After over three decades of deliberate quietude, former governor of Niger State, Col. Lawan Gwadabe has decided to say something about what he knew about the Major Gideon Orkar coup of 1990.

After avoiding reporters’ recorders and TV cameras for decades, Gwadabe, who bears so many labels that included veteran of coup plots, IBB boy, dangerous soldier etc., finally came out of his shell.

He says there’s no better time to talk than now when the 35th anniversary of the aborted coup which shook the very seat of power and almost claimed the life of the then military president, Ibrahim Babangida, would be marked.

Secondly, he says the labelling of the coup as ‘Orkar coup’ is not only wrong but unfortunate because Orkar never spearheaded the plot but was only a latter day recruit who at a point even wanted to spill the beans.

Thirdly, he feels that there are people who sacrificed their lives to ensure the continuity of that regime thereby saving Nigeria from bloodshed that have not been recognised or compensated.

He believes people like Babangida’s ADC, UK Bello, deserve national honours for the sacrifice.

Again, he believes that the younger generation of Nigerians has a lot to learn from that episode that it would not be fair to perpetually keep mute over the matter.

But the whisper he had intended just to straighten the records has turned into this interview where he was literally compelled to occasionally step out of his intended area of focus to speak on other issues.

In the preamble, he took us through how things went on March 1, 1995, when he as an ebullient, vivacious and zestful young officer, arrived Jos on an invitation by the military hierarchy in what he thought was going to be a continuation of his debriefing about a report on the Bakassi Peninsula which he was working on.

On getting to Jos however, he was arrested and later charged with plotting to overthrow the government of General Sani Abacha.

It was the same coup for which the former head of state, General Olusegun Obasanjo and his former Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, General Shehu Musa Yar’adua, were arrested.

Though most of those indicted, especially Obasanjo have consistently denied such a plot and it was later dubbed a phantom coup, some high ranking military officers in the Abacha government like General Ishaya Bamaiyi insisted there was a coup plot.

Like Obasanjo and others, Gwadabe insists he was only framed and there was no conspiracy to overthrow the Abacha government. He did not disagree, however, that he could have been arrested because of his background as one not averse to regime change.

Translation: Being a veteran of so many coups, he could have been arrested to forestall any likely repeat of what he did to Muhammadu Buhari and what he was alleged to have inspired in the Gambia.

To put it in local parlance, it was a case of not allowing the owl to cry in the night in order to save the child from dying in the morning.

Jos, the town where he was arrested holds a special place in his life as that was where he was born and incidentally, it was in the same town he was reported to have met with Buhari in 1983 to make arrangements for the trip that would eventually launch the latter as Nigeria’s head of state when the coup that ousted President Shehu Shagari succeeded.

Gwadabe was one of those considered as a high flying officer having held choice appointments. He became a colonel at a very young age and was appointed governor of Niger State at the age of 38 and was one of the most influential of the military governors of that era.

His image used to be all over the media as he took responsibilities that were beyond his brief as governor. He was an ‘IBB boy’, which meant that he was one of those very close to the then military president.

Even after Abacha took over the reins of government, Gwadabe maintained that visibility with his coordination of the political affairs for the military ruler and is credited with breaking the ranks of NADECO by getting its chieftains like Chief Lateef Jakande, Ebenezer Babatope etc to take appointments in that administration.

The night of March 1, 1995, took all that from him. Since then, not much has been heard from him except his occasional interventions on policy and political matters.

With this offer and his soon to be released biography, it appears the era of reticence is over and the former military officer is ready to break the ice. (Weekend Trust)