Shagari Was Overthrown, And General Muhammadu Buhari Was Installed As Head Of State-Today In History
By Mbonu Watson
On the last day of 1983-Dec-31, the army abandoned the barracks And Carried Out A Military Coup As Shagari Was Overthrown And General Muhammadu Buhari Was Installed As Head Of State
Two days later being 1984-01-02 Major-General Muhammadu Buhari is declared Head of State in Nigeria
Nigeria Military as of then claimed to have carried out the Military Coup In Order To “Save The Nation ( Nigeria ) from imminent collapse
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THE NEW ORDER OF MILITARY LEADERSHIP WAS INSTALLED NATIONWIDE
As usual, the Nigerian public welcomed news of a military coup d’etat and the overthrow of a Government they elected.
The officers who led the coup-installed Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as Head of State, and as the Chairman of a new Supreme Military Council (SMC) In 1984.
The tables below show the members of the new SMC and the Military Governors appointed by the new regime After Shagari Was Overthrown, And General Muhammadu Buhari Was Installed As Head Of State
JANUARY 1984: SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL
| Name | Position | State of Origin
|
| Major-General Muhammadu Buhari |
| Katsina |
| Brigadier (later Major-General) Tunde Idiagbon | Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters | Kwara State |
| Major-General Domkat Bali | Defence Secretary | Plateau |
| Major-General Ibrahim Babangida | Chief of Army Staff | Niger |
| Commodore Augustus Aikhomu | Chief of Naval Staff | Bendel |
| Air Vice Marshal Ibrahim Mahmud Alfa | Chief of Air Staff | Adamawa |
| Major-General Mamman Jiya Vatsa | Minister of the Federal Capital Territory | Niger |
| Brigadier Yohanna Kure | GOC, 82 Division – Enugu | Kaduna |
| Brigadier Ola Oni | General Officer Commanding, 1stMechanised Infantry Division – Kaduna | Lagos |
| Brigadier Sani Abacha | General Officer Commanding, 2ndArmoured Division – Ibadan | Kano |
| Colonel Salihu Ibrahim | GOC, 3rd Mechanised Division – Kaduna | Kwara |
| Brigadier Mohammed Magoro | Minister of Internal Affairs | Sokoto |
| Brigadier Gado Nasko | Niger | |
| Brigadier Paul Omu | Bendel | |
| Navy Captain Ebitu Ukiwe | Imo | |
| Air Commodore Larry Koinyan | Rivers |
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JANUARY 1984: MILIARTY GOVERNOR
| STATE | MILITARY GOVERNOR
|
| Anambra | Navy Captain Allison Madueke |
| Bendel | Brigadier Jerry Useni |
| Benue | Brigadier John Atom Kpera |
| Borno | Major-General W.A.Waziri |
| Cross Rivers | Navy Captain Ekpo Archibong |
| Gongola | Major-General M.D.Jega |
| Imo | Brigadier Ike Nwachukwu |
| Kaduna | Air-Commodore U.Muazu |
| Kano | Air-Commodore Abdullahi |
| Kwara | Group Captain B.Latinwo |
| Lagos | Group Captain Gbolahan Mudashiru |
| Niger | Lt-Colonel David Mark |
| Ogun | Lt-Colonel Donaldson Oladipo Diya |
| Ondo | Commodore Michael Otiko |
| Oyo | Lt-Col O.Popoola |
| Plateau | Navy Captain Samuel Atukun |
| Rivers | Police Commissioner Fidelis Oyakhilome |
| Sokoto | Brigadier Garba Duba |
Shagari Was Overthrown, And General Muhammadu Buhari Was Installed As Head Of State, With Other SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL And MILIARTY GOVERNOR
President Shehu Shagari was overthrown only three months after being re-elected for his second and final term of office in an election that was marred by accusations of electoral malpractice.
Scarred by the memory of the mass bloodshed that followed the bloody military coups of 1966, the coup plotters wisely did not harm any senior Government figures.
The only casualty of the coup was Brigadier Ibrahim Bako who was killed while trying to arrest President Shagari in Abuja. Some have speculated that Bako was the leader of the coup.
If Shagari had taken a look at Nigeria’s history books, he would have noticed that the country’s military coups have almost always been carried out by the same group of soldiers.
The young NCOs and Lieutenants that blasted Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi from power in 1966, became Colonels that overthrew his successor General Gowon in 1975, and they became the Brigadiers and Major-Generals that overthrew Shagari.
Had Shagari acted decisively early during his term and retired these men, his Government may have survived (the only notable senior officer retired by Shagari was Major-General Joe Garba – who had double-crossed his own brother in law during a military coup in 1975).
Oversight of history and military postings played a part in Shagari’s downfall. Had he, in his position as the Nigerian Armed Forces’ Commander-in-Chief, paid more attention to sensitive military postings he would have noticed that many of the officers who took part in the coup were stationed in or in proximity to the country’s commercial nerve center in Lagos.
Among the plotters stationed in Lagos where the army’s Director of Staff Duties and Plans:
Major-General Ibrahim Babangida, the Military Secretary: Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, and a hitherto unknown brigade commander called Brigadier Sani Abacha.
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