Recollections of a day of gloom
General Murtala Mohammed
Mon Feb 15 2021
It is now 45 years ago when Nigeria’s much-beloved Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed was assassinated. Readers of some age group would have their own recollections of that day when gloom pervaded the entire length and breadth of the country.
On 13th February 1976, when the General was ambushed on the way to the office in Lagos and killed, I was halfway into my final year in the School of Business, Kongo campus, ABU, Zaria. We were accustomed to coups having lived through three in the preceding 10 years. The two coups in 1966 were as violent as they came. In the first one, the country lost the prime minister, two premiers and top notches of the Nigerian Army as well as a very senior federal minister. In the second putsch, the Head of the Military Government along with a military governor were killed. In contrast, the 1975 coup that installed General Murtala as Head of State was a peaceful one and coul