24th February 2025, NewsOrient, Opinion, Column, News, Governance And Development
By Samuel Egburonu

Some critics of former Military President (General) Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida over the timing of the release of his book, Journey In Service, say he waited until the people that should have responded to his claims died before launching his book.

To some extent, this may be true but I dare say there are people still alive, who should respond to some of the controversial issues General Babangida raised.

Take the issue of 1966 Nzeogwu–led Coup for example: Babangida said 1966 Nzeogwu-led Coup was NOT Originally Planned as an Igbo Coup.

He said those who share his view on this do so because they knew that the primary purpose of the coup was to release former Premier of Western Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, from prison and to appoint him (Awolowo) as Nigerian President to replace the then President Nnamdi Azikiwe and Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

Remember that the group which staged the counter coup (against 1966 Coup) and installed General Yakubu Gowon as the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, justified their take over of Nigerian Government by telling Nigerians and the world that the 1966 Nzeogwu Coup was an Igbo coup.

Now, General Babangida, who was a well connected young military officer then and who was in Kaduna on the day of the coup and who later rose to become Nigeria’s Military President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, has said in his book that the claim the executors of the counter coup made may not have been the original purpose of the coup.

Remember that it was as a result of that claim by the officers that led the counter coup, that millions of unarmed Igbo civilians, including pregnant women, toddlers, infants, girls and old men and women were isolated and murdered (some butchered) in the North and some areas in Western Nigeria as retaliation for the victims of 1966 Coup.

Remember also that after the massacre of Ndigbo as retaliation for the victims of 1966 Coup, the resultant face-off led to the civil war in which the rest of Nigeria united to fight against the same people and that in the civil war, Nigerian soldiers invaded remote villages in Eastern Nigeria, shot and killed millions of unarmed Igbo civilians in broad daylight even as millions of other Igbo children, women and youths were deliberately starved to death through Nigeria’s economic policy of blockade against Biafra.

Stating his understanding of and position on what happened during the 1966 Coup in Nigeria, General Babangida wrote in the book: “As a young officer who saw all of this from a distance, probably, ethnic sentiments did not drive the original objective of the coup plotters. For instance, the head of the plotters, 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! He and his original team probably thought, even if naively, that they could turn things around for the better in the country.

“That said, it was heinously callous for Nzeogwu to have murdered Sir Ahmadu Bello and his wife, Hafsatu, because not only were they eminently adored by many but also because they were said not to
have put up a fight.

“From that moment, the putsch was infiltrated by ‘outsiders’ to its supposed original intention, and it took on an unmistakably ethnic colouration, compounded by the fact that there
were no related coup activities in the Eastern region.

“It should, however, be borne in mind that some senior officers of Igbo extraction were also victims of the January coup. For instance, my erstwhile Commander at the Reconnaissance Squadron in Kaduna, Lt-Col. Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe, was brutally gunned down by his own ‘brother,’ Major Chris Anuforo, in the presence of his pregnant wife, at his 7 Point Road residence in Apapa, for merely being ‘a threat to the revolution’.

“As a disciplined and strict officer who, as the Quartermaster-General of the Army, was also in charge of ammunition, weapons, equipment, vehicles, and other vital items for the Army, the coup plotters feared that he might not cooperate with them.

“It should also be remembered that some non-Igbo officers, like Major Adewale Ademoyega, Captain Ganiyu Adeleke, Lts Fola Oyewole, and Olafimihan, took part in the failed coup.

“Another officer of Igbo extraction, Major John Obienu, crushed the coup.

“Those who argue that the original intention of the coup plotters was anything but ethnic refer to the fact that the initial purpose of the plotters was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo ‘from prison immediately after the coup and make him the Executive Provisional President of Nigeria.

“The fact that these ‘Igbo’ officers would do this to a man not known to be a great ‘lover’ of the Igbos may have given
the coup a different ethnic colouration. But, again, I may be wrong here since this view is speculative. I admit that my position here may be the naive insights of an unsuspecting young officer who viewed
events from a distance!”

This is vintage Babangida, but he, at least, identified what he called “the original purpose’ of the coup as a “fact.”

Yes, it may be true that many people who would have responded with deeper insight to Babangida’s claims in his book may have died, but at least, General Yakubu Gowon, who, incidentally wrote the Forward to the said IBB’s Book, is here with us.

As a very top officer at the centre of military politics of 1960s and early 70s, the very officer who became the highest beneficiary of the events of the time, I think General Gowon knows so much about that it may not be fair, on his part, to to keep mute over this issue.

I think General Gowon owes Nigeria and the World a duty to confirm or contradict Babangida’s speculation or view on whether the 1966 coup was actually hatched as an Igbo Coup as the world was told then.

Considering the huge impact the interpretation of the 1966 Coup has made and will continue to make on Nigerian history and future, it is important that genuine truth be established and made public.

This, in my view, will go a long way in aiding the long talked about national healing, national rebirth and development.

Samuel Egburonu is the Editor/CEO of NewsOrient Network

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