Last week, one of the masterminds of Nigeria’s last attempted military coup of April 22, 1990, Lieutenant SOS Echendu, after years on the run, opened up, for the first time and shared his involvement in the failed coup attempt to topple the then Military head of state, General (Rtd), Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. This week, he concludes his narratives in this explosive exclusive.
“When you operate under military and civilian systems, the dynamics are different. The two environments are distinct and different: ask General Olusegun Obasanjo, he would tell you the differences in the two environments.
IBB is still a General, my former Corp Commander and our former President. He is one of the most gifted Nigerians. But I wished he had used the gift God gave him in a different way. Nigeria, as a country didn’t and does not belong to him. It doesn’t belong to me either. It’s a privilege to be the leader of an independent nation state. It is not a right. . If I had a ballot, maybe the options would have been different. But I had none. The security agencies know who killed UK Bello… if we have the same circumstance again, would most of us do the same things without regrets, yes we would… we sacrificed our lives, our families, destroyed family businesses to save our dear native land.
IBB wanted me dead by all means and at all financial costs. He put a bounty on my head for years. I was hunted for those years. He wanted us dead. I was a moving target those years. But at the point you stop running. I go anywhere freely now, and I live openly with my family. I am not hiding.
Did the coup fail or was the safety of my colleagues compromised by not killing Gen. Babangida? Jebose, I will exhaustively discuss this contextually very soon at the right time, I must add. But let me redirect conjectural mindsets by laying bare the truth with some of Nigeria’s historical events. In 1975, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, the mastermind of Nigeria’s first coup of balkanization and the first military officer to introduce indiscipline by rubbishing succession structure in the military was successfully removed from office without him being killed. Then, in 1976, Brig. Gen. Murtala Mohammed was killed by Lt. Col. Dimka but the coup failed. So the escape or the death of a military dictator is not a determinant factor for the success or failure of a coup if all the critical and integral components are rightly assembled during the planning and execution phases.
“Jebose, I will fight to keep Nigeria United as a country that would be devoid of ethnocentrism, chauvinism, preventable corruption, born to run mindset, and a Nigeria where a Hausa man can be the governor of Imo state and a Yoruba person can be the governor of Adamawa state. I love Nigeria. And I want our country to progress. Hence, most of us would take up arms and fight to defend her, not destabilize her. I was very proud how the nation came together and fought the Ebola virus. That shows how we can achieve so much if we turn our differences into gainful advantages and prevent ethnic anger from ruining our lives. We can achieve a great deal if we can start seeing at least something good in each other and stop associating personal and individual greed and behaviors with ethnicities.
“Revolutions all over the world, irrespective of time frame, never end the way they were intended: from Russia, France, China to the Americas. Final destinations were completely different from where and what the originators intended. I don’t know if we could have a revolution under a democratic system of government. But here I am in the US, the CEO of a very small company I founded. I studied nuclear medicine science. I have responsibilities and dependents. I can use my experience for the betterment of the human race and in particular, Nigeria; so if the government calls me and seeks consultations in the areas of national security even as it relates to Boko Haram healthcare systems, manpower development, infrastructure management and development, skills acquisition, political stability, security analysis for broader state and national stability, and advise to states on projects viability and developments, based on my in-depth knowledge of Nigeria and my acquired skills in the United States, we would have a platform for productive conversations.
It will definitely be instructive for our commander in chief, the senate president, the speaker of the house, the service chiefs, the NSA, the army council and all stake holders to note that injustice and unfairness are very destructive to organizational discipline. Everyone knows now that all officers connected one way or the other with coups or attempted coups have been pardoned, but some names have not been gazetted. Injustice and unfairness irrespective of the country they are detected or practiced are absolutely incompatible with healthy nation building. Injustice and discriminatory practices do rear the ugly heads in every country, but the way they are addressed and rectified separate normal from immoral countries. As we send our military men and women in uniform to fight and die for our country, we must also prove to them that should they find themselves in situations that would require fairness and equality of treatment, there would be a complete absence of discrimination and selective favoritism. I applaud the army chief for maintaining the benefits of the soldiers charged and convicted for mutiny by a court martial. It is the right thing to do. We must give our men and women in uniform the incentive to fight and die for us through fair and equal treatment of all, and when injustice and unfairness are detected, they must rapidly be rectified. We must not discourage them through obvious discrimination and favoritism to doubt our commitment to equality of treatment.
The current NSA is a good, decent, and upright man. He was once implicated in a coup just as I was. He left the country just as I did. He was never tried or convicted of any crime just as I was never tried or convicted and have never been convicted of any crime anywhere in the world. He was pardoned just as I was. But his name was gazetted but mine wasn’t and hasn’t. So it is good he is now the one advising president Jonathan on security issues. This comparative analysis is important because when IBB disrespectfully removed Commodore Ukiwe from office, he thought that was the end of the matter. Well, he heard about it again in our 1990 broadcast. Silence does not always mean acquiescence. I hope we are learning and correcting as well.
“Jebose, Why should I not be punished for my actions in 1990?
This is absolutely ridiculous. Punished for what? It is madness not to punish those who subverted the democratic will of Nigerians by overthrowing a legally constituted and democratically elected government, instead, we seek to punish those who tried to effect citizens’ arrest as enunciated by Lt. Col. Inyiam. Gen. Buhari and Gen. Babangida unconstitutionally desecrated the will of the Nigerian people by removing an elected president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari from office in 1983. Then, in 1985, Gen. Buhari was removed by Gen. Babangida. It is disgustingly wrong to prescribe punishments based on the success or failure of the same action. An action should be fundamentally wrong and conventionally punishable irrespective of its success or failure. If I had tried to remove or dismantle a democratic structure similar to what happened in 1983, this would be a legitimate question.
I am completely against the disintegration of Nigeria. Nigeria can’t exist without all of its unique ethnic groups. America projected that Nigeria would disintegrate in 2015; that’s nonsense. It’s going to be a false prophecy. We are stronger as a United Nigeria. I have hope for that country. I can no longer use the bullets to settle issues. I intend to be politically involved in the very near future even though I do not belong to any political party this moment, but I am open to dialogue with progressive minded Nigerians now or in the near future on how to advance our nation for the benefit of future generations.
There is no short cut. We should wean ourselves from our quick fix mentality: Nation building is a lot of sacrifices. We must not relent in our united efforts to get it right for our generations unborn.