hinwazaka:

Nzeogwu and Ojukwu were progressive turncoats and saboteurs who were double dealing with the Awoists, Arewa pigs and Labour party wizards of the UK. Also, you need to check your history, without the help of the Anglo coalition, and Ojukwu's sabotaging betrayal, the Biafran ragtag army will have slaughtered and enslaved the oduduwa race for a 1000 years

OfoIgbo:


What about brigadier Ogundipe? Was he not one of the first officers? A total cowardly footnote in history, who blazed a trail that Diya, Adisa, Olarewaju and Ransome-Kuti emulated

bejeiodus:
Sometimes, one reads some posts and laughs out loud. Yours is one of such. Ogundipe was not a coward. He acted appropriately like a good soldier should. If he had insisted on stepping into Ironsi's shoes, a lot of blood would have been shed. Moreover, that period was a frenetic one with the whereabouts of the Supreme Commander unknown. He could not command the Army whose noncommissioned rank was made up of mostly Northerners. Resigning from the army was the best option, and he took it.

ProfessorPeter:
This group shape Nigeria in very negative ways till tomorrow. Why is Obj?

KillJoy62:
Take a good look at dis pics nd u wld see gen ironsi nd den behind him is col ojuku den behind ojuku is gen gowon. Na so great people designed to shape our history stand

OfoIgbo:


It was the jihadist coupists wuo were not obeying his command.
1. The SW soldiers recognised him as the next in line
2. The midwest officers recognised his place
3. The easter region soldiers had nothing against him

in the absence of Ironsi, he ought to have assumed the acting position until things became clearer, but he was a complete coward.
Even Ojukwu who was his junior, advised him to act, but his lilly-livered nature came to the fore.

Three regions would have sworn allegiance to his authority I.e Western, Eastern and Midwestern regions.

The south has really been cursed with the addition of Yorubas to it.
Today, fulani herdsmen in collution with the military, are now threatening the whole south, because their mumu son occupies Aso Rock. Guess which of the southern groups enthusiatically undermined a southern president out of jealousy, in preference for the state of siege we now have?

bejeiodus:
z I am not given to throwing tribal jibes. You seem to elide the fact that the Northern NCOs who started the coup in Abeokuta were much more than any other ethnic group in the army. It was said that in trying to assert his authority, Ogundipe gave orders to a Northern soldier who blatantly refused to accept his command. How could he then have assumed the leadership of the country nay the military when there was tribal division in the army? Ogundipe was an officer trained in the British military tradition of detachment from politics. He was simply not interested in that seat. He wasn't the only officer who didn't have political ambitions. Gens TY Danjuma and Domkat Bali are two other examples.

AyakaDunukofia:

These are extremely weak points. Everyone knows the pros and cons of enlisting in the army anywhere iin the world. The doctrine of command and rules of engagement are the same irrespective of the tribal background of the officers and the subordinates.

Ogundfipe was simply a coward in history. He was to head the army as the Supreme Commander, the political aspect of it was only accidental. No excuses.

hinwazaka:
The great days of our military. About 60% of the military hierarchy were igbo and SS. Flashforward to the 21st century, and now about 70% of our military is now composed of hausas/fulanis. Now our military is a mismatch buffoonish force of incompetent morons. You don't need calculus to tell you what went wrong

bejeiodus:
z I am not given to throwing tribal jibes. You seem to elide the fact that the Northern NCOs who started the coup in Abeokuta were much more than any other ethnic group in the army. It was said that in trying to assert his authority, Ogundipe gave orders to a Northern soldier who blatantly refused to accept his command. How could he then have assumed the leadership of the country nay the military when there was tribal division in the army? Ogundipe was an officer trained in the British military tradition of detachment from politics. He was simply not interested in that seat. He wasn't the only officer who didn't have political ambitions. Gens TY Danjuma and Domkat Bali are two other examples.

bejeiodus:
Have you forgotten it was a military regime where the Supreme Commander doubled as the Head of State? There was no way politics could have been avoided something he apparently was not interested in. Besides, the crises during that period were more political than you think. After Ogundipe eased himself out of the army, there were other officers who were senior to Gowon. One of them was Colonel Conrad Nwawo, why didn't he attempt to take over the reigns of power?

OfoIgbo:


What about brigadier Ogundipe? Was he not one of the first officers? A total cowardly footnote in history, who blazed a trail that Diya, Adisa, Olarewaju and Ransome-Kuti emulated

OfoIgbo:


Conrad Nwawo, Effiong were Gowon's superiors and objected to his being declared the supreme commander. In protest they both played prominent parts in the ensuing Biafran struggle. Their bravery is set in stone and well heralded by easterners. Unlike Ogundipe who ran away and accepted a mere position of an ambassador from those that disobeyed him. So no only was he a coward, he was an immense ass kisser, much the same way Gen Adisa and co were kneeling before a mere northern major and crying. Tufiakwa

OfoIgbo:


In my initial message, I alluded to the fact that the jihadist coupists were the the ones not obeying his command, so you mentioning a northern NCO who ignored him, still makes my initial assertion true.

If he felt threatened in Lagos, all he needed to do was to port himself to Benin or Enugu, and he would have found the officers and general populace much more willing to accept him as the acting commander in chief.

Alternatively he could have remained in hiding in Lagos, and placed a call to Ojukwu and requested for loyal troops to be sent to him with immediate effect.

He's not ambitious yet he was Ironsi's second in command and he tried to issue orders, but scurried off once he got frightened by a northern NCO. He is/was a coward.

Danjuma is today, one of the richest Nigerians so his ambitions were clearly for power and wealth. Ask youself how he made his money. Yeah you guessed right. From swindling a nation whose people he was pointing his guns at. Being ambitious doesn't automatically translate to you wanting to be the president

bejeiodus:
You really make me laugh. Asking for loyal troops from Benin and Enugu would have led to the breakup of the country. It would have been a Southern alliance against the North. I hope you remember that the coup was staged to dismember the country? That would have quickened the disintegration of Nigeria.

PresidentT:
Where is Olufemi Olutoye? He was the 2nd graduate to enlist with the NA just hours after Ojukwu enrolled.

bejeiodus:
And both served under the command of Ojukwu, their junior. Or didn't they? You seem not to understand how coups played out in Nigeria. Once you were not part of the coup plotting group, or they respect you enough to take orders from you, then you either leave or adjust to the situation. Domkat Bali was senior to both Buhari and Babaginda, yet he served under them as Chief of Defense Staff. Even Ironsi made Gowon Chief of Army Staff above his seniors. It was the refusal to accept this reality that made Bissala stage a coup against Mutarla, simply because his junior, Ty Danjuma was promoted higher than him.

bejeiodus:
Have you forgotten it was a military regime where the Supreme Commander doubled as the Head of State? There was no way politics could have been avoided something he apparently was not interested in. Besides, the crises during that period were more political than you think. After Ogundipe eased himself out of the army, there were other officers who were senior to Gowon. One of them was Colonel Conrad Nwawo, why didn't he attempt to take over the reigns of power?

new2020:


Well said. When enlistment was based on intelligence and academic performance not Hausa-Fulani clan. A lot of Nigerians till this day, don't fully understand the goal of the coups...to propel Hausa-Fulani. When they plot a coup, they usher in their Hausa-Fulani comrades; this continued until they sustained absolute control of the military that even under democracy, it would be difficult to rid them out. Hausa-Fulani know they can't compete if intelligence and academic performance were the primary qualification for enlistment and promotion.

Here is the kicker: If academic performance and Intelligence Quotient were the primary requirement for enlistment, how do you explain a group that is consistently, if not perpetually last in Neco, Waec, Jamb, Common Entrance, in every measure of academic sufficiency are ironically the highly represented group in the military? How do you explain this? Even if muscles and physical fitness were a secondary requirement, what race of people are more muscular and fit than Igbos and SS?

OfoIgbo:


The British would have advised the coupists to capitulate and accept the new reality, as the spectre of their hopeless situation will be too obvious to them.

Also Biafra 1.0 broke away so what dismemberment was he trying to prevent? And everyone knows that Nigeria as presently constituted, is very precarious, so there is no guarantee that Biafra 2.0 will not happen. The difference being that Yorubas presently don't enjoy the confidence of any other southern region especially after 28th march 2015, so Yorubas are on their own

pyr8te:
Where was obasanjo?

AyakaDunukofia:

The bottom line is that Babafemi Ogundipe, by that singular act, did a historical damage to the leadership structure of the Nigeria Army. And it has endured till date.

It's laughable to infer that he had no interest in politics wheras he voluntarily underwent army officers training which includes leadership; functional in this context to be precise. The army and his colleagues needed him but was no where to be found.

How could Conrad Nwawo have by passed another southern officer senior to him in the person of Robert Adeyinka Adebayo?
Ogundipe set the ball rolling, that's what u see today. No two ways about it.

gartamanta:


Obasunjo joined in 1960, this picture is 1959.

OfoIgbo:


What about brigadier Ogundipe? Was he not one of the first officers? A total cowardly footnote in history, who blazed a trail that Diya, Adisa, Olarewaju and Ransome-Kuti emulated

bejeiodus:
No. Obasanjo joined in 1958.

bejeiodus:
Britain has never hidden her affection for Northerners, so that would not have happened. In fact, they were the ones who talked the Northerns out of their secession plans. As for Biafra, the defunct country came into existence in 1967 while these events took place in 1966. The mutual distrust between Igbos and Yorubas can never allow for a united front. It has been so before independence, and will continue to be so.

OfoIgbo:


The major difference was that Ojukwu did not carry out a coup to be the governor of eastern region. Even when Ironsi was alive, Ojukwu was the number one citizen in the east while Ironsi was the number one citizen of Nigeria.

The case of Bisalla doesnt apply here as, he was not happy that his fellow 1975 COUPISTS sidelined him in favour of his core northern junior officer.

Nwawo and Effiong probably had a say in Ojukwu being the governor of the eastern region, as Ironsi would have consulted. But anyway the major point is that Ojukwu did not topple anyone and outrageously made himself the governor by sidelining more senior officers.

Additionally, Ojukwu insisted that the coupists should obey the already existing military ranking, and this included Nwawo and Effiong being considered for the position of the supreme commander. All these would have made more senior officers in Biafra, more amenable to Ojukwu's leadership as they must have felt he fought to assert their seniority at the centre, coupled with the fact that Ojukwu was not involved in breaking ranks at the centre.

Anyway, the cowardice of Ogundipe remains an eyesore

hinwazaka:
The great days of our military. About 60% of the military hierarchy were igbo and SS. Flashforward to the 21st century, and now about 70% of our military is now composed of hausas/fulanis. Now our military is a mismatch buffoonish force of incompetent morons. You don't need calculus to tell you what went wrong

bejeiodus:
There was nothing, I repeat, nothing that any Southern officer could have done to alter the resolve of the Northern soldiers. Ojukwu was safely in Onitsha far beyond the reach of the coup plotters and was urging Ogundipe to assume leadership of the country though he knew how suicidal it was. Self preservation, my friend, is the first law of survival. That era was a dog eat dog era. If Ogundipe had acted otherwise, he would have paid with his life.