Reflections Without Mirror— Is Secession The Answer to Nigeria’s Problems: Part 3 by Niyi Aborisade
This is the continuation of the piece published on 24.05.2024 and 31.05.2024 respectively
Gideon Gwaza Orkar was born on 04.10.1952 at Gwer West in Benue State. He was recruited late into the coup plan by those who were actually behind the scenes for his courage and determination. They knew his ideology of a better and prosperous Nigeria under able leadership.
Gideon was extremely brave. Perhaps he was inspired by the man he was named after in the bible. Gideon of the bible was of the tribe of Manasseh and the son of Joash the chief priest of Baal. He was a man of valour and had the courage to destroy the idols of his country. He carried out the assignment in the night, and by morning, when the men of Israel woke up, they found that the altar of Baal and the symbol of Asherah had been destroyed, it was on that day that his father named him ‘ Jerubaal’ meaning that Baal should plead against him for throwing down his altar. It was an abomination to destroy the temple of Baal but Gideon was on a mission
He gathered 32,000 army to fight against the enemy of his people, the Midianites, which was later reduced to 300 under the direction of God. By the hands of these 300 men, Gideon overcame the enemy of his people and threw off their yoke.
Major Gideon Orkar, who had read the bible very well,was therefore not afraid to bring out his small army to confront the federal government of Nigeria under Major General Ibrahim Babangida aka evil genius. The real mover of the coup behind the scenes were Major Saliva Mukoro, Lt Colonel Anthony Nyiam, Major Cyril Obahor of Signal Corps and others. Major Saliva Mukoro was the first PHD holders in Nigerian Army and he was the ideological engine room of the plot
Thus, in the early hours of 22 April 1990, the mutineers of officers of the Nigerian army met at Ikorodu Warehouse. They were addressed by Gideon Orkar, who spoke uneqivocally on the importance of the coup and why they have to strike just to save Nigeria from the impending doom. He spoke eloquently to them of the corruption and the ineptitude of the Babangida led military government and the excesses of the core Northern states against the rest of the country. He mentioned the names of the 5 states that were problems of Nigeria and what he intends to do with them. The Five States were Bauchi , Borno, Katsina, Kano, and Sokoto.
The conspirators divided themselves and allocated to themselves the places where to get sufficient arms to attack the government and seize power by force. They used civilians Peugeot J5 buses and cars to ferry their officers to different places of interest at Lagos. The seat of power was then at Dodan barracks, Ikoyi Lagos . The first place of call was the armoury of the Police barracks at Apapa, which they took over easily, they disarmed all the officers on duty and took possession of their weapons, they enlisted some of the officers on duty into their group by coercion. On their way, they forced all the police officers on patrol duty that they met on the road to join them and swell their numbers. A friend of mine who was a Police officer then was conscripted by this means on that day. Some of the conspirators went to Ikeja Cantonement to search for heavy calibre weapons and able officers to be recruited on the spot. They succeded in parts, some of them went to the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria to make the early morning broadcast, some went to Bonny Camp and some to Dodan barracks. The name Dodan Barracks unbeknown to many, originated from the site of a battle of the Burma campaign of the 2nd World War by the 82nd West African Division under George Mcl. S. Bruce. The division itself was formed under British control with 15000 personnel. It was disbanded in 1946. This name eventually became the most famous barracks in Nigeria. There was heavy fighting in Dodan barracks where General Babangida and his family lived. Prior to that morning, a spy had been sent to Dodan barracks to know the itinerary of President Babangida and whether he was around or not. They confirmed his presence, and thus, the stage was set for the early morning attack. A day before the attack, one of the conspirators, a military engineer in charge of weapons had been to Dodan barracks to carry out a covert operations of deactivating weapons under the guise of ‘reparing and maintaining weapons’.
I was at Hinderer Road Apapa Lagos State that day with a German friend of mine, George Leischert, who is now late. I thought the coup was successful, and we discussed tactics, but George warned me that morning that fighting was still going on and I should be very careful on my way back to Ibadan. He had some information that he did not disclose to me. It was a bloody coup in which the aide de camp to the president Lt. Colonel UK Bello put up a good fight to crush the rebellion and in the process got killed. Some other officers loyal to the president fought brilliantly in the early morning surprise attack. Babangida managed to escape the onslaught, through the unerground and surfaced at Obalende, his loyal troops fought well and subdued the rebels.
In his early morning broadcast , Gideon enumerated the reasons why five states from the North had to be expelled from Nigeria….. to be continued
Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer, a Human Rights Activist and a historian
