Ahmed Yahaya- Joe
“Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.” – Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanak (1732)
Every picture tells a story. The one attached here has, however, remained an incomplete one for 32 years until a self-serving version recently surfaced.
While the surviving storyteller involved is entitled to his own version of events, with all due respect, nobody should take the polity for granted by telling tall tales.
Walter Miller (1872-1952) admonishes in the foreword of his 1949 autobiography;
“A man must be inordinately conceited or else have an unusually good story to tell who will sit down and write his biography fully expecting it will be published in his lifetime.”
Agreed, former military president General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida has a damn good story to tell posterity. Unfortunately, his self-embellishment has turned out to be a big elephant of sorts in the room of Nigeria’s history.
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please.” – Karl Marx in The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852)
Few Nigerians are aware that;
“The first set of people to call the coup an Igbo coup were Igbos. According to M. Chidi and C. Usonos, who were traders in Kano at that time, it was a thing of joy and pride that their brothers had saved Nigeria.
When Ifeajuna won gold in the 1954 Commonwealth Games, because of its immense popularity; it was first regarded as a victory for the Black race, then victory for Africa, then Nigeria. Eventually, it was claimed as a victory for Igbos.”
(See details in 54 Years: British Secret Files on Nigeria’s First Coup posted at 4.30am Wednesday, January 15, 2020)
Fewer know Prof. Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), on page 79 of his definitive memoirs, adds;
“By killing Sir Ahmadu Bello, Nzeogwu and other coup plotters had put themselves on a collision course with religious, ethnic and political ramifications of such an action, something they had clearly not thought through sufficiently. Superficially, it was understandable to conclude that this was indeed an Igbo coup.” – There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra (2012)
Significantly, the historian Max Siollun in his must-read 2009 book entitled Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria’s Military Coup Culture (1966-1976) observes;
“Although the January (1966) coup may not have been intended as an Igbo takeover, it inevitably bore the appearance of one. By merely emerging as an Igbo head of state after a coup staged by mostly Igbo soldiers, Aguiyi-Ironsi’s every move (no matter how innocent or well-intentioned) was interpreted as furtherance of an Igbo plot to dominate the country.
The overwhelming majority of the January plotters were Igbo, and most of their victims, non-Igbo, the Igbo GOC emerged unscathed and became head of state, the Igbo President was conveniently overseas when the coup took place, and the Igbo Premiers of the Eastern and Mid-West Regions were unharmed while the non-Igbo Premiers of the two other regions were murdered.
These factors, coupled with the simple arithmetic of the January coup’s casualties and survivors, would inevitably lead even the most neutral observer to the inescapable conclusion that the whole affair was an Igbo inspired plot.” – p. 79
Lest we forget, an erstwhile member of Nigeria’s diplomatic corps and later chief of Biafra’s Intelligence service, 1967-1970, duly noted in his personal diary on 23rd January 1966 published in 1985;
“It does appear to me, though, that we have all gone wild with jubilation in welcoming the so-called dawn of a new era without pausing to consider the possible chain reactions that may soon follow. I shudder at the possible aftermath of this folly committed by our boys in khaki.
What then is the Igbo man’s defense to this allegation in light of the sectional and selective method adopted by the coup plotters?
Although sitting here alone as I write this, I am tempted there was no such Igbo grand design.
I ask myself; what would I do if I were placed in the position of the Northerner?”
(See details in No Place To Hide: Crises and Conflicts Inside Biafra by Chief Bernard Odogwu)
Has anybody noticed that Babangida, in his book, adopted almost word for word Achebe’s own characterization of the same individual?
“Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, was only Igbo in name. Born and raised in Kaduna, his immigrant parents were from Okpanam in today’s Delta state, which, in 1966, was in the old mid-western region. Nzeogwu spoke fluent Hausa and was as ‘Hausa’ as any!” – A Journey In Service p.39
“Nzeogwu himself was Igbo only in name only. Not only was he born in Kaduna, the capital of the Muslim North, but he was widely known as someone who saw himself as a Northerner, spoke fluent Hausa and little Igbo, and wore the Northern traditional dress when not in uniform.” – There Was A Country p.79
One of the principles of propaganda is repetition in creating stereotypes;
“Constantly repeat slogans, messages, or ideas to create familiarity and embed them in the public consciousness.”
Weren’t the fluent Hausa speakers Azikiwe and Ojukwu born in Zungeru, the capital of “the Muslim North” before Kaduna?
So was Ironsi, who spent his early years in Kano just as Ojukwu’s mum an integral part of Zaria. Interestingly, the frontline plotters Major Christian Anuforo and Captain Emmanuel Nwobosi were also Kaduna boys who both attended St. John’s College there alongside Nzeogwu.
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” – George Orwell (1903-1950)
Why is the 22nd April 1990 mutiny still tagged as a Niger Delta coup despite the fact that its arrowhead was a Northerner, Major Gideon Gwaza Orkar?
Our Ogidi-born literary sage proffers a clue as far back as 1964;
“A small boy may think he is the owner of a goat. He may fetch it food and look after it. But when the goat is killed, the real owner will be known.” – Arrow of God
(See details in The 1966 Coup and Counter Coup: Looking Back So We Can Look Forward by Reno Omokri posted on May 24, 2020)
As far as this writer is concerned, the heinous events of 15th January 1966 were triggered by the constitutional crisis of 1964 which culminated in a murderous political takeover of the federal government by the Nigerian Army wing of the Southern Nigerian-dominated United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) from the predominately Northern New Nigerian Alliance (NNA) as Siollun further explains;
“The UPGA leaders had tried everything (both constitutional and extra-constitutional) to remove the NPC from power and failed. There was the attempt by Awolowo to overthrow the government, Dr. Michael Okpara’s disputing of census results, and the UPGA’s election boycott.
All these methods had failed miserably, and the UPGA’s aims were by accident or design, carried out for them by a group of army officers that were sympathetic to UPGA ideology.” – Oil, Politics, and Violence p.143
Does Babangida have an ancient axe to grind with his erstwhile Man Friday?
According to Nigeria’s latest author;
“Dimka hatched a plot to kill Brigade Major Ogbemudia. Fortunately, Ogbemudia was tipped off by Colonel Hassan Katsina and Major Abba Kazir, who then provided Ogbemudia with an escape Land Rover, complete with a submachine gun.
Meanwhile, Dimka, who got wind of this, marshaled a group of northern soldiers who then pursued Ogbemudia from Kaduna to Owo in Ondo State, sometimes shooting at him! At Owo, Ogbemudia abandoned his Land Rover when he ran out of fuel and was said to have scaled a six-foot fence into a thick forest to escape Dimka’s soldiers.” – pp. 44-45
But Ogbemudia (the principal actor involved) in his own words elaborates much differently 9 years ago;
“I had a young officer who was working with me, he was 2Lt. Sani Abacha. He came to me and said ‘Sir, you must leave now, go to wherever you like, but you must not be in the North.’
I said ‘where do you want me to pass? The road going to Lagos has roadblocks manned by soldiers, and they know me day or night,’ so he said he would escort me.
So, he got a Land Rover with a few soldiers. I took my wife and children into my car when I got to the house. Luckily, it was a new Opel Record.
We couldn’t load any boxes, so we packed the clothes and put them in the boot, and l left my poultry behind, and Abacha escorted me to Ilorin from Kaduna.
We arrived at Ilorin at about 5.00 a.m. he said, “I think you are safe from here now,” and he left.
I took Ado Ekiti, and Akure to Benin, and when I got to my house, they were doing my burial because they had told my mother and my people that I had been killed.
The whole funeral arrangement broke up, and only my mother dared to come towards me.”
(See details in the Vanguard newspaper edition of 30th July 2016)
Whose report should we believe?
To be continued in Part II
