Military Era & Coups in Nigeria
Military regimes, coups, economic policies, and the transition to democratic governance in Nigeria from 1966 to 1999.
General Martin Luther Agwai: Nigeria’s Commander at the Birth of the UN-AU Mission in Darfur
General Martin Luther Agwai occupies an important place in the history of Nigerian and African participation in international peacekeeping. After senior service in the...
Florence Ajimobi and Adeyinka Adebayo: The Powerful 1967 Photograph Linking an Ibadan Schoolgirl to Nigerian History
Florence Ajimobi and Adeyinka Adebayo appear together in one of those historical photographs whose significance became clearer only with the passage of time. The...
William Walbe and the July 1966 Counter-Coup: Inside the Seizure of Ironsi and Fajuyi
William Walbe and the July 1966 Counter-Coup are inseparable from the story of one of the most dramatic reversals in Nigeria’s early military history....
Lt S. E. Idowu: From Army Promotion to the Tragedy of the July 1966 Counter-Coup
Lt S. E. Idowu, service number N/359, belonged to a generation of Nigerian Army officers whose careers unfolded during the turbulent first years after...
Murtala Muhammed Assassination: The Eyewitness Account of His Final Moments
The Murtala Muhammed assassination on 13 February 1976 was one of the most consequential acts of political violence in post-independence Nigerian history. General Murtala...
Bamanga Tukur: The Remarkable Life of Nigeria’s Former Governor, Business Leader and PDP Chairman, 1935–2026
Bamanga Tukur was a Nigerian businessman, public administrator and politician whose career extended across some of the most consequential periods in the country’s modern...
Joseph Dechi Gomwalk: The Remarkable Life of Benue-Plateau’s First Governor and His Execution in 1976
Joseph Dechi Gomwalk was a Nigerian police commissioner who became the first Military Governor of Benue-Plateau State in 1967. During his eight years in...
Sergeant Bakari and the Southern Nigeria Regiment
Sergeant Bakari and the Southern Nigeria Regiment occupy an important place in the visual history of British colonial rule in Nigeria. An archival photograph...
The Pro-Abacha Rally in Ibadan
The pro-Abacha rally in Ibadan on 15 April 1998 became the scene of a violent confrontation between supporters of Nigeria's military head of state,...
Obasanjo’s Letters to Gowon: 4 Revealing Wartime Dispatches from Nigeria’s Civil War
Obasanjo’s letters to Gowon in 1969 provide a revealing account of the difficulties confronting the Nigerian Army during the final year of the Civil...