Word: murtala
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Lagos, the capital. Both high-spirited crowds were assembled to witness the public executions of some 30 soldiers, including four lieutenant colonels and six majors, and a lone civilian. A special military board had convicted them of planning the abortive coup of Feb. 13, in which Head of State Murtala Mohammed was assassinated (TIME, March...
With the executions, Lieut. General Olusegun Obasanjo, who took over the government of Black Africa's largest and richest country after the killing of Murtala, made good on his promise to dole out military justice to those found guilty. Surprisingly, one of the executed officers was former Defense Minister I.D. Bisalla, who had helped bring Murtala to power in an earlier, successful coup last July. Bisalla and many of the others were apparently implicated in the plot by Lieut. Colonel B.S. Dimka, the man who led the Feb. 13 overthrow attempt. Dimka managed to stay at large for three...
...coup attempt, 125 people were arrested; 40 have been released. Aside from those already executed, several dozen others are still being interrogated, including Dimka himself. According to the Nigerian government, Dimka has also implicated Yakubu Gowon, the former head of state who was exiled after the coup that brought Murtala to power last July. Gowon, according to the government's charge, instructed Dimka to get together with Defense Minister Bisalla and attempt to overthrow the government. Their reasons for acting, said Nigeria's new defense chief, Brigadier Musa Yarduah, was the government's plan...
Most observers expect Obasanjo to continue Murtala's long-range program. This includes a vigorous war against corruption in government (Murtala sacked more than 11,000 civil servants and 200 army officers), a reduction of 40% in the size of the 250,000-member armed forces, and restoration of civilian rule by October...
...seventh largest oil exporter, Nigeria's economy has lately been lagging. Unemployment is high, and the effort to cut the armed forces will throw some 100,000 former soldiers on the job market just when jobs are becoming harder to get. Dealing with that problem-and catching Murtala's murderers, who remained at large last week -may well be the biggest immediate challenges to the Obasanjo regime...