Dodan Barracks

Dodan Barracks is a military barracks occupying a large area located off Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. Dodan Barracks was the residence of the heads of state of various Military Governments in Nigeria, and also the Supreme Military Headquarters from 1966 until the move to Abuja in 1991. The name "Dodan" originated from the site of a battle fought during the Second World War by the 82nd West African Division in Burma.

The Dodan Barracks was one of the bases of a group of army majors who attempted a coup against the civilian government in January 1966. The coup was suppressed by the army, whose commander, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, then became head of state. In July 1966 the Dodan Barracks became the seat of power in Nigeria after a counter-coup in which Ironsi was killed and his Chief of Staff, General Yakubu Gowon was made head of state, moving into the Federal Guard officer's mess. The Barracks was the location where Gowon received the formal Biafran surrender at the end of the Nigerian Civil War in January 1970. Subsequent rulers kept their base at the barracks for the next quarter of a century.

Gowon was overthrown in a July 1975 coup, succeeded by General Murtala Mohammed. In an attempted coup in February 1976, Murtala was killed when his convoy was ambushed. Obasanjo moved into the barracks for security reasons.

In 1977, troops invaded the compound of the influential musician Fela Kuti, called the father of Afrobeat, who was critical of the military regime. They beat up the men, raped the women and threw Fela into detention. His 78-year-old mother died later of injuries from being thrown from a second story window. On his release, he recorded an album titled Coffin For Head of State. Fela and his supporters marched his mother's empty coffin to Dodan Barracks and left it there to shame Obasanjo. The Dodan Barracks was the location for a meeting in April 1978 between US President Jimmy Carter and Olusegun Obasanjo.

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