“THESE BOOKISH PEOPLE”

 
The ideological circle of for the January coup seems to have consisted primarily of officers who had embarked upon military careers after completing university degrees. The late former military governor of the Northern Region: Hassan Katsina once commented on the presence of some “bookish people” who had joined the Army for rather different reasons from the normal military crowd.  Katsina was probably referring to the graduates that had begun to join the Army.  These graduates may have been exposed to the left wing political doctrine which was sweeping across much of Africa, Asia, and South America at the time. In January 1966, the Nigerian Army had six graduates: Lt-Cols ‘Emeka’ Ojukwu and Victor Banjo, and Majors Olufemi Olutoye, Adewale Ademoyega, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, and Oluwole Rotimi.  Three or four of these graduates were involved conceptually, or physically in the January coup. Of the direct participants, Ademoyega had a degree in History from the University of London, and Ifeajuna was a graduate of the University of Ibadan. 
 
Although not physically involved in the January coup, Lt-Colonels Ojukwu and Banjo had been accused of showing a greater than average interest in political matters.   Ironsi also noticed the increasing political sophistication of his men and moaned “I asked for soldiers and am being given politicians dressed in uniform”.  Security reports concerning coup plotting by Banjo were passed to Prime Minister Balewa, who ignored them.   Major Ademoyega claims that the Majors had at some point in time, floated the idea of a coup to Ojukwu and Banjo, and also to Lt-Colonels Hilary Njoku and Francis Fajuyi.  The four Lt-Colonels were not opposed to a military coup, but Njoku and Ojukwu were “unsure” about whether to participate (see Ademoyega: “Why We Struck”).  None of the four Lt-Colonels got physically involved when the Majors eventually struck and three (Njoku, Ojukwu, Fajuyi) actually played a role (to varying degrees) in crushing the coup, while Fajuyi and Ojukwu became military governors in Ironsi’s military administration.  Many northern soldiers suspected Fajuyi of at the very least being sympathetic to the Majors’ coup, and at worst to have assisted them in the planning of the coup.  Katsina once referred to Fajuyi as an “Action Grouper” in sarcastic reference to Fajuyi’s perceived support for the AG.

 

A MAN CALLED KADUNA

 
Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was a promising, charismatic and slightly rebellious officer that worked as the Chief Instructor at the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna (the city of his birth).  Nzeogwu was a devout catholic, a teetotaler, a non-smoker, and despite being a bachelor, did not spend much time chasing women like many young men of his age.  Yet he was prepared to kill civilians in a military coup that he believed to be just.  His charisma was such that even his detractors were prepared to admit that he was “an incorruptible idealist without ambitions of power….in many ways a man born before his time” (see Muffet : “Let Truth Be Told”).
 
Some claim that Nzeogwu’s participation in the January 1966 coup was part of a grand Igbo agenda to “dominate” the country.   This argument overlooks the fact that Nzeogwu was an Igbo in name only.  Nzeogwu was born in the Northern region’s capital of Kaduna to Igbo immigrant parents from the Mid-West Region.  Such was his family’s affinity to the city of Nzeogwu’s birth that they and his military colleagues called him “Kaduna”.  When not in his army uniform he wore northern mufti and frequently referred to himself as “a northerner”.  Nzeogwu spoke fluent Hausa (the lingua franca of the Northern Region) “like a native” (Forsyth). In fact Nzeogwu’s command of Hausa was better than his command of Igbo.   It is a mark of Nzeogwu’s popularity that when his body was discovered during the Nigerian civil war by federal soldiers, they took his body away for burial with full military honours (but not before his eyes had been plucked out).  Although one account claims that a northern soldier swore at the minister that performed Nzeogwu’s burial ceremony (see Luckham: The Nigerian Military).  So what possessed a puritanical, bible bashing, innocent young man like Nzeogwu to murder the nation’s most powerful northern politician in the middle of the night?    Nzeogwu’s reasoning is chilling in its simplicity: “We wanted to get rid of rotten and corrupt ministers, political parties, trades unions and the             whole clumsy apparatus of the federal system.  We wanted to gun down all the bigwigs on our way.  This was the only way.  We could not afford to let them live if this was to work.  We got some but not all.  General Ironsi was to have been shot, but we were not ruthless enough.  As a result he and the other compromisers were able to supplant us”.

What is clear is that Nzeogwu had harboured some anti-government sentiment for several years before 1966.  Nzeogwu’s boss at the Nigerian Military Training College: Colonel Ralph Shodeinde, had in the past reported Nzeogwu to Army Headquarters for allegedly disseminating anti-government rhetoric to junior officers.  Shodeinde’s report claimed that Nzeogwu had been attempting to poison junior officers’ minds against the Government (see Obasanjo: “An intimate portrait of Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu”).  Nzeogwu was so disillusioned with the farcical vote rigging that he exclaimed “it is impossible to vote out a Nigerian minister”.  

Nzeogwu was recruited into the conspiratorial group by the fellow Sandhurst trained Major Chris Anuforo. Nzeogwu in turn tried to recruit others into the plot. Nigeria’s former Defence Secretary: Lt-Gen Theophilus Danjuma was aware of Nzeogwu’s coup recruitment policy.   As a former colleague of Nzeogwu, Danjuma noted that “Nzeogwu was a very charming person.  He had his method, he would start by criticizing government and then watch your reaction…..if you joined him in criticising the government…..then he would say well, we would (sic) fix them one day.  That’s how he recruited”. Major Tim Onwuatuegwu bought Nzeogwu’s anti-government line.  Onwuatuegwu was an Igbo from Nnewi and a colleague of Major Nzeogwu at the Nigerian Military Training College, where Onwuatuegwu was also an instructor.  Onwuatuegwu was tagged a dull, parade ground “goody two shoes” type by one his own course-mates at Sandhurst but fell under Nzeogwu’s spell and was convinced enough to break into the house of, and shoot his own Brigade commander during the coup.

One officer that seems to have been unaffected by Nzeogwu’s political rhetoric was a cadet named Salihu Ibrahim.   Ibrahim was training at the Nigerian Military Training College while Nzeogwu (chief instructor at the College) and company hatched the coup plot.  Despite being close to Nzeogwu, Ibrahim matured into a “vintage professional soldier” (Chris Alli: The Siege Of a Nation) who abhorred military participation in Government.  Ibrahim retired from the Nigerian Army in 1993 after rising to the rank of Lt-General, and serving as Chief of Army Staff.  Strangely for a man who disliked military coups and military governments, he served as a member of firstly Major-General Buhari’s Supreme Military Council from 1984-85, and in Ibrahim Babangida’s Armed Forces Ruling Council thereafter.

Prior to the coup Nzeogwu gave other cryptic clues about his intentions.  On one  occasion while discussing Brigadier Ademulegun, Nzeogwu told Major Alex Madiebo to “go easy with the Brigadier, for when the strong
wind blows, all the grass bends low to allow it to pass”.  Madiebo did not immediately appreciate the significance of what Nzeogwu had said to him, but on January 15th 1966, Nzeogwu’s made his intentions explicitly clear.

Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna was an Igbo from Onitsha and the Brigade Major in Lagos.  He was an international athlete of some repute and held the Commonwealth record for high jumping.   He was also a graduate of the University of Ibadan (where he had subversive tendencies).  Ifeajuna was the “brains” behind the coup and wrote a manuscript on the reasons why he felt a military coup was necessary.  This manuscript has never been published.  

THE “FIVE MAJORS”?


One enduring myth is that Nigeria’s first military coup was carried out by “five Igbo Majors”.   The source of this myth is the “we were five in number” comment, which the coup’s most visible, participant: Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, made in an interview with Dennis Ejindu (Africa and the world - May 1967) after the coup.    The “five Majors” myth was later perpetuated by Captain Ben Gbulie’s book on the coup entitled “Nigeria’s Five Majors”, the title of which he has admitted borrowing from a BBC play of the same name.
 
When Nzeogwu made his infamous “we were five in number” comment, he made no reference to the rank of the “five”.   He was merely referring to the five designated strategic regional commanders of the coup.  In fact, no less than nine Majors were originally billed to take part in the coup.  These nine were Majors Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna, Ademoyega, Okafor, Anuforo, Chukwuka, Obienu, Onwuatuegwu and Chude-Sokei.   Shortly before the coup, Chude-Sokei was posted overseas.  On the coup day itself, Obienu failed to show, leaving seven Majors as participants.  When it came to execution, the Majors designated five officers as regional commanders for the coup’s execution.  Of Nzeogwu’s “five”, there were “the two of us in the North” (Nzeogwu and Major Tim Onwuatuegwu), and three more in the South. 
 
The head of the Lagos operations was Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna.  That makes three Majors so far.   The squad, which killed Chief Samuel Akintola in Ibadan, was led by CAPTAIN Nwobosi.   That makes four (three Majors and one Captain). There was no coup in the Mid-West as no military formation was based in that Region.  However, Lieutenant Oguchi was dispatched to the east to arrest the Premier of the Eastern region: Dr Michael Okpara.  The identity of the fifth member is the most problematic.  Majors Don Okafor and Adewale Ademoyega were given much responsibility for the Lagos branch of the coup, and it is likely that one of these two men was the fifth commander.
 

WHO WAS THE LEADER?

 
Major Nzeogwu has since 1966, been touted as the leader of the January 1966 coup.  This has been widely presumed due to the visible role which Nzeogwu played during and after the coup.  Nzeogwu was the only Major to successfully execute the coup in his designated target region.   He then followed up his coup success with his infamous “our enemies are the…..” speech.   Thus the (false) assumption that he was the coup leader spread.   The truth may be somewhat different. It was not until the coup plot reached its logistical stage that Nzeogwu was brought in to the conspiratorial group.  The brains behind the coup was probably Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, however Ifeajuna was chased out of Nigeria’s then capital city of Lagos by Major-General Ironsi.  Realising that Ironsi was rounding up those that took part in the coup, Ifeajuna fled to Ghana, leaving Nzeogwu to hold the fort.

Part two of this article will follow in a few weeks time.  In part two I shall describe the execution of the coup itself.