• More news on IBB book launch
No doubt, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida’s new book is still stirring the nation.
His memoir talks about a lot, sheds light on some confusion of the past, but fails to speak to the need of average Nigerian. For example, he said no new things different from what is already known about the fairest June 12 election which he annulled.
However, his reasons on why Gen. Murtala Muhammed was killed is the only first-hand revelation about the second brutal change of power coming from an insider.
Major General Murtala Muhammed was killed on February 13, 1976. The third military Head of State after wartime military leader, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Muhammed was assassinated because of greed, IBB revealed.
After the success of the bloodless coup that brought him to power, Murtala refused to accept a power-sharing arrangement. He wanted to be in total control, to wield absolute power in the land.
Colonel M.I. Wushishi, Lt-Col Joe Garba, Lt-Col Abdullahi Mohammed, and Lt-Col Shehu Yar’Adua, who were also senior officers but younger to Murtala, came to him. They tried to convince him to run a collective administration with Brigadiers Olusegun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma. Murtala rejected the proposal.
“We were close enough to pick up Murtala Muhammed’s thundering voice, rejecting such proposals outrightly. The meeting lasted past midnight. Finally, he agreed to be Head of State but insisted he would not share power,” IBB wrote in the memoir.
IBB Book Launch: The final nail on Murtala Muhammed’s coffin
As soon as he assumed power, Major General Murtala Muhammed implemented sweeping reforms that were only meant to consolidate his position as a despot. He announced mass retirement of top military officers the following day, and appointed subservient new ones to fill those gaps.
Vice-Admiral Joseph Wey (Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters), Major-General David Ejoor (Deputy Chief of Staff, Army), Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo, T.A. Fagbola (Deputy Inspector-General of Police), who were top military officers, and thousands others were sacked without warning.
This is for the home front. His foreign policies also annoyed the Western world.
Murtala Muhammed supported the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against Western-backed factions. He also refused to be shaken by the then-president of US, Gerald Ford.
His general stance was against the elite, the powerful, and against colonial influences. While this won him some considerable public admiration, it also made him an irresistible target of assassination.
On February 13, 1976, only six months into power, Murtala Muhammed was assassinated by Lt-Col Buka Suka Dimka.
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