On August 27, 1985, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) led a coup that successfully overthrew the military government of General Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari’s deputy at the time was General Babatunde Idiagbon—a no nonsense, never smiling soldier who became the face of the administration’s War Against Indiscipline (WAI).

Idiagbon was so powerful a deputy, folks said at the time that he ran the government for Buhari.

On the night of Sunday, January 20, 2019, as he hosted former staff who worked with him during his tenure as military Head of State from 1983 to 1985 at the State House, Abuja, President Buhari commended Idiagbon for what he described as “uncommon loyalty and courage” after the coupists struck.

Buhari said Idiagbon, who was in Saudi Arabia at the time of the coup, insisted on returning to Nigeria, telling his host that, “if they kill him (Buhari), let them kill me also.”

In Buhari’s words, “Idiagbon was in Saudi Arabia, performing the hajj, when we were removed. The Saudi King said the coup was not just against us, but also against him, since Idiagbon was praying with him.

“He asked him to send for his family to join him in Saudi until it was clear where I was. Idiagbon said no, I want to go back, Your Majesty. If they kill him, let them kill me also.

“He joined the next flight and came back. I think there’s no way you can describe such loyalty, such courage. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

Idiagbon died on March 24, 1999 in his home State of Kwara, the year Nigeria commenced the fourth republic.

Buhari knew IBB was planning a coup

In a 2014 interview, Buhari told TheCable that he was aware IBB was plotting to overthrow him.

“It is true that I learnt he (IBB) was planning a coup against me. And I sat and discussed it with him in my office”, Buhari said.

“He brought the news that he went to Kano and people complained that I pulled a pistol during a council meeting. I said Ibro ─ I called him Ibro because I was just senior to him by a few months ─ I said whoever wants to sit on this chair let him come and sit here. And he decided to do it.”

Reminded that the punishment for coup plotting was death and that he could well have put Babangida on trial, Buhari replied: “Yes. Remember how many people he killed subsequently for trying to overthrow him? But when I came in, there was no bloodshed. I think a couple of policemen were killed and [Brigadier Ibrahim] Bako also died in an ambush.

“But deliberately, nobody was killed. I was in the front, the real front in the Nigerian civil war. I had seen enough of death and I know what God means by human life. Any human being, God values their life. And anybody who hopes to meet God, he should be careful about killing.

“When there is law and due process of law took place, the question is clear. Like the cocaine convicts that were executed, the decision was taken in supreme military council”.

Military coups were quite common in post-independent Nigeria from the 60s to the 80s. Some of the overthrown soldiers did not live to tell their stories.