Remembering Murtala Muhammed

Remembering Murtala Muhammed

It was exactly 50 years ago last Friday that former Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, got slain in a botched coup. Murtala came to power on 29th July, 1975, following the ouster of General Yakubu Gowon in a bloodless coup while attending the 12th summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Kampala, Uganda. He was assassinated 13th February, 1976, in a bloody coup attempt led by Lieutenant-Col. Bukar Suka Dimka, just 200 days into his nascent regime. His personality and leadership style were compelling reference points in Nigeria’s nationhood trajectory, and the 50th anniversary of his killing marked a significant milestone for recollection of the things he stood for.

Murtala got killed, aged 37, as one of the easiest targets of his ilk that assassins could hope to take on. He was a reputed man of war, but was shorn of all paraphernalia of war when agents of death sprang an ambush on him in a most cowardly fashion. On the fateful day as he headed to work at Dodan Barracks along his usual route on George Street, Ikoyi Lagos, shortly after 8a.m., his Mercedes-Benz car travelled slowly in the infamous Lagos traffic near the old Federal Secretariat. There were no sirens, no motorcades, no security retinue as typically characterise movement by people at that level of society – that is, a head of state. He was caught in traffic like everybody else. Actually, traffic wardens stopped his car at points like they did everybody else. It was amidst such vulnerability that coup plotters laying in ambush emerged from an adjacent petrol station and rained his car with bullets. Murtala was felled in cold blood along with his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Akintunde Akinsehinwa, and his driver, Sergeant Adamu Michika. The only visible sign of protection was a pistol carried by his orderly, making his assassination an easy task.

But whereas he was so cheaply cut down, Murtala bestrode Nigeria’s political firmament from its nascent stages until his death. He also had personal charisma that made him – a military ruler with notorious foibles – into a folk hero. His prominence in the country’s political dynamics began with his leading the 1966 counter-coup that overthrew the regime of General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. He as well played an eminent role in the Nigerian Civil War between 1967 and 1970, and held strategic offices under the regime of Gowon, who eventually was displaced to install him as head of state until his assassination on 13th February, 1976. The period in Nigeria’s history from the northern counter-coup to Murtala’s killing is commonly associated with institutionalisation of the military in Nigerian politics.

Murtala joined the Army in 1958 and rose through the ranks to become brigadier-general in 1971 at age 33. He was one of the youngest generals in the country’s history. Before then, as a conservative, he objected to the overthrow of the First Republic and killing of prominent northern politicians like Premier Ahmadu Bello and Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa in the Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu-led botched coup of 15th January, 1966. After the coup plot failed, new military postings made by Aguiyi-Ironsi generated some discomfort in the North, even though Murtala got promoted Lieutenant-Col in April 1966 and appointed Inspector of Signals at Army headquarters as part of moves aimed at pacifying northerners. Aguiyi-Ironsi’s promulgation of the unification decree of 1966 marked the last straw, with Murtala and the northern military elite said to have momentarily considered the secession of northern Nigeria. While that sentiment brewed, northern soldiers at Abeokuta barracks mutinied on 29th July, 1966, precipitating a counter-coup led by Murtala that may well have been in the planning stages. That coup was codenamed ‘A raba,’ meaning secession in Hausa.

With the success of the counter-coup, the plotters were persuaded of the advantages of a union. In its aftermath, Lieutenant-Col. Yakubu Gowon was installed supreme commander of the armed forces against pushbacks by Murtala who reportedly wanted the role for himself. But as Gowon was militarily his senior, and finding no support from critical stakeholders, he gave in.

“Murtala was not a saint, but he taught profound lessons in charismatic leadership”

Gowon rewarded Murtala by confirming his rank as Lieutenant-Col. (he was only provisionally elevated until then) and his appointment as the Army’s Inspector of Signals. The installation of Gowon as head of state was not supported by all key military leaders, though, notably Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was military governor of the Eastern Region and who declared a war of secession from Nigeria. Murtala fought on the side of Nigeria’s  unity and, at the start of the civil war, was commander of then newly-established 2 Infantry Division. Under his command, the division was credited with beating back the Biafran Army from the Midwest region, as well as crossing the River Niger and linking up with the 1 Division that was advancing from Nsukka and Enugu. This was only achieved, however, after multiple failed river crossings in which a huge number of troops died from drowning or exposure to enemy fire. During his time as 2 Division commander, Murtala was also accused of violations of appropriate conduct, including allegations that he ordered summary executions of Biafran prisoners of war.

A more notorious act of the 2 Division under Murtala’s command was what is infamously tagged ‘the Asaba massacre’ of October 1967 in which scores of civilians were killed. Nigerian Civil War historians recounted the mass murder of civilians by federal troops of the 2 Division who invaded Igbo-populated Asaba, ransacked houses and killed residents in their hundreds, claiming they were Biafran sympathisers. Some accounts spoke of how conquered residents trooped out to demonstrate their proselytization by hailing federal troops and chanting ‘One Nigeria,’ only for the soldiers to pick out young and adult males, herd these off to a field and shoot them in defenseless cold blood.

Following periodic trainings in Nigeria, Ghana and the renowned Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in England, among others, Murtala’s career blossomed as he held commanding positions in the signals corps of the Army and Gowon’s military government. Instructors credited him with “a quick and agile mind, considerable ability and common sense,” and with holding strong views that he put forward in forthright manner and finding it difficult to moderate his opinions or engage in debate with others whose views he did not share. Gowon appointed him Federal Commissioner for Communications (equivalent of Minister) in April 1974, a position he combined with his oversight on military signals infrastructure. He held those offices until Gowon’s overthrow and his being tapped as the next head of state.

In the national broadcast that heralded him into power, Murtala introduced the phrases “Fellow Nigerians” and “with immediate effect” to the national lexicon. Those phrases – unknown as at then – were indicative of the paradox of his leadership style, namely his simplicity and identification with lowly experiences of the grassroots citizens on the one hand, and his executive impatience in implementing policies pertaining to that citizenry on the other hand. In a triumvirate that involved Olusegun Obasanjo as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, and Theophilus Danjuma as Chief of Army Staff (both later Lieutenants-General), Murtala’s regime moved at the pace of a whirlwind.

Although his tenure lasted only 200 days, it was marked by sweeping reforms. Towards the end of 1975, he implemented a purge in the Civil Service that he perceived as lacking in discipline and a sense of purpose. More than 10,000 officials accused of corruption were shown the door without disengagement benefits. Because of the summary nature of the purge, allegations surfaced that malice and revenge informed considerations by departmental heads in recommending people for the sack, and little was done to scrutinise the real reasons many were disengaged.

Murtala initiated plans to relocate Nigeria’s capital and thereby decongest Lagos. He raised a panel headed by the late Justice Akinola Aguda that chose Abuja area ahead of other proposed locations, and on 3rd February, 1976, announced future plans to move the federal capital there. On the same day, he announced the creation of seven new states namely Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Imo, Niger, Ogun and Ondo, thus bringing the number of states to 19.

As head of state, Murtala tightened the civil space that Gowon’s regime forbore by foisting government control on the nation’s two largest newspapers, Daily Times and New Nigerian. Ironically, he also announced a programme for restoration of civil rule that Gowon dallied on delivering before his ouster. Murtala’s assassination prevented him from seeing his own programme through, but Obasanjo who succeeded him kept faith with its accomplishment in 1979.

Murtala was not a saint, but he taught profound lessons in charismatic leadership. His simplicity identified him with ordinary Nigerians in a way that most civilian leaders have been out of touch with. Fifty years after, history remembers.