It is 50 years since Nigeria witnessed its first and second military coups of January 15 and July 29, 1966 as well as the incursion of the military into the governance of the country. The first coup led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu claimed the lives of Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, and the Federal Minister of Finance, Festus Okotie-Eboh.
Other victims include four northern officers, Brigadier Zakari Maimalari, Lt. Col. Yakubu Pam, Col. Kur muhammed and Lt. Col. Largema; four western officers; Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun, Col. Ralph Sodeinde and Major S. Adegoke and 2nd Lt. James Odu and one Eastern officer, Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe.
Due to the biased pattern of killings of the January 15 coup, it was labeled an “Igbo coup” despite effusive explanations that it was a national affair by the participants. Nzeogwu had in the coup broadcast said, among other things, that “The aim of the Revolutionary Council is to establish a nation free from corruption and internal strife.
Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand ten per cent, those that seek to keep the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office, the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society.”
Another participant in the coup, Major Adewale Ademoyega had in, Why We struck: The Story of the first Nigerian Coup, explained that “contrary to the load of wicked propaganda that had since been heaped upon us, there was no decision at our meeting to single out any ethnic group for elimination and destruction. Our intentions were honourable and our goals were idealistic.” Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo had in Nzeogwu, described the coup leader as “idealistic and thoroughly patriotic Nigerian.”
After crushing the Nzeogwu coup, the then General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Nigerian Army, Major-Gen. JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi assumed power as the head of state and appointed four military governors; Lt. Col. Usman Katsina (North), Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi (West), Lt Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (East) and Lt. Col. David Ejoor (Mid-West). Despite restoring order in the country after the coup and enacting unification decree 34, his regime ended on a tragic note.  Ironsi’s regime lasted for only six months before another coup led by Hausa-Fulani soldiers swept him aside on July 29, 1966.
He was killed alongside his host, Fajuyi while on a tour of Western Region. Fajuyi had heroically opted to die with his guest instead of leaving him to his fate.
Apart from the head of state and Fajuyi, the victims of the revenge coup include 50 officers and 130 other ranks of Igbo and other Easterners. They also include 3,000 Easterners, mainly Igbos killed in the May riots in the North and about 50,000 others killed in pogroms. Therefore, the Igbo should honour Ironsi and Fajuyi for their patriotism.
Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon assumed office as the head of state and carved the country into 12 states in 1967. Consequently, Ojukwu created Biafra and the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970 ensued and claimed about 3 million lives. Although Gowon gave the “no victor, no vanquished” verdict at the end of the war, his reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation programme of the war affected zones was not quite successful.
Just as the victims of the January 15 coup were remembered and celebrated early in the year, the victims of the July 29 coup were also remembered and celebrated last month. For Fajuyi, the Yoruba race did an elaborate memorial for him in Ibadan with lectures and other activities.
In the case of Ironsi, the Igbo did not do anything. Only the family gathered in Umuahia with few friends and marked the day with church service.
When will Nigeria remember its first military head of state and give him the honour that he deserved for piloting the affairs of the country in those turbulent days? When will Nigeria write the objective history of those dark days? This is one of the posers raised by Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) in an open letter to Gowon.
Nigeria should stop dishing out fragmented and biased narratives of the first and second coups, and the civil war. There is every need to have an objective story of what transpired in those dark days. If such is known, perhaps the current civil wars on Nigerian streets may not arise.
The neglect of Nigerian history, especially the history of the civil war, is a great disservice to our young ones who were not born before the war. Some Nigerian youths are not aware of how the diverse ethnic groups came together as Nigeria. They do not know of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914 by Lord Frederick Lugard and how we got the name, Nigeria.
We are short in history and memory. We deny and forget our history at will. We kill other Nigerians at will simply because of their ethnic or religious identity. It will not be correct to assume that the problem of Nigeria started with the first republic, its failure and the coups. No doubt, these events had bearings on the tragedy of Nigeria.
Beyond them is the foundational error of lumping together diverse ethnicities by the erstwhile colonial masters without unifying the people.
The British attempt to build a big nation in Africa with the amalgamation of different people with different cultures, languages and religions without their input is the root cause of our national problem. At independence, we became Nigerians with different ethnic identities, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Ijaw, and others. That is why the first coup by some members of the Nigerian Armed Forces was conveniently labelled an “Igbo coup.”
Over 50 years after independence, we are yet to see ourselves as Nigerians. We tend to see ourselves better through ethnic and religious identities. These are the problems of Nigeria.
As long as we still see ourselves from ethnic prisms, the “one Nigeria” slogan that many are singing will remain a ruse. Unfortunately, the apostles of one Nigeria are the ones that have refused to unify the country.
I remember today the victims of the July 29 coup, including those Igbos and other Easterners killed in the North for no offence other than being Igbo or Eastern. I remember my village people killed in the north. I remember my brothers who died fighting for Biafra.
I remember all those civilians who died because of Gowons’ economic blockade and the use of starvation as an instrument of warfare in a civil war fought for unity. I remember many civilians killed in air raids in residential buildings, markets, churches, schools and hospitals in Biafra by Gowon’s jet fighters.  I still remember the savage war.

Related News