The follower of this blog will understand I have written about the present
Political Gladiators, Like Ahmmed Tinubu And Atiku Abubakar, today I am taking
a flash back at life history of Great leader, whose time of his regime is
recalled with nostalgia by many Nigeria (both civilian and Military) as a
golden age, a glimpse of the principled and dynamic leadership that citizens
crave, a true leader to the call, Late General Murtala Muhammed. Here, I attempt to give readers a closer look at the most popular Head
of State in Nigeria’s history after which President Buhari follow.
ASSASSINATION OF GENERAL MURTALA
MUHAMMED ON FRIDAY THE 13TH
Security and routine
do not go together.
Having dispensed with sizeable personal security and
a motorcade, on Friday 13th February 1976, Murtala departed for work
along his usual route. As his car crawled in the infamous Lagos traffic
outside the Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi, a group of soldiers rushed over to
the car and fired a volley of gunshots which killed Murtala, his ADC Lt
Akintunde Akinsehinwa, his driver Sergeant Adamu Minchika, and his orderly
Staff Sergeant Michael Otuwe. Unbeknown
to Murtala, as he made his way to work that day, a group of assassins including
Lt-Colonel Dimka, Major Rabo, Captain Malaki and Lt William Seri were lying in
wait for him. Each man had a different task. Captain Malaki was the
“spotter” and his job was to signal Rabo and Seri when Murtala’s car approached. After only six months in office, Murtala
Muhammed was assassinated in an abortive military coup led by Lt-Col Busa Sukar
Dimka – the head of the army’s physical training corps
THE EARLY DAYS OF THE LATE
GENERAL
Murtala Ramat Muhammed
was born in the Kurawa quarter of the ancient city of Kano on November 8, 1938.
His parents were Risqua Muhammed and Uwani Rahamat, and he was one of
eleven children. He was educated at Cikin Gida and Gidan Makama primary
schools in Kano. He attended the famous Government College (now Barewa
College) in Zaria, and obtained his school certificate from there in
1957. The amiable and ambitious Young Muritala Ramat began his military
training in 1959 and like many Nigerian army officers of his generation
including, he trained at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in England and
was commissioned into the Nigerian army as a Second Lieutenant in 1961. Murtala served as a member OF THE
NIGERIAN LED UN PEACEKEEPING FORCE IN THE CONGO.
THE “FIVE MAJORS” (PROMINENCE OF LATE RAMAT MUAMMED)
Murtala first came to
prominence after Nigeria suffered what was to prove the first of many military
coups on January 15th 1966. Had a group of young army Majors
not overthrown the civilian government of Tafawa Balewa, most Nigerians would
never have heard the name “Murtala Muhammed”. Murtala was in Lagos when a
young and charismatic instructor at the Nigerian Military Training College in
Kaduna named Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu killed the premier of the northern region:
Ahmadu Bello. After a group of young army Majors (including Nzeogwu)
toppled the civilian government in a violent military coup d’etat,
Nzeogwu was in de facto control of the northern region of Nigeria.
At the 2nd battalion in Lagos some angry northern soldiers including
Majors Murtala Muhammed, Martin Adamu and Captain Yakubu Danjuma decided to
conduct their own investigations into what was going on. They arrested
and interrogated soldiers who had not been in the barracks when the battalion
was given news of the coup. At one point an enraged Muhammed cocked his
pistol and interrogated the detained men at gunpoint. 1. Some of the detainees were beaten up badly and confessions
were extracted from them. They were released from their angry captors
into official custody after persuasion from Lt-Colonel Gowon. Tense
negotiations were conducted via intermediaries between Nzeogwu and the General
Officer Commanding (GOC) the Nigerian army Major-General Johnson
Aguiyi-Ironsi. In the ensuing melee, Ironsi emerged as Nigeria’s first
military Head of State. Major Murtala Muhammed was one of the soldiers
that arrested Nzeogwu when he eventually arrived in Lagos. As the pattern
of killings during the January 15th coup emerged, northerners
(including Murtala) became convinced that the coup had been targeted
specifically at them when it was revealed that the four highest ranking
northern officers in the Nigerian army: the “astute and articulate” Brigadier
Maimalari, the acting Chief of Staff at army headquarters Colonel Kur Mohammed,
the Adjutant-General Lt-Colonel James Pam, and the commanding officer of the 4th
battalion Lt-Colonel Abogo Largema, had been murdered during the coup.In an
attempt to dismiss charges of an anti-northern agenda, Ironsi with great
courage surrounded himself with northern soldiers and promoted northerners to
some sensitive military posts. He had northern bodyguards and a northern
aide de camp (ADC). He also appointed Lt-Colonel Yakubu Gowon to replace
Colonel Kur Mohammed as the Chief of Staff at army headquarters, and Mohammed
Shuwa was promoted to Lt-Colonel and selected to replace Lt-Colonel ‘Emeka’
Ojukwu as the commander of the 5th battalion in Kano. Ironsi
promoted Murtala to Lt-Colonel and appointed him the Nigerian army’s Inspector
of Signals.
THE COUNTER-COUP: ARABA (SEPARATE US)
Murtala and other
northern soldiers had lost so much faith in the Nigerian federation that they
now wanted to break the northern region out of Nigeria. This intention was
personified by the codename of their revenge coup: operation “Araba” (an Hausa term meaning
“separate us” – presumably separation from the rest of Nigeria). When the
northern revenge coup began on July 29 1966, Murtala coordinated events from Lagos and led a team of soldiers
who took over the international airport at Ikeja. In a remarkable irony, the
same airport which he had taken over by force was named after him a decade
later. Airplanes were hijacked by northern soldiers in order to ferry
their families back to the north in anticipation of the northern region’s exit
from Nigeria. At the airport itself, an Igbo officer (Captain Okoye) was
captured by Murtala’s troops at the airport, tied to an iron cross, beaten and
left to die in the guardroom. In military units at Lagos, Ibadan, and
Kaduna, northern troops mutinied and murdered their Igbo colleagues in
frightening and gruesome reprisals for the Majors’ coup in January. The Head of
State, Major-General Ironsi, was kidnapped, beaten and shot by soldiers
including men from his own security detail. Other incidents of shocking
brutality took place across the country as northern soldiers rose up and
slaughtered hundreds of their Igbo colleagues. Murtala was the
motivational inspiration behind the counter-coup, and commanded almost mythical
loyalty from northern soldiers. He was from an influential northern
family with close links to the NPC, and his uncle Inuwa Wada, was the former
Defence Minister. If anyone was going to rebel against a perceived
anti-northern regime - it was Murtala.
LAGOS EVENTS AT IKEJA: SPOTLIGHT ON MURTALA , BRIGADIER OGUNDIPE, OJUKWU
AND GOWON
After their
blitzkrieg, the senior northern soldiers in Lagos converged at the Ikeja
cantonment. The most senior surviving officer left in the army – Brigadier
Ogundipe, dared not risk an open confrontation with them given the mood they
were in. He instead sent the Chief of Staff (Army) Lt-Colonel Gowon to go
to Ikeja cantonment to bargain with the mutineers.
The most vociferous
and uncompromising advocate of northern secession was the volatile 28 year old
Lt-Colonel Murtala Muhammed. Murtala pressed for northern troops to
destroy Lagos, pull out to the north and secede. The Military Governor of
the east Lt-Colonel Ojukwu was initially left out of the discussions but when
he managed to contact Ogundipe, Ogundipe informed him that northern troops had
stated their conditions for a “ceasefire”: (i) the repatriation of northerners
and southerners to their respective regions of origin, and (ii) the secession
of the northern region from Nigeria. Ojukwu replied "if that is what
they want, let them go" and replaced the receiver.[5] At this stage Ojukwu was willing to
accept either northern secession or a continuation of the federation, but the
latter choice on the condition that political leadership of Nigeria should
follow army seniority. Ojukwu argued that as Ironsi’s whereabouts were
unknown, Brigadier Ogundipe should succeed him since he was the next most
senior army officer. Ojukwu urged Ogundipe to take over with the promise that
if Ogundipe made a broadcast to the nation, he would make a follow up broadcast
in support within 30 minutes. However northern officers were still uninterested
in a return to a southern led military government and refused to co-operate
with, or accept the leadership of Brigadier Ogundipe or any southern
officer. The “limit" came for the Brigadier when a northern Sergeant
quipped to him: "I do not take orders from you until my (northern) captain
comes". To a seasoned professional soldier like Ogundipe (accustomed to
unquestioning obedience of his orders during a military career spanning over 20
years), such disobedience was beyond comprehension. A northern Private
similarly refused to obey orders from the Military Governor of Lagos State:
Major Mobolaji Johnson.
When Gowon became
aware of the gravity of the situation and the apocalyptic mood of his northern
colleagues, he called the head of the police special branch Alhaji MD Yusuf and
informed Yusuf that the northern soldiers had drafted a speech declaring the
secession of the northern region. Gowon asked for a lawyer to look at the
draft speech (which Lt-Colonel Murtala Muhammed and Major Martin Adamu had been
instrumental in producing). Fortuitously, a northern judge, Mr Justice
Bello was in Lagos at the time. Bello reminded the soldiers that all the
nation’s money was housed in the Central Bank of Nigeria in Lagos. He
hypothetically asked the soldiers how they would pay their troops’ salaries
after secession without access to the Central Bank (this prompted them to throw
a cordon around the Central Bank). He also reminded them that Brigadier
Ogundipe was the next most senior officer after Ironsi and after the northern
region’s secession, might rally the support of friendly countries to attack the
north. The northern soldiers were joined by a number of federal
secretaries, two Judges, prominent northern civil servants including the head
of the northern region’s civil service Alhaji Ali Akilu, Mukhtar Tahir (a close
acquaintance of Lt-Colonel Murtala Muhammed) and by the British and American
ambassadors Sir Francis Cumming-Bruce and Elbert Matthews respectively.
Among the other civilians present were the Chief Justice Sir Adetokunbo
Ademola, another judge Mr Justice Bello, and the Chairman of the Public Service
Commission Alhaji Sule Katagum. They were joined by several permanent
secretaries including Alhaji Musa Daggash, Abdul Aziz Attah, H.A. Ejueyitchie,
Yusuf Gobir, B.N. Okagbue, Ibrahim Damcida, Allison Ayida, and Philip Asiodu.[6] Police representatives included the
Inspector-General of police Alhaji Kam Selem and the head of the police Special
Branch Alhaji MD Yusuf. Northern officers from other locations filtered
in and out after the debate began. For three days from Friday July 29
over the weekend of July 30 and 31, the northern soldiers engaged the civilians
in an emotionally explosive debate. The debate raged in a dangerous power
vacuum as the nation drifted precariously without a Head of State. Most
Nigerians do not know how perilously close their country came to disintegration
over that weekend. The civilian participants pointed out that northerners
would have most to lose from seceding from the federation, and of the stark
future that would face them if they left the federation: they would be trapped,
landlocked between the south and the sea. Gowon and other middle belt
officers were the first to become convinced by this line of argument. They were
anxious to avoid replacing their fear of Igbo domination in a united Nigeria,
with Hausa-Fulani domination in a northern state. However, they had now
reached a dead end because while planning their revenge coup, they had
formulated no political objective for Nigeria as a whole other than to get back
at Igbos for their part in the death of northerners in January. Murtala
repeatedly interrupted Gowon as the debate continued, leading Gowon to become
so exasperated that at one point he threatened to step down unless the hardline
northern soldiers agreed to listen to his views. The civilians managed to persuade
the majority of the northern officers that secession would be injurious to
their interests.
GOWON –VS- MURTALA: WHO WAS IN CHARGE?
In his early days
Gowon moved very tactfully, slowly and with great caution, anxious not to
further fan the flames of violence sweeping across the country. This was
an extremely wise move by Gowon, given the fate of his two predecessors Balewa
and Ironsi. Additionally Gowon’s position was not assured. Apart
from his power struggle with Murtala, he was unsure of his position as he was
surrounded on all sides by men who were senior to him militarily, and in age
and experience such as Commodore Wey of the navy and even his Military
Governors like Colonel Adebayo of the army – both of whom outranked him.
Despite Gowon becoming Head of State, Murtala remained the power behind the
throne. Gowon’s ascension to power coincided with massive pogroms in the
north during which tens of thousands of Igbos were killed by rampaging northern
mobs. Many members of Gowon’s own constituency, the army, joined in with
the mayhem. These murders continued to occur even after specific assurances of
Igbo safety had been given by Gowon. Realising the separation between the
political, and military leadership of the country, Gowon always checked with
Murtala before giving assurances of safety. However, some northern NCOs
had got so wayward after the orgy of violence that no one, not even Murtala,
could control their trigger happiness.
RIFT WITH LT-COLONEL C.O OJUKWU
Lt-Colonel C.O Ojukwu
continued to refuse to recognise Gowon as the Head of State. While Gowon
favoured a negotiated outcome to the impasse, Murtala was convinced that war
with Ojukwu’s eastern region was inevitable and that steps should immediately
be taken to prepare for that eventuality. He felt that Gowon was treating
the belligerent Ojukwu with kid gloves. On one occasion, Murtala gave Gowon a
dose of his famed volcanic anger, and banged his first down on his table -
threatening to march into, and overrun over the eastern region if Gowon did not
stop being so soft with Ojukwu. This threat was also sporadically
repeated by other northern officers who were restrained by the ever
conciliatory Gowon. Murtala through his own civilian contacts
independently took steps to procure weapons for the impending war. In
rumour rife Nigeria, this led to unfounded rumours that the weapons were to be
used by Murtala to overthrow Gowon.
LATE MURITALA MUHAMMED BECAME HEAD OF
STATES THROUGH BLOODLESS MILITARY COUP
On July 29th,
while Gowon was still in Uganda, he was overthrown in a bloodless military coup
announced by…….Colonel Joseph Garba! Speaking with a tense and emotional voice,
Garba announced that Gowon had been overthrown. Garba was like
Gowon a member of the Angas ethnic group, and his involvement in the coup would
be crucial for avoiding the ethnic overtones of the two coups of 1966.
The core conspirators in the coup against Gowon were Muslim officers from the
far north, thus Garba’s participation was essential to avoid antagonizing the
officers from middle belt ethnic groups who might interpret the coup as an
attempt by officers from the far north to wrest power away from middle belt
officers. . His relationship with Gowon’s wife Victoria had become
increasingly frosty over time and the other plotters may have exploited this in
order to recruit Garba. The reader may be incredulous that officers would
risk their careers, lives and those of their colleagues and families, and
overthrow a government for personal disputes and professional rivalries, but
this shows how politicized the army had become after nearly a decade of
military rule.
Close to midnight on
the eve of the coup, Garba had dramatically showed up in the middle of the
night at the house of Gowon’s ADC Colonel Walbe.
July 29th
was the ninth anniversary of the bloody revenge coup that had brought Gowon to
power and had been chosen as the date for the coup precisely for that reason,
as the plotters reasoned that it would be the last day that anyone would expect
a coup. Once again, proving that coup plotting in Nigeria is a hobby or
profession for some, many of the same officers that participated in the coup
that brought Gowon to power were also instrumental in the coup that removed
him, and in subsequent coups. The plotters had obviously learned a lesson from
the cataclysmic events that followed their violent coup nine years
earlier. So this time, the coup plotters decided that a bloodless coup
would avoid similarly disastrous consequences. The new leaders thanked Gowon
for all he had done. Gowon in return was his typically conciliatory self
and wished the new leaders well. He said that:
GOWAN RELIEVED SPEECH
“a new government had
been established in Nigeria. I wish to state that I on my part have also
accepted the change and pledged my full loyalty to my nation, my country and
the new government. Therefore, in the overall interest of the nation and
our beloved country, I appeal to all concerned to cooperate fully with the new
government and ensure the preservation of the peace, unity and stability of our
dear motherland.”
He then quoted a few
lines from William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”:
“All the world is a
stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits
and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts.”
Gowon travelled to
England and enrolled for a course in political science at Warwick
University. His wife Victoria was allowed to travel to England to reunite
with him. The lack of bitterness between the new and past leaders even
led some to suspect that Gowon’s removal was in fact a cleverly orchestrated
transfer of power from senior to middle grade officers.
WELCOME TO ERA OF A NO
NONSENSE LEADER
Murtala was in London
at the time of the coup and the plane carrying him back to Nigeria from London
was the only plane that was allowed to land in Nigeria. However the drama
was not over. The Colonels decided that three of their superior officers:
Brigadiers Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma would
lead the new regime, with Murtala replacing Gowon as Head of State. They
explained to the three Brigadiers that decisions of the new Supreme Military
Council would only be taken with the concurrence of a majority of its
members. Murtala angrily objected and insisted that as Head of State, he
should be given a free hand to govern unrestricted by his colleagues. The
Colonels warned him that they could easily pass him over and nominate someone
else as Head of State if he did not agree, but Murtala continued to emphatically
disagree, thus threatening the Colonels’ plan. As MD Yusuf noted: “Argument
with Murtala was always an impossible task”. After some calming words
from Danjuma and Obasanjo, Murtala agreed to the Colonels’ proposal.
However, in typically forthright manner, Murtala told the Colonels that once he
assumed power, he would not allow himself to be a stooge of, or be dictated to
by, the officers who had got him there. Murtala made it clear that he would be
independent, would govern the country as he saw fit and that nobody would push
him around.
Murtala’s first act
was to totally dismantle the apparatus of Gowon’s governing regime and his key
men. Gowon’s deputy Vice-Admiral Wey was retired and replaced as Chief of
Staff, Supreme Headquarters by the Agriculture Minister Brigadier
Obasanjo. Brigadier Danjuma replaced Major-General David Ejoor as the
Chief of Staff (Army). On assumption of this post, its title was changed
to “Chief of Army Staff” -the designation which has been used till today. The
heads of the air force, navy, police and deputy Inspector-General of police
were also compulsorily retired along with all officers of the rank of
Major-General and above (i.e. anyone that was senior to any member of the new
regime). The following senior redeployments were made:
MURTALA’S FAMILY
Murtala was survived
by his yoruba wife ajoke (a dentist) and five children: aisha zakari fatima ,risqua
abba zeliha and jumai – a young baby less than one year old. His eldest
daughter aisha is a law graduate of kings college, university of london.
She also has a masters degree in business administration from imperial
college, university of london, and runs an asset management company.
Fatima is a horticulturist (although she is also a qualified accountant).
Risqua is now murtala’s only surviving son since his elder brother zakari was
shot dead in 1994, in an incident that has not been resolved to the
satisfaction of some members of murtala’s family. Risqua undertook a
business career after his graduation with a degree in business administration
from the university of lagos, and a postgraduate degree from the university of
cardiff. Risqua was subsequently appointed as president olusegun
obasanjo’s special assistant on privatisation. Zeliha is a graduate of
economics from nottingham university in the uk, and works for a real estate
survey firm in lagos. Murtala’s youngest child jumai studied economics at
the university of london. Murtala’s widow and family launched the murtala
muhammed foundation in his memory, and the organisation’s board of trustees
includes his children aisha and risqua, his widow ajoke, as well as prominent
retired nigerian army generals such as olusegun obasanjo, ibrahim babangida and
t.y. danjuma. Murtala died as a man of great contradictions. The
former secessionist firebrand who fought to prevent a secessionist movement and
became a nationwide hero. He departed from nigeria’s political scene in
the same manner he entered it: in a hail of bullets.
I Hope the Readers of
this blog find it Interesting and Educative, as they says history is the best
teacher, coming next is about another Gladiator.
Follow me on twitter
@Heywhytech histogram @heywhytech
Author by Adewuyi
Ayodeji.
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