Today In History: Nigeria’s First Military Coup Happened Exactly 50 Years Ago
The first military coup in Nigeria took place on this day, 50 years ago (Jan 15th 1966). It was led by Major Kaduna Chukwuma Nzeogwu as saw the assassination of key Nigerian leaders, senior officers in the army, and the abduction of three others.
Among others, the coup plotters abducted the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the country’s first Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh; killed the Premier of the Northern Region and Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello; and the Premier of the Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola. Other notable persons that were killed include Brig-Gen. Samuel Ademulegun and his wife, Brig-Gen. Zakariya Maimalari, Col. Kur Mohammed, Col. Shodeinde and Lt.-Col. Abogo Largema.
Since the then President, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe was absent at the time, the reins of government was handed over to the most senior person in the Armed Forces at the time, Major-Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. The major cities attacked by the coup plotters were Lagos, Kaduna and Ibadan, and they also put a blockade at Rivers Niger and Benue for two days.
The excuse of the perpetrators of the coup was that the First Republic’s civilian leaders were running the country aground through corruption. However, the attendant killing of only leaders of Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba extract, only served to deepen the ethnic divide in the country, and raised suspicion against the Igbo tribe which had already been branded by the late Sarduana as “domineering”.
As a result of the coup, Northern officers decided on a counter coup which took place on the 26th of July, 1966 in which, 240 Southern officers and men, three-quarters of whom were Igbo, including Aguiyi-Ironsi as well as thousands of civilians of Eastern origin living in the North were systematically killed. In the aftermath, Lt.-Col. Yakubu Gowon, a Northerner assumed command of the military government which led to the 30 month long civil war that claimed the lives of millions of Nigerians, as Col. Chukuwemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu led his Republic of Biafra to secede from Nigeria.
Today, many news publications featured stories that published comments and opinions of eyewitnesses and key individuals in that war who are still living today, as these publications took a step back in history in the bid to ascertain the reason as well as the necessity of that coup.
While, Dr. Tanko Yakassai, an active political player in the First Republic believed the coup was unnecessary and is the major cause of the setback we are now facing as a nation; Chief Mbazulike Amechi is not convinced that the coup was tribal in nature. He believes that more Igbo officers were involved in the coup because there were so many Igbo officers in the army at that time.
However, Reuben Abati has stated some thought provoking facts in The Guardian newspaper on the before and after events of that particular coup.
All these, alongside the many issues confronting the nation makes one wonder if we have really left the place we were before the coup.
Is our present situation as a nation a result of the coup that transpired 50 years ago or the coup simply a reflection of where we have remained even after 50 years?
Let us know your opinion.
Image Credit: AFP