Former NSA, Dasuki has participated in 4 Nigerian coups

Nigeria’s former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki has been connected to four military coups in the country since the 1980s.

In 1983, Dasuki, then a Major and military assistant to General Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi, participated in the military coup d'état that installed Major General Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria's Head of State.


In 1985, he was one of four majors who arrested Buhari at gunpoint in the famous palace coup led by Major General Ibrahim Babangida. After the success of the coup, Dasuki was appointed as Babangida’s Aide-De-camp (ADC).

In 1990, he played a major role in stopping a violent coup attempt by Major Gideon Orkar.

“I recalled how he (Sambo) foiled the 1990 Orkar coup against Babangida while he was in Washington D.C, United States.  I was also outside the country that year so, when I heard about the coup, I tried to reach him but he didn’t pick my call.  When he later called back to acknowledge my call he told me I should not worry because he had taken some measures to foil it,” Ambassador Abubakar Udu, Babangida’s former Chief Protocol Officer, told Daily Trust in July 2012 after Dasuki was appointed NSA.

In 1993, Dasuki was dismissed by late dictator, Sani Abacha supposedly due to his relationship with Babangida and in 1995 he was accused by Abacha of participating in a ‘phantom coup’ allegedly led by retired Colonel Lawan Gwadabe.

The former NSA was also accused of staging a ‘coup’ against Buhari while the latter was campaigning in preparation for the 2015 general elections.

This was disclosed by Buhari’s media aide, Garba Shehu on Thursday, October 15, during the RED summit.

“…We were going to run a story announcing that the National Security Adviser at that time, Mr. Sambo Dasuki, was staging a second coup d’etat against Muhammadu Buhari,” Shehu said.

“This time around, all the things that followed, the postponement of the election on account of this and that and a lot of the thinking of the campaign was that this was yet another coup being hatched by the National Security Adviser and we eventually discovered that this siege on our homes was to pre-empt the story,” he added.

Dasuki is believed to have engineered the postponement of the elections from February 14 to March 28 to prevent Buhari from winning due to fears that the latter would seek vengeance against him.

The former NSA first hinted that he wanted the elections postponed in January while speaking at a think-tank in London’s Chatham House.

Dasuki is reported to have finally secured a postponement by allegedly threatening then Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Attahiru Jega that no security would be provided if the polls were held in February as planned.

The former NSA has been in the eye of the storm since being removed by Buhari in July.

His homes in Sokoto and Abuja were raided by agents of the Department of State Services (DSS) and he was subsequently charged with money laundering and illegal possession of weapons.

Dasuki’s troubles were further intensified on Tuesday, November 17, when a panel constituted by Buhari to probe arms deals in Nigeria from 2007- 2015 accused him of diverting up to N337 billion.

This was disclosed via a statement released by Buhari’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina.

“…Payments to the tune of N3,850,000,000.00 were made to a single company by the former NSA without documented evidence of contractual agreements or fulfillment of tax obligations to the Federal Government of Nigeria,” Adesina said.

“Further findings revealed that between March 2012 and March 2015, the erstwhile NSA, Lt. Col. MS Dasuki (rtd) awarded fictitious and phantom contracts to the tune of N2,219,188,609.50,  $1,671,742,613.58 and €9,905,477.00,” he added.

According to Adesina, “thousands of needless Nigerian deaths would have been avoided” if the money had been properly spent.

Buhari has since ordered Dasuki’s arrest.

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