Military coups became prevalent in most African countries in the 1960s, years just after they gained independence from their colonial masters. Over 40 coups occurred between 1960 and 1980 across various African countries, leading to varied outcomes in the various places where they occurred.
Although the military is an organisation authorised by its greater society to use weapons in defending its country against perceived or actual threats, the military commandants in different countries claim that they are forced to carry out coups, suddenly topple governments and suspend their powers because of several reasons. Some of the reasons enunciated by the military for intervening in the political process include political instability, economic crisis, the entrenchment of sectionalism and nepotism in the polity, a cutback in military expenditure, and politicised promotion in the military.
However, one principle the military does not state and brazenly violates when carrying out coups is their lack of submission to the doctrine of civilian supremacy. The doctrine stipulates that the military should always subordinate itself to civilian control, a factor which is not fully adhered to in developing countries, including Africa. That is why in the 21st century, the continent, particularly in the sub-Sahara area, has witnessed a plethora of military coups, especially from 2020 to date.
Military coups in Nigeria
Nigeria might have enjoyed 23 years of uninterrupted democracy, but it has experienced its fair share of military coups. The country witnessed six successful coups and two attempted coups organised by officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army from 1967 to 1993.
Below is a list of the coups that have occurred in the country.
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January 1966 coup
Three years after becoming a republic, Nigeria experienced its first military coup. On January 15, 1966, a group of young military officers, led by Patrick “Kaduna” Nzeogwu, overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
The coup was a bloody one as it led to the assassinations of Balewa; Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of the Northern Region; Ladoke Akintola, Premier of the Southern Region; Festus Okotie-Eboh, Minister of Finance; and the four highest-ranking northern military officers, including Brigadier-General Samuel Ademulegun, Commander of the 1 Brigade; and Brigadier-General Zakariya Maimalari, Commander of the 2nd Brigade, Lagos.
According to the coup plotters, who were mainly officers of Igbo extraction, they carried out the coup because the leaders of the country were allegedly corrupt and had looted the country’s resources. Following the incident and the outcome, Nwafor Orizu, the Senate President, who was the acting President of the country, announced in a nationwide broadcast the cabinet’s decision to transfer power voluntarily to the military. Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, also an officer of Igbo extraction but did not participate in the coup, assumed power as the military head of state and effectively suspended the constitution, dissolved all legislative parties, banned political parties, and formed an interim federal military government.
July 1966 counter-coup
There was unrest in the military and northern Nigeria over the military leadership’s apparent lack of punishment for the January 1966 coup plotters. The coup had seen mainly military officers and individuals of northern extraction killed by the coup planners. Other reasons for agitation include the passage of the Unification Decree and the promotion of several Igbo Majors to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonels.
With the reasons for their agitations not attended to six months after, northern officers led by Lieutenant-Colonel Murtala Muhammed (Inspector of Signals, Lagos) and Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Akahan (Commander, 4th Battalion Kaduna) began a mutiny against the government at midnight of July 28, 1966.
On the following day, July 29, the Head of State, General Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed in Ibadan, Oyo State, where he was visiting. Also assassinated was Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, Governor of the Western Region, who was hosting the head of state. The circumstances of their death are still unclear today, as their bodies were discovered in a nearby forest.
Following the assassination of Ironsi, Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon became the country’s new head of state.
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July 1975 coup
At the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, Gowon, who promoted himself to the rank of General, promised that military rule would be terminated on October 1, 1976. But in 1974, he suddenly announced a postponement in the transition to democracy, claiming that Nigerians were not ready for the change.
A faction of military officers was unhappy with the announcement. Led by Colonel Joseph Nanven Garba, these officers overthrew the administration of Gowon on July 29, 1975, in a bloodless coup. The head of state was attending a meeting of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Kampala, Uganda, when his government was overthrown.
The coup plotters appointed Brigadier-General Murtala Muhammed as head of state and Brigadier-General Olusegun Obasanjo as his deputy.
1976 attempted coup
On February 13, 1976, Muhammed, who promoted himself to a full general, was assassinated by Lieutenant-Colonel Buka Suka Dimka, who had attempted to overthrow the government. Muhammed was assassinated along with his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Akintunde Akinsehinwa, when his car was ambushed in Ikoyi, Lagos, while on his way to Dodan Barracks, which served as the Supreme Military Headquarters.
According to Dimka, in a planned radio broadcast, he attempted to overthrow the regime because of perceived corruption and maladministration and arrest and detention of people without trial. However, the coup was not successful as it did not have the support of senior military commanders. Government troops crushed the coup attempt several hours later, and Lieutenant-General Obasanjo, the deputy to the killed Muhammed, assumed office as the head of state.
Meanwhile, Dimka retreated and hid after the coup attempt failed. But after a three-week manhunt, he was arrested near Abakaliki, in present-day Ebonyi State, by the military. A total of 32 people were sentenced to death by a court-martial, including Dimka and the defence minister, Major-General Illiya D. Bisalla. Dimka and six co-conspirators were executed by firing squad on May 15, 1976.
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1983 coup
Four years after Nigeria’s return to democracy, a group of senior military officers, on December 31, 1983, toppled the administration of Shehu Shagari, a democratically elected president, who had begun his second term as the leader of the country.
The coup plotters were reportedly led by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, General Officer Commanding, 3rd Armored Division, Jos. The planners had orchestrated the coup to be a bloodless one, but due to possibly a lack of communication, Brigadier-General Ibrahim Bako, who was given the responsibility of arresting President Shagari after negotiations with the president’s team, ended up being the sole causality of the coup. Bako was killed in an ensuing firefight between soldiers from his detachment and the Brigade of Guards soldiers led by Captain Augustine Anyogo.
According to Brigadier-General Sani Abacha, in the first military broadcast after the coup, the government of Shagari was overthrown because it was “inept and corrupt.” Major-General Buhari was installed as head of state.
1985 coup
On August 27, 1985, a group of military officers led by Major-General Ibrahim Babangida, the Chief of Army Staff, overthrew the regime of Major-General Buhari. It was a bloodless affair as the head of state was not in Lagos, the country’s then-capital, and his second-in-command, Major-General Tunde Idiagbon, who doubled as the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, travelled to Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage.
Addressing the country via a radio broadcast after the coup was successfully carried out, Babangida said the act was carried out because of the “rigid and uncompromising” of the Buhari regime. He also claimed that the ousted regime demonstrated “inconsistency and incompetence.”
Babangida subsequently became the new head of state, while Buhari was detained in Benin City, Edo State, until 1988. Idiagbon was placed under house arrest for three years.
1990 coup attempt
A faction of military officers, led by Major Gideon Orkar, attempted to topple the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida on April 22, 1990. Orkar and his co-conspirators attacked various military posts around Lagos, including Dodan Barracks, the presidential residence; it was learnt that Babangida was present when the barracks was attacked but managed to escape by a back route.
The coup plotters also seized the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) radio station in Lagos. Addressing the nation via a radio broadcast at 4 am that same day, Orkar accused Babangida of planning to install himself as Nigeria’s life president and the Federal Military Government of marginalising the people of Niger Delta and the entire Southern part of the country. He also called for the obliteration of the five northern states from Nigeria.
However, the coup failed as senior military commanders announced their support for Babangida, and the plotters were subdued 10 hours later. A total of 42 men, comprising military officials and civilians, were arrested and convicted of involvement in the coup. They were executed by firing squad on July 27, 1990.
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1993 coup
Following the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and the enormous pressure mounted on him, General Babangida announced his resignation and appointed Ernest Shonekan as interim president on August 26, 1993.
But on November 17, 1993, just nearing three months into the lifespan of the Interim National Government, General Sani Abacha, the Minister of Defence, overthrew the government. It was a bloodless military coup, as Shonekan was forced to resign.
In a nationwide broadcast following the coup, Abacha cited the stagnant nature of Shonekan’s government and his inability to manage the democratic process in the country as the reason for the toppling of the government.
Military coups in Africa
As earlier mentioned, military coups were a regular occurrence in Africa in the decades that followed independence from the 1960s to 1970s.
The first notable coup on the continent was the dismissal of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo in September 1960. Even though the removal was successful, it was not a military coup as Lumumba was ousted from power by President Joseph Vasa-Kubu.
Five other coup attempts or actual coups were conducted from 1960 to 1962, with three being military-led and two planned by civilians. However, none of the military coups was successful; the coup plan in Senegal was quashed, while the 1961 assembly in Rwanda led to the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republican political system.
But on January 13, 1963, the military in Togo assassinated the country’s first president, Sylvanus Olympio, outside the American embassy in Lomé, the Togolese capital. This was the first successful military coup d’état in the French and British colonies of Africa that had achieved or were in the process of gaining independence in the 1950s and 1960s. The Togo coup was contagious, as it led to a quick succession of military coups across the continent.
Although the phenomenon has reduced in recent years with many African countries adopting the democratic rule, the political instability in these countries, especially those located in the Central and West African sub-regions, has seen a dramatic rise in coups. At least nine attempted or actual military coups have been on the continent from 2020 to 2022 alone.
Since this piece focuses on coups organised by the armed forces of countries, below is a list of attempted and actual coups organised by the military of countries, armed guerilla/rebel groups, and mercenaries in Africa since 1960.
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COUNTRIES | YEAR OF COUP |
Ethiopia | 1960 |
French Algeria (present-day Algeria) | 1961
|
Somalia | |
Togo | 1963
|
Dahomey (present-day Benin Republic) | |
Gabon | 1964
|
Zanzibar | |
Algeria | 1965
|
Dahomey (present-day Benin Republic) | |
Burundi | |
Democratic Republic of Congo | |
Central African Republic | |
Burundi | 1966 (July and November)
1966
1966
1966 (January and July)
1966 |
Ghana | |
Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso) | |
Nigeria | |
Republic of the Congo | |
Dahomey (present-day Benin Republic) | 1967
|
Ghana | |
Togo | |
Mali | 1968
|
Republic of the Congo | |
Dahomey (present-day Benin Republic) | 1969
1969
1969 (September and December)
1969 |
Sudan | |
Libya | |
Somalia | |
Uganda | 1971
|
Morocco | |
Sudan | |
Uganda | 1972
|
Dahomey (present-day Benin Republic) | |
Ghana | |
Morocco | |
Republic of the Congo | |
Rwanda | 1973 |
Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso) | 1974
|
Uganda | |
Niger | |
Ethiopia | |
Comoros | 1975
|
Sudan | |
Libya | |
Nigeria | |
Chad | |
Comoros | 1976
1976 1976 1976 |
Sudan | |
Burundi | |
Nigeria | |
Benin Republic | 1977
1977
1977
1977
1977 (June and October) |
Seychelles | |
Sudan | |
Republic of the Congo | |
Uganda | |
Somalia | 1978
|
Comoros | |
Ghana | |
Mauritania | |
Mauritania | 1979 |
Ghana | |
Equatorial Guinea | |
Central African Republic | |
Mauritania | 1980
|
Liberia | |
Guinea Bissau | |
Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso) | |
Mauritania | 1981 |
The Gambia | |
Central African Republic | |
Ghana | |
Seychelles | |
Central African Republic | 1982 |
Kenya | |
Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso) | |
Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso) | 1983 (February and August)
1983 |
Nigeria | |
Mauritania | 1984 |
Cameroon | |
Guinea | |
Uganda | 1985 |
Nigeria | |
Sudan | |
Guinea | |
Liberia | |
Lesotho | 1986 |
Togo | |
Burkina Faso | 1987 |
Burundi | |
Republic of the Congo | |
Sudan | 1989
(mainly insurrection/uprising) |
Burkina Faso | |
Ethiopia | |
Chad | |
Uganda | |
Sudan | 1990 |
Nigeria | |
Chad | |
Zambia | |
Lesotho | 1991 |
Sierra Leone | 1992 |
Algeria | |
Sudan | |
Burundi | 1993 |
Nigeria | |
The Gambia | 1994 |
Liberia | |
Lesotho | |
Comoros | 1995 |
São Tomé and Príncipe | |
Sierra Leone | 1996 |
Guinea | |
Burundi | |
Niger | |
Zambia | 1997
1997 (Civil War) |
Sierra Leone | |
Lesotho | 1998
1998 (Civil War)
1998 (Attempted coup, which led to civil war) |
Republic of the Congo | |
Guinea-Bissau | |
Niger | 1999 |
Côte d’Ivoire | |
Burundi | 2001
|
Central African Republic | |
Central African Republic | 2003 |
Mauritania | |
Guinea-Bissau | |
São Tomé and Príncipe | |
Burkina Faso | |
Chad | 2004 |
Sudan | |
Equatorial Guinea | |
Mauritania | 2005 |
Chad | 2006 |
Madagascar | |
Zimbabwe | 2007 |
Guinea | 2008 |
Mauritania | |
Madagascar | 2009 |
Madagascar | 2010 |
Niger | |
Guinea-Bissau | |
The Democratic Republic of the Congo | 2011 |
Niger | |
Cote d’Ivoire | 2012 |
Mali | |
Guinea-Bissau | |
Sudan | |
Benin Republic | 2013 |
Libya | |
Comoros | |
Chad | |
Egypt | |
Libya | |
Central African Republic | |
South Sudan | |
Libya | |
Lesotho | |
The Gambia | |
Burundi | 2015 |
Burkina Faso | |
Burkina Faso | 2016 |
Libya | |
The Gambia | |
Equatorial Guinea | 2017 |
Zimbabwe | |
Gabon | 2019 |
Sudan | |
Ethiopia | |
Libya | |
Mali | 2020 |
Central African Republic | 2021 |
Niger | |
Mali | |
Guinea | |
Sudan | |
Burkina Faso | 2022 |
Guinea-Bissau |
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African countries with the most military coups
COUNTRIES | NUMBER OF COUPS |
Sudan | 17 |
Burundi | 11 |
Sierra Leone | 10 |
Ghana | 10 |
Burkina Faso | 9 |
Guinea-Bissau | 9 |
Comoros | 9 |
Benin Republic | 8 |
Mali | 8 |
Nigeria | 8 |
Chad | 7 |
Niger | 7 |