new Head of State. It is his boys who are behind the coup.”

He was right on the bottom. It was a pre-emptive strike.

The active participation and presumed leadership of the coup by the erstwhile Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Ibrahim Babangida (“IBB”) set off the alarm bells. Some of my friends were in panic as they remembered that only a few days earlier IBB had invited me to – Minna, Niger State as his Guest Speaker at the Chief of Army Staff Conference under the auspices of TRADOC” (which I believe stands for Training and Doctrine) then headed by Brigadier Ishola-Williams.

The venue of the conference was the Shiroro Hotel where we lodged for three days. Colonel David Mark who was then the Military Governor of Niger State was the host. Unknown to me, the conference was a camouflage for coup plotting!!

David Mark rose to become Minister of Communications as well as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Indeed, he is now the President of the Senate and the “number 3” citizen (after the President and Vice-President).
Brigadier Ishola Williams has since retired from the army after a spell as a feisty anti-corruption crusader. I understand he has a position in the United Nations and is now based in New York.

Anyway, the only other civilians at the Minna conference were Chief MKO Abiola who would eventually win the 1993 presidential election and Professor Isawa Elaigwu who was then serving at the Military Defence Academy in Kaduna and had been a contemporary of IBB at the academy while then Brigadier Ibrahim Babangida was a lecturer/instructor.

By 9 pm Abacha was back on the air. This time the announcement was short and sharp. “Major-General Ibrahim Babangida has been appointed as the new Head of State and Commander-In-Chief Armed Forces of Nigeria.”

While some were jubilating that the general with the ready smile and gap in his teeth had emerged as the new leader, others panicked that should the coup fail heads would roll; and matters could become bloody and messy. This was no picnic or tea party. The stakes were very high indeed.

As usual a curfew had been announced. It would last till dawn. In any case, there was little evidence of resistance or a counter-coup. Regardless, it was a sleepless night combined with anxiety over the direction the new regime would follow.

Most of the telephone lines had been cut (or disabled) but somehow news started filtering through that the former Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari had been arrested by a detachment of soldiers led by then Lt Colonel Lawan Gwadabe a Babangida loyalist. It was the “Daily Times” which would confirm that Gwadabe formally saluted Buhari before announcing:

“You are under arrest, Sir.”

“No problem. I have been waiting for you.” That was the stoic response by Buhari.

Within a matter of days the roles played by junior officers – Major Abdulmumin, Major Dangiwa Umar; Major Tunde Ogbeha; etc would dominate the grapevine.
Anyway, for me it was a great shock that come the following day the group of triumphant senior military officers that assembled at Bonny Camp Military Cantonment on Victoria Island, Lagos to sing
“Hail to the Chief”
were those same officers who were with IBB in Minna — namely, Major Anthony Ukpo; Brigadier Joshua Dongoyaro; Colonel John Shagaya (who is now a Senator); Colonel Tanko Ayuba; Colonel Haliru Akilu; Major General Sani Abacha; Brigadier Aliyu Mohammed; Navy Commander Murtala Nyako, Lt Colonel Ahmed Abdullahi’ Colonel Abubakar Umar.

Announcements were soon made that before the day was over the new Head of State and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria would address an international press conference followed by an address to the nation on radio and television.

Subsequently, news filtered out that the new boss would opt for “President of Nigeria” as his formal title rather than Military Head of State.

Equally, remarkable was that on his first day in office the new President ordered the release of politicians who had been clamped into detention in various jails all over the country for allegedly looting the treasury, financial crimes, chicanery, fraud, etc. The victims preferred to go home quietly rather than protest their innocence and insist on proper trial for whatever offences had been conjured up against them.

Two days after the coup, several newspapers carried a front page report to the effect that the new Head of State had on his first day in office instructed the Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Muhammadu Gambo Jimeta to release from detention at Alagbon, Yaba and Awolowo Road, Ikoyi those who were being held by the previous regime for serious drug offences. Their names were listed. They quietly found their way home. Like the politicians who were released, they did not insist on proper trial for the offences they were alleged to have committed. The Buhari/Idiagbon regime had made it patently clear that they intended to impose the death penalty for drug offences. As for the super musician Fela Anikulapo Ransome-Kuti who was being held for currency offences, he was not released until after a month.

The rest is now history. President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida ruled from August 27, 1985 to August 26, 1993 when he stepped aside. This is the right time to properly assess the gap-toothed general who dazzled us all when he delivered his seminar treatise at Eko Hotel Gold Medal Lecture in June 1985. It was a stunning notice to the international community and the rest of us that he was an exceptional Chief of Army Staff, the post he held under the Buhari/Idiagbon regime.

Bashorun JK Randle is a former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and former Chairman of KPMG Nigeria and Africa Region. He is currently the Chairman, JK Randle Professional Services.

Email:jkrandleintuk@gmail.com