Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday said the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed compelled Nigeria’s military leadership at the time to rejig the country’s security architecture.
The tragedy, the former president said, underscored the need for vigilance and institutional safeguards rather than blind trust in personal loyalty.
Obasanjo made the disclosure in Abuja at the Murtala Muhammed International Lecture and Leadership Conference themed “Has Africa Come of Age?”, organised by the Murtala Muhammed Foundation.
Obasanjo said “When Murtala was assassinated, I was there. There was nothing left for me in the military government. We had given our best.
“We had to look back and ask ourselves where we had gone wrong, and we realised there had been serious negligence in security. That shaped what we needed to do thereafter.”
He added, “As we say where I come from, when a young man falls, he looks forward; when an elder falls, he looks back. We looked back, and that was how the issue of security was fundamentally rejigged.”
He also disclosed that some of the coup plotters were individuals close to the late Head of State, including an aide and a colleague from the Defence College, making the incident even more devastating.
Obasanjo said the period leading to the end of the civil war, also saw internal divisions within the Federal Government nearly undermined the war effort.
He recalled returning from the war front to argue that Nigeria needed to first stabilise its political order.
“We said, let us put our house in order first, without reconstituting the political structure, effective command and accountability would have been impossible.
Speaking on the coup that brought himself and late Murtala into power, Obasanjo said they were patriotic, disciplined and driven by a clear sense of mission.
He cited the late leader’s modest lifestyle as evidence of the values that guided the administration.
“Murtala’s residence in Kano had no gates, and he rejected an official guest house because he felt it was over-furnished. What was considered excessive then would today be seen as modest.”
Obasanjo, who identified Africa’s major problem to be reversal of policies by successive governments, noted that the late Head of State’s most enduring legacy was not just his reforms, but his ability to leave behind a successor who could continue his vision.
“The greatest achievement of Murtala was that he left behind a successor who could carry on after him. The failure of leaders after him, including myself, is that we have not been able to do the same.”
He stressed that repeated policy reversals had held Nigeria and the continent back, citing the lifting of the rice import ban after the 1979 handover to civilians as an example of how short-term political interests derailed long-term planning.
“Since that ban was lifted, we have not recovered. That is why we are still importing rice today.”
Also, the former President of the Republic of Ghana reflected on Africa’s unfinished journey toward unity, dignity and self-determination.
He cautioned that the issue was not about chronology or the number of years since independence. “Africa is ancient in civilisation and wisdom.”
He argued that political freedom, though precious, “is only the beginning of maturity for a nation.” The deeper test, he noted, is whether the continent stands “with a settled sense of identity, responsibility and purpose, as a moral presence within humanity.”
Recalling Murtala Mohammed’s 1975 declaration that “Africa has come of age,” he said the statement was not triumphalist but a bold assertion of dignity.
The late Nigerian leader, he observed, insisted that Africa would no longer be treated as “an object of history to be influenced, divided and directed by others,” but as a people capable of shaping their own destiny.
Yet, he acknowledged that the Pan-African enthusiasm of the 1950s and 1960s has not fully translated into lived unity.
“For all the rhetoric of unity, we remain a diverse people of many languages, cultures and historical experiences,” he said.
He questioned how far regional integration efforts such as a common West African currency have truly progressed.
He warned that despite the end of formal colonialism, dependency patterns persist. Enslavement and colonial rule, he said, “did more than just exploit resources; they diabolically affected our psyche,” leaving structures that continue to shape post-colonial governance and economic ties.
Africa, he cautioned, risks becoming “once again, a reservoir for exploitation by the new hegemonic rivalries among the developed countries of the East and the West.”
He stressed that Africa and the African must not be drawn into these vain rivalries, insisting the continent must never return to a “master-servant relationship, no matter the temptation.”
Turning to solutions, the former president underscored the centrality of leadership and citizen empowerment.
“Leadership indeed is the bridge between identity and destiny,” he said, adding that a continent’s humanity is reflected in “the character of those who guide its institutions.”
“But he was quick to add that empowered citizens are even more crucial. “It’s people first before the leadership,” he declared.
Drawing from his experience as former Chair of the African Union and twice Chairman of ECOWAS, he maintained that Africa must engage the world “not in imitation but in dignity.”
The continent’s challenge, he argued, is not a lack of resources but “a failure to empower the people at large, from the grassroots up.”
He also revealed efforts to promote continental integration through an Africa Public Interest Media Initiative, aimed at using digital technology and artificial intelligence to foster a shared identity among Africans.
The concept, he explained, centres on the “African citizen” a Nigerian, Ghanaian or South African who simultaneously belongs to a broader continental community entitled to dignity and rights.
“By combining Africa’s storytelling traditions with modern technologies… we can help realise the borderless continent,” as he described it as a pathway to a more mature Africa.
On whether Africa has truly come of age, he offered a nuanced response. In one sense, he said, the continent can answer yes, given the eradication of colonial rule. But in another, “Africa’s coming of age is still in progress.”
With Africa’s youth projected to account for a quarter of the world’s population within two decades, he urged them to take up the mantle of continental development.
“Africa’s maturity will go beyond being proclaimed.”
“It must be demonstrated through the quality of our leadership, the integrity of our constitutions and the humanity of our development,” he said.
