₦airaland Forum

Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and John Pepper Clark at Dodan Barracks to plead with Head of State, Major-General Ibrahim Babangida, to spare the life of a fellow poet and writer, Mamman Vatsa, March 5, 1986.

Vatsa was executed few hours later...

Eventually we will all die,including Babangida himself!. Life belongs to nobody

That was when true friendship was still the bedrock of a functional Nigeria

How we got it all wrong is what I'm yet to fathom.

Why was a poet executed?
What happened!

PureSperm:
That was when true friendship was still the bedrock of a functional Nigeria

How we got it all wrong is what I'm yet to fathom.

You are very correct meanwhile check my signature for your project

Nobody lives forever....

Let's be honest, though IBB ain't no saint, Mamman Vatsa was a traitor for planning a coup again IBB, his best friend which could have gotten him executed.

And knowing that the penalty for coup was death, Vatsa's execution was justified. Unless he was set up and innocent of the charges. But findings proved that he was guilty as charged.

We4all:
Let's be honest, though IBB ain't no saint, Mamman Vatsa was a traitor for planning a coup again IBB, his best friend which could have gotten him executed.

And knowing that the penalty for coup was death, Vatsa's execution was justified. Unless he was set up and innocent of the charges. But findings proved that he was guilty as charged.

How did you know for sure he was planning a coup?? Were you there whn he was planning it??

Gbéborùn!

obiekunie01:
How did you know for sure he was planning a coup?? Were you there whn he was planning it??

Gbéborùn!

The coup was not only planned but executed leading to the deaths of several soldiers at Dodan barracks including the ADC to Gen. Babangida, Col. U. K Bello.

Update

Sorry I goofed on this one. I had a slight mix-up in the names and date.

Vatsa was from the An earlier coup on Babangida which was foiled at the planning stage.

Remembered that it would have been the bloodied coup in Nigeria if it had achieved kinetics as the Air Force had significant roles to play in it.

We lost a generation of our best fighter pilots to that coup.

Below: Photo collage of Mamman Vatsa

Soyinka is an OG Yoruba Dee.

See swagz ...not like Achebe looking like Wole's

Soyinka is an OG Yoruba Dee.

See swagz ...not like Achebe looking like Wole's driver

Wole Soyinka remains the greatest writer from Africa!

Chinua Achebe was the greatest novelist.

matify83:
The coup was not only planned but executed leading to the deaths of several soldiers at Dodan barracks including the ADC to Gen. Babangida, Col. U. K Bello.

Read up the Maj. Gideon Orkar coup if "you don't know history"

You are mixing up two coups

U.K bello died in the 1990 Orkar coup, not in the Vasta coup which happened in 1986.

Vasta coup was also preemptively stopped.

matify83:
The coup was not only planned but executed leading to the deaths of several soldiers at Dodan barracks including the ADC to Gen. Babangida, Col. U. K Bello.

Read up the Maj. Gideon Orkar coup if "you don't know history"

Lols…That was a different coup. The Vatsa coup was never executed. It was a phantom coup

Father of Cu.ltism and other notable people you mean to say...

Never knew Vatsa was a writer.
See Achebe, the greatest WRITER of them all
But Soyinka won Nobel basically for activism

That was the time before Yoruba hatred too place

PureSperm:
That was when true friendship was still the bedrock of a functional Nigeria

How we got it all wrong is what I'm yet to fathom.

Actually the same issues with tribalism and bigotry were present back then

Even then many Nigerians arose across bigotry as at now, to be friendly with one another. It's folks like you guys who spend too much time on the internet that think otherwise

Vasta was a poet and author so the three men were there because of their fellow author

Mamman Vatsa was a victim of hatred for rhe Middle belt . They saw his as a threat.

We4all:
Let's be honest, though IBB ain't no saint, Mamman Vatsa was a traitor for planning a coup again IBB, his best friend which could have gotten him executed.

And knowing that the penalty for coup was death, Vatsa's execution was justified. Unless he was set up and innocent of the charges. But findings proved that he was guilty as charged.

it was a set up.
they were envious of vatsa.
that envy has made the military a lame duck.
the best officers are not promoted and allowed to lead.

QuinQ:
Never knew Vatsa was a writer.
See Achebe, the greatest WRITER of them all
But Soyinka won Nobel basically for activism

Soyinka did write plays,poems and even at least one novel and one work of non fiction.

I still prefer Achebe, but let's not pretend Soyinka won because activism.

( Though his Nobel speech included a lot of anti arphateid activism)

nairalanda1:
Actually the same issues with tribalism and bigotry were present back then

Even then many Nigerians arose across bigotry as at now, to be friendly with one another. It's folks like you guys who spend too much time on the internet that think otherwise

Vasta was a poet and author so the three men were there because of their fellow author

Nope, it wasn't always like this. Remember Zik almost became the first premier of Western Region

PureSperm:
That was when true friendship was still the bedrock of a functional Nigeria

How we got it all wrong is what I'm yet to fathom.

Bro it's really sad...the hatred is something else now.

MartinCorridon:
Soyinka is an OG Yoruba Dee.

See swagz ...not like Achebe looking like Wole's driver

Na una go start tribalism for every thread. And turn around to accuse others.

See chest beating in a peaceful thread.

Why can't Yoruba just hype themselves without trying to drag other people down?

datola:
Wole Soyinka remains the greatest writer from Africa!

Chinua Achebe is the greatest novelist.

Soyinka is a wordsmith, while Chinua Achebe is a master storyteller

1972xy:
Mamman Vatsa was a victim of hatred for rhe Middle belt . They saw his as a threat.

Lol.

Vasta was from the same state as ibb. He was also a Muslim

The middle belt coup was the 1990.coup.

1972xy:
Mamman Vatsa was a victim of hatred for rhe Middle belt . They saw his as a threat.

Dimpka strongly IMPLICATED him.
What has that to do with Middle Belt??

QuinQ:
Nope, it wasn't always like this. Remember Zik almost became the first premier of Western Region

But was allegedly denied because tribalism.

obiekunie01:
How did you know for sure he was planning a coup?? Were you there whn he was planning it??

Gbéborùn!

How he knew? The evidence was damning.

The N10,000 Vatsa gave to the Colonel ( About $12,000). General Vatsa although said it was for the Colonel's poultry and not for any coup planning.
The meetings held.
The plan for Abuja.

It was an open trial. The officers confessed.

At that time, not a single person anywhere believed Vatsa was innocent, the evidence was too much. He actually missed the AFRC
meeting that Friday in Dodan Barracks,thats when tongues began to wag.( AFRC Armed Forces Ruling Council was the highest legislative body during IBB Years)

In fact the first rumors were that because of IBBs love for him, the execution was faked and Vatsa sent to live in London.

The rumors about innocence only begin after August 1993 during that crazy peirod of wild conspiracy theories.

"Wole Soyinka became the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature that same year"

The truth is if he had won it earlier, the three couldn't have gone together.
Jealousy wouldn't have let the other two agree with him. We know the one who would have opted out, between the other two.
Jealousy against the Yorubas run in their blood.

nairalanda1:
But was allegedly denied because tribalism.

Nope, brcause of one man - Awo, not Yorubas in general