It was around 4am on Sunday, April 22nd 1990; Ibrahim Babangida, Military President of Nigeria, was about to board a ship to escape to the UK. His government had been overthrown and he had barely escaped from the seat of government, Dodan Barracks, with his life. His trusted and loyal ADC, Lt. Col. U.K. Bello, had been killed in a hail of bullets but not before he had ensured his boss was ferried to a private residence somewhere in Lagos for safety.
Just as Babangida was boarding the ship, a Corporal in the Army loyal to the President boldly stepped forward and said: “General, sir, with all due respect, you can't leave. We are going to crush these dissidents, and if you leave it will look like you were a coward that ran away.” The Corporal was the lone voice speaking this opinion. Despite the prevailing circumstances, it took a lot of boldness for a Corporal to speak directly like that to his Commander‑in‑Chief. The President’s wife and family had already boarded the naval ship.
At that time of day, the odds were strongly against IBB. Dodan Barracks had been taken, and contact with his key ally, Chief of Army Staff Sani Abacha, was not certain. We may never know what convinced IBB, but he stepped off the ship and began working on strategies. Unknown to him at that time, that Sunday was not supposed to be the D‑Day for the coup. The coup plotters led by Gideon Orkar only struck because the coup had possibly leaked. A batch of his men riding in the popular Peugeot J5 buses of those days had been stopped at a police checkpoint. Not knowing what the police would find out, they had moved the coup date back. This led to a thoroughly disorganized coup, exactly like the Dimka coup of 1975, which ironically IBB then a Colonel had personally crushed.
Tony Nyiam, a Lieutenant Colonel, had led the onslaught on Dodan Barracks. It is said that he was at the Presidential quarters on a visit to see his friend, U.K. Bello, and they had been playing draft all evening. Unknown to the ADC, Colonel Nyiam had other plans. He was busy spying and somehow removed the firing pins from the armored personnel carriers stationed at Dodan Barracks. This eventually led to the death of Bello, as when the shooting started, Bello tried to personally take one of the APCs and it didn’t work. He was shot dead, and his wife says Col. Nyiam himself killed her husband. Nyiam later disputed that account, adding that IBB sacrificed Bello.
The first gunshots were reportedly fired around 12:30am at Dodan Barracks, and the plotters took some of the armored carriers on an assault on the Presidential quarters. They took temporary control of weapons and men from the Ojo and Ikeja cantonments, Bonny Camp, and Apapa military police armory. But their failure to get their hands on the Army’s powerful T‑55 tanks would eventually be their misfortune, as these same tanks would be used to crush them. Many of the men who joined the coup were co‑opted that morning; some were even released detainees from the guard rooms.
By 7am, after a long drawn gun battle, Dodan Barracks had been deserted with the gates flung open. For the first time ever, there was no security checkpoint at the Barracks gate. Also, for the first time in the history of coups in Nigeria, government troops battled coup plotters on the open streets. Citizens watched from afar as gun battles raged at the Obalende Bridge well into the late hours of the morning.
The great mistake of the Orkar coup was the failure to arrest the strongman of the government, Minister of Defence and Chief of Army Staff Sani Abacha just like the Major Nzeogwu coup where they failed (or as some have inferred, Major Ifejuna chose not) to arrest General Ironsi. Any coup not complete by 5am in Nigeria is dead on arrival. All successful coups are done by 4am and the speech to the nation is broadcast at dawn. The failure of the coupists to arrest Abacha at the Flag Staff House allowed him to rally troops. One of the first steps he took was to contact as many commanders as possible to get their commitments of loyalty.
By midday, the Orkar boys had been dislodged from Radio Nigeria in Ikoyi. Major Gideon Orkar had already made a broadcast to the nation at dawn. The radio station is the most important target of a coup; it’s where you declare the coup, and whoever controls it controls the narrative and the country.
There are two stories about how General Babangida escaped from Dodan Barracks. The first says he was whisked away by his ADC, Lt. Col. U.K. Bello, who then returned to face the rebellious soldiers. The second story was told by the General himself in an interview. More recently, Babangida revealed on Galaxy Television, Ibadan, that one Captain Kassim Omowa insisted on evacuating him. According to Babangida, Omowa evacuated him via a secret channel to a location in Surulere, where he stayed for some days while the heat remained. Other accounts suggest he was smuggled via the Ribadu back gate, hidden inside a Volkswagen Beetle, and tucked away at the National Arts Theater, Iganmu, from where he made contact with Abacha and others.
By 11am, commanders from various formations around the country began to go on air to swear allegiance to President Babangida. Eventually, General Abacha proved his loyalty and toughness and crushed the coup. When his men stormed and captured the FRCN station, the microphones were on and the whole country could hear Abacha barking orders: “Everybody lie down, get down!”
The unknown Corporal saved Babangida’s legacy, preventing him from being labeled a coward. Lt. Col. U.K. Bello saved the life of his boss and lost his own. Captain Omowa rescued his Commander‑in‑Chief to safety when it seemed the coup had succeeded. Lt. General Sani Abacha saved Babangida’s government when he could have assumed office himself. The coup of April 22nd 1990 was the last coup in the history of Nigeria.
Credit: "THE HISTORIAN", AGBONMAGBE REMILEKUN KAZEEM
