Hi my name is nighistory I've been reading Nairaland posts for over 4yrs and only decided to create an account today.
I happened to have found out certain things from being able to get CIA declassified files from incognito websites and the narrative of people who witnessed this events. Please pardon my writing I'm excited as this is my first post.
You see in the 60s the way to join the army was in 2 ways i.e the short service and the regular. After the basic military initiation course at NMTC (Nigerian military training college) prospective officers were selected for a type of commission based off of their performance. The regulars comprised mainly of southerners and a few northerners who spent 2.5 yrs at Sandhurst and were rapidly promoted , attending Sandhurst meant you could spend 25 yrs in the military which was the duration of a full career then hence colonels in their early 40s.
The short service officers were sent to mons officers cadet school Aldershot in england. It was less academically demanding and took in alot of northerners including Lt gen ty danjuma,Mg muhammadu buhari and general sani abacha. There was also the military school in teshie Ghana were ojukwa was an instructor to muritala muhammed, indian military academy which trained babangida, Australia military school which trained dimka amongst others.
Mons cadet training lasted only 6 months as it was solely military operations. Upon graduation graduands were commissioned as 2nd lieutenants to various corps and typically spent 2 yrs on this rank unlike Sandhurst graduates who at times skipped this rank such as domkat Bali. Mons cadet school appealed to a lot of northerners who were being influenced by their traditional rulers to join the military as officers as northerners filled up 80 percent of the other rank cadres . In the south it was different most people didn't know the difference between soldiers and officers then and was totally ignored by some parts who favoured jobs such as business merchants, teachers and civil servants. Many of the southerners particularly the Yorubas were said to be quite bright and were commissioned to non combat arms of the military such as engineering (Obasanjo), intelligence, medical corps. The army was filled with a lot of hausa speaking middle belt officers who made up the teeth arms i.e infantry and armoured.
Abachas father had a prosperous bakery and wanted young sani to take over the business. Sani was not academically interested in education and when he got the chance wrote military exams and passed the tests which had lowered standards in the north he was commissioned in Nigeria after short service training which would have given him a 10 year army career unless he converted.
Buhari was a tall student and was immediately scouted by then captain yakubu Gowon,he showed no interest until a northern ruler predicted that the military was going to take over power in the country. He applied with his classmate shehu musa yaradua who attended Sandhurst while he attended mons cadet school hence why shehu became his superior he was also supposed to use ten years but the military demand for battle tested officers and attending several courses abroad kept him and his junior abacha in the military.

Abdulsalami abubakars case is an odd one he was sent to Germany to be trained in the Air force and got seconded to the army as claimed by Wikipedia however other sources say some Nigerian cadets where dropped as they could not meet up to the German standard in Air force training. These point is further proven as abdulsalami attended ssc training and started from the rank of second lieutenant had he been seconded he would've continued from his Air force rank. All 3 men ruled as short service officers who are usually made to bear the brunt of war and command deadly troops the equivalent of Sandhurst today is the regular NDA cadet who Is usually from an elite family hence one of the secret reasons why short service officers are discriminated against by the military hierarchy usually occupied by regulars to make some post unattainable to ssc officers.


Please moderators fp

Yes I really understand that...
I can relate.

....

Oh ok, continue...

All is because quota system was lowered and mediocrity becomes the yardstick for acceptance and promotion in the military corps. This bastardized this nation so bad leading the January 15 1966 coup.