Nigerians no dey carry last. Before you lecture me about how that line is for Warri people, let me ask you if Waferians are not Nigerians? However, this is not about “my Warri people”, it is a tribute to the ability of a lot of our countrymen TO be ad hoc political analysts.

In danfo buses, beer parlours, offices, on radio, TV and even on social media, everyone is an armchair political scientist proffering “empirical” solutions to the problems of Nigeria.

The problem is, a lot of time, you hear them express the sentiment that a coup will end many of Nigeria’s problems, especially corruption. You begin to wonder at their forgetfulness. Was corruption not entrenched in Nigeria from one military regime to another?

For all those who think a military coup will end all their troubles, here’s something to remind you of the successive coups we have witnessed as a nation.

• On January 15, 1966, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and five other Army Majors carried out the first ever military coup in Nigeria. It led to the death of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria, Chief S.I. Akintola, the Premier of Western Region, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister of Nigeria, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Federal Minister of Finance and other military officers. After the coup, The General Officer commanding the Nigerian army, Major-General Johnson Thomas Ununakwe Aguiyi Ironsi became the Military Head of State of Nigeria.

One thing we must not forget about that coup is that it marked the beginning of flagrant ethnic animosity in Nigeria. Although it was reported that the coup plotters had noble ideals and ideas about how the country should be governed, they were accused of tribalism. The coup was seen as an “Igbo coup”, and the reprisal attacks that followed against Igbos in the North can only be imagined. Also, away from what we can hold on to, the coup destroyed our progressive regionalism. It destroyed our political class; the people, the parties and the ideologies that made our politics noble. When we say our politicians and parties now have no ideologies, it all started from this coup.

• On July 29, 1966, six months after the first coup plot, three young military officers of Northern background led by Lieutenant Colonel Murtala Muhammed staged a counter-coup to “even the score”. This led to the death of Major-General J.T.U. Aguyi-Ironsi, Head of State, Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor, Western Region and other military officers. General Yakubu Gowon was then sworn-in as the Military Head of State.

A combination of all these incidents heralded the Nigerian civil war. You need not be reminded of the magnitude of lives and resources that went into the winning and losing of that war. Also, it can be said that corruption grew wings during this regime. When petrodollars entered the picture, our leaders became bedfellows with corruption.

• In July 1975, a group of Colonels sacked the government of General Yakubu Gowon in a bloodless coup. General Murtala Muhammed, who masterminded the coup, then assumed power. A lot of great things have been said about this regime. It tried to reduce corruption, it tried to return sanity to the service and so on. However, it does not take the fact away that it was a military junta, where people lived in perpetual fear.
• On February 13, 1976, Lieutenant-Colonel Buka Suka Dimka and other officers staged an abortive coup which claimed the lives of three officers; General Murtala Muhammed, Head of State, Col. Ibrahim Taiwo, Governor of Kwara State and Lt. Akintunde Akinsehinwa, ADC to Muhammed. General Olusegun Obasanjo became the Military Head-of-State.
• On December 31, 1983, General Muhammadu Buhari staged a coup which sacked the Shehu Shagari-led administration. The administration sought to restore discipline to our national life, but for many, it took away their dignity and self-worth. People were treated like animals, and the government perpetuated fear in the minds of Nigerians.
• On August 27, 1985, General Ibrahim Babangida-led a palace coup which terminated Buhari’s 20-month reign. You know all about Nigeria’s romance with the IMF, the corruption, the stories of assassination, the sit-tightism and the annulment of the mandate of the people. Are they not all written in the chronicles of the “Kings of Nigeria”?
• In 1986, Major-General Mamman Vatsa led an abortive coup to overthrow the government of President Babangida. That same year, he and other 10 military officers were tried and were executed in March 1986.
• On April 22, 1990, Gideon Orka staged an abortive coup to unseat the government of Ibrahim Babangida. The coup attempt led to the largest execution of coup plotters in our nation’s history.
• On November 17, 1993, General Sani Abacha staged a palace coup to unseat the Interim National Government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan. General Abacha’s was in a class of its own. How can we forget how we cried out like the Israelites against Pharaoh? We were breaking under the weight of dictatorship, so much that rejoiced at the death of a single man.

Looking at all of these experiences we have had as a people, how can we crave for a repeat of such?

We should not also forget that it was such era that produced the likes of Obasanjo, Babangida, Buhari and many other “military” politicians who have refused to leave our political landscape. Maybe we want the cycle to continue; a cycle that will give us more Buharis to vote for.