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NEWS INSIGHT
Coup against Gen. Abacha foiled in Nigeria by Chido Nwangwu The struggle inside the miliatry over who leads Nigeria and on what terms is apparently going on to very destructive destination. The Nigerian Television Authority, the BBC and the AFP reported on Sunday December 21, 1997 that Nigeria's military government Sunday Dec 21 put down an attempted coup and arrested a dozen people, including the regime's number two man. Among those arrested were strongman General Oladipo Diya, the number two man in the government, and two other serving generals, Major-Generals Abdulkarim Adisa and Tajudeen Olanrewaju. Adisa and Olanrewaju were previously ministers for public works and communications in the government dismissed on November 17 by Nigeria's military ruler General Sani Abacha, NTA said. Abacha, widely rumoured to be ailing, on Thursday swore in a new government. Himself a former defence minister, he came to power in a coup in November 1993 and has promised to hand over power to a civilian regime by October 1, 1998. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has been ruled by military regimes for all but 10 of its 37 years of independence from the former colonial power, Britain, and has seen a series of coups since the mid 1960s. NTA quoted an official statement by the chief of defence staff, Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar, naming the others arrested. The others named included five colonels: Daniel Akintonde, former military administrator of Ougun State; Edwin Jandu, commander of the artillery brigade; Emmanuel Shoda, a military assistant to General Diya; Femi Peters, of the National War College; and Olu Akinyode, former military assistant to General Olanrewaju, the NTA said. Among the others named as arrested were Majors Biliaminu Mohammed, an administration officer in the presidency; Olusegun Fadipe, the chief security officer to Diya; and T.A. Ishaku, of the artillery department. Professor Femi Odekunle, the political adviser to Diya, was named as the only civilian among those arrested. Nigeria was a British colony from 1900 to 1914 before becoming a protectorate up to independence on October 1, 1960. Between then and 1985 there were five successful coups and a bloody secessionist war. On June 12, 1993 presidential elections were held to return the country to democracy after eight years of military government under General Ibrahim Babangida. They were annulled by the military soon afterwards. The man widely believed to have won them, Moslem tycoon Moshood Abiola, is in jail on treason charges. An interim civilian administration was overturned by Abacha on November 17, 1993 and all democratic institutions dissolved. On October 1, Abacha outlined a programme of elections leading to a civilian administration being sworn in on October 1, 1998. His administration said in March 1995 it had put down a coup and jailed a number of senior former officers it said were involved. According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) there are 78,800 men in the Nigerian army.
Chido Nwangwu is founder and publisher of Houston-based USAfrica The
Newspaper and USAfricaonline.com, first African-owned, U.S-based
professional newspaper to be published on the world wide web covering
Africa and U.S public policy and business issues. |