I begin the piece with the reactions to that of last week, starting with the correction of a mistake pointed out to me by G.N. Chapp – Jumbo, MFR, ifs. Contrary to what I wrote, Unegbe, the only Igbo – born army officer killed during the Saturday, January 15, 1966 coup, was a Lt. Colonel, not a Major. Through the other information he provided I also now know that his first or baptismal name was Arthur and that he was the Quarter – Master General at the Army Headquarters in Lagos and was murdered in the city and not in Abeokuta as I stated. Let me add that the other loyal officer fell during that insurrection fifty years ago was Ado – Ekiti – born Major Simeon Adegoke who was eliminated at the Mokola Barracks in Ibadan.
The second issue I am addressing in last week’s column is the misconception of some Igbo readers that Lt. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Military Governor of the Eastern Region, must have been the one who freed Chief Obafemi Awolowo in August 1966 since Calabar where he was serving a 10 – year prison term was under his jurisdiction. It was not so.
Since independence on October 1, 1960 and until today only the Head of State and Commander – in – Chief of the Armed Forces, whether a civilian or military officer, can grant clemency and pardon to anyone convicted for treasonable felony, the offence for which Awo was jailed in 1963, on the allegation that he wanted to overthrow the Federal Government of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. So, it was not Ojukwu’s responsibility to set him free. It was that of Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon the Head of State and he was the one who effected it.
Indeed, as at August 1966 when the incident took place, soldiers of Western, Mid – Western and Northern origins were still in the Eastern Region and formed the majority. Soldiers of Eastern origin were then just returning to their region in bits as a result of the pogrom against easterners especially the Igbo during the July 29 revenge coup by northern soldiers. Awo was released within a week of the putsch. Even if Ojukwu was the one who had the responsibility for releasing Awol he would not have done it by August 6, because his preoccupation at that time was to know the fate of General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, the Head of State and Commander – in – Chief and his host Lt. Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the Governor of the Western Region who were abducted on July 29. He wanted their bodies released for burial if they had been assassinated.
It was towards the end of 1966 that soldiers from the other regions of the country were withdrawn from the East, leaving only troops of the region in the barracks in Enugu and other places within the zone. That was when Ojukwu became the head of the soldiers in the Eastern Region and was able to declare the territory the Republic of Biafra in May 1967.
More to come next week
8 History –Making Juju Bandleaders (1930 – 2016)
Although King Sunny Ade was the seventh to come up of the eight juju music legends in focus, I am starting with him because his 70th birthday anniversary, twenty days ago (Thursday, September 22) was what motivated me into writing this. Which is the second time I am show – casing him. The first was done thirty – four years ago to mark his 36th birthday milestone in 1982 when he was featured in the Sunday Concord Magazine, five months after I wrote one on Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey when he was 40 years old in the April of that year.
Before my article people knew the juju music icon as Sunday Isola Adeniyi and took it that that the last appellation was his surname. It was through my write – up everyone came to realize that Adegeye was his surname. In other words, I was the one who got him to start using his family or ancestral name.
It was also through me that it came to light that Sunny is the only one of the parents three children who has the Ondo vertical mark on each cheek. His senior brother and sister who are older than him are clean faced. Sunny’s case is different because he was born in his dad’s hometown when his Akure – born mother went to visit her husband’s family members and they insisted he must be stamped with the conspicuous Ondo facial identification since his father was from one of the royal houses.
I was able to come up with these unknown facts about him because we, along with the late juju bandleader, Oladipo Owomoyela (a.k.a Orlando Owoh) grew up in Egbatedo Street in Osogbo, where I was born on Monday, September 4, 1944 and Orlando about four or five years before me.
The day I interviewed Sunday, as those of his Osogbo background call him till today, in his house in Ilaje are of Bariga, Lagos in 1982, he told me his late mother, a princess from one of the two ruling families in Akure was also related to our own Adedipe Chieftaincy Dynasty. To which the mother of the present monarch of the town, His Royal Eminence Aladetoyinbo Ogunlade Adelusi, Deji Odundun II also belongs.
Next week: what makes King Sunny Ade and the other seven juju legends history – making bandleaders and how their brand of Yoruba music acquired its name in the 1930s.