FRIDAY would be the 50th anniversary of Nigeria’s first military coup. That extraordinary day has affected the course of Nigerian history in many ways. Those who participated in that epochal event could not have imagined its consequences. That early morning Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, a 29-year old major of the Nigerian Army, had led soldiers to the residence of the powerful Premier of the Northern Region, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and shot him dead along with one of his wives.
By dawn, the political landscape of Nigeria had changed. In Kaduna, some of the mutineers had hunted down many of their top commanders. They marched into the residence of Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun, the Commander of the 1st Brigade, Kaduna, and shot him along with his wife. In Lagos, mutineers moved to the Ikoyi residence of Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari. He escaped over the fence and hid by the bushes. He was not sure of what was happening. Then he looked across from his hiding place and saw the car of his staff officers. He stepped out and approached the car, believing his officer could help him escape. He did not know that the officer was one of the mutineers. Maimalari was shot dead.
Fifty years on, we could still hear the echo of the shot that shattered the coherence of the Nigerian Army and ended the First Republic. Among the dead were Ahmadu Bello, the Prime-Minister of the Federation, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, the Premier of the West, Chief Ladoke Akintola, and the flamboyant Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotieboh. Many top military commanders were also killed including Ademuleun, Maimalari, Ralph Shodeinde, and Colonel Abogo Lagema.
In retrospect now, we know that the leaders of the First Republic were mostly misguided patriots who became overwhelmed by the turn of events. They were great men (and very few women) who loved their country, did their best and came to ruins. The dead were buried hurriedly and since then our country marched on with dedicated sense of ingratitude and occasional remembrance.
January 15 was when the hounds of hell, tasted blood and everything turned bloody. When the smoke cleared, the nation was in shock. The prime-minister was missing. The remaining ministers, not sure of what was really happening, gathered for a hurried meeting, intent on appointing a new prime-minister. The President, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was on a health cruise into the Caribbean Islands. The acting President Nwaifo Orizu did not know whether he should agree to swear in a new prime-minister. Then General J.T.U Aguiyi-Ironsi, the first Nigerian to command the army, met the cowering politicians and demanded full powers to confront the mutineers. The cabinet agreed. Ironsi assumed the title of the Supreme Commander.
Few days later, a reporter of the Daily Times, Segun Osoba, was taken to a bush path off the narrow Otta Road. There he saw the body of the prime-minister by the side of a tree. He was dead, but there was no apparent sign of gun shot wounds. Osoba’s report became the headline of the Daily Times, Nigeria’s most powerful and influential newspaper where he was a rising star.
In Ibadan, the body of Akintola had been taken to Adeoyo General Hospital mortuary. Members of his cabinet were not sure of what was happening. For several months, there had been a total breakdown of law and order in the West with rival gangs of party thugs engaged in fierce battles. Akintola’s Nigerian National Democratic Party, NNDP, had “won” the 1965 regional elections with the help of “angels,” as promised by his deputy, Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, and the West was in revolt. It was the height of the struggle between Akintola and his former leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leader of the Action Group and his predecessor as Premier, who was then serving a prison term in Calabar for treasonable felony.
In his engaging autobiography, Abidakun, Prof. Akinjide Osuntokun, eminent historian and former Nigerian ambassador to Germany stated that many of the ministers in Ibadan thought originally that Akintola had been killed by AG party thugs. Osuntokun’s elder brother, Oduola, was a minister in the government of Akintola. Unsure of what was happening, the minister had stayed home working the phone. When his two brothers came, Akinjide in the company of Kayode, a young medical doctor, (who was to acquire fame as Nigeria’s leading neurologist), the minister told them that the ministers were thinking of meeting to appoint a new premier in succession to Akintola. Then the three brothers hushed over the radio. Their fear was confirmed.
They did not know that the future was pregnant with worse things. Ironsi soon rallied round the troops and after a day of stand-off, Nzeogwu and his mutineers surrendered to the Federal authorities. Ironsi threw him and other mutineers into Kirikiri Prisons. Many politicians of the old regime, especially in the West, were also sent to detention. Ironsi did a lot to calm the fray nerves of his country, but apparently he did not do enough in retrospect.
I still do not fathom why he decided to work with relatively junior officers of the army. All the four men he appointed governors were lieutenant-colonels; David Ejoor for the Mid-West, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu for the East, Adekunle Fajuyi for the West and Hassan Usman-Katsina for the North. At that time, there were more than 300 officers of the Nigerian Army. Though a number of officers were killed in the January coup, there were still enough senior officers to become governors. Instead, Ironsi reached out to the ranks of lieutenant colonels who were battalion commanders to help him in the task of running the government. In the West, there were still the likes of Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe and Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo who were senior to Fajuyi.
What would have been the implication for Nigeria if more senior officers had been appointed as governors instead of the bachelor class of lieutenant colonels? What would have been the implication if either Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe or Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo, both seniors to Fajuyi, had been appointed governor of the West? What if another senior colonel had been the governor of the East instead of Ojukwu? Would our country still have been plunged into the Civil War with its attendant loss and carnage? What would have been the situation in the North if Colonel Yakubu Gowon had been governor instead of Lt Colonel Hassan Usman-Katsina who was junior to Gowon?
Was trouble inevitable? Few days to the coup, Ahmadu Bello had gone to Mecca to pray at the Kaaba, the holiest shrine of the Islamic faith. He wanted to go into the sanctum of the Kaaba, but he was not able to be admitted. He returned home in stoic spirit. On January 14, Chief Akintola was with him in Kaduna, bringing news that he had heard about a possible military mutiny. Bello too had heard but he was not prepared to do anything about it. The Sardauna said he had resigned himself to the will of Allah. Akintola returned to Ibadan to embrace his tragic fate.
Despite their giant status and patriarchal reputation, the leaders of the First Republic were flawed heroes. They loved Nigeria. They were passionate about their country. They gave all. But they were intolerant men who did not fully grasp the subtleties of democracy and the occasional turbulent temper of our great country. They never came to term with the reality that power is an unfaithful mistress, always on the move looking for new suitors. When the First Republic floundered into bad weather and eventual wreck, the leaders were not the only casualties. Part of the consequences was the 30 month Civil War in which an estimated one million Nigerian perished.
We need to examine the debris of January 15, 1966 coup to see whether we can find in that wreckage a missing compass that could lead us to a better future. We thank God that the memories of those leaders, who lost their lives, have been substantially rehabilitated. But our country needs to do more so that we can officially come to term with the extraordinary event of that day. Nigeria has changed so much since January 15, 1966. A country of four regions has now become a federation of 36 puny states. The truth is that Nigeria may not be better off today, but it is certainly more complicated.
GUARDIAN
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