By Oguwike Nwachuku This year’s activities leading to the 50th anniversary of the
January 15, 1966 coup plot believed to have altered the political equation of Nigeria
after just six years of independence have come and gone.
*Nzeogwu |
But the lessons,
like a razor will continue to pierce the heart of every discerning person.
Popularly and
erroneously described as Nzeogwu Coup, nay Igbo coup, many commentators have
interpreted that putsch the way it suits them, their political allies and
interest, 50 years down the road.
The same scenario is
playing out in the trial of the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), Olisa Metuh, whose own case is being given another colouration.
Of all the persons
accused of eating the yam from Sambo Dasuki’s office as former national
security adviser (NSA), Metuh is the only one that has been brought to court in
handcuffs and Black Maria and whose bail conditions are ridiculous.
Today’s intervention is not on Metuh, but I think the Igbo are also using their tongue to count their teeth.
This is what Nzeogwu told his compatriots while announcing reasons for the coup: “Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand 10 per cent; those that keep the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as ministers or VIPs at least, the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian calendar back by their words and deeds.
“Like good soldiers we are not promising anything miraculous or spectacular.
“But what we do promise every law abiding citizen is freedom from fear and all forms of oppression, freedom from general inefficiency and freedom to live and strive in every field of human endeavour, both nationally and internationally.
“We promise that you will no more be ashamed to say that you are a Nigerian ….”
*Azikiwe |
It is not my desire
to go into the details of the coup, but it is worrisome that the fears Nzeogwu
and his fellow coup plotters raised are even being magnified in more dangerous
dimensions by commentators who ought to interpret the situation with
responsibility and fairness.
While reading two
pieces on the matter last week, one written by Reuben Abati and published in an
online portal, and another by one Bolaji Adebiyi published on the front page of
THISDAY, I saw through the mischief of the authors who tried to camouflage that
the Igbo must have been the architect of Nigeria ’s political problems.
Abati wrote: “By the
time the coup failed and ended, what was left, fairly or unfairly, was its
ethnic colouration and bias. The key plotters except one were all Igbos.
“The people who were
targeted in the main theatres of operation: Kaduna ,
Lagos and Ibadan
were all non-Igbos. Only one Igbo life was reportedly lost: Col Arthur Unegbe,
and that was because he could not be trusted.
“The received
impression is that the coup failed on the platforms of irredentism, its
selectiveness and one-sidedness, even if some of the other ranks under
Nzeogwu’s command in Kaduna
were actually Northerners and other Nigerians.
*Balewa |
“Senior officers,
like Brigadier Zakari Maimalari and Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun, were killed by
younger officers who were well-known to them.
“Prime Minister
Tafawa Balewa’s body was dumped somewhere along the Lagos-Abeokuta Road . The Premier of the
Northern Region, Ahmadu Bello, was killed along with his wife, driver, and
security assistant.
“SLA Akintola,
Premier of the Western Region was gunned down in his bedroom. Minister of
Finance, Festus Okotie-Eboh, also lost his life.
“Others included
Col. Ralph Shodeinde, Col Kur Muhammed, Lt Col. Abogo Lagerma, Lt Col. James
Pam, PC Yohanna Garkawa, PC Haga Lai, Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo, Sgt. Daramola
Oyegoke, PC Akpan Anduka and Ahmed Ben Musa.
“And when it was all
over, Nnamdi Azikiwe was conveniently, and most suspiciously, away on a cruise
in the Caribbean . An Igbo man, Nwafor Orizu,
the acting president, handed over power to another Igbo man, General Thomas
Aguiyi-Ironsi.
“Although a highly
qualified officer, Ironsi didn’t stand a chance. He had been instrumental to
making the coup fail, and had tried to promote Northern officers after the
January coup, but he was, all the same, accused of treating the coup plotters
with kid gloves, and of trying to impose Igbo hegemony on Nigeria .
“The January 15 coup
brought all extant suspicions to the fore; by May, there were reports of Igbo
being killed by Northerners and cries of likely secession by the North.”
What Abati wrote was
not different in content and taste from what Bolaji wrote in THISDAY. Even the
uninitiated would agree they rose from one desk after writing.
Their interventions
were ab initio tailored to bring to the fore the age long plot to demonise and
castigate the Igbo as those who introduced ethnic irredentism and political
domination into the body polity of Nigeria .
They wanted, on
behalf of their masters, to use the articles to warm themselves into the heart
of President Muhammadu Buhari, whom they wanted to remind to keep the Igbo at
bay, or at worse, see the Igbo as those not to be trusted for political
relationship.
But contrary to the
claim of those who use the 1966 coup to sow ethnic discord for selfish reasons
and interest in Nigeria ,
including some commentators, now take a look at the 14 major participants in
the 1966 coup termed Igbo coup:
Major Chukwuma
Kaduna Nzeogwu (Delta Igbo); Major Adewale Ademoyega (Yoruba) author of “Why we
struck”; Capt. G. Adeleke (Yoruba); Maj. Emmanuel Ifeajuna (Igbo); Lt. Fola
Oyewole (Yoruba) author of “The reluctant rebel”; Lt. R. Egbiko (Esan); Lt.
Tijani Katsina(Hausa/Fulani); Lt. O. Olafemiyan (Yoruba); Capt. Gibson Jalo
(Bali); Capt. Swanton (Middle Belt); Lt. Hope Harris Eghagha (Urhobo); Lt. Dag
Warribor (Ijaw); Second Lt. Saleh Dambo (Hausa) and Second Lt. John Atom Kpera
(Tiv).
So, to an unbiased
observer, what evidence can one provide to show that the Igbo carried out the
coup to exterminate other tribes and take over the country as touted?
While it is easy to
sell falsehood, it is difficult to provide facts to buttress wild claims; and
that is where the latter day commentators are not only suspect but will leave
Nigeria worse than it was even before the intervention of the coupists 50 years
ago.
On this page I had
talked about Igbophobia as well as the hatred for the Igbo as if some Nigerians
took a lesson on how to hate them. Everyday, peoples actions and inactions
point to this.
Even when it seems
clear to a suckling that murderous lies were crammed up against the Igbo to
find reasons to perpetually keep them under hate, why should commentators in
this age see that as their beat on which they must deliver by all means?
No one blames them
because the Nigerian state and perpetrators of the gruesome genocide have been
working hard to prevent proper documentation of the 1966 coup episode for
posterity.
It is the greatest
disrespect Abati would have for Zik when he said he was conveniently, and most
suspiciously, away on a cruise in the Caribbean when the coup was on and that
Nwafor Orizu handed over to another Igbo man, General Ironsi so that the Igbo
hegemony in Nigeria ’s
political circle would continue.
And you ask, what
happens to the seniority in the army? Could Orizu have handed over to Abati or Adebiyi?
When Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu insisted that Ogundipe was the next person to
be head of state based on seniority in the army and not Yakubu Gowon, was he
pursuing Igbo hegemony?
Let it be known,
including to the careless commentators, that the Igbo have come to accept their
fate in Nigeria and the only thing they are asking is for them to be left alone
to pursue their legitimate means of livelihood.
*Nwachuku is the editor of TheNiche
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