Echoes Of Biafra 5: Nigerias First Coup Detat On this day, Saturday 15th January 1966, 49 years ago, in the early hours of that fateful day, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu led a group of junior military officers to carry out a bloody coup detat against the Nigerian state, which led to the demise of Nigerian First Republic, despite its overall nationwide failure. The coup plotters attacked Kaduna, Ibadan and Lagos, and also planned to attack Enugu but failed. The coup was successful in Kaduna - capital city of Northern Region, partially successful in Lagos and Ibadan - capital city of Western Region, but it failed woefully in Enugu - the capital of Eastern Region, and the whole of Eastern Region. When the dust settled, the coupists have assassinated 11 senior Nigerian politicians and two military officers as well as kidnapping three others, before the coup was put down by troops loyal to and led by Major General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi. Those assassinated include: Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigerias Prime Minister; Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Region; Samuel Akintola, Premier Western Region, Lt Col Arthur Unegbe and so on. With the untimely death of the Prime Minister in the coup, Major General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, the most senior military officer in the Nigerian Armed Forces, became the Head of State to fill in the vacuum created. Most of those killed in the course of the coup were mostly Northern and Western leaders - only one Igbo man was killed. And most of the coup plotters or leaders were Igbo - with the exception of a few like Major Adewale Ademoyega, who was Yoruba. However, the ground troops led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu to carry out the Kaduna operations were mostly Northerners. Because of the aforementioned reasons, the coup was tagged Igbo coup by the rest of the country, which led to resent of theIgbos by other ethnic groups. And subsequently later that year starting from late May 1966, pogrom against the Igbos in the North by Northerners - leading to over hundred thousand deaths, mutiny against Igbo military officers in Nigerian Military - leading to over two hundred death of Igbo officers, and a counter coup by Northern military officers led by Colonel Murtala Muhammed which led to the assassination of Major General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, and the enthronement of General Yakubu Gowon, a Northerner, as Head of State. All these later snowballed into the Biafran - Nigerian War. Today, 15th January (every year), the day of Nigerias first coup detat, and the day Biafran-Nigerian War ended, is celebrated as Armed Forces Remembrance Day in Nigeria! To be continued!
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 20:10:05 +0000
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