We have been plagued in the last two weeks with conflicting tales of what happened on and before the coup day, January 16 1966. While some are busy selling untruths, some claim they are refraining from speaking the truth in order not to bring the past to pain. But last week, Dr Tanko Yakassai, who partook of the recent ‘Dasukigate’ slush fund’ to the tune of N63m as a mark of betrayal of our children who deserve to know the truth about our past and those responsible for our prolong nightmare whimsically and weirdly claimed the only crisis in Nigeria in 1966 was an isolated ‘quarrel between the wife of the AG leader, Chief Awolowo and the wife of the man who succeeded him, his deputy, Chief Akintola’ besides what he also described as isolated clashes between the supporters of Awo in Tiv land.
In the run up to independence, our nation was hijacked by the three dominant ethnic groups, their political parties and their political leaders who believed whatever they could not get cannot be good enough for the rest of the country. The rivalry unfortunately was all about protecting advantages of each group and the relevance of their actors. As Trevor Clark Puts it, ‘they did not see the federation as a shared inspiration but a devise to be manipulated their own region’s selfish purposes’.
In the pursuit of this objective each of the three dominant groups, tried to exploit the fears of minority groups located outside their own regions. Awo and his AG succeeded more in this regard among minorities in the north and east because of their party policy which supported self-actualisation quest by minority groups, a policy violently opposed by the north and the east. Awo made inroads in the warring Tiv land and in fact reclaimed large part of Adamawa for Nigeria from Cameroon with massive deployment of AG lawyers. He and his party also made in roads among the Efiks, Ibibio and Anang minority groups in the east that wanted liberation from the domination of their more aggressively industrious Igbo neighbours.
Ahmadu Bello who selflessly served the poor and the rich alike in the north, sent a number of children below ages of 10 to a British school and awarded post graduate scholarships’ obtainable in best schools in the world did not believe Awo and his AG that labelled him a feudal lord could love the north more than the northerners. He saw AG’s forays into his territory as an attempt to humiliate him by encouraging insurrections among those he was trying to rehabilitate who ordinarily were slaves by virtue of having being conquered by his grandfather. He once according to Trevor Clark, wondered aloud as to why the Yoruba who cherish their own tradition and Obaship would try to set up subjects against their legitimate rulers in the north. Awo, Ahmadu Bello resolved must be punished even if it meant denying him the justice he guaranteed among the least of his subjects in the north.
Awo in contrast to Zik and NCNC who up to 1959 advocated for a unitary system, also advocated in his ‘path to Nigeria freedom’, a federal arrangement based on major ethnic groups. Ibo political elite whose people like the Jews need space to move around saw Awo as a threat to Igbo survival. Demonisation of Awo by the Igbo elite therefore began with the succession crisis in Nigeria Youth Movement. The contest for the presidency of the body following the resignation of Dr. K A Abayomi, was between Ernest Ikoli, an Ijaw and Samuel Akinsanya an Ijebu man. Awo an Ijebu man supported Ikoli an Ijaw on principle since the constitution of the NYM made provision for the vice president to succeed the president. Zik and the Igbo members of the body supported Akinsanya an Ijebu man. In the election Ikoli won. Then Zik pulled out all Ibo members accusing Awo of tribalism. And because Zik said so, his Igbo followers believed him…
The 1951, election was based on representation and not on partisan organisation. The electoral process was therefore according to Trevor Clark ‘a single chain that united the region with the central house together from the above and therefore believed ‘It was erroneous for NCNC to claim winning the 1951 western region election’. What happened was that Akinloye and his other Ibadan successful candidates got a better deal from Awo and his AG than from Zik who had insisted on becoming premier of the west instead of appointing a Yoruba NCNC member. Awo was labelled a tribalist who prevented Zik from becoming premier of the west by Igbo political elite.
Again In July 1952, members of the central house were to be elected on regional basis among its members. The constitution recognised Lagos as part of West. But Zik who decided to contest in Lagos since he was based in Lagos lost because Dr Olorunnibe his fellow NCNC member refused to step down for him. Again Awo was blamed for Zik’s misfortune and Ozumba Mbadiwe indeed went on move a motion to remove Lagos from the western region. Lastly Awo was also accused of crime against Zik and by extension against the Igbos for failing to stop an AG member of Eastern House from Calabar who initiated a petition that led to Walter Suton commission of Inquiry’s indictment of Zik over the ACB scandal.
The coalition partners seemed to have resolved to cage Awo shortly after independence. The AG intra-party crisis of 1962 provided an opportunity to illegally declare state of emergency in the west, send Awo to detention, reinstate constitutionally removed Akintola to power without election at the end of emergency period and went on to rig the 1965 election in his favour. Following widespread violence and total anarchy in the west, those who declared state of emergence because less than 10 Akintola supporters threw chairs inside the Western House refused to act even after the meeting of University of Ibadan students with the Prime Minister on the 16th of November 1965.
The 1962 and 1963 census crisis had already strained relationship between Ahmadu Bello and Zik who was given a horse by the former while their intrigue and betrayal of the constitution lasted. By June 1965, Ahmadu Bello had replaced Zik with Akintola who also received from him a ceremonial sword when the two met at Pategi during a Niger canoe regatta. By May 1966, with Awo in prison, chaos and anarchy in the west, Zik humiliated and rendered impotent, and the military, the custodian of our constitution infiltrated by politicians, the coalition partners had shot themselves in the leg.
For instance, while Brigadier Ademulegun who supervised the pacification of the Tiv land was Ahmadu Bello and NPC’s choice as a successor to departing head of the military, the preference of Major General Christopher Welby-Everard was Brigadier Babafemi Olatunde Ogundipe. Ironsi of Sierra Leonean father and an Umuahia mother often wrongly regarded as an Igbo man was ‘no more than a fall-back third candidate, as the ‘least well-equipped militarily or intellectually’. But Zik preferred him to the other two more competent Yoruba candidates. He therefore, along with Mbadiwe, Okotie-Eboh Matthew Mbu and Pius Okigbo lobbied for him. Balewa sent Maitama Sule who was flown to Kaduna to persuade the Sardauna and Isa Keita who did not trust the Ibos. Ironsi was promoted in April 1965.
Questions have been asked as to why the coup plotters allowed the escape of Ironsi, their prime target before entering the venue of a party he attended along with other officers who were later killed. Questions have also been raised as to why Nwafor Orizu, contrary to the provision of the constitution failed to swear in the most senior surviving minister with an excuse that he was waiting for directive from holidaying Zik. And finally it was curious a General Officer Commanding, would after suppressing an insurrection insist on power being ceded to him to guarantee the safety of the surviving ministers, his employers.
NATION
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