JUSTICIA on The Southerner Newspaper
Sunday, July 27, 2025

When Major General Ibrahim Babaginda ousted the Buhari/Idiagbon Regime on August 27, 1985, he had successfully pulled off the fifth military coup in which he had been involved (the only one that he was not a party to had been the Dimka coup of 1976 which claimed the life of General Muritala Mohammed).

The then Lt. Col. Ibrahim Babagida gained fame in and out of the barracks when he was ordered to crush the Dimka coup, which he reportedly did disarmed. As a Lieutenant Colonel, he was one of the youngest members of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) in the Murtala/Obasanjo regime in1975.

At the fall of the Shehu Shagari Administration, he was rewarded with the most strategic position in the military hierarchy, that of Chief of Army Staff. Throughout the 18 months that Buhari was in power, Babaginda maintained a low profile, watching closely to see when the Buhari regime would step far enough out of line so he could pounce.

For him, Buhari who was no less a place holder was held ramrod by the no nonsense and unsmiling Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon. During the period, Babaginda granted only one newspaper interview in which he sent a veiled threat to the Buhari/Idiagbon dui. It was also a warning to young officers against ‘undue radicalism’.

He was aware of grumblings in the barracks and the larger society about the tyrannical drift of the Buhari/Idiagbon regime and the worsening economic situation in the country. He did not want young officers to scuttle his plans by any precipitate action, hence the warning.

As a reconnaissance officer, Babagida was trained to operate with stealth, monitoring his potential adversaries in the upper enchelons of the junta and assessing the strength of his troops in the barracks as he plotted to seize power. As the head of ‘Recce’ (reconnaissance) before he took the position of Army Chief, he knew that whether in a war or peacetime, that training could be put to effective use by keenly watching and monitoring events in the barracks.

Buhari, characteristically, had a reputation for being aloof and reticent, and for delegating serious issues of state to his deputy, Brigadier General Tunde Idiagbon for implementation. Consequently, Babagida’s frequent visits to the barracks gave the aloof Buhari no cause for concern, and any warnings from the National Security Organization (NSO) and military intelligence were waved aside.

This character, was to define Buhari’s administration, thirthy years later. Col Chris Alli the then director of Military Intelligence said he warned Brigadier Idiagbon about an imminent coup plot but Idiagbon simply replied ‘let them try’. What an empty brag!

If Buhari and Idiagbon had acted, the nation would have been spared the peril of the prolonged Babangida – Abacha plutocracy. That would have been a major political legacy.

Meanwhile, Babagida continued to pay nocturnal visits to Army barracks to mix with younger officers to feel their pulse on national issues. Unknown to Buhari, he was also building a network of loyal officers, rewarding them generously, especially when they were in need.

Babangida was to build a formidable team within the Army- the ‘IBB boys’ whom he would deploy any time there were stirrings in the barracks.

When Babagida felt that Buhari’s time was up, he reached out to his good friend Chief Moshood Abiola (MKO) to bankroll the coup. A coup like – every quest for power- cost money. Chief Abiola generously obliged.

Babagida who in his private capacity was reported to be very wealthy, could easily have financed the coup alone, but why spend his own money when he had generous and rich friends like Abiola? The dribbling general knew that discretion was the better part of valor.

In the business of coup planning, he had gained a reputation which he was to exploit to the hilt. Buhari had incurred the wrath of Abiola when he shut Abiola’s Concord Newspapers in the aftermath of the mad dog affair.

As it turned out, the ousting of Buhari was a piece of cake. Stern-faced Idiagbon was safely in Saudi Arabia with his son to perform the lesser Hajj (Umra) when the IBB boys struck. With Idiagbon out of the way, Buhari woke up holding an empty bag. The gra gra gra associated with absolute power, which corrupts absolutely, had gone up in smoke.

He was plucked by the avaricious IBB boys and shipped off to Benin City where he spent three years in detention. The lesson of that moment which was to define Buhari’s political trajectory was that being aloof has its consequencies.

Whether he learnt any lesson from it the nation was to find out three decades later. In his maiden speech, President Babagida turned to public sentiments by acknowledging the autocratic character of the Buhari/Idiagbon military rule and denouncing it as not serving the best interest of Nigerians: ‘’We must never allow ourselves to lose the sense of natural justice.The innocent cannot suffer the crimes of the guilty. The guilty should be punished only as a lesson for the future. In line with this government’s intention to uphold fundamental human rights, the issue of detainees will be looked into with dispatch*.

That speech as it turned out, was a ploy to gain legitimacy as was typical of coup speeches. But it was exactly what Nigerians – already satiated with an iron fist regime wanted to hear.

Babagida announced the repeal of the Public Officers ( Proctection Against False Accusation) Decree No, 4 of 1984 under which two of the Guardian journalists, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor were imprisoned for one year, stating that: ’we do not intend to lead a country where individuals are under the fear of expressing themselves.’

He then granted political prisoners state pardon and orderd their immediate release. As he continued to release the policy objectives of his administration, Babagida reaffirmed his government’s intention to respect human rights, stressing that: “I believe in human right. Jungle justice is not part of the better society; we in this administration do not believe in the unfortunate idea that Nigerians can never be made to accept responsibilities for their cause except through government-sponsored terror and repression.

He took the unprecedented step od disbanding the NSO, the secret police headed by former diplomat Lawal Rafindidadi and ordered a review of the detention of politicians, some of whom he was later to release.

Babagida also sought to appease elder statesmen, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo by releasing their international passports that had being seized by the NSO. To rub in the total humiliation of the secret police which had gone beyond their brief by investigating the wives of senior Army Officers for drug trafficking, and had the temerity to sniff around army barracks, Babagida ordered that the detention centers be opened to the press for scrutiny.

He had to convince Nigerians that he would respect human rights and the rule of law and that it was Buhari and Idiagbon who were responsible for the arbitrariness that characterised the ousted administration of which he had been a member.

Like a missionary, Babangida reviewed the nation’s history and lamented: “This country has had since independence a history mixed with turbulence and fortune. We have witnessed our rise to greatness, followed by a decline to the state a bewildered nation. Our human potentials have been neglected; our natural resources are put to waste.

“A phenomenon of constant insecurity and overbearing uncertainty has become characteristics of our national existence. My colleagues and I are determined to change this course of history”.

Of the 36 years since he spoke those words, Babangida spent almost ten years in power. His colleague, Sani Abacha spent another six years in power and like a cruel joke, Buhari, who was blamed for the state of affairs, described above, returned to power in 2015.

If repeated now, that speech would be as apt today as it was then. If Babangida and his colleagues intended to change the course of Nigeria’s history for the better, the state of the nation now is worse today than Buhari met it in 2015 and eight years after his adventure in power.

Buhari, Babangida, Abacha and their cohorts did not quite appreciate the gravity of toying with the destiny of the nation when they plotted their coups and captured power for themselves. During the Abacha tyranny, he headed a relatively popular Buhari who had escaped with a modicum of respect in the society as a relatively clean officer, and in the eyes of the Northern masses, the Maigaskiya, the truthful one.