A critical evaluation of the failed 1990 coup in nigeria

The Journal of Modern African Studies

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1991, Pages 601-626

  Ihonvbere, Julius O ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84975969633     PISSN: 0022278X     EISSN: 14697777     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X00005681     Document Type: Article

References (94)

1. See, for example, Toyin Falola and Julius Ihonvbere, The Rise and Fall of Nigeria's Second Republic, 1979-84 (London, 1985)
2. William D. Graf, The Nigerian State: political economy, state, class and political system in the post-colonial era (London, 1988).
3. For a discussion of coups and counter-coups in Nigeria, see A. H. M. Kirk-Green, Crisis and Conflict in Nigeria: a documentary sourcebook, 1966-1970, Vols. I and II (Oxford, 1971)
4. John de St. Jorre, The Nigerian Civil War (London, 1972)
5. B. J. Dudley, Instability and Political Order: politics and crisis in Nigeria (Ibadan, 1973)
6. Adewale Adegboyega, Why We Struck: the story of the first Nigerian coup (Ibadan, 1981)
7. th January 1966 first inside account (Onitsha, 1981).
8. There have been major religious riots in Kano (1980), Borno (1982), Gongola (1984), Gombe (1985), Ilorin (1986), Katsina, Bauchi, and Kano (1991).
9. Falola and Ihonvbere, op. cit. pp. 235-65.
10. Julius O. Ihonvbere, ‘Instability and Military Intervention in Politics in the Periphery’, in A. O. Sanda and Olusola Ojo (eds.), The Impact of Military Rule on Nigerian Administration (Ile-Ife, 1987), pp. 31-51.
11. S. E. Finer, The Man on Horseback: the role of the military in politics (London, 1962)
12. Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State (Cambridge, MA, 1967)
13. Samuel Decalo, Coups and Army Rule in Africa: studies in military style (New Haven and London, 1976)
14. Morris Janowitz, Military Institutions and Coercion in Developing Countries (Chicago, 1977).
15. For extensive discussions of the colonial experience, see Ola Oni and Bade Onimode, Economic Development of Nigeria: the socialist alternative (Ibadan, 1975)
16. Bade Onimode, Imperialism and Underdevelopment in Nigeria: the dialectics of mass poverty (London, 1982)
17. Toyin Falola (ed.), Britain and Nigeria: exploitation or development? (London, 1987).
18. See Julius O. Ihonvbere and Toyin Falola, ‘The Recycling of Oil Rents and Nigeria's Peripheral Role in World Capitalism’, in Ife Social Sciences Review (Ile-Ife), 6, 1, 1983
19. Julius O. Ihonvbere, Labour, State and Capital in Nigeria's Oil Industry (San Francisco, 1992).
20. See Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria (Enugu, 1983)
21. Claude Ake (ed.), Political Economy of Nigeria (London, 1985)
22. Eme Ekekwe, Class and State in Nigeria (London and Lagos, 1988)
23. ‘Can IBB Tame the Army?’, in African Concord, 5, 11, 16 July 1990.
24. See Dudley, op. cit., and National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria: yesterday and today (Lagos, 1985). Nzeogwu had a very populist agenda, but the failure of the coup and his death during the civil war deprived scholars of further insights into his personality and ideas.
25. Graf, op. cit. p. 43
26. Eskor Toyo, The Working Class and the Nigerian Crisis (Ibadan, 1967).
27. See Arthur Nwankwo, Can Nigeria Survive? (Enugu, 1981)
28. Falola and Ihonvbere, The Rise and Fall of Nigeria's Second Republic
29. Lapido Adamolekun, The Fall of the Second Republic (Ibadan, 1985)
30. Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, ‘The Nigerian Plight: Shagari to Buhari’, in Third World Quarterly (London), 7, 3, July 1988, pp. 610-25.
31. F. R. A. Marinho, Nigeria: a regenerative economy or vegetative existence? (Lagos, 1984), p. 3
32. Falola and Ihonvbere, op. cit. pp. 83-145.
33. Dele Omotunde, ‘Eight Broken Eggs’, in Newswatch (Lagos), 1 May 1990, p. 29.
34. See Julius O. Ihonvbere, ‘The 1983 Elections and the Buhari Coup in Nigeria: contradictions in a (semi-) peripheral political economy’, Centre for African Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 1985.
35. Ray Ekpu, ‘With Feet of Clay’, in Newswatch, 7 May 1990, p. 4
36. Soji Akirinade, ‘Coup that Crumbled’, in ibid. pp. 14-20.
37. See Julius O. Ihonvbere and Eme N. Ekekwe, ‘Dependent Capitalism, Structural Adjustment and Democratic Possibilities in Nigeria's Third Republic’, in Afrika Spectrum (Hamburg) 3, 1988
38. Tunji Lardner, Jr., ‘The Babangida Blues’, in Africa Report (New York), 35, 3, July-August 1990, pp. 50-2.
39. No scholarly work on the conspiracy currently exists. But see ‘The Coup that Failed: the storming of Dodan Barracks’, in Newswatch, 7 May 1990
40. ‘Sunday Coup: the unanswered questions’, in The African Guardian (Lagos), 14 May 1990
41. ‘Orka's Coup: the people's verdict’, in African Concord, 5, 4, 28 May 1990
42. ‘Coup: the big trial’, in The African Guardian, 4 June 1990
43. ‘Glimpses from Orka's Trial’, in ibid. 11 June 1990
44. ‘Can IBB Tame the Army?’, in loc. cit.
45. See ‘Nigeria: riches and rags’, in Newswatch, 5 October 1987
46. ‘X-Ray: the mood of the nation’, in The African Guardian, 13 June 1988
47. ‘IBB in the People's Court’, in ibid. 29 August 1988.
48. Major-General Ibrahim Babangida, in Newswatch, 9 September 1985, p. 19.
49. See Julius O. Ihonvbere and Darlington Iwarimie-Jaja, ‘Political Economy of Mental Health in Nigeria: a case study of Port Harcourt’, in Man and Life (Calcutta), January-June 1991.
50. ‘Nigeria: the new rich, the rising cocaine profile, the booming corruption’, and Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, ‘Reaping the Negative Way’, in This Week (Lagos), 2 April 1990
51. ‘The Drug Trade’, in Africa Confidential, 13 July 1990, p. 5.
52. See ‘Nigeria: four years on a knife edge’, in African Concord, 2 September 1988
53. ‘X-Ray: the mood of the nation’, loc. cit.
54. See Committee for Unity and Progress, ‘Battle for Minimum Wage: N125 is death wage’, Lagos, n.d.
55. See ‘IBB's Surprise Move: the sacking of the AFRC’, in Newswatch, 20 February 1989. The President is frequently referred to as IBB.
56. Sam Aluko, cited in ‘The Scramble for Alternatives’, in Newswatch, 24 July 1989, p. 14.
57. It is widely believed that Babangida's preference is for the N.R.C., which is pledged to continue the current régime's painful adjustment programme, whereas the S.D.P. has been vested with unrealistic socialist measures. Hence the statement by the chairman of that party in August 1990 that the S.D.P.'s manifesto will be changed because it was ‘drafted by technocrats.%who have never tested the political waters in the real world outside.% the language, the presentation, and even the extent to which they address our own perception of the real national issues are somewhat really at variance with what we would like to see in the manifesto’ - ‘Chairman on Aftermath of Elections, Manifesto’, in U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington, D.C.), 16 August 1990, p. 55.
58. See ‘A Season of Fury: angry Nigerians rise against economic hardship’, in The African Guardian, 12 June 1989.
59. See ‘How Costly is Democracy?’, in Newswatch, 28 May 1990
60. Pita Agbese, ‘The Impending Demise of Nigeria's Forthcoming Third Republic’, in Africa Today (Denver), 37, 3, 1990, pp. 23-44
61. Julius O. Ihonvbere, ‘Economic Crisis and the Cost of Redemocratization in Contemporary Nigeria’, forthcoming.
62. The African Guardian, 13 June 1988.
63. ‘The Scramble for Alternatives’, in Newswatch, 24 July 1989.
64. Nigerian Labour Congress, May Day Address (Lagos), 1 May 1987, p. 3.
65. See National Concord, 12 December 1987, for Olusegun Obasanjo's speech at the launching of the book by Joe Garba, entitled Diplomatic Soldering, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos.
66. Dapo Fafowora, cited in ‘Five Years of President Babangida's Rule: a tortuous journey’, in West Africa (London), 27 August-2 September 1990, p. 2351.
67. Barclays Bank, ABECOR Country Report. Nigeria (London), July 1990, p. 1.
68. West Africa, 27 August-2 September 1990, p. 2350.
69. Lardner, loc. cit. p. 50.
70. Lardner, loc. cit. p. 50.
71. See ‘Corruption a Nigerian?’, in African Concord, 26 March 1990, and ‘An Era of Scandals’, in ibid. 11 February 1991
72. Pita Agbese and Julius O. Ihonvbere, The State and the Politics of Structural Adjustment in Nigeria (Boulder, 1992), ch. 6, ‘Adjustment, Corruption and Politics’.
73. It should be noted that a propaganda leaflet entitled ‘Government by the Thief under IBB’ had been distributed in Lagos and Port Harcourt during the June 1989 anti-S.A.P. riots.
74. Lardner, loc. cit. p. 51.
75. Pini Jason, ‘Babangida's Choice’, in New African (London), August 1990, p. 40.
76. Gerald Bourke, ‘Nigeria: playing politics’, in Africa Report 34, 5, September-October 1989, p. 44.
77. Balarabe Musa, quoted in Newswatch, 7 May 1990, p. 10.
78. ‘Nigeria: a giant blunders’, in African Concord, 27 August 1990, p. 31.
79. This figure does not include several loans contracted since October 1990. See United Bank for Africa, Monthly Business and Economic Digest (Lagos), 13, 6, June 1990, and Central Bank of Nigeria, Monthly Reports (Lagos), various issues.
80. The International Labour Office reached the conclusion in 1981 that most Nigerians, especially those in the rural areas but also in the urban slums, were worse off than they had been at political independence. The report argued that huge expenditures in the name of development had made little or no impact on the provision of ‘basic needs’ and the living conditions of the majority. See I.L.O., First Things First: meeting the basic needs of the people of Nigeria (Addis Ababa, 1981).
81. It must be noted that one of the alleged plotters not yet arrested, Major Umukoro, has a Ph.D. in criminology.
82. See ‘NANS vs Government: the cat and mouse game‘, in The African Guardian, 14 May 1990.
83. Lardner, loc. cit. p. 50.
84. Nosa Igiebor, ‘Splash and Dash’, in Tell (Lagos), 9 September 1991, pp. 14-17
85. Dare Babarinsa, ‘Is the Transition Train on Course?’, in ibid. pp. 18-19
86. Onome Osife-Whiskey, ‘New States, New Challenges’, in ibid. pp. 20-2
87. Peter Ishaka, ‘Freedom for David-West’, in ibid. pp. 26-7.
88. Odeh Okoh, ‘We the People’, in African Concord, 28 May 1990, p. 25.
89. ‘Nigeria: more questions than answers’, in Africa Confidential, 31, 10, 10 May 1990, p. 3.
90. ‘Military Rule Will Ruin Us’, a propaganda leaflet distributed in Lagos and Port Harcourt during the June 1989 anti-S.A.P. riots.
91. Lardner, loc. cit. p. 28.
92. Onu Job Jonathan, ‘We the People’, in African Concord, 28 May 1990, p. 28.
93. According to ‘Nigeria Hires a Public Relations Firm in U.S.’, in Good Home News (Dallas), 1, 6, June 1990, p. 6, an American firm has been polishing the image of the President and his regime at a reported annual fee of $1 million that ‘does not include extraordinary but necessary expenses, such as travel, overseas telephone calls and extensive photocopying’.
94. Bourke, loc, cit. p. 44.