It has been 60 years since the first native government of Nigeria elected by Nigerian citizens was toppled, only six years after its independence from the British Colonial Administration. The brutally savage and bloody coup carried out by some unrepentant military officers, based on all evidence, was inspired by the world evangelical Christian movement to disrupt and literally kill the baby nation or prevent its nurture, growth, and prosperity. It remains so today, as the same crop of people, the enemy within, in collusion with exploitative foreign powers hiding under the guise of religion, still peddle false narratives of Christian genocide to throw the country into chaos. Did Nigeria learn any lessons from what it experienced 60 years ago, and is it willing to see the event as it truly was, and as it continues to be? That’s our quest
in this piece.
The leading issue used to cause division and chaos in Nigeria has always been religion. Nigeria, before the 1966 bloody coup, was administered as a federal government comprising of three regional administrations. Nigeria got its independence from Britain and formed a native
government in 1960. The government comprised of three regional administrative units; the
Northern, Eastern, and Western regions. The northern region was overwhelmingly Muslim, the
Eastern overwhelmingly Christian, and the Western was of mixed religion, i.e., a slim majority
Muslim and the rest Christian. The coup that derailed Nigeria future 60 years ago saw the eastern region brutally and prominently targeting and assassinating northern Muslim leaders in a bloody coup.
From the mid twentieth century (1950s), many intellectuals and scholars have already started
articulating against collaboration between Christian missionaries operating in much of Africa
and other third world countries as willing tools in the hands of exploitative European colonial
administrations. The contrast is that, while Islam’s spread on the African continent were via
peaceful means centuries prior, during international trade and commerce, Christian
missionaries were aligned with those who occupied African lands based on conquests and
exploitation. A famous quote attributed to Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa says
‘when the missionaries came to Africa, they had the bible and we had the land. They said ‘let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the bible and they had the land.’
The organizers of the 1966 coup, who were used by exploitative European nations at that time,
as you may have guessed, came from the overwhelmingly Christian region of South-Eastern
Nigeria. And when a counter-coup by the northern Muslim military personnel to ensure justice
and prosecution of those involved, as well as set up a government sensitive to the diversity of the nation’s population, the southeast region rebelled, announcing a decision to break away
from Nigeria and establishing a separate nation called Biafra. Though no nation, except France
and Israel, recognized Biafra, the action threw Nigeria into a civil war that lasted for three
years, between 1967 to 1970. It ended with the surrender of ‘Biafra’ or the southeastern
region of Nigeria to the Nigerian Army. Nigeria thus proceeded as one nation since then. But it
is noteworthy that to date, movements and pressure groups continue to form, agitating for a
breakaway. Prominent among them are the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, formed 14 years
ago under the leadership of the recently convicted Nnamdi Kanu.
A 50 Year Commemoration of Gen. Murtala Muhammad The year 2026 seems to draw the attention of all well-meaning Nigerians to look inwards and ponder as far as issues of united purpose, peace, and prosperity for the nation is concerned. 51 years ago, an innovative and courageous senior military officer, Murtala Muhammad, came to power in Nigeria. He just led for 200 days and was assassinated. But the trailblazing achievements of those days are still felt, and he was credited by many as one of the best leaders Nigeria ever saw. Among his insightful actions was the creation of seven more states (from 12 to 19) to allow the federal government to reach much closer to remote areas of the country. These states today celebrate half a century of development.
Gen Murtala Muhammed (8 November, 1938- 13 Feb. 1976) remained an Icon of justice, fair-
play, and an ardent advocate of diversity as a precursor to peace in a multi-ethnic and religious
nation like Nigeria. Gen Muhammad, whose only wife was Yoruba (Ajoke) led the officers who
conducted a counter coup against the Aguyi Ironsi military administration. Again, the Ironsi
administration was propped by the coup executors that interrupted the first native civilian
government of Nigeria. The noble and unprecedented action by the group Murtala led in the
counter coup, was the decision to choose for Nigeria a new Leader that shared neither ethnicity nor religion with northerners. The senior officers of the Nigerian Army chose a young Lt Col Yakubu Gowon, a Christian and Angas minority tribe, hailing from Plateau State of Nigeria. They placed their full support, and that of the Nigerian Army, behind the new leader. Gowon led the nation and its people through a very trying time of civil war from 1967-1970.
He was a Brigadier General in 1975, when Mutala prominently featured and was reported to
have led another coup that toppled the government of Gen Yakubu Gowon. In his speech
immediately after the takeover, Gen Murtala listed reasons the Senior military officers felt that
intervention was necessary. Noteworthy among them was not only increasing decay, but
reneging on the Military’s promise when they placed Gowon in Power, that they intend to
restore another elected civilian government for Nigeria.
True to his words, he hit the ground running with a series of reforms aimed at bringing the
country back on track. He fought corruption diligently, firing guilty corrupt government officials
regardless of position. Instilling work discipline in government by example, reporting to work on
time, following up on tasks he assigned, and firing anyone found wanting. And he would
appoint vetted replacements ‘with immediate effect.’ He cleared Nigerian ports to bring down
inflation that was caused by the neglect of Nigerian port operations. He also embarked on a
courageous pan-African foreign policy that openly supported South African countries, most
especially South Africa and Angola. One of his most prominent speeches, which many young
educated Nigerians in colleges at that time committed to memory, was the one he gave on
January 11, 1976, at an annual meeting of African leaders in Ethiopia, OAU at that time, titled
‘Africa has come of Age.’
That speech, it was reported, shook white supremacists to the core across the globe. And
South African freedom fighters never forgot it. Mariam Makeba, who was a popular South
African musician at that time sang about it in 1976 in her album Sabelani, praising Murtala’s
dedication to African Freedom. Four weeks after his return from Addis Ababa, Gen Murtala
was assassinated in Lagos, on his way to work, giving way for his Deputy, Olusegun Obasanjo, to become Head of State in February 1976.
February 10, 2026
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