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NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR…Northerners First Mooted Secession Idea – IBB

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…Explains Gowon’s emergence as C-in-C after Aguiyi-Ironsi,
Fajuyi’s disappearance

Former Nigerian Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), has said that Northerners first mooted the idea of secession.

According to IBB, after the disappearance of Aguiyi-Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi, Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe sent Lt-Colonel Yakubu Gowon to the Ikeja cantonment to appeal to a group of headstrong northern officers led by Lt-Colonel Murtala Muhammed, along with Majors Shittu Alao, Musa Usman, and Captain Joe Garba, who were spoiling for a fight and even toying with the idea of secession.

IBB recounted the painful realities of the Nigerian Civil War and described the conflict as a test of leadership and loyalty.

He disclosed this in his newly launched memoir, “A Journey In Service,” unveiled last Thursday in Abuja.

IBB reflected on his experiences as a young military officer during one of the country’s most turbulent periods.

In the book, the former Nigerian military leader describes the emotional turmoil of fighting against former comrades who had become adversaries due to the war.

“There I was, determined to fight to keep the country united. But I also knew that across from us, on the other side, were people we had trained with, lived with, socialised with, and bonded with as comrades-in-arms but who were now our ‘enemies’. It was painful. But I knew it was a job I had to do,” he wrote.

Babangida also highlights the leadership qualities required during the war, stating that soldiers needed an officer to lead from the front.

“The soldiers wanted an officer who would tell them: ‘Follow me; let’s go.’ And they would follow. No officer who lacked courage or conviction could be effective in the situation before us, particularly as the fighting men believed they were fighting for a just cause—to keep the country united,” he said.

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The book described the challenge of leading attacks and executing battlefield manoeuvres while managing troops, including ex-servicemen with outdated combat experience.

“We had a few ex-servicemen who were unable to handle sophisticated weapons. But we needed to retrain them and, in doing so, prove that we could handle the same weapons and face the enemy as much as they could,” he explained.

From pages 62-64, the book also explores the events leading up to the war, including the military coups of 1966 and the political crisis that followed.

The former Head of State recounts how the killings and unrest led to mass displacement, with around 50,000 Igbos fleeing northern Nigeria by July 1966.

The memoir provides a detailed account of the behind-the-scenes negotiations that saw Lt-Colonel Yakubu Gowon emerge as Nigeria’s Head of State in August 1966, following intense discussions involving top civil servants and foreign diplomats.

He explained that the build-up to that painful situation began earlier. After the Head of State, General Aguiyi-Ironsi, and Lt-Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi were abducted by rampaging soldiers in the early hours of 29 July 1966 in Ibadan and taken away, the country was left without a government for three days.

“Between 29 and 31 July, when their whereabouts remained unknown, an atmosphere of uncertainty enveloped the country.

“Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, then the most senior military officer after Aguiyi-Ironsi and considered in some quarters as the ‘natural’ successor to him, broadcasted on the afternoon of 29 July 1966, calling for public cooperation in the government’s efforts to restore law and order.

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“In an attempt to further restore calm, Brigadier Ogundipe sent Lt-Colonel Yakubu Gowon to the Ikeja cantonment to appeal to a group of headstrong northern officers led by Lt-Colonel Murtala Muhammed, along with Majors Shittu Alao, Musa Usman, and Captain Joe Garba, who were spoiling for a fight and even toying with the idea of secession. However, those efforts did not yield results.”

 

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JUST IN: Supreme Court sets aside judgment recognising Abure as LP’s National Chairman

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The Supreme Court has set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja recognising Julius Abure as the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP).

In a unanimous judgment on Friday, a five-member panel of the apex court held that the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to have pronounced Abure National Chairman of the LP having earlier found that the substance of the case was about the party’s leadership.

It held that issue of leadership was internal affair of a party over which courts lacked jurisdiction.

The court allowed the appeal filed by Senator Ester Nenadi Usman and one other and held that it was meritorious.

It proceeded to dismiss the cross-appeal filed by the Abure faction of the LP got being unmeritorious.

Details shortly…

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Hakeem Baba-Ahmed resigns as presidential political adviser

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Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, special adviser on political matters to Vice-President Kashim Shettima, has resigned from his position, According to Daily Trust.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that the former spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) resigned two weeks ago.

President Bola Tinubu appointed Baba-Ahmed as special adviser on political matters to Shettima in September 2023.

Baba-Ahmed is the elder sibling of Datti Baba-Ahmed, vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election.

Baba-Ahmed served as chief of staff to Bukola Saraki, former senate president, from 2017-2019.

CONFRONTATION WITH MATAWALLE OVER NEF

In April 2024, Bello Matawalle, minister of state for defence, described the NEF as a “political paperweight” after the group stated that the north made a mistake voting Tinubu in 2023.

In his reaction to Matawalle’s remarks, Baba-Ahmed said it would have served the Tinubu administration better if Matawalle had listed his achievements as minister — and the achievements of the other northern appointees — instead of attacking NEF.

“Scathing criticism of NEF by a junior minister of defence, Matawalle, is ill-advised. He could have done a better job for this admin if he identified contributions of especially northern ministers and other appointees like me to improving security and reducing poverty in the North,” Baba-Ahmed said.

In a riposte, the minister said any appointee must defend and promote the administration they work for.

“Dr. Baba-Ahmed’s relationship and affinity with Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) is well-known,” Matawalle said.

“The fact now is that he is an appointee of the administration as Special Adviser and it is incumbent on him to work for the success of the government he is part of, protect and defend the government against unjust and vicious attacks from those who hide under ethnic and other primordial interests to heat up the polity for myopic reasons.

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“It is pertinent to state that every appointee of President Tinubu including Dr. Baba-Ahmed owes the government a copious duty to promote, elucidate and advance the good works and commendable efforts of the government across all sectors.”

He added that northern appointees must defend the government or take their exit.

Matawalle is a native of Zamfara while Baba-Ahmed hails from Kaduna.

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INEC: We are not partisan in failed recall of Natasha

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has denied being partisan in handling the failed recall of the Senator representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Rotimi Oyekanmi, who was on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, explained how the Commission handled the process.

“In the case of the Kogi Central District, we received a petition and a cover letter and of course what Nigerians were saying was that we were taking sides,” Oyekanmi said on the programme.

INEC logo and Senator Natasha Akpoti (Kogi-Central PDP)
INEC logo and Senator Natasha Akpoti (Kogi-Central PDP)

“But what happened was that in the covering letter, the representatives of the petitioners did not include their address as required in our regulations and guidelines and what we just did was to ask them to supply their address, it has nothing to do with the petition.

“And of course, there is nowhere in the law where INEC is asked to reject a petition just because the cover letter did not contain the address. So, there was no hanky-panky in what we did.”

Earlier on Thursday, INEC rejected the petition to recall Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, saying that it has not met the requirements.

The electoral commission said the petition to recall Senator Natasha did not meet constitutional requirements.

Senator Natasha was suspended for breaching Senate rules, prompting some of her constituents to initiate her recall. They claimed the move was to ensure their constituency did not lack representation following the suspension of the 45-year-old senator.

Asked whether there could be a repeat of the recall process, the INEC spokesperson said the law did not specify if the process could be repeated and how many times.

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“The law just talks about the threshold, the threshold meaning that if you want to recall, you must have, in addition to your petition, 50 per cent plus one signatures. The law did not specify how many times you can undertake that,” he said.

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