Former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), has revealed that General Sani Abacha personally summoned and pressured him to accept appointment as Chief of Army Staff during the November 1993 coup.
He disclosed that he twice rejected the appointment as Chief of Army Staff offered by Abacha following the coup that toppled the Interim National Government, insisting to Abacha that he did not want to be made a tool in the hands of civilians seeking to use the military.
The revelations are contained in Chapter 17 of Abubakar’s 264-page, 27-chapter autobiography titled ‘Call of Duty’ obtained by our correspondent at the public presentation of the book at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
The event, held on Saturday to mark the former Head of State’s 84th birthday, was attended by President Bola Tinubu, who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima as Special Guest of Honour.
Narrating the events surrounding the Abacha coup, Abdulsalami recounted how he had been posted to the National War College, now renamed National Defence College, as its Commandant when the political crisis around the annulment of the June 12, 1993, election deepened.
He said Abacha, who was then Minister of Defence under the Interim National Government, had retained his position as the most senior military officer in active service and in government, having been left behind by the Babangida administration to stabilise the military.
Abdulsalami disclosed that his first hint of what was brewing came from Rear Admiral Suleiman Saidu, then Chief of Naval Staff, who visited him at home on a 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,” Abdulsalami wrote.
On Wednesday, November 17, 1993, Abdulsalami said 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.
That evening, around 9 pm, Shonekan resigned as Head of the Interim National Government, and Abacha moved to claim power.
The following day, Abdulsalami said pressure was mounted on him to attend a meeting of senior military officers at the Flag Staff House, but he declined, insisting that since he had not been formally invited, he would not go.
“They left and returned one after the other to tell me that my loyalty would be questioned if I did not attend the meeting.
“I replied that it didn’t matter what they thought; since I was not invited, I was not going to attend the meeting,” he wrote.
Lt-General Jeremiah Useni also came to persuade him, but Abdulsalami still refused.
It was only his own curiosity, he said, that eventually made him stop by the Flag Staff House on his way home, a decision that ended in public embarrassment.
“When I got there, the soldier at the gate said there was an instruction not to allow anybody in and that my name was not on the list of attendees. I went home, thoroughly embarrassed,” he recalled.
Abdulsalami said the situation took an even more astonishing turn the following day, when the same officer he had seen deploying security around Abacha’s house phoned him with a summons.
“He said: ‘Sir, I am giving you orders for the last time.’ I was furious and replied: ‘You are giving me orders for the last time? Who are you? You are foolish!’
“He replied: ‘The Commander-in-Chief wants to see you, and we have decided to make you the Chief of Army Staff.’ I called him by name and insulted him before hanging up the phone.
“Military discipline was being thrown out of the window within the twinkle of an eye!” Abdulsalami wrote.
About 30 minutes later, Abacha himself called. The two men met privately in the third sitting room of the Flag Staff House, where Abdulsalami said he extracted a firm commitment from the new Head of State before accepting any role.
According to Abdulsalami, “He said: ‘Abdul, if I make you the Chief of Army Staff, would you accept to work with me?’ This Chief of Army Staff matter again! I asked him to repeat the question. He smiled.
“I told him that he and Babangida had roasted me and put me under a difficult situation when they were telling everybody I had been appointed Chief of Army Staff, whereas there was no such thing.
“I then made two requests. One was that I would agree to be his Chief of Army Staff, but I wouldn’t hear my retirement over the radio if and when he found me as a thorn in his flesh. Instead, I should be politely told to go home.”
“Secondly, my relationship with him would never change, as I would always tell him the truth. I said that if he accepted my conditions, I would accept his offer. ‘Okay, thank you,’ he replied,” Abdulsalami added.
Despite this agreement, Abdulsalami said Abacha did not invite him to join the meeting then underway, and he left.
By the next day, Friday, an officer who had been at the Flag Staff House informed him privately that the plan to make him Army Chief had been changed after he walked out.
“He said: ‘Sir, you will be retired from the Army.’ I was surprised and asked how he knew. He told me that he was there when I visited the Flag Staff House the previous day.
“He said the plan was to make me Chief of Army Staff, but the decision was changed after I left,” the former Head of State wrote.
“I thanked him. I told him that he should not associate with me openly for his own sake because I didn’t want whatever my sins were to be visited on him.
“I pleaded that he should send any message he had for me by proxy,” he added.
That evening, several officers came to his house to inform him he was on a list of 15 officers slated for retirement the next day.
Among those named were Major-Generals John Shagaya, Lawrence Onoja, Raji Rasaki, Tunde Ogbeha, and David Mark.
“I said we should prepare to go home,” Abdulsalami wrote.
However, the retirement never came. Instead, Abdulsalami learned from a female journalist, a former brigade correspondent who accosted him outside the Air Force Mess after a meeting, that he had in fact been named Chief of Defence Staff, the highest military position in the land.
“She opened her bag, brought out a list, and said it was given to reporters but was embargoed till 4:30 pm. On the list, I saw my name as Chief of Defence Staff. I was shocked and said we were in for a tough job,” he wrote.
His brother called moments later to confirm the announcement on the radio.
Abdulsalami described the CDS role, which used to be called Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, as the officer who coordinates the activities of all three services in the Armed Forces, especially in terms of operations and procurement of commonly used equipment.
The book also chronicles Abdulsalami’s long personal history with Abacha, who he described as a childhood acquaintance from their school days in Northern Nigeria, Abacha in Kano, Abdulsalami in Bida, where both played inter-school football on opposing teams.
“I was a good footballer. Abacha was a defender, while I was a forward liner, what is called a striker today.
“He always marked me during matches.
“We naturally ended up as friends. That was how our relationship started,” he wrote.
The two men later attended the same military selection board and served in the same brigade during the Civil War, Abacha commanding the 95 Battalion and Abdulsalami the 84 Battalion, a proximity that, Abdulsalami noted, made Abacha his senior by default when he transferred from the Air Force to the Army in 1967 and lost a rank in the process.
Abdulsalami also revealed a prophecy he reportedly made to Abacha in the early days of his administration, when he confronted him over the unauthorised retirement of senior officers whose names he had heard on the BBC.
“I said to him: ‘Sani, if you do not take action, one day, you would be sitting down here and you would hear your name over the radio that you have been removed as the Head of State,’” Abdulsalami wrote.
Abdulsalami, who succeeded Abacha as Head of State following his sudden death in June 1998, oversaw Nigeria’s return to civilian rule and handed over to President Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, 1999.
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