Of brave men and failed coups
Whispering Drums With Maigani
by Musa Ibrahim
When I first heard the rumours (as it was) that some soldiers had been caught plotting to overthrow President Ibrahim Babangida I was frankly incredulous.
Indeed, I told the person who was offering me the information that not only did I consider the story false, I offered the theory that this was a deliberate campaign of misinformation that had been launched by the Kaduna Mafia. "That is one of their tactics,' I said, they spread lies and rumours when they feel left out of the centre of power; it is aimed at causing confusion among the people.'"
Even though I still believe this my theory to be true, it obviously did not apply this time, for my informant was obviously correct and eventually the story came out officially.
A number of soldiers, mostly air force officers, had been caught in yet another 'katakata' attempt. My first reaction after the news was confirmed was, 'well, what do you expect? For as long as Nigerian soldiers believe that the guns bought for them with the taxpayers' money entitle them to impose themselves on the nation as rulers, things will always occur. Obviously every single soldier wants to be head of state of Nigeria, and so obviously do they crave this that they don't even care any more if there is no state for as long as they are the Head.
The surprise of many Nigerians seems to stem from the identities of the 14 names that have so far been released as being linked to the plot. The biggest fish of all Major-Gen Vatsa - has shocked many people and the newspapers in particular have waxed lyrical in their condemnation. It appears difficult to reconcile the image of the soldier-poet with the plot that allegedly aimed at blowing up Babangida in the air or throwing a bomb on Dodan Barracks.
The interesting thing about all this is the apparent reaction of the Nigerian people. NO MORE COUPS is the chorus that has greeted the announcement. There have even been demonstrations to drive home the point. Under normal circum- stances one would say that we are making progress if people feel strongly enough about the harm caused by military inter- ventions to go out to demonstrate, then all is not lost.
But then the cynic in me wonders what would have been the reaction if the plotters had succeeded. Supposing, Allah forbid, the plotters had succeeded and blown up President Babangida and had gone on the radio to announce a takeover, would there have been people to challenge them? Would civilians have gone onto the streets to protest against the takeover? Would there have been newspaper editorials telling the new rulers that their action was unjustified?
I have this terrible feeling that if the plotters had succeeded, there would have been newspaper editorials, feature articles and radio commentaries praising the new group of soldiers for having 'saved' Nigeria from President Babangida. I can imagine the scene and the new scramble for positions that would have ensued. For it seems that in the Nigerian scheme of things all you need to be accorded the accolade of a patriot is to succeed in forcefully overthrowing a government. Once you fail you get all the abuse that the human mind can imagine.
From the rumours that have been making the rounds since the announcement, it is easy to see that had the plotters succeeded they too would have found a nice speech to make that would have been applauded. It has been claimed that they had prepared two different contingency speeches, one to read in case President Babangida opted for the IMF option and the other one in case he rejected the IMF In other words they just wanted an excuse like all other military interventionists before them. They did not really care about the merits or demerits of IMF induced economic measures and most probably did not even understand anyway. All they knew was that using such excuses would strike responsive chords with some newspaper people and once they lead the way the chorus would follow.
If a member of the overthrown government, ie. the Babangida government, had then had the nerve to challenge the new rulers, all the newspapers would have descended on that person like a pack of hounds and labelled him public enemy number one. It is all too easy to support somebody when he is in a winning position, and those who are armed will always take advantage of this.
It would be a good idea if all those presently condemning the coup plotters would discover their voices and lofty ideas the next time another group of soldiers succeed in overthrowing yet another government.
While I was musing on these events came the announcement of the strangest twist of all to the coup story, that a plane belonging to the presidential fleet had crashed killing some of the coup plotters as they were being taken from their base in Makurdi to Kaduna to be questioned, A thousand and one questions, of course, arise and speculation has been rife. There is the theory that the 'accident' was inspired to keep some of the accused people silent before they can be questioned and they would reveal the identities of their civilian associates; then there is the theory of the 'angry radicals' who are fed up with President Babangida's liberal and 'democratic' ways who have decided to take matters into their own hands -- if the plotters wanted to blow up the President in the air let them be blown in the air themselves and save the country another long round of trials. The theories are many and as fanciful as a fertile imagination can invent.
Through the entire messy business one can only hope that some lessons will be learnt. Can you imagine a situation under a constitutional government whereby there can be such a plane crash and there will be no announcement for three days! Who knows, the day might yet come when unarmed civilians will force a victorious group of soldiers who have seized power back into the barracks where they belong
