By MOSHOOD FAYEMIWO

Continued from Chapter Four Last Week  

CHAPTER FIVE

MKO ABIOLA AND THE MURTALA MOHAMMAD REGIME

The Yakubu Gowon military administration began to drift in post-civil war Nigeria. General Yakubu Gowon addressed the nation in mid-1970 pledging to cede the political stage for an elected government in 1975 but few Nigerians believed him. General Yakubu Gowon came to power in July 1966 against the background of perceived marginalization of the Hausa-Fulani ethnic stock in the military by the top echelon of Igbo soldiers who staged Nigeria’s first military coup on January 15, 1966. The coup claimed the lives of top Northern politicians and their Southern collaborators, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Premier of Western Region, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh a.k.a Omimi Ejo and few others. The counter coup that followed six months later was led by Major Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma and other Northern officers. Gowon, an Anga from the Middle Belt emerged the new head of state. His leadership was unacceptable to Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu, the Military Administrator of Eastern Region.

* Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi, first Military Head of State	* Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, Nigeria’s First PM	*Gen. Ramat Murtla Muhammad

* Col. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma plotted the counter coup on behalf of Northern Nigerian soldiers that brought General Yakubu Gowon to power in 1966 which finally led to the Nigeria-Biafran Civil War of 1966-1970. Over 1million civilians, mostly of Ibo extraction died in the fratricidal duel motivated more by greed, reprisals and revenge against Igbo soldiers.

* Nigeria ’s Head of State (1966-1975) * Col. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria (1966-1970)

The counter coup of July 1966 spilled over to civilian population of Igbo extraction residing in the Northern Region. The Hausa-Fulanis began to seize and butcher them as reprisal for the January 15, 1966 coup. This massacre which later became a pogrom led to the desertion of heavy Igbo population in the North who had to flee to the East. This finally led to a 30-month gruesome civil war. It was a senseless and irrational war ignited more by personality clashes and egos of both Yakubu and Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu than any ideological or altruistic motives. The rest ethnic group teamed up to contain the secessionist Eastern Region who had declared an independent state of Biafra. Gowon managed to win the war and succeeded to keep Nigeria one.

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But after the end of the civil war, General Gowon had no justifiable reason to remain in power. This was one of the reasons his Minister of Finance and Vice-Chairman of the ruling junta, Chief Obafemi Awolowo quit the government. Now that a semblance of normalcy seemed to have returned and Nigeria’s fragile unity was restored, Nigerians began to assess the performances of General Gowon and his lieutenants. Unfortunately, their balance sheet was unimpressive. Corruption scandals, nepotism and mismanagement charges began to trail the administration: some of Gowon’s Ministers and Governors became butts of accusations of pilfered funds, excesses and unethical behaviors from individuals, journalists and rights organizations. One Godwin Daboh, a social crusader from Gboko, Benue State took fellow kinsman, Joseph Sarwuan Tarka, then a Federal Minister to the cleaners, another Benue man, Mr. Aper Aku took the then Governor of old Benue-Plateau State, Police Commissioner, Joseph Gomwalk to court swearing to affidavits alleging wrongdoings. Mr. Amachree, a Port Harcourt-based journalist wrote a story about the opulent extravagance of the then Rivers State Governor, Alfred Diette-Spiff during his birthday celebrations. For daring to expose DietteSpiff’s excesses, the Governor ordered Amachree’s head shaved with broken bottle and illegally detained. General Yakubu Gowon himself as head of state was behaving like an Arab potentate. On a state visit to the island of Grenada in the Caribbean, he was told the civil servants of that tiny isthmus had down tools for unpaid salaries; he quickly announced the Nigerian government would pick the tab. In his interview with journalists, Gowon remarked that money was certainly not Nigeria’s problem but how to spend it.

Nigerians both at home and abroad were alarmed. All these excesses and bestiality were happening so soon after Nigeria emerged from a 3-year fratricidal duel. Critics began to excoriate Gowon and his henchmen. First, he was advised to do away with his embarrassing functionaries, set up probes into their shady deals and recover their stolen loot. Second, Nigerians demanded a transition to civil rule program so that Gowon and his military fat cats could retire to the barracks to face their traditional and constitutional roles of defending the nation from internal subversion and external aggression. Unexpectedly, Gowon did not respond to these cries. Instead of bringing his erring lieutenants to book, Gowon absolved them giving them a clean bill even without instituting enquiries into several allegations leveled against them. He refused to shuffle them giving perceptive Nigerians the impression Gowon had become hostage to his cabal and cult. Then to add insult into injury, Gowon was later to renege on his 1975 hand over date saying the date was no longer feasible. In short, Gowon was simply telling Nigerians he would rule indefinitely. The patience of Nigerians undoubtedly had been stretched beyond limit, national ennui had set in and Nigerians were fed up with Gowon and his charade. Even in the barracks, the rumblings were loud and clear enough for General Gowon to do something.

By 1975, Gowon’s ship of state had become unmistakably rudderless. As he left Nigeria for the annual OAU summit in Kampala, Uganda that year, two army colonels, Joe Garba, Gowon’s Principal Staff Officer at Doddan Barracks at Obalende, Ikoyi, Lagos and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua announced Gowon’s ouster via a military coup d’etat. From Uganda, Gowon went into exile in Great Britain. The young army officers invited Brigadier Murtala Ramat Mohammad, the Minister of Communications to head the new government. Muhammad accepted the offer and proceeded to choose Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo and Yakubu Danjuma as the Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters and Chief of Army Staff respectively.

Now MKO Abiola had his man Friday at the helm as Nigeria’s head of state…………………………………………………………………………………………

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NEXT WEEK

CHAPTER SIX

MKO ABIOLA AND THE OBASANJO-YAR’ADUA REGIME (1976-1979)

 

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