Sunday, April 22,1990, was a day like no other.It was a day a group of dissatisfied officers of the Nigerian army turned coat and transmuted to dissident soldiers.They galvanised like minds in the futile attempt to overthrow the General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida led junta.
From 6am to 12noon, the dissident soldiers held sway and ruled the Airwaves with their coup speech and martial music. During this time, the whereabouts of Babangida and his henchmen, like General Sani Abacha and Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, were unknown.
Orka, while he dominated the airwaves, announced “the successful ousting of the …of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.” He intoned that theirs was not just another coup but a liberation movement designed to liberate Southern and Middle Belt parts of Nigeria from the oppressive clutches of “feudalistic” North.He then proceeded to excise the five core hausa-fulani dominated states in Northern Nigeria from the country.
Not a few Nigerians were alarmed by the audacity of Orka’s divisive inclinations. While some of his accusations against Babangida,like sit tightism and corruption, resonated well with most Nigerians, the brazen balkanisation of the country dismayed many.
A few minutes after midday, it became obvious that loyal troops were rallying to foil the coup.Light armoured personnel carriers, battle ready ferrets, and saladines manned by unsmiling soldiers decked in battle gears crawled out in their numbers from the then Ikeja Military cantonment (now Lagbaja Military Cantonment).They snailed menacingly towards Radio Nigeria headquarters in Ikoyi, Lagos, where they eventually brought the coup plotters to their knees.
It took a terse broadcast by then Lt Col Bashir Magashi and that by Col Ishaya Bamaiyi to signal the end of the Orka bravado.When coup veteran Sani Abacha came on air any lingering hope that the coupists were holding on evaporated.Abacha described Orka and his co-travellers as misguided and their act as national nuisance.They, including Orka,were rounded up.But some of their leading lights like Lt Col Tony Nyiam,Major Daddy Mukuro and Lt E.E. Echendu escaped and was never arrested.
It later came light, the coup plotters had attacked Babangida’s living quarters and, in the process, killed his Aide Camp Lt Col U K Bello.
Ironically, most of the ills that Orka railed against thirty-five years ago are still besetting Nigeria in larger forms, shapes, and colouration.
