FROM the attainment of Independence in October, 1960, the Nigerian nation has passed through the leadership of 12 rulers, military and civilian, with President Yar’Adua being the 13th ruler of the country. Of the lot, seven of them, namely General Yakubu Gowon, General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd.), Alhaji Shehu Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan, General Abdulsalami Abubakar  and Obasanjo (as a civilian president) have had the privilege to leave the seat of power and still be alive to account for their  actions or inactions while in office.

Others, including the late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, General Aguiyi Ironsi (rtd.), General Murtala Muhammed and the late military despot, General Sani Abacha, were unfortunate as they had their rulership terminated and eventually died while in power.

Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1959-1966)
Following the highly contentious 1959 Federal elections, the late Sir Tafawa Balewa emerged as the first Nigerian to assume the number one political position in the post-independence era as the Prime Minister. However, it became quite apparent that the man was not well-prepared for such an exalted position as his administration did not manage well the political ‘turpsy turvy’ that envelope the whole of the defunct Western Region in the aftermath of the 1965 elections. Given the perceived lackadaisical attitude of the then Federal Government, under the leadership of the Prime Minister to crisis that erupted in the troubled region, leading to the sobriquet, ‘the Wild, Wild West’, the military, which had been trained in the British military tradition to be apolitical, organized the first military putsch which terminated the life of the First Republic.

Thus on January 15, 1966, Balewa lost his life in the late Major Kaduna Nzeogwu-led coup. Those who died along with the fallen Prime Minister included the Premier of the Northern Region and the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, the then Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh and his counterpart in the Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola.

Major General Aguiyi Ironsi (January 15-July 1966)
The Abia State-born military officer was the first Nigerian to be appointed as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Nigerian Army. He became the Head of State in the wake of the failed attempt by Nzeogwu and his colleagues to change the nation’s socio-political order. However, the events preceding the first coup and the feeling of humiliation and bitterness nursed by senior Northern officers and men of the Army helped to ensure that Ironsi went the way of Balewa. Yakubu Gowon (then a Colonel) led a counter-coup on July 29, 1966, apparently in retaliation against the dehumanization of the Northern political leaders. In the process, General Ironsi lost his life while on a state visit to Ibadan, the capital of the Western Region, along with his host, the late Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi.

General Murtala Ramat Mohammed (July 29, 1975-February 13, 1976)
A military officer with a radical approach, Murtala took over the reins of government following the July 29, 1975 bloodless coup which terminated the nine-year rule of General Yakubu Gowon. However, the revolutionary military Head of State was felled by the ambitions of some military officers, led by the late Lieutenant Colonel Bukar Suka Dimka, who rolled out the tanks once again on February 13, 1976 to effect a violent change of government.

General Sani Abacha (November 1993-June 1998)
The Kano-born military officer came into power in November 1993 through what could be termed as a palace coup against the interim contraption hurriedly put in place by the self-styled Military President Ibrahim Babangida on the eve of his departure from the nation’s seat of power. For almost five years, the late military despot held Nigeria and Nigerians by the jugular as a bewildered world watched helplessly while he was churning out anti-people decrees in a bid to remain in power for as long as he wished.

While the three aforementioned former rulers had their lives terminated through the barrels of the gun, General Abacha lost his life to what has been said to be a ‘natural cause’. Like the incumbent president, Abacha was known to have been battling with a life-threatening disease but which ailment was not publicly disclosed, even after his death. Also like Yar’Adua, Nigerians are yet to know the severity of the disease, more than 11 years after his demise.

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