Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd), has shared how the late General Sani Abacha involved him in Abacha’s 1993 coup.
Abubakar discusses this in Chapter 17 of his autobiography, ‘Call of Duty,’ which is 264 pages long and has 27 chapters.
He said he was assigned as Commandant of the National War College when the political crisis over the annulled June 12, 1993, election intensified.
He said he turned down Abacha’s offer to become Chief of Army Staff twice after the coup that removed the Interim National Government.
He told Abacha he did not want to be used by civilians trying to control the military.
He explained that Abacha, who was Minister of Defence under the Interim National Government, stayed on as the most senior military officer in both the military and the government. The Babangida administration had kept him in that role to help stabilise the military.
The former Army General also said his first sign that something was happening came from Rear Admiral Suleiman Saidu, then Chief of Naval Staff. Saidu visited him at home one Monday evening in November 1993 with an urgent warning.
“He asked if I was aware that Abacha and Gusau had travelled to Abuja. I was surprised and asked why they should travel to Abuja, because Abacha himself asked me to see him the next day.
“He said, ‘These Army guys are thinking of a coup. Let me tell you that the Navy would not be a part of it.’ I immediately told him to count me out, as I was not in the know.
“I was surprised that Abacha knew he would be travelling to Abuja and still asked me to see him on Tuesday. If there was any rumour of a coup, this was the first time I heard it,” Abubakar wrote.
He added that on November 17, 1993, he was approached again, this time by the retired Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who phoned and asked what was happening in Abuja.
“I replied, ‘Like what?’ He said, ‘You people are trying to remove Chief Ernest Shonekan.’ I said I had no idea, but that he should let me find out. That was the second time I was hearing the rumour,” Abdulsalami wrote.