Murtala Muhammed

During the Nigerian Civil War he commanded the Second Infantry Division. He played a leading part in the counter-coup of 29 July 1966, became Federal Commissioner for Communications in 1974, and on 29 July 1975 led the coup that overthrew Yakubu Gowon's regime, becoming head of state ¹.

Murtala ruled with a concentration of power unmatched by any Nigerian leader before or since, kept Nigeria in the Non-Aligned Movement and backed African liberation movements, notably in Angola. On 13 February 1976 he was assassinated in Lagos in the failed coup attempt led by Lieutenant Colonel Bukar Suka Dimka, when his car was ambushed on his way to his office at Dodan Barracks ^{1 2}. Lagos's international airport now bears his name.

The English article quotes Africa Confidential calling Muhammed personally "a northern Muslim from Kano"; its detail about his father's family — a line of Kano chief judges learned in Islamic jurisprudence — is family background. The Arabic stub says nothing of his religion, Wikidata gives only Islam, and no source used names a school. The record therefore keeps his affiliation unknown ^{1 2 3}.

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