IBB’s Book and the Igbo Question

New Telegraph Newspaper Thursday back page of February 27, 2025 

By Ike Abonyi 

“ _Who halted the 1966 coup? General Aguiyi Ironsi in Lagos an Igbo, Lt- Col Emeka Ojukwu in Kano an Igbo, Igbos halted the coup, how can it be an Igbo coup halted by Igbos, something odd about that_ ”- Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

The origin of Igbo political problems In Nigeria stems from the treacherous falsehood over the 1966 coup that was deliberately and erroneously tagged an Igbo coup. This false narrative stuck and dubiously provided a platform for the ensuing subjugation of Igbos In Nigeria, raging from a pogrom in the North to 30 months of farcical civil war and the subsequent marginalization of Ndigbo in the political space since then.

So when a major character in the whole imbroglio writes to tell his story, the country should wait, and indeed, they waited and saw the book arrive in 420 pages rehearsing old tales, making them look new. 

Expectedly, there is no way the most controversial Nigerian president will write a book without disputation trailing it. Especially if the book addresses all the thorny and intricate issues in his administration. There is no character more visible In Nigeria’s political evolution than General Ibrahim Babangida. Therefore, he can’t tell a service story without roughing feathers.  He participated in multiple coup de tats; he killed friends, annulled elections, etc.

The controversy surrounding the IBB's book, "A Journey in Service," therefore derives from the former Nigerian military president's account of his time in power. The book expectedly has sparked intense debate, particularly regarding the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which saw Chief Moshood Abiola poised to take office.

IBB's decision to annul the election has been widely criticized, and his attempts to justify it in the book have been met with scepticism. Many Nigerians view the annulment as a pivotal moment in the country's democratic struggle.

His senior in the military and in the nation’s political scene, who is very conversant with controversies that trail writing books, Olusegun Obasanjo, was on hand to warn Gen Babangida to brace up for the criticism that will follow the book. Gen Obasanjo had written his own book a few years back he titled ‘My Command' and hell was let loose but he subtly responded, ‘I wrote my command if the content is not agreeable to anyone the person should write his own command’

Notwithstanding the controversy in the book, IBB, the man behind the mask, is already enjoying the ride. He left the book presentation venue with nearly N17 billion for a start with more to follow. For an informed commentary, I tried to glance at the book and was attracted by some key points and how such points defined the nation’s political landscape.

According to my readings, the high point in the IBB’s "A Journey in Service" seemed to be the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which was won by Chief Moshood Abiola and has remained a highly contentious issue. IBB's attempts to justify the annulment in the book have elicited widespread criticism.

The book also gives insight into IBB's complicated relationship with former President Muhammadu Buhari, whom he overthrew in 1985. IBB's account of their interactions and disagreements has sparked interest and debate. This aspect has also explained why Buhari was the only former Head of state and President who was conspicuously absent from the book presentation. Also, the role of the late General Sani Abacha in the June 12 thing was explained in the book.

Perhaps for this conversation, the book goes further to offer IBB's perspective on various events and figures in Nigerian politics, providing insights into the country's complex and often tumultuous political landscape, particularly the 1966 coup that opened the gate for the recurring political injustice in the land.

The pro-June 12 groups, largely found in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's gang, have gone to market to make all the noise about the book. 

The new noise on June 12, to my thinking, is orchestrated because there is nothing new in the book to warrant the ongoing fuss. Everything said on June 12 has been in the public domain either through secondary sources or a critical primary source like Gen. Babangida before the book came out. What the book said about June 12 was only a rehearsal of what was long known by all. It was in realization of this fact that  President Muhammedu Buhari, in 2019, acknowledging that the late MKO Abiola won the 1993 Presidential election, awarded him and his then running mate Ambassador Babagana Kingibe the highest honour in the land and named the National Stadium, Abuja, after Abiola. It didn’t matter that Kingibe then dumped the mandate and served the government that annulled the election at such a sensitive position as Minister.

But that notwithstanding, the June 12 protagonists found it a huge opportunity to distract the attention of the populace from the effect of the poor governance delivery in the land at the moment.

 It needs to be recalled that it was in the spirit of conciliation and pacification that the military authorities who caused June 12 to happen brought Obasanjo out from prison and made him President of the country ostensibly to calm the nerves of the Yorubas. In the twenty-six years of this political dispensation, from 1999 to date,  the Yorubas have been President and Vice President for 18 years ( President Obasanjo 8 years, Tinubu 2 years and still counting and Yemi Osinbajo 8 years as Vice President). That should have been enough for them to feel filled, but that can only happen where Justice and equity prevail. In a survival of the fittest environment like ours, the man who can grab and run can hold on to power at the expense of lamblike and politically tactless groups in the family called Nigeria. Therefore, for June 12, it can now be said rightly too that the matter is settled since the perpetrators of the evil, having realized their error since 1999, have adequately compensated and offered reasonable appeasement to the affected people.

But the other injustice that long existed before even June 12, the issue of the 1966 coup erroneously and disingenuously tagged Igbo coup was addressed in the book with General Babangida declaring that it was not an Igbo coup and that the coup plotters intended to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and make him the Prime Minister of Nigeria.

Nobody knows why it took the 83-year-old Babangida 59 years to tell this truth after the perfidious narrative had gone out deliberately to edge out Ndigbo in the scheme of things. Generals Yakubu Gowon and Theophilus Danjuma, who were critical characters in the spread of this narrative, are still alive, and one expects them before they join their ancestors to come clean and apologize to Ndigbo and Nigeria.

Since the exclusion of Ndigbo from political power in this country has its foundation in this false narrative that even resulted in the loss of over three million lives of Igbos in the pogrom and the civil war, what Next for these victims?

MKO suffered injustice and died and his Yoruba kinsmen have been benefiting from the fallout compensation, but on the reverse Aguiyi Ironsi as Head of state was killed on the falsehood that his Igbo brothers organized a coup, but has since realized that the coup was in truth planned to install a Yoruba man, yet nobody is thinking of compensating his people instead they are being punished. The Yorubas and Hausa Fulani always find common ground when the enemy is the Igbo, and this is how, for 26 years of uninterrupted democracy, they have been sharing political power between themselves at the expense of Ndigbo. Even when providence gave power to someone who reassembled Igbo called Goodluck Ebere Jonathan, they quickly ganged up to retrieve it.

The IBB book by its belated public pronouncement on the 1966 coup as not Igbo engineered, has again brought to the fore the gang up against Ndigbo in the Nigeria space. Therefore, allowing these gang-ups to continue based on these established false narratives instead of making efforts to right the wrong says a lot about this country. This brazen injustice to a people whose sociopolitical and economic contributions to the development of the country are second to none is the reason why the echo of Biafra keeps resonating.

Beating up a child and insisting he should not cry is the height of oppression, and that is what the Nigerian state is doing to Ndigbo through the continued incarceration of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. It’s the reason why agitations from other people are seen as the emancipation of their people, while Kanu’s own is seen as terrorism.

Overall, the controversy surrounding IBB's book reflects the ongoing debates and tensions in Nigerian politics, particularly regarding the country's democratic development and the mixed legacies of its military leaders whose tenures were immersed in the multiplicity of injustices they left unattended to.

Nigeria, having unchained itself from the June 12 burden, has yet left unattended to the injustice of the falsehood of the 1966 coup, which became the foundation of all subsequent missteps in our polity.

I like to therefore end this conversation solemnly because there must be a reason God in his infinite mercy decided to give long life to some principal players in the country’s political mess, Generals Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Theophilus Danjuma, Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsami Abubakar, Muhammedu Buhari who are already at their departure lounges. It must be for them to right their wrongs and give Justice to Ndigbo. Not to do that and join their ancestors is to have a permanent sore in Nigeria's history.  God help us.