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Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida is one of
the most controversial figures in Nigeria’s history. Despite having been
out of power for fast approaching 15 years he still elicits as many column inches
and honourable mentions as he did when he was Head of State. Babangida is
a complex multi-dimensional character. His antecedents as a political
leader are well known. The purpose of this article is to shed light on
his early life and on the days before he became a household name in Nigeria.
Babangida was born to Gwari parents
on August 17, 1941 in Minna, Niger State. His parents were Muhammad
Badamasi and Inna Aishatu Babangida. He was the eldest of six children
and was not born into an affluent environment. Of those six children,
four died as infants and his sister Hannatu is his only surviving
sibling. His father Muhammad was born in Wushishi in Niger State and
later migrated to Minna. In 1950 he began his primary school education at
the Native Authority School in Minna where his classmates included another
future Nigerian army General and Head of State Abdulsalami Abubakar. The
two men’s relationship went further. When Babangida's father died in
Kontagora in 1955 and his mother also died shortly afterward, Babangida and his
sister were sent to live with relatives. They lived in the same household
as Abdulsalam Abubakar.
While still at primary school,
Babangida had his first brush with the military world when army recruiters came
to his school as part of a recruitment drive to encourage northern youths to
join the army. They encouraged Babangida and his classmates to join the
Nigerian Military School (then known as the Boys Company) but his family
decided that Babangida was too young to enrol. He would get another
chance later. After leaving the Native Authority School in 1956,
Babangida gained admission to the Government College, Bida, in 1957. Once
again army recruiters turned up to speak the students on the merits of a
military career. This time he took the bait. Babangida and 15 of
his school colleagues (including Mamman Jiya Vatsa) sat the entrance exam for
admission into the Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC) in Kaduna, and 11
passed. Babangida’s school graduating class from 1962 reads like a “who’s
who” of prominent Nigerian army officers. Professor Jerry Gana was a
subsequent alumnus of the school.
Babangida and Vatsa enrolled at the
NMTC on the same day (December 10, 1962), with Babangida passing out on April
20, 1963. Babangida found his niche in the army. While at the NMTC
both Vatsa and Babangida met a diminutive, quiet young Kanuri man from Kano
whose life would continually mesh with theirs for decades. The man they
met was called Sani Abacha. Babangida received his commission as a Second
Lieutenant in the Nigerian army in 1963 at the age of 22. Together with
his classmates from the Government College, Bida and his coursemates at the
NMTC, Babangida formed a formed a formidable cabal of coup plotting officers
that would dominate Nigeria’s political and military evolution for the next
four decades. Starting with his classmates from Bida, this cabal was
enlarged to include other like minded officers such as Muhammadu Buhari, Sani
Abacha and Paul Tarfa. After attending the NMTC he proceeded to the
Indian Military Academy from where he graduated in April 1964. His ever
present friend Vatsa also attended the Indian Military Academy with him.
Upon his return to Nigeria he was posted to the 1st reconnaissance
squadron in Kaduna. His commanding officer was the blue blooded son of
the Emir of Katsina, Major Hassan Katsina. This squadron and the 2nd
reconnaissance squadron in Abeokuta would later evolve into the Nigerian army’s
armoured corps, in which Babangida was to be a pivotal figure, and which played
crucial roles in future military coups. Babangida served as a member of
the Nigerian army units sent to quell the disturbances taking place in the Tiv
region. While serving under Katsina, a pivotal event occurred in Kaduna
which changed Babangida’s life forever. On January 15th 1966 a group of
young army Majors overthrew the civilian government of Tafawa Balewa.
Elsewhere in Kaduna a young and charismatic instructor at the NMTC who was
acquainted with Babangida murdered the Premier of the Northern Region Alhaji
Sir Ahmadu Bello.
Babangida’s next course was at the
Royal Armoured Centre in the United Kingdom for the young officers’ course,
which he completed on April 24, 1966. When he returned to Nigeria, he was
promoted to Lieutenant. Several of his colleagues and contemporaries such
as T.Y Danjuma, Muhammadu Buhari and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua were also promoted by
the military government of Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi. However the
political temperature was close to boiling point. The atmosphere in the
barracks was volcanic as the army factionalised along regional lines with
northern and Igbo officers accusing each other of plotting the annihilation of
the other. Although at the time he was convinced that the January coup
was a sectionally motivated coup by Igbos against the north, in a subsequent
interview, Babangida later admitted that the Majors’ coup:
"was not an Igbo based thing as
far as I could imagine but the execution of the coup was poorly done and made
people to think that it was one sided. I could recall Nzeogwu saying that some
chaps in the south let him down because they had not been able to carry out the
instruction the way he wanted them."[1]
On July 28, 1966 northern officers
mutinied at the Abeokuta garrison. Within days the mutinies spread
nationwide and northern soldiers murdered their Igbo colleagues in reprisals
for the murder of northern leaders and soldiers during the January Majors’
coup. Babangida was among the mutineers. Further details regarding
this coup will follow in a forthcoming book by this author, but it suffices to
say that Babangida’s new commanding officer Major Ukpo Isong was murdered
during the mutiny by men from his own unit.
http://maxsiollun.wordpress.com/
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Next part: “The drama was not
over. The officer who announced the coup over the airwaves (Lt-Colonel
B.S. Dimka) was a friend of Babangida going back several years.”
[1] Newswatch – January 8, 1990.
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Posted by Robot| 09.04.2008 14:57