1966 COUP: How Sultan Siddiq Abubakar helped Gen Aguiyi-Ironsi to stabilise Nigeria – Gowon
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, took his audience back the memory lane on Friday October 18, 2024 when he seized the occasion of a lecture commemorating his 90th birthday anniversary to remember the contributions of 17th Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Sir Siddiq Abubakar III, GCON, GBE, to the unity and peaceful co-existence that Nigeria has enjoyed till today.
He said this while speaking about the crucial role played by the sitting Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar’s father in maintaining peace after the first military coup in Nigeria on January 15, 1966.
At the occasion attended by the sitting Sultan of Sokoto and President of the African Development Bank (AfDP) Akinwumi Adeshina as lecturer in Abuja, Gowon said after the coup, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, who took over as the Head of State, invited Sultan Siddiq Abubakar to Lagos to help ease tensions, reminiscing that the Sultanate of Sokoto’s relevance nation building project did not just start today.
According to the former Nigerian ruler, the late Sultan’s influence and actions during that time were instrumental in stopping any major reaction that could have led to more violence or even the complete collapse of the country.
In Gowon’s words, “Your Eminence Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar the third. He is the third, I know the first. That first (Siddiq Abubakar) was a special man who ensured that we must have peace.
“After the first insurrection in this country, he came and pleaded for peace so that there is no reaction. I wonder what could have happened if things had gone differently, but for that man.
“When General Ironsi invited him to come to Lagos after what happened on January 15th, 1966 and what he did certainly saved the country from totally breaking up at that time. So I give him that respect.”
The DEFENDER reports that 17th Sultan of Sokoto Caliphate, Sir Siddiq Abubakar, who was on the Throne between June 17, 1938 – November 1, 1988, ruled for 50 years before he was succeeded by Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki as 18th Sultan.
Sultan Dasuki was later succeeded by Sultan Siddiq Abubakar’s direct son, His Eminence Muhammadu Maccido as 19th Sultan and, following the ill-fated ADC flight leading to his demise in Abuja on Sunday October 29, 2006, the Sultan Siddiq Abubakar III’s youngest son, Brigadier General Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, naturally retired from the Nigerian Army to mount the Usmaniyyah Throne as 20th Sultan of Sokoto, on November 2, 2006.
