Buhari: Why Babangida overthrew me

Thirty-one years af­ter former Military Head of State, Gen­eral Ibrahim Babangida, sacked him from power, President Muhammadu Bu­hari has opened up, claim­ing that Babangida staged the pre-emptive coup to save his own neck.
Buhari said that as the Head of State, he was al­ready planning a major an­ti-corruption purge in the military hierarchy – which would have affected Baban­gida and his collaborators, hence they engineered the pre-emptive military coup that overthrew his govern­ment.
In an exclusive interview published in the current edi­tion of The Interview mag­azine, Buhari challenged Babangida and Gen. Aliyu Gusau to tell the truth on why they carried out the coup against him.

Buhari’s position is seen as a counter to that put out by Babangida last December in an interview with the same magazine, The current unsparing anti-corruption purge of the nation’s military may be indicative of Buhari’s mindset over three decades ago.
According to Buhari, senior military leaders then led by Babangida and Gen. Gusau, removed him in Au­gust 1985 to save themselves from his wrath.
Buhari said: “I learnt that Aliyu Gusau, who was in charge of intelligence, took import licence from the Fed­eral Ministry of Commerce which was in charge of sup­plies and gave it to Alhaji Mai Deribe.
“It was worth N100,000, a lot of money at that time. I confronted them and took the case to the Army Coun­cil in a memo...I wanted Gu­sau punished.”
In a statement on www: theinterview.com.ng, the Managing Director/Edi­tor-in-Chief of The Inter­view, Mr. Azu Ishiekwene, said: “This is one edition that won’t let sleeping dogs lie.”
Babangida had in the De­cember 2015 edition of The Interview said that there was nothing in the memo which Buhari said he submitted to the Army Council.
He had said: “Don’t for­get that I was one of Buhari’s closest aides. I was the Chief of Army Staff. So, I had an important position, an im­portant role to play within that administration. I don’t think it had to do with a memo.”
But in a tone which re­vealed that the past may nei­ther have been forgotten nor forgiven, Buhari challenged Babangida and Gusau to come clean on why they re­moved him, asking The In­terview to choose whose sto­ry to believe.
He also spoke about his health, the 2016 Budget, the pace of his government, for­mer President Goodluck Jonathan and why Mr. Ba­batunde Raji Fashola was handed three ministerial portfolios.