Interestingly, 30 years after the failed coup, some of the issues Orkar poke about are still seen as part of Nigeria's problems. Below is the full text of the speech:
"Fellow Nigerian Citizens,
On behalf of the patriotic and well-meaning peoples of the
Middle Belt and the southern parts of this country, I , Major Gideon Orkar,
wish to happily inform you of the successful ousting of the dictatorial,
corrupt, drug baronish, evil man, deceitful, homo-sexually-centered,
prodigalistic, un-patriotic administration of General Ibrahim Badamosi
Babangida.
We have equally commenced their trials for unabated
corruption, mismanagement of national economy, the murders of Dele Giwa,
Major-General Mamman Vasta, with other officers as there was no attempted coup
but mere intentions that were yet to materialize and other human rights
violations.
The National Guard already in its formative stage is
disbanded with immediate effect. Decrees Number 2 and 46 are hereby abrogated.
We wish to emphasize that this is not just another coup but a well-conceived,
planned and executed revolution for the marginalized, oppressed and enslaved
peoples of the Middle Belt and the south with a view to freeing ourselves and
children yet unborn from eternal slavery and colonization by a clique of this
country.
Our history is replete with numerous and uncontrollable
instances of callous and insensitive dominatory repressive intrigues by those
who think it is their birthright to dominate till eternity the political and
economic privileges of this great country to the exclusion of the people of the
Middle Belt and the south.
They have almost succeeded in subjugating the Middle Belt
and making them voiceless and now extending same to the south.
It is our unflinching belief that this quest for domination,
oppression and marginalization is against the wish of God and therefore, must
be resisted with the vehemence.
Anything that has a beginning must have an end. It will also
suffice here to state that all Nigerians without skeleton in their cupboards
need not to be afraid of this change. However, those with skeleton in their
cupboards have all reasons to fear, because the time of reckoning has come.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state the three
primary reasons why we have decided to oust the satanic Babangida
administration. The reasons are as follows:
(a) To stop Babangida’s desire to cunningly, install himself
as Nigeria’s life president at all costs and by so doing, slowpoke the progress
of this country for life. In order to be able to achieve this undesirable goals
of his, he has evidently started destroying those groups and sections he
perceived as being able to question his desires.
Examples of groups already neutralized, pitched against one
another or completely destroyed are:
(1) The Sokoto caliphate by installing an unwanted Sultan to
cause division within the hitherto strong Sokoto caliphate.
(2) The destruction of the peoples of Plateau State,
especially the Lantang people, as a balancing force in the body politics of
this country.
(3) The buying of the press by generous monetary favors and
the usage of State Security Service, SSS, as a tool of terror.
(4) The intent to cow the students by the promulgation of
the draconian decree Number 47.
(5) The cowing of the university teaching and non-teaching
staff by an intended massive purge, using the 150 million dollar loan as the
necessitating factor.
(6) Deliberately withholding funds to the armed forces to
make them ineffective and also crowning his diabolical scheme through the
intended retrenchment of more than half of the members of the armed forces.
Other pointers that give credence to his desire to become a
life president against the wishes of the people are:
(1) His appointment of himself as a minister of defense, his
putting under his direct control the SSS, his deliberate manipulation of the
transition programme, his introduction of inconceivable, unrealistic and
impossible political options, his recent fraternization with other African
leaders that have installed themselves as life presidents and his dogged
determination to create a secret force called the national guard, independent of
the armed forces and the police which will be answerable to himself alone, both
operationally and administratively.
It is our strong view that this kind of dictatorial desire
of Babangida is unacceptable to Nigerians of the 1990’s, and, therefore, must
be resisted by all.
Another major reason for the change is the need to stop
intrigues, domination and internal colonization of the Nigerian state by the
so-called chosen few. This, in our view, has been and is still responsible for
90 percent of the problems of Nigerians.
This indeed has been the major clog in our wheel of
progress.
This clique has an unabated penchant for domination and
unrivalled fostering of mediocrity and outright detest for accountability,
all put together have been our undoing as a nation.
This will ever remain our threat if not checked immediately.
It is strongly believed that without the intrigues perpetrated by this clique
and misrule, Nigeria will have in all ways achieved developmental virtues
comparable to those in Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, India, and even Japan.
Evidence, therefore, this cancerous dominance has as a
factor constituted by a major and unpardonable clog in the wheel of progress of
the Nigerian state. It is suffice to mention a few distasteful intrigues
engineered by this group of Nigerians in recent past. These are:
(1) The shabby and dishonorable treatment meted on the
longest serving Nigerian general in the person of General Domkat Bali, who in
actual fact had given credibility to the Babangida administration.
(2) The wholesale hijacking of Babangida’s administration by
the all-powerful clique.
(3) The disgraceful and inexplicable removal of Commodore
Ebitu Ukiwe, Professor Tam David-West, Mr. Aret Adams and so on from office.
(4) The now-pervasive and on-going retrenchment of Middle
Belt and southerners from public offices and their instant replacement by the
favoured class and their stooges.
(5) The deliberate disruption of the educational culture and
retarding its place to suit the favoured class to the detriment of other
educational minded parts of this country.
(6) The deliberate impoverishment of the peoples from the
Middle Belt and the south, making them working ghosts and feeding on the
formulae of 0-1-1- or 0-0-0 while the aristocratic class and their stooges are
living in absolute affluence on a daily basis without working for it.
(7) Other countless examples of the exploitative,
oppressive, dirty games of intrigues of its class, where people and stooges
that can best be described by the fact that even though they contribute very
little economically to the well-being of Nigeria, they have over the years
served and presided over the supposedly national wealth derived in the main
from the Middle Belt and the southern part of this country, while the people
from these parts of the country have been completely deprived from benefiting
from the resources given to them by God.
The third reason for the change is the need to lay a strong
egalitarian foundation for the real democratic take off of the Nigerian state
or states as they circumstances may dictate.
In the light of all the above and in recognition of the
negativeness of the aforementioned aristocratic factor, the overall progress of
the Nigerian state a temporary decision to excise the following states namely,
Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi states from the Federal Republic of
Nigeria comes into effect immediately until the following conditions are met.
The conditions to be met to necessitate the re-absorption of
the aforementioned states are as following:
(a) To install the rightful heir to the Sultanate, Alhaji
Maccido, who is the people’s choice.
(b) To send a delegation led by the real and recognized
Sultan Alhaji Maccido to the federal government to vouch that the feudalistic
and aristocratic quest for domination and operation will be a thing of the past
and will never be practiced in any part of the Nigeria state.
By the same token, all citizens of the five states already
mentioned are temporarily suspended from all public and private offices in
Middle Belt and southern parts of this country until the mentioned conditions
above are met.
They are also required to move back to their various states
within one week from today. They will, however, be allowed to return and joint
the Federal Republic of Nigeria when the stipulated conditions are met.
In the same vein, all citizens of the Middle Belt and the
south are required to come back to their various states pending when the
so-called all-in-all Nigerians meet the conditions that will ensure a united
Nigeria. A word is enough for the wise.
This exercise will not be complete without purging corrupt
public officials and recovering their ill-gotten wealth, since the days of the
oil boom till date. Even in these hard times, when Nigerians are dying from
hunger, trekking many miles to work for lack of transportation, a few other
Nigerians with complete impunity are living in unbelievable affluence both
inside and outside the country.
We are extremely determined to recover all ill-gotten wealth
back to the public treasury for the use of the masses of our people. You are
all advised to remain calm as there is no cause for alarm. We are fully in
control of the situation as directed by God. All airports, seaports and borders
are closed forthwith.
The former Armed Forces Ruling Council is now disbanded and
replaced with National Ruling Council to be chaired by the head of state with
other members being a civilian vice-head of state, service chiefs, inspector
general of police, one representative each from NLC, NUJ, NBA, and NANS.
A curfew is hereby imposed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. until
further notice. All members of the armed forces and the police forces are
hereby confined to their respective barracks.
All unlawful and criminal acts by those attempting to cause
chaos will be ruthlessly crushed. Be warned as we are prepared at all costs to
defend the new order.
All radio stations are hereby advised to hook on permanently
to the national network programme until further notice.
Long live all true patriots of this great country of ours.
May God and Allah through his bountiful mercies bless us all".
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