To Save Nigeria: The Revolutionary Coup and the Civil War (Major Goddy Onyefuru)

The author schooled at the Army Children School Training Depot Zaria and St George's Primary School Zaria. He then joined the Nigerian Military School Zaria (then Boys Company). In 1958, he proceeded to Royal Medical Corps Apprentices School Crookham, Aldershot England. From there he proceeded to Royal Medical Corps School of Pharmacy Technology, where he obtained first class Pharmacy Technology Certificate as well as professional certificate in Pharmacy Technology. He worked as a senior pharmacy technologist in Queen Alexandra Royal Military Hospital where he was promoted to Sergeant. He proceeded to Indian military Academy Oeliradun Utta Praddesh India. Here he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant. He attended post-commission courses, parachute courses at Agra Forte, small medium arms training (weapon) at Mow and physical training at Poona. He returned to Nigeria and was posted to second Batallion Nigeria Army Abeokuta as an infantry platoon commander and then to Ikeja cantonment.

He took part in January 15, 1966 coup. He spent one year in detention at Owerri prison and was later released. He fought in the Nigeria/Biafra war and rose to the rank of Major, commanding many batallions and brigades. At the end of the war, he was detained again for another four years and was later released on Oct. 1974

I finally decided to discuss this book because it is laden with tonnes of lessons for any would be "nationalist" of Igbo extraction, to always remember what Nigeria is and leave it alone.

I seethe with rage each time I recall what my folks did to save Nigeria, only for us to be paying for it for 45 years.

This book holds some in depth truth about what happened.

The first meeting

In mid November 1965, the one and only formal meeting that preceeded the coup was held. It was in Lagos, the Second Brigade Headquarters of Major Ifeajuna. Nzeogwu was there from Kaduna, Ademoyega from Abeokuta, Major Chudi Sokei from Enugu, Major Okafor from Federal guards Company, Lagos, Major Anuforo and Major Chukwuka from Army Headquarters. The meeting was brief and everyone agreed that something needed to be done and done quickly enough to save the country.

[b]The plan was clearly spelt out. Only the heads of government, that is the prime minister, and premiers of the regions were marked out for arrest. And in the military, only the top echelon and those holding strategic positions were to be arrested. These included the GOC of the Nigerian army General Ironsi, the commanders of the two brigades Brigadier Ademulegun and Brigadier Maimalari, the Chief of staff army headquarters Col Kur Mohammed, and the Adjutant General of the army Lt. Col Pam, the deputy commander of the NDA col Sodeinde, the Quartermaster General of the Army Lt. Col Unegbe, the  Commander of the fourth Battalion Ibadan, Lt. Col Largema. The decision was simply to arrest these officers and bring them to the rendezvous which was agreed to be the Federal Guard Officers Mess. We specifically resolved that the operation was going to be bloodless unless however if anyone put up a resistance. Our intention was to put the persons in detention and to release them as soon as the new government had stabilized.[/b]

It was agreed that the coup should take place simultaneously in all the regional capitals of the federation. Since there were no troops stationed in Mid-West capital Benin, it was agreed that the area should come under the operation of the Enugu man, Major Chudi Sokei who was to raise a small unit from Enugu for Benin.

The first major set back came in Dec. 1965 when we realized that Major Chudi Sokei, the strong man for Enugu was soon to leave for India for a course. This was destabilizing because it was not going to be easy to raise a replacement in so short a time. However, an intensive search was mounted and eventually found one Lieutenant Oguchi who was to return to Enugu from Lagos. He had given his word that he would cooperate. He was briefed on his assignment which was simply to arrest Dr. M. I Okpara, Premier of the Eastern Region, and Chief Osadebe, Premier of Mid-Western region. His unit which was the first Battalion Enugu was actually under the operational command of the Second Brigade Apapa and Major Ifeajuna was the Brigade Major of this Brigade. So Ifeajuna could use his position to bolster the work of this young man, Lt. Oguchi

It needs to be pointed out that the D-Day (the day agreed for the operation to take place) was constantly being moved back and forth as intelligence reports kept being received. The factors being considered were the availability of the officers billed for arrest,as well as other events taking place in the country. For instance, there were reports that the federal government was planning a military action in the Mid-West to quell the riots and killings. It was also reported that similar actions were in the pipeline for the West after Mid-West. After much consultations, the day was fixed for January 15 and the H-hour 0200hrs.

Unearthing of Monumental Lies

The main motive.

Motive contd.

This is how they thought to solve the problem, but they failed even before they could execute it.

The Execution of the Coup

By 2200 hours on 14th January 1966 a number of junior officers had been assembled at the agreed meeting points for the start of the operation. By this time a major flaw had already struck at the Enugu axis. Lieutenant Oguchi, the officer who was now to carry out the operation in the Enugu-Benin axis was to leave Lagos on January 13th and was to wait for the final notification to carry out the agreed operation. The notification was to come in the early hours of January 15th. It was to be learnt later that Lieutenant Oguchi could not leave Lagos for Enugu on the 13th January as porposed because his vehicle in which to travel was not ready. He now left Lagos for Enugu on the 14th and so was not on ground to receive the final order. By the time he arrived Enugu and got the information through army signals, he was already quite late. The attempts he made was rather belated.

The Collapse of the Coup


It was striking, splendid and indicative of rare art that within two hours from H-hour which was 0200 hours, ninety-five percent of the targeted first phase of the operation had been neatly accomplished. By 0400 hours almost all key personnel detailed for arrest had been neatly arrested and were in custody. And some were alive and well as really desired by the operators of the coup. As at this time, only about six of the targeted persons who had put up resistance  had been killed. All the others were alive and well and were well kept.The Enugu-Benin axis was a non-starter. But that had not been much of a problem because if a change of government  had been announced, the Premiers of the East and Mid-West would have had no option than to comply with directives,  . . .


Simply put, the coup failed in Lagos. It failed, not because all the strategic locations were not fully manned. Indeed, two hours from H-hour all the major strategic locations were fully manned. But the operators of the coup in Lagos panicked and rather than put heads together to decide on the next line of action after a bit of their first expectations failed, the key operators were mainly concerned for their individual safety and in the process, they abandoned their loyal junior officers at the specific locations which they had instructed them to guard while waiting for further instruction. Major Obienu had reneged on the agreements and did not show up for the operations at all neither did he turn in the troops that he had pledged.

Ironsi's escape actually led to the collapse of the coup.

I actually think that the coup plotters underestimated the importance of capturing Ironsi. If he had died in that coup, it would have succeeded. 

I'll be back with more later.

Interesting. Very interesting. Confirms my theories in the sense that the Sarduana and by extension, Balewa, were indeed on a stealth operation to complete Fodio's conquest of the South. The main devil who I personally consider the progenitor of the political upheavals of the '60s is Ahmadu Bello.

Perhaps there isn't any Nigerian I've thought thoroughly about than Nzeogwu himself - and which side he was between a hero and a villian.

Whatever thoughts we have of Nzeogwu, our thoughts have greatly been influenced by hindsight. If he had succeeded then I can't think of anyone who would have been held in a "herosphere" by Nigerians, than he himself.

Who knows, maybe Awolowo would have been a greater devil than Bello if he was installed by Nzeogwu and his team. We just don't know.

Do I believe he's a hero or villian? Personally to me, Nzeogwu wasn't ethnocentrically motivated but was motivated by patriotism. He just couldn't "hold/control" it to the point of seeking a civil intervention of some sort to the crisis - and that's where I fault him but then again, remember that my verdictal opinion of him is largely as a result of the benefit of hindsight, knowing the coup was a failed operation.

The best government Nigeria would have ever had would have been a government between NCNC and AG with Zik and Awo at the helm but well, great minds are always in competitive modes when engaged with each other. Its difficult to see whether both men would've worked well together.

I doubt so! 

The moral of this whole saga is to mind your own business and never go/come to the aid of those who aren't your tribe's men . Ndigbo should stop acting like they are more nigerian than others. I've always pondered as to why those efulefu majors refused to see tribalism in the 1960s. What is their concern if the western region was burning and Awo was imprisoned? Why couldn't they let it burn or let Ahmadu Bello deal with Awo the way he deemed fit?

 Even the Ikemba knows this,,,,,that was why he didn't border trying to save Saro Wiwa's neck from Abacha's noose, inspite of the latter's attempt at reconciliation with Ikemba and Ndigbo in general.

dem_people:

Interesting. Very interesting. Confirms my theories in the sense that the Sarduana and by extension, Balewa, were indeed on a stealth operation to complete Fodio's conquest of the South. The main devil who I personally consider the progenitor of the political upheavals of the '60s is Ahmadu Bello.

Perhaps there isn't any Nigerian I've thought thoroughly about than Nzeogwu himself - and which side he was between a hero and a villian.

Whatever thoughts we have of Nzeogwu, our thoughts have greatly been influenced by hindsight. If he had succeeded then I can't think of anyone who would have been held in a "herosphere" by Nigerians, than he himself.

Who knows, maybe Awolowo would have been a greater devil than Bello if he was installed by Nzeogwu and his team. We just don't know.

Do I believe he's a hero or villian? Personally to me, Nzeogwu wasn't ethnocentrically motivated but was motivated by patriotism. He just couldn't "hold/control" it to the point of seeking a civil intervention of some sort to the crisis - and that's where I fault him but then again, remember that my verdictal opinion of him is largely as a result of the benefit of hindsight, knowing the coup was a failed operation.

The best government Nigeria would have ever had would have been a government between NCNC and AG with Zik and Awo at the helm but well, great minds are always in competitive modes when engaged with each other. Its difficult to see whether both men would've worked well together.

I doubt so! 

Nzeogwu and his likes are nothing but fools and deserve nothing but death. They had no business trying to be heroes and should have allowed Sarduana to deal with the riots in the west as he deemed fit. They are partly responsible for today's plight of Igbo in the nigerian dungeon

Ibos and their fabricated stories, was it just a mere coincidence that zik travelled out for a medical trip a few days to the coup? Was it just a mere coincidence that Okara was not captured nor arrested? Was it just a mere coincidence that Ironsi escaped? Was it just a mere coincidence that all the targeted individuals of Northern, south western and mid west were apprehended and killed while all targeted ibos escape? Save Nigeria my Foot. Bunch of liars.

Looks like the blood-thirsty Biafrans are at it again.
Fool me once shame on you. . .fool me twice, shame on George Bush!
Back to sender I say!

Just like you only have one Jesus Christ. . . You only have one Nzeogwu.

Please, send your Ojukwu. . . he is still alive and 'kickin' da bucketta!

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[size=20pt]Ibos and their fabricated stories,[/size]




[size=20pt]was it just a mere coincidence that zik travelled out for a medical trip a few days to the coup? [/size] Was it just a mere coincidence that Okara was not captured nor arrested? Was it just a mere coincidence that Ironsi escaped? Was it just a mere coincidence that all the targeted individuals of Northern, south western and mid west were apprehended and killed while all targeted ibos escape? Save Nigeria my Foot. Bunch of liars.

Bunch of liars no be small o!
That bloated frog Ojukwu don tip them Zik off to run away of course.
Any time this story comes up. . .I feel like killing ALL the Igbos around me.
The treacherous low-lives of vermin they are!

Come and save Nigeria!
Ndi Alusi Igbudu!

Tiufiakwa!

Hehe. Patriotic coup indeed. If only these foolish ofe mmanu and abokis could have embraced those who shed the blood of their leaders to liberate them.

Why couldn't they accept the noble act of these patriots?

Ingrates.

Yorubus especially. After all, weren't these coup plotters intent on making Awolowo leader? The same guy the Northern region and Eastern region conspired to jail after a sham trial in a kangaroo court?

Can you imagine the gall of these b@stards claiming they are executing a coup to save you?

@Op,

Let e come and kill your father and uncle just to save you. DEAL?

Zik magically escaped, Okpara was revolutionarily forgotten, All Ibo politicians we omitted very convenient I say

alex101:

Nzeogwu and his likes are nothing but fools and deserve nothing but death. They had no business trying to be heroes and [b]should have allowed Sarduana to deal with the riots in the west as he deemed fit. [/b]They are partly responsible for today's plight of Igbo in the nigerian dungeon

Which will complete his ancestor's (Fodio) conquest of the South beginning from the S.West.

I don't agree that Sarduana should have been left "unchecked" but at the same time, Nzeogwu's coup should never have failed. Its one of those very rare operations that should have been planned and designed not to fail. Something akin to a nuclear bomb explosion accident as a result of failure!

On the whole though, sometimes I try to imagine what Nzeogwu must've been thinking. Something like; "If we decide to wait for the parliament where the North had a majority then there wasn't any slightest chance of a Balewa impeachment and something on that line" . Or something like, "If the people protested. . . .oh yes they did but it was confined to the western region as a result of the conflict between the two groups. Not enough to "bring down" the government." He must've thought all these for him to arrive at his conclusion.

Alex101, if Nzeogwu had succeeded then we might not be having to type this. We only have the benefit of hindsight here.

The coup could have been popular to us if we existed in those times.

If Ahmadu Bello succeeded then its very possible that one ethnic group could be at the helm of power from then till now thereby subjugating us Southerners to mere slaves. The fulani oligarchy could've dominated all facets of power in the country upto even becoming your LG chairman!

Just like I already did in my first post, my opinion of the coup is mostly made out of hindsight benefit. This opinion could've been different in those times!

My own suspicion of the truth of this matter is that not much actually went wrong with this coup.

It was purely an attempt by the Easterners to decapitate their erstwhile allies, the Northerners who they realized had grown too powerful (you can read about the census a few years before the coup which caused a dispute between North and East.)

Which is fine and well. But don't try to sell that as any act of patriotism or anything other than serving sectarian interest.

In other words, don't piss on me and tell me that it is only raining.

^^^^^^^^^^^

A lot went wrong with the coup. It failed woefully and wasn't designed and planned to be ethnic cleansing. But that's ur opinion. U can keep it while I keep mine!

ekt_bear:

My own suspicion of the truth of this matter is that not much actually went wrong with this coup.

It was purely an attempt by the Easterners to decapitate their erstwhile allies, the Northerners who they realized had grown too powerful (you can read about the census a few years before the coup which caused a dispute between North and East.)

Which is fine and well. But don't try to sell that as any act of patriotism or anything other than serving sectarian interest.

In other words, don't piss on me and tell me that it is only raining.

Did the coup fail?

dem_people:

Which will complete his ancestor's (Fodio) conquest of the South beginning from the S.West.

I don't agree that Sarduana should have been left "unchecked" but at the same time, Nzeogwu's coup should never have failed. Its one of those very rare operations that should have been planned and designed not to fail. Something akin to a nuclear bomb explosion accident as a result of failure!

On the whole though, sometimes I try to imagine what Nzeogwu must've been thinking. Something like; "If we decide to wait for the parliament where the North had a majority then there wasn't any slightest chance of a Balewa impeachment and something on that line" . Or something like, "If the people protested. . . .oh yes they did but it was confined to the western region as a result of the conflict between the two groups. Not enough to "bring down" the government."

@ the 1st bolded, the conquest of the south could have happened and remained only in the west. The hausa/fulani are not stupid to engage Ndigbo in war at that time.

@ the 2nd bolded, since you feel Sarduana should be "contained", why do you think this task of containment should be carried out by predominantly Igbo sons? Don't the SW have sons in the army and besides, isn't their region that was on "fire"? For me, Ndigbo should not be acting more nigerian than others,,,,play the games others are playing, SIMPLE!

truth must be told

dem_people:

Which will complete his ancestor's (Fodio) conquest of the South beginning from the S.West.

ROFLMAO!

So this is now the point of the coup, right? To prevent Northern domination of Nigeria?

But who, pray tell enabled this? Which ally did the North use to emasculate the Western region?

The problem I have with many of these political commentators is that they ignore the events that occurred BEFORE the coup. How exactly did Akintola prevail over Awolowo? How exactly was Awolowo jailed? How did the Midwestern region come into being? What happened with the 1962 census?




http://books.google.com/books?id=NNRGMYRU-jsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

As I said, the coup was likely an attempt to correct the mistakes you made which allowed the North to grow disproportionately strong.

These chaps are attempting to revise history again.

When others lay down the facts now, you will start complaining.

OnlyTruth, well done. More grease to your elbows.

God is a god of justice. The evil that was done against us, it seems those who commited it have reaped 100X that amount.

Dapo,can u see why I don't buy that marginalisation talk by the SE. The first marginalised region was the west.

Long story short, you will see why the whole south was doomed from the word go.


http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/iarticles/igbo.htm

alex101:

@ the 1st bolded, the conquest of the south could have happened and remained only in the west. The hausa/fulani are not silly to engage Ndigbo in war at that time.

@ the 2nd bolded, since you feel Sarduana should be "contained", why do you think this task of containment should be carried out by predominantly Igbo sons? Don't the SW have sons in the army and besides, isn't their region that was on "fire"? For me, Ndigbo should not be acting more nigerian than others,,,,play the games others are playing, SIMPLE!

Well like I wrote initially, the failure of the coup could be hinged on a number of factors, which are logical, tactical etc in nature. The use of Igbo sons was probably carried out to eliminate the issue of "trust" which goes to show that Nigerians have been distrusting themselves a long time before the '60s. My only qualms here is that Nzeogwu should have carried out a successful coup or not carry out one at all. The issue of failure should NEVER had come into his plans. Maybe he never anticipated failure and the side effects of it - which was a serious error of judgement.

But on the whole, I share your sentiments. Your points are valid.

ekt_bear:

God is a god of justice. The evil that was done against us, it seems those who commited it have reaped 100X that amount.

Which evil was done against u guys? No need to rock the boat here. It was a failed coup of which if successful, would've made ur kinsman a Prime Minster.

The first was to vote against the inclusion of the north in Nigeria. The east n north voted for. The west voted against

The second, was the imprisonment of awo n enahoro

The third was the creation of the mid west which was done to weaken the greater west while the other regions were left intact

The north took the position of prime minister n the east took the presidency while awo (west) n enahoro (edo) was imprisoned.

Yet the west r to be blamed. Lol. Until we become truthful to eachother, we will keep repeating the same issues

dem_people:

Which evil was done against u guys? No need to rock the boat here. It was a failed coup of which if successful, would've made your kinsman a Prime Minster.

I respect you; please respect yourself

Don't attempt to go with that bold-faced lie that some Igbo officers were going to reward Awo.