The End Was Too Frightening To Contemplate – IBB Reveals Why Buhari Government Was Overthrown

Former military head of state, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), has stated that he overthrew Muhammadu Buhari’s regime because he believed his policies were detrimental to the nation’s progress.

The former military leader disclosed this in his autobiography, ‘A Journey In Service’, launched in Abuja on Thursday.

Babangida was chief of staff to Buhari, who ousted Shehu Shagari’s civilian government in the December 31, 1983 coup.

After the military coup that replaced the civilian government of Shehu Shagari with a military regime led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida assumed the Chief of Army Staff role.

However, he became increasingly dissatisfied with the Buhari government’s policies and leadership style, which he described as draconian.

Recalling how he journeyed from Minna to Lagos on August 27, 1985, to assume office, Babangida said tension had already begun to build up since the start of the year, and a change in leadership had become necessary.

He said, “On that day, it became my lot to step into the saddle of national leadership on behalf of the Nigerian armed forces. The change in leadership had become necessary as a response to the worsening mood of the nation and growing concern about our future as a people. All through the previous day, as we flew from Minna and drove through Lagos towards Bonny Camp, I was deeply reflecting on how we as a nation got to this point and how and why I found myself at this juncture of fate.

“By the beginning of 1985, the citizenry had become apprehensive about the future of our country. The atmosphere was precarious and fraught with ominous signs of clear and present danger. It was clear to the more discerning leadership of the armed forces that our initial rescue mission of 1983 had largely miscarried. We now stood the risk of having the armed forces split down the line because our rescue mission had largely derailed. If the armed forces imploded, the nation would go with it, and the end was just too frightening to contemplate.

“Divisions of opinion within the armed forces had come to replace the unanimity of purpose that informed the December 1983 change of government. In state affairs, the armed forces, as the only remaining institution of national cohesion, were becoming torn into factions; something needed to be done lest we lose the nation itself. My greatest fear was that division of opinion and views within the armed forces could lead to factionalisation in the military. If allowed to continue and gain root, grave dangers lay ahead.”