Penny-Ante Putsch

Flags hung limply at half-mast in the oppressive heat of Lagos. Throughout Nigeria public meetings and other events were canceled. For seven days Africa's most populous nation (estimated at 60 million) officially mourned Head of State Murtala Mohammed, who was killed during an attempted coup on Friday, Feb. 13.

Nigeria, black Africa's richest and potentially most powerful state, has been unable to live up to its promise. Only six years ago the country pulled itself out of the devastating Biafran civil war. Murtala himself had come to power only seven months ago, after a successful coup deposed former Head of State General Yakubu Go won.

Many Nigerians suspected foreign complicity in the latest plot, though there was no evidence of that. Students stoned the U.S. embassy and the British High Commission, where windows were broken and cars burned.

Champagne Party. Clearly a penny-ante putsch, the coup was the work of a small coterie of disaffected officers, who apparently made their move after an all-night champagne party. The regime claims that the plotters wanted to restore Gowon to power, and had consulted him in advance. The former leader, now studying political science at Britain's Warwick University, convincingly denied those charges.

The conspirators' one grim success came when they caught Murtala's black Mercedes limousine in a morning rush-hour traffic jam in Lagos. Raking the car with machine-gun fire, the plotters killed Murtala, his chauffeur and an aide. Shortly thereafter, Coup Leader Lieut. Colonel B.S. Dimka and six associates seized the Lagos radio station and announced that they were taking over the government. But there was no support for the action in the army and outlying states, and Dimka soon realized that he was finished. Hands in pockets, he jauntily said, "Excuse me," walked out of the Lagos radio station, and has not turned up since. Meanwhile, loyalist tanks rolled up to Dodan barracks and routed the remaining rebels in a brief but bitter firefight. Seven hours after it started, the coup was over.

Following a round-the-clock meeting, the Federal Military Council named a new ruler: former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lieut. General Olusegun Obasanjo, 38. Trained as an engineer in Britain and India, Obasanjo commanded the division that broke the back of the Biafran insurgency in 1970. Under Murtala, the tough, respected Obasanjo had been the regime's chief spokesman, more involved in managing day-to-day affairs than his somewhat aloof boss.

Most observers expect Obasanjo to continue Murtala's long-range program. This includes a vigorous war against corruption in government (Murtala sacked more than 11,000 civil servants and 200 army officers), a reduction of 40% in the size of the 250,000-member armed forces, and restoration of civilian rule by October 1979.

That is an ambitious program indeed for a country as difficult to govern as Nigeria. Despite an oil boom that has made it the world's seventh largest oil exporter, Nigeria's economy has lately been lagging. Unemployment is high, and the effort to cut the armed forces will throw some 100,000 former soldiers on the job market just when jobs are becoming harder to get. Dealing with that problem--and catching Murtala's murderers, who remained at large last week --may well be the biggest immediate challenges to the Obasanjo regime.

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