BABANGIDA: THE EARLY YEARS OF THE
"EVIL GENIUS"
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By Max Siollun
April 28, 2008
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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."
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/
Contact: maxsiollun@yahoo.com
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.”
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