Following the death of Abacha via no coup, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar was to inherit his predecessor’s assets and liabilities. Obasanjo, Diya, Adisa, Olanrewaju, Gwadabe fell in the latter category.

Obasanjo was to lead the first batch of pro-democracy activists and journalists out of the cells, courtesy of a presidential pardon. He was later to join the political train and backed by retired generals and all, the Otta farmer stands in our midst today as the country’s president-elect.

On Thursday, last week, the prison gates were flung open once again for Diya, Adisa, Olanrewaju and no less than thirty other convicts to walk home as free men. Celebrations trailing their release still persist.
But the undying question remains; have we heard the last of coup making as a nation?

Everyone recognises its illegality and proffers that the Nigerian military must be re-orientated to appreciate their real functions and their true places in the barracks.

More than that, so much souls had been wasted and as the country embraces the Fourth Republic, it ought to cast a glance back and see that it has, indeed, paid so painful prices for coups.

Successful or aborted, bloody or bloodless, coups are undesirable and condemnable.

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a former University don took office in May 2007 under a shadow of a disputed election. As a civilian president, will he survive a coup?