By Our Correspondent
It is no longer news that Nigerian troops and our Air Force helped foil the attempted coup that occurred in the Republic of Benin over the weekend.
That was and is a proud moment for Nigeria, cementing our role under President Tinubu as the regional superpower and a stabilising force for democracy in Africa.
What a great day to be a Nigerian!
However, what many people do not know is that this is now the third time that the Nigerian military has been deployed to brother African nations to either forestall or foil a coup d'état.
The first time this occurred was in 1964, when the armed forces of the Republic of Tanganyika rebelled against President Julius Nyerere, who went into hiding.
In 1964, Tanganyika, the original name of Tanzania, was facing a serious mutiny. Their army, then known as the Tanganyika Rifles, faced widespread reactions to John Okello's revolution in Zanzibar, culminating in mutinies against the elected government of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who, lo and behold, went into hiding.
British marines then stormed the Tanzanian capital and overwhelmed most of the mutineering soldiers. But they could not last the distance and had to return to the United Kingdom, leaving the Nyerere government naked and vulnerable.
At this stage, a desperate President Nyerere reached out to the Tafawa Balewa administration after an emergency meeting of the Organisation of African Unity.
Prime Minister Balewa then sent the 3rd Battalion of the Nigerian Army, under Lt. Colonel James Yakubu Pam, to Tanzania, where they arrived sometime in April 1964. This prompted President Nyerere to come out of hiding and assert himself.
Under Lt. Colonel Pam's leadership, the country was secured, mutineers who evaded arrest were traced and apprehended, and the Tanganyika Army, known as the Tanganyika Rifles, was disbanded.
The Nigerian forces, under Lt. Colonel Pam, provided the military muscle that led to the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and the creation of the new country of Tanzania on Sunday, April 26, 1964.
The present Tanzanian Army is the result of Lt. Colonel Pam, who recruited and trained a brand-new army, which was renamed the Tanzania People's Defence Force.
The second time that Nigeria intervened to restore a democratically elected government after a military coup was in 2003 in São Tomé and PrÃncipe.
When Major Fernando Pereira overthrew the government of President Fradique de Menezes of São Tomé and PrÃncipe in a coup d'état in 2003, then President Obasanjo did not sit down and fold his hands or twiddle his thumbs. He did not release statements. He took action. Decisive action.
President Obasanjo used a carrot-and-stick approach. He called the coup leaders and threatened them. He followed up his threats by having Nigerian Air Force jets fly over the São Tomé and PrÃncipe Presidential Palace in a show of force.
Then he negotiated with the coup leaders to give them amnesty for their act of treason, along with some financial compensation. And, like magic, after a week, Major Fernando Pereira vacated power, and Nigeria, under President Obasanjo, was able to restore a democratically elected government.
President Obasanjo would later fly to Libreville to pick up President Fradique de Menezes and return him to his capital, São Tomé, where he restored him to power.
But perhaps Nigeria's most remarkable feat in protecting democracy in Africa is what it did in the Republic of Benin this weekend.
As a nation in good standing in the international community, we did not shirk our responsibility as a regional leader. Our government quickly and effectively established contact with the legitimately elected government of that nation, and upon their request and approval, we deployed air and ground forces to nip the so-called television coup plot led by Lt. Col Pascal Tigri in the bud.
When Beninese citizens in the capital, Cotonou, heard Nigerian fighter jets flying over their airspace, they felt safe. But the putschists did not. They tried to flee, but the gallantry of Nigeria's loyal military overwhelmed their attempts to act valiantly.
And by that decisive action of the magnificent men and women of our armed forces, law and order, as well as stability, were restored in Benin, to the extent that President Patrice Talon felt safe enough to be seen and to address the nation.
So here is the crux of the matter.
Not only is Nigeria, under President Tinubu, back as an economic power, and within two years moving from being Africa's biggest petrol importer to becoming West Africa's largest exporter of the same product, but we are also back as an emerging world medium power.
Under President Tinubu, you, as a Nigerian, can be proud that, for the first time in over a decade, Nigeria has exceeded its OPEC quota for four consecutive months and is set to do so for the fifth month, producing an average of 1.71 million barrels per day. Oil theft has been reduced to less than 10,000 barrels per day, a sixteen-year low.
Additionally, by August this year, we met our revenue target for the year, as contained in the 2025 Appropriation Act (Federal Budget)—a first in our history.
Furthermore, the Nigerian Stock Exchange rose above 130,000 on the All-Share Index for the first time, and, for the first time, Nigeria now has a ₦10 trillion company on our exchange. At the same time, the Nigerian Naira has appreciated to below ₦1500 per $1, a five-month high, and continues to appreciate.
And after a record trade surplus last year, Nigeria appears set to beat our 2024 figure. Our trade surplus rose 44.3% in Q2 to ₦7.46 trillion, up from ₦5.17 trillion in Q1.
The conclusion of the matter is that our glory days are here again under a President like Bola Tinubu who has the vision that is providing Nigeria with provision and extinguishing division!
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