By Batos Nwadike
Lt. Col. Bukar Sukar Dimka led a military coup against the Federal military Government of General Murtala Muhammed in February 1976. He killed the Head of State in that uncertain Friday on his way to the mosque. The Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, General Olusegun Obasanjo went into hiding. The whereabout of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma was unknown. Lt. Col Dimka went ahead to prosecute the coup thinking that as soon as the Head of State Gen. Murtala Muhammed fell to the assassins bullet, that the coup was over and successful. He didn’t look out for Gen. Danjuma. Danjuma from his hide out foiled the coup and Dimka and his accomplices like Gen Bisalla were arrested and publicly executed at the military firing range in Lagos. Danjuma was the banana peel of Dimka in that coup.
Sometime last year,2021 in Abuja, the then Imo State House of Assembly Speaker, Rt. Hon Paul Emeziem had plotted a democratic coup and working in consort with hardened opponents of the Uzodinma government,names withheld, impeached the Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon Amarachi Chyna Iwuanyanwu claiming he was on the instructions and confidence of the Governor. He had the opportunity of doing a real putsch but failed to impeach pari- paso the Majority leader,Dele Onyemaechi.
The impeachment failed because the banana peel( The Gen.Danjuma ) of Imo House of Assembly, Hon Dele Onyemaechi was left out of the putsch. The Majority Leader quickly faulted Paul Emeziem and reconvened the House reinstating Amara Chyna Iwuanyanwu and rather impeached the Speaker. Lessons of democratic coup plotting aka IMHA. A year earlier Dr. Collins Chiji (aka the Governor’s Speaker) had been removed in rather strange circumstances of mingling with hardened opponents of government. It was also a shocker to Imo people. The banana peel of unauthorised mingling elevated some new strong men like Rt. Hon Uche Ogbuagu to the office of Majority Leader. His joy was somehow short lived before he fell from power.
Political banana peels are the euphemism that my late elder brother, Dr. William Wilberforce Chuba Okadigbo( Oyi of Oyi) used to describe his travails as President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under Olusegun Obasanjo as President of Nigeria. In that eight years rule of Obasanjo; five Senate Presidents emerged. Did that present Obasanjo as a team player or one who was not imbued by the democratic tenets of separation of powers?. In Imo state, this is the highest re-jig of Assembly leadership; four times under Achike Udenwa, it was three times under Ohakim’s rule, then under Rochas Okorocha,twice. This current government in Imo state has to slow down psychedelic intolerance of opposing views and especially imbue the tenets of the democratic separation of powers. The ascendancy of the fourth Speaker in one tenure of four years is not a good testament of the administration.
In the last forty eight hours again, the Gen Danjuma of IMHA, Rt. Hon Dele Onyemaechi issued a shocking statement to the people of Imo state through his Special Adviser, Media, that a new Speaker had emerged in the person of Rt. Hon Emeka Nduka after the former Speaker, Rt. Hon Kennedy Ibe resigned. The statement carried the trappings of a coup announcement such as ” fellow country men” .This one was “my good people of Imo state a new Speaker has emerged in the person of Emeka Nduka following the resignation of Kennedy Ibe to avert vacuum in government”.
That statement coming from the office of the Danjuma of IMHA was very clear that the former Speaker would have stepped on a banana peel perhaps just by the weekend. It is possible that there was a clash between the leadership of the executive arm of government and the legislature or security issues or monetary matters. Whatever is the case, there have been many banana peels in the 9th IMHA, recycling strong men in affirmation of Nigeria ace music maestro Sonny Okosuns,”Who owns the land or Who owns Imo House of Assembly”?.
Dr Batos Nwadike( Oyi of Igboland) is Chancellor of leadership by Example League International( LELI) and Chairman Chief Charles Ahize Senatorial Advisory Campaign Council and writes from Protea Hotel, Owerri, Imo State.
NIGERIA NEWSPOINT