Murtala Muhammed

Murtala Muhammed (8 November 1938 – 13 February 1976) was a Nigerian army officer and the fourth head of state of Nigeria, from 29 July 1975 until his assassination on 13 February 1976 (Wikipedia). Born in Kano, he trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served in the Congo. He played a leading part in the counter-coup of July 1966 and during the civil war commanded the federal army's Second Infantry Division, which, Wikipedia records, committed the Asaba massacre of civilians (Wikipedia; country study).

After Yakubu Gowon was deposed on 29 July 1975, the armed forces chose Murtala to succeed him. According to the Library of Congress country study, he committed the government to hand over power to an elected civilian government by October 1979, began the drafting of a new constitution, and reviewed the plan that gave Nigeria nineteen states in 1976. His policies quickly won broad popular support.

His father, Muhammed Risqua, a veterinary officer in the Kano Native Authority, came from a family of Islamic jurists who had served as chief judges in Kano, and was related to Aminu Kano and Inuwa Wada; he died in 1953. His mother, Uwani Rahamatu, was from the Kanuri and Fulani Jobawa clan. He became a brigadier in 1971, at 33 one of the youngest generals in Nigeria, and in 1974 federal commissioner for communications (Wikipedia).

He joined the army in 1958, trained briefly in Nigeria and Ghana and as an officer cadet at Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Signals in 1961, serving briefly with a signals troop in the Congo. In 1962 he became aide-de-camp to M. A. Majekodunmi, the federal administrator of the Western Region, and in 1963 took charge of the First Brigade Signal Troop in Kaduna (Wikipedia).

He was killed in an unsuccessful coup in February 1976, and the country went into deep mourning (country study). His deputy, Olusegun Obasanjo, completed the transition to civilian rule in 1979.