President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed the reason he was dismissed from office in August 27, 1985.
He said that the then Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, kicked him out because he was fighting against corruption.
He made this known during an exclusive interview with The Interview Magazine. He furthered that the Head of Military Intelligence, Aliyu Gusau was engaged in corrupt practices and because he didn’t want to be biased in his fight against corruption, he decided to write for his removal from the military leadership.
Unfortunately, Gusau, Babangida and other officers teamed up and staged a coup thereby ousting him from office.
This was a reaction to the response given by Babangida who said that the plan to dismiss Gusau was unrelated to the coup of 1985.
Buhari said, “I learnt that Gen. Ali Gusau, who was in charge of intelligence, took an import licence from the Ministry of Commerce, which was supplies, and gave it to Alhaji Mai Deribe. It was worth N100, 000, a lot of money then.
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“When I discovered this, I confronted them and took the case to the army council. Gen. Malu was the Chief of Defence Staff; Gen. Babangida was the Chief of Army Staff; Tunde Idiagbon was the Chief of Staff, Defence Headquarters and I was the Head of State.
“I said if I didn’t punish Gusau, it would create a problem for us. It is North versus South; majority versus minority; Muslim versus Christian. That was what it showed.
“So, I said Gen. Ali Gusau had to go. He was the Chief of Intelligence. That was why Babangida got some officers to remove me. Let him repeat his own story. Ali Gusau is still alive.”
Meanwhile Buhari who spoke about the 2016 Budget assured Nigerians that such budget paddling would never occur again as he criticised those who accused him of not having an economic team.
Buhari said, “What do they mean by team? The Vice-President heads our Economic Management Team. You have a finance minister, a budget and planning minister; a minister of trade and industry and investment; a governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a national economic adviser and others and yet some people still ask for a team.
