Max Siollun, a prominent Nigerian military historian, alleges ex-military dictator Ibrahim Babangida’s autobiography, ‘Journey in Service’, is laced with multiple instances of plagiarism of his books, ‘Soldiers of Fortune’ and ‘Oil, Politics and Violence’.

“Some sections of Babangida’s book have passages that use eerily similar (or verbatim identical) wording to my books,” Mr Siollun wrote in his review of Mr Babangida’s book shared on X.

Citing several incidents peculiar to the Nigerian military, which he explored in his two books, Mr Siollun accused the writer of Mr Babangida’s widely shared memoir of using similar instances without due acknowledgement.

“I challenge anyone to read Babangida’s book and not conclude that Babangida’s ghostwriter used passages from my books Soldiers of Fortune and Oil, Politics, and Violence, without citing me as the source (e.g. the passages about the 1976 coup, the use of retroactive legislation during the 1976 coup trials, “friendly neutrality” of senior officers during the 1975 coup, and those about Brigadiers Diya and Mamman appearing before the Political Bureau in 1985),” Mr Siollun explained.

The military historian further shared plagiarised sections from Mr Babangida’s book with corresponding sections in his two books, alleging “all of them read like extracts from my books rather than original authorship. I am astonished that his ghostwriter copied my work so brazenly without attribution.”

Mr Siollun, however, described Mr Babangida’s autobiography as a welcome addition, although with information already in the public domain.

“Babangida’s autobiography is a welcome addition – especially as only 4 of the 14 heads of government in Nigeria’s history have bothered to write an autobiography,” stated the Nigerian military historian. “However, those who expected Babangida to deliver an explosive tell-all account will be disappointed. The book largely repeats information that was already in the public domain and in far less detail.”

The former military dictator’s memoir has been described as self-serving rather than a factual chronicling of past events.