NewStats: 3,262,702 , 8,177,906 topics. Date: Tuesday, 03 June 2025 at 10:31 AM 4l1e1v

THE plot that led to the assassination of former Head of State, Major General Murtala Muhammed on February 13, 1976, started from the day he took over in 1975 because he refused to accept a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement, according to former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

After the coup that ousted General Yakubu Gowon, he said Murtala Muhammed shunned expectations of younger officers to run a ‘collective’ istration and this led to plots to remove him.

IBB said this in his autobiography: A Journey in Service,” which was launched last Thursday.

He also recounted how Murtala Muhammed won the hearts of Nigerians through popular actions but regretted that the country was yet to recover from the mass sack of top civil servants in 1975.

He wrote: The day after the coup, 37-year-old Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammed emerged as the new head of state. But, contrary to the general perception, his emergence as Head of State didn’t come about smoothly. On the evening after the coup, a meeting of senior officers, including Brigade Commanders and GOCs, was convened at the Dodan Barracks at the instance of one of the top military officers, possibly Lt-Col. Yar’Adua (or was it Colonel M. I. Wushishi?).

One of the accusations against General Gowon (which, in retrospect, seemed unfair) was that he ran the business of governance ‘like a one-man show’! So, we, the ‘younger’ senior officers who had played a role in the coup, decided that the new post-Gowon government’s leadership must be overtly collective. So, while we concluded that Brigadier Murtala Muhammed should be the head of state, our preference was for him to operate only as first among equals, especially in his dealings with the two other prominent senior officers, Brigadiers Olusegun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma.
Rough beginning
But we knew Muhammed enough to know he would need to be persuaded to accept such an arrangement.

So, while the rest of us ‘younger’ senior officers waited in an adjacent room, Colonel Wushishi, Lieutenant-Colonels Joe Garba, Abdullahi Mohammed and Yar’Adua took Brigadiers Muhammed, Obasanjo and Danjuma to another room to negotiate the of our proposal for a triumvirate-type leadership where Muhammed will be required to share power with Obasanjo and Danjuma.

I couldn’t describe the mood since we were absent from that meeting.

But we were close enough to pick up Muhammed’s thundering voice, rejecting such proposals outrightly. As far as I , the meeting lasted for hours past midnight. Finally, Murtala Muhammed agreed to be head of state while insisting that he would not be beholden to anyone as head of state!

In a prompt style that typified his leadership, he quickly announced several retirements the next day, just as he made new appointments. All officers above the rank of Major-General or senior to any new government member were compulsorily retired.

Mass retirements

Those retired included such persons as the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Vice-iral Joseph Wey; the Deputy Chief of Staff,(Army), Major-General David Ejoor; the Chief of Naval Salem; the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, T. A. Fagbola and Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo.

These retirements were followed simultaneously with new appointments. While the Commissioner for Works and Housing from the old SMC, Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo, replaced Vice- iral Wey as the new Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Brigadier Theophilus Danjuma replaced Major-General Ejoor as the Chief of Staff (Army). Danjuma would change the designation of that position upon resumption of office to ‘Chief of Army Staff,’ which has remained the designation ever since.

The only surviving senior army officer from Gowon’s SMC, Brigadier Iliya Bisalla, also the NDA’s Commandant, became Minister of Defence. Alhaji Mohammed Dikko Yusuf became the Inspector-General of Police.

Colonel John Yisa-Doko took over from Brigadier Emmanuel Ikwue as Chief of Air Staff, while Commodore Michael Adelanwa replaced Rear iral Nelson Soroh as Chief of Naval Staff.

Sack of governors
While all the military state governors and the of the East Central state were ‘relieved of their appointments and retired with immediate effect,’ the SMC wore a new look with the appointment of four new GOCs: Brigadier Julius Ipoola Alani Akinrinade, GOC 1 Division, Kaduna; Brigadier Martin Adamu, GOC 2 Division, Ibadan; Brigadier Emmanuel Abisoye, GOC 3 Division, Jos, and Brigadier John Obada, GOC, Lagos Garrison Organisation. Except for Lt-Col. Alfred Aduloju, who was in the SMC as the Commander of the Signals Corps, and I, who was there in my capacity as Commander of the Armoured Corps, other of the 20-man strong SMC were senior military officers who held critical political appointments as Commissioners. These were Brigadier James Oluleye (Establishments), Colonel Joseph Nanven Garba (External Affairs), Colonel Dan Suleiman (Health), Lt-Col. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (Transport), and Navy Captain Olufemi Olumide (Works & Housing).

The remaining two other of the SMC, Lt-Commander Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu (Navy) and Lt- Col. Muktar Mohammed (Army), held no political appointments.

The early days of the Muhammed istration witnessed an unprecedented wave of retirements in Nigeria’s public service that had never been seen before. After the twelve military governors from the Gowon era were compulsorily retired, the government ordered a probe of their conduct in office.

Ten of the twelve governors were found guilty of illegal enrichment and ‘dismissed with ignominy.’
Brigadiers Oluwole Rotimi and Mobolaji Johnson were the only two.

Some civilian of the Gowon cabinet were also found to have enriched themselves illegally. Apart from Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the Finance Commissioner and Alhaji Ali Monguno, who affected thousands of civil servants, many top civil servants were also caught in the web of asset forfeiture of ill-gotten assets.

Looking back now and writing as a member of the SMC, I realise we probably overdid the retirement exercise.

The idea of retiring corrupt and incompetent public officers was appropriate. But in the surge of events, some civil servants may have been victims of an unfair witch-hunt. Goaded on by a seemingly over-exuberant mass media, we didn’t look deeply at the implications of the mass some of those affected).

Return to civil rule programme
With the retirements saga behind him, Murtala Muhammed hit the road running. Convinced that a critical priority for his istration was the quick return of the country to civilian democratic rule. He promptly announced the return date as October 1, 1979. Then, with speed and decisiveness that would endear him to many Nigerians, Muhammed quickly accepted Justice Aguda’s recommendation for a Federal capital in the present location and Justice Ayo Irikefe’s ’s recommendation for the creation of more states.

Accordingly, he promptly created seven new states, bringing the number of states from twelve to nineteen.The new states were: Ogun and Ondo (created out of the old West); Anambra and Imo (from the old East-Central State); Niger (created from the old North-Western State); Benue (from the old Benue-Plateau State); and from the old North-Eastern State, Bauchi was created.

A footnote to the creation of the new states saga should be mentioned here, even if only in ing. When Justice Irikefe’s on the creation of states recommended the creation of Niger State, among others, the also recommended Bida as capital, inadvertently ignoring the fact that Minna was the provincial capital of the old Niger Province and should, in my view, be picked as the capital of the new state. A simple fact of history inspired my position on the matter. As two of the three old emirates of the old Niger Province with first-class Emirs, Kontagora and Bida, cancel an unusually smiling Murtala Muhammed put his thumbs up for Minna over Bida.

Murtala Muhammed could be impulsive, but as head of state, he was, surprisingly, not brash. Those of us younger officers who got closer to him, usually during SMC meetings, saw a softer, more has stuck with me ever since.

Equally, in foreign policy matters, Muhammed earned the iration, especially that of his fellow stance concerning the cold-war politics of the era, but he boldly ed the Marxist-oriented People’s Movement for the Gerald Ford of the United States. When it became clear that the opposition movements in Angola (FNLA and UNITA), under providing adequate resources to MPLA for its liberation struggles.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/02/plot-against-murtala-muhammed-started-from-day-1-ibb/

IBB suppose hold is confession to him self because it can't change anything. The damage is already done

If the first coup was perpetrated by Muslims everything would have been termed a Jihad.

But now all those who took part in it were mainly Christians!

Then we move to their ethnicity!

They were 95% Igbos!

And Igbos are 90% Christians!

No Jihad! But what?

How i wish there was no subsidy at all from those IBB times!

This man shud be arrested and jailed

For 100yrs

Does it matter when it started?

Ok

CIA killed d guy. They just used Dimka to carry out their plan. Immediately Obj was sworn in the Americans flooded Nigeria.

Murtala and Abacha were independent minded leaders., including MKO b4 Abacha unleashed terror on him when he start romancing BBC and VOA.They don't believe in d West.
Obj is a slave to d West.A very unpatriotic Nigerian who has benefited immensely from everything the country could offer.He's at d center of Nigeria destruction.Hope he will write his confessions one day.

Babangida ti n ka bi ajẹ

I wonder why people revere this man..
Baba is the foundation of everything wrong with this country.

Does it matter? After over 30 years. When plenty water don under bridge.

BabangidaLand

Abacha has been dead for a long time.

Not once have we heard IBB advocate for Abiola to be given his presidential entitlements posthumously.

When Abacha was alive, he said he was scared of Abacha.

Are you still scared of Abacha's ghost.

Why havent you spoken up for the Abiola if it was Abacha that was really the problem ?

It was Buhari that honored him post-humously.

Please the Federal Government should name Minna Airport or FUT Minna after Abiola........

This man was part of almost all the coup, and yet his victims/ relatives of his victims still gathered to fund his yeye book

Same thing you did to Buhari and refused to accept same from Gideon Orkar.

Another fallen soldier from the South

IBB was a master of the game.

...did he mention the roles of the Western powers in all these?!

This IBB book is being reviewed in piecemeal for comments and likes while we’re tactically being forced to overlook the USAID saga.

He who controls the media, controls your mind.

... And he died a well-deserved death... Though I wish it was more like that of Samuel Doe.. A bit more painful especially for a genocidal manic. Unfortunately, we have memoralized him with an international airport!

Nice write up.... conclusion, Nigeria was under serious experiment at the time, thus the mistakes

Moving forward, we need to learn from our mistakes and change our ally...very important

God will judge everybody

vRendoh:
...did he mention the roles of the Western powers in all these?!

My mind is telling me this book will trigger something serious in Nigeria, either positive or negative

Who's still listening to this evil man who killed his childhood friend.

This guy should go and sit down jare

oyeb15:
CIA killed d guy. They just used Dimka to carry out their plan. Immediately Obj was sworn in the Americans flooded Nigeria.

Murtala and Abacha were independent minded leaders., including MKO b4 Abacha unleashed terror on him when he start romancing BBC and VOA.They don't believe in d West.
Obj is a slave to d West.A very unpatriotic Nigerian who has benefited immensely from everything the country could offer.He's at d center of Nigeria destruction. Hope he will write his confessions one day.

Abacha don't believe in the west but was doing everything within his power to become a civilian president because of the pressure from the west. Some of you guys do talk about what you have no idea of

AbuTwins:


If the first coup was perpetrated by Muslims everything would have been termed a Jihad.

But now all those who took part in it are mainly Christians!

Then we move to their ethnicity!

They were 95% Igbos!

And Igbos are 90% Christians!

No Jihad! But what?

How i wish there was no subsidy at all from those IBB times!

Your brain need surgery abi your eye get problem to read well

KARMA did not waste time to Locate Murtala Mohammed for his wicked and evil involvement in the October 1967 Asaba Massacre during the Nigerian Civil War.
Murtala Mohammed escaped justice, because he should have been tried for crime's against humanity.
As the Commander of the 2nd Division of the NIGERIA Army Murtala targeted women, children, and aged people all were pure civilian's and killed them in the open field.
Murtala Mohammed is an evil human being, but unfortunately NIGERIA short memory of history makes this Generation to celebrate Murtala Mohammed as a National Hero.
Although some War analyst trade the blame on Yakubu Gowon, that it may have been possible that Murtala Mohammed got orders from Gowon to carry out the execution of those civilian's on that fateful day.
But till date Yakubu Gowon refused to ownup that he was the person who gave the orders for the Asaba Massacre.
The pepetriators of that Massacre was,
Murtala Mohammed, Ibrahim Haruna, Ibrahim Taiwo.
Murtala Mohammed deserve what he got .
God will Judge them.

Paraman:
Abacha don't believe in the west but was doing everything within his power to become a civilian president because of the pressure from the west. Some of you guys do talk about what you have no idea of

Did Zelensky believe in Trump? He's he not trying to bow to pressure