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<p>By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa</p><div class="K8eOBfTI" style="clear:both;float:left;width:100%;margin:0 0 20px 0;"><script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>

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<p>Former military Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd.), has asserted that every successful military coup in Nigeria’s history has depended on active support or sponsorship from civilians, challenging the long-held narrative that the country’s political upheavals were purely soldier-led affairs.</p>
<p>In an interview with Badeggi 90.1 FM in Minna, aired ahead of his 85th birthday on Monday, the former president stated that wealthy civilians have historically played instrumental roles in funding and facilitating military takeovers.</p>
<p>“No successful coup in Nigeria’s history had occurred without civilian involvement,” Babangida declared, according to a transcript of the interview cited by THISDAY.</p><div class="blDGTjNr" style="clear:both;float:left;width:100%;margin:0 0 20px 0;"><script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>

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<p>The former leader used the occasion to offer a rare, personal reflection on the 1985 coup plot against his administration, which led to the trial and execution of his close friend and cabinet colleague, Major-General Mamman Vatsa, then Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.</p>
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<p>Babangida recounted that he initially struggled to believe intelligence reports linking Vatsa to the conspiracy, given their decades-long friendship. The two had grown up together, attended Bida Middle School, and enlisted in the military in the same year.</p>
<p>He said he summoned both Vatsa and General Mohammed Gado Nasko to his office after a senior officer implicated them. “When they arrived, I asked them about the reports that they had been mentioned in a plot to topple my government. Both of them denied any involvement,” Babangida recalled.</p>
<p>A military commission of inquiry was subsequently established. While Nasko was cleared, the panel found evidence against Vatsa. Babangida described himself as “shocked, devastated and deeply disappointed” by the findings but insisted that military law left him no room for clemency.</p>
<p>“There was nothing I could do to exonerate him from the consequences prescribed by military law. My hands were tied. That was how I lost my brother, General Mamman Vatsa,” he said. Vatsa was executed by firing squad in March 1986.</p>
<p>Turning to contemporary issues, Babangida urged Nigerians to remain patient and supportive of President Bola Tinubu’s administration amid ongoing economic hardships and security crises.</p>
<p>He expressed confidence that the government’s current policies would eventually yield positive results, calling for national hope and resilience during the challenging transition.</p>
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