On April 22, 1990, Major Gideon Orkar led a failed coup attempt against the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida. Rebel troops seized the FRCN radio station and key military installations in Lagos, including the military headquarters and the presidential residence at Dodan Barracks. Babangida was inside the barracks during the attack but escaped through a back route. At about 4am, Orkar delivered a coup address accusing Babangida of planning to become Nigeria's life president and alleging marginalization of the Niger Delta and southern regions. He also declared the excision of five northern states—Bauchi, Borno, Katsina, Kano and Sokoto—and ordered the expulsion of their indigenous people from Nigeria. Although Orkar was the public face of the coup, evidence from the trial revealed he was not the original mastermind. The ideological leaders were Lt. Colonel Anthony Nyiam, Major Saliba Mukoro and Major Cyril Obahor, with Orkar joining the plot only in its later stages. Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru, a millionaire businessman, was identified as the top financier of the coup attempt.
Major Gideon Orkar was presented as the face of the 1990 coup, yet trial evidence showed he was recruited late and not the chief architect—raising questions about who truly shaped the plot. The coup's call to expel people from five northern states exposed a dangerous ethnic fracture line embedded in the plotters' vision. Nigerians named in the ideological leadership—Nyiam, Mukoro, Obahor—and financier Ogboru were directly tied to a plan that threatened national unity along regional and ethnic lines. The event remains a stark reflection of how personal ambitions and regional grievances were weaponized within military ranks.
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