Counter-coup in the North of July 28, 1966. Lieutenant Muhammadu Buhari was one of the participants in the “July Revenge” or the so-called “counter-coup” led by Lieutenant Colonel Murtala Muhammed, who overthrew and murdered the first suicides. Coup. ” proclaimed the Nigerian military head of state, General Aguiyi Ironsi, who took over the leadership of the Nigerian government after the failed coup attempt of January 15, 1966 that overthrew Nigeria’s elected parliamentary government (also known as the First Republic).
Other participants in the July 28, 1966 coup attempt included: Lieutenant Sani Abacha, Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida, Major Theophilus Danjuma, Lieutenant Ibrahim Bako and others. The coup was a response to the January coup in which a group of mostly Igbo officers led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu overthrew the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
Many Northern soldiers were aggrieved by the murder of senior politicians, Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, northern regional premier, Ahmadu Bello, and four senior officers from northern Nigeria: Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari, Colonel Kur Mohammed, Lt-Cols Abogo Largema and James Pam. The counter-coup was very bloody leading to the murder of mostly Igbo officers. Among the casualties were the first military head of state General Aguiyi Ironsi and Lt Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the military
governor of the Western Region.
Civil war Buhari was assigned to the 1st Division under the command of Lt. Col Mohammed Shuwa, the division had temporarily moved from Kaduna to Makurdi at the onset of the Nigerian Civil War.The 1st Division was divided into sectors and then battalions, with Shuwa supported by sector commanders Martin Adamu and Sule Apollo, later replaced by Theophilus Danjuma.
Buhari was initially adjutant and company commander of the 2nd Unit of the 2nd Sector Infantry Battalion of the 1st Division. The 2nd Battalion was one of the units that took part in the early actions of this war. It starts in Gakem near Afikpo and advances towards Ogoja with the support of the Gado Nasko artillery unit.
. Within a week they reached Ogoja and captured it with the intention of crossing the flanks to Enugu, the rebel capital. Buhari was briefly commander of the 2nd Battalion and led the battalion to Afikpo to join the 3rd Marine Command and advance towards Enugu via Nkalagu and Abakaliki.However, before moving to Enugu, he was posted to Nsukka as Brigade Major of the 3rd Infantry Brigade under the command of Joshua Gin, who later grew tired of the fighting and was replaced by Isa Bukar. Buhari remained in the infantry for several months while the Nigerian Army began adopting tactics learned from early combat experiences. Instead of a rapid advance, the new tactic was to protect and maintain lines of communication and to use the captured towns as training camps for new recruits brought in from the military depots at Abeokuta and Zaria.
In 1968 he was assigned to the 4th Sector, also known as the Awka Sector, to handle the capture of Onitsha by the 2nd Division. The sector’s activities took place in the Awka-Abagana-Onitsha region, which was important to the Biafran Armed Forces as it was an important source of food. In this sector, Buhari’s group suffered many casualties as it tried to secure rebel food supply routes along the Oji and Abagana rivers.
After the Nigerian Civil War From 1970 to 1971, Buhari served as Major/Brigade Commander of the 31st Infantry Brigade. He later served as deputy adjutant general of the 1st Infantry Division from 1971 to 1972.He also attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India, in 1973.
From 1974 to 1975 Buhari was Acting Director of Transport and Supply at the Nigerian Army Corps of Supply and Transport Headquarters. In March 1976, the Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed Buhari as the Federal Commissioner (position now called Minister) for Petroleum and Natural Resources. When the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was created in 1977, Buhari was also appointed as its chairman, a position he held until 1978. During his tenure as Commissioner, 2.8 billion naira is said to have disappeared from NNPC accounts at Midlands Bank in the United Kingdom. Former President Ibrahim Babangida reportedly accused Buhari of being responsible for the scam. However, it emerges from the findings of the Oil Sales Tribunal headed by Justice Ayo Irikefe, which is investigating allegations of misappropriation of $2.8 billion from the NNPC account. The court found that these allegations were untrue, although it noted some gaps in the NNPC’s invoices.
During Buhari’s tenure as Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources, the government invested in pipelines and crude oil storage infrastructure. The government has built about 21 oil storage facilities across the country, from Lagos to Maidugiuri and from Calabar to Gusau; The administration has constructed a network of gas pipelines connecting the Bonny Terminal and Port Harcourt Refinery to the deposits. The government also signed an agreement to build a refinery at
Kaduna and a pipeline that will connect the Escravos oil terminal to the Warri refinery and the proposed Kaduna refinery.
