Nigerian military cannot stage a coup again – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari says he is very confident that the era of coups in the country has come to an end, boasting that the Nigerian military can no longer contemplate staging a coup in the country.

Buhari, himself a coupist who first came into power in 1983 through a coup in 1983, made this submission at a dinner party in honour of the 2022 Committee of Business, Political, Media and Civil Society Leaders at the State House, Abuja, convened by ThisDay Newspaper publisher, Nduka Obaigbena.

While addressing the gathering, Obaigbena said the leaders of the country should do everything possible to avert the ugly trend sweeping through West Africa with a spate of coups sweeping through the sub-region.

“The 2022 Committee was put together to defend Nigeria in a time of crisis and in a time of transition, we must defend the national interest,” Obaigbena said.

In response, Buhari said: “One of the important points that the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government make is that coups d’etat generally are completely unacceptable.

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“I make bold to say a coup cannot happen again in Nigeria. We cannot continue to have a situation where they are tolerated for the simple reason that in Africa, West Africa in particular, we have gone way beyond military coups as an answer to the question of change in political actors.

“There is a very strong feeling amongst the heads of states that we must insist, other international bodies, the UN, EU, and other regional groups must support the imposition of sanctions on individuals and groups that choose not to follow the democratic process of change of government, but go by way of coup d‘etat.

“Our democracy is now at a stage where coups cannot be tolerated and our military are too sophisticated to go that route,” Buhari said.