After more than three months of investigation, the Nigerian government announced that several military officers arrested in October will be charged with an alleged coup plot to topple President Bola Tinubu’s government.
Sixteen officers, ranging in rank from captain to brigadier general, were arrested last year, accused of “acts of indiscipline and breaches of service regulations”.
The authorities now say that some of the sixteen will go before a military judicial panel on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.
“The comprehensive investigation process, conducted in accordance with established military procedures, carefully examined all circumstances surrounding the conduct of the affected personnel,” military spokesman Major General Samaila Uba said in a statement.
“The findings have identified a number of the officers with allegations of plotting to overthrow the government which is inconsistent with the ethics, values and professional standards required of members of the AFN.
“Accordingly, those with cases to answer will be formally arraigned before appropriate military judicial panel to face trial in accordance with the Armed Forces Act and other applicable service regulations.”
Earlier government silence around the coup plot was intended not to alarm other suspects and cause them to flee, defence minister General Christopher Musa said in a February 2 television interview.
The plot was allegedly led by senior officers disgruntled about promotions and other benefits they said passed them by.
“I was to be arrested or killed if I resisted,” Musa, who previously served as chief of the defence staff, said in the interview.
West Africa’s coup habit
For Nigerians, the disclosures provide evidence that the country is not immune from the series of coups that have roiled West Africa in recent years.
Within the past four years, soldiers have seized power in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and more recently Guinea-Bissau. An attempt by soldiers to topple the government in Benin on December 7 was stopped by Nigeria’s intervention at the invitation of President Patrice Talon.
Nigeria is no stranger to coups, having recorded seven military coups that resulted in a change of government in addition to other unsuccessful plots over the past six decades. The military ruled from 1966 to 1979, followed by a four-year civilian interval, before another decade and a half that ended in 1999. Nigeria has since had more than 26 unbroken years of civilian rule.
All that could have changed if the alleged plot had succeeded. Musa contends that such an attempt would have sent the country into chaos as it would have met strong resistance from a populace that has experienced military rule.
Still, there are others who argue that the fact that many young people have yet to experience military rule is fuelling amnesia around the dangers of army governance.
“The political class is discrediting itself just like the military had done, and that could be an excuse to intervene once more,” says Fabian Ekwe, a Nigerian military historian.
During protests against a cost-of-living crisis in 2024 that followed Tinubu’s ending of decades of fuel subsidies and his floating of the naira exchange rate amid fiscal difficulties, marchers in several northern Nigerian cities called for the return of military rule.
So far, it is the government’s version of events that is dominating the narrative. When the trial gets underway, it will provide the opportunity for the defence to make their case and for the accused to answer to the coup charges.
Investigating the alleged plot also revealed security weaknesses that the accused persons had intended to exploit, according to Musa.
“They show you where your weaknesses are and you fix them,” he said.