Dede1:

Who could be more unsung hero than[b] Lt. Col. Ayo Ariyo[/b]? A Sandhurst trained combatant soldier who has nothing to loose in prosecuting the war against Biafrans yet this second-in-command of the 3MCDO of Nigerian army had to resign his army commission instead of fighting the Biafrans at Calaber.

What about Wole Soyinka? Wole is a man of decent academic depth who spent three years period of the civil war in jail for constituting opposition to the war of attrition against the Biafra.

I must applaud the Ijebu Ode peasant cocoa farmers who, against all odds, stood up against the mighty Nigerian army in1967 demanding cessation of hostility against Biafrans. In order to subdue the unsung heroes from Ijebu Ode, Gowon had to unleash the combined efforts of war-tested members of 8th Battalion and their veteran commander Major Ochefu on the farmers.

@Dede1
God bless you for these timely and educative information.
There is no question that Fajuyi is true Nigerian hero, if not for anything, but for having Ironsi in his house when he was killed.

Col. Ayo Ariyo----- I almost become emotional saying his name. He was a paragon of honesty and bravery. In our next life as a nation, we would be ruled and guided by men like Ayo Ariyo who would stand strong for his principles any time.

Wole Soyinka--- the soul of Nigeria. I stood in line for 18hr.at Emory University, just to get his autograph as a student. He cried out for Biafra, now he's crying out for Niger Delta.

The Ijebu Ode peasant farmers are the unsung heros of the civil war. The nation lost its innocence by attacking them.

Dede1:

@ the viper

I appreciate your comments and just as you said, there are few unsung heroes from Yoruba.

Who could be more unsung hero than Lt. Col. Ayo Ariyo? A Sandhurst trained combatant soldier who has nothing to loose in prosecuting the war against Biafrans yet this second-in-command of the 3MCDO of Nigerian army had to resign his army commission instead of fighting the Biafrans at Calaber.

What about Wole Soyinka? Wole is a man of decent academic depth who spent three years period of the civil war in jail for constituting opposition to the war of attrition against the Biafra.

I must applaud the Ijebu Ode peasant cocoa farmers who, against all odds, stood up against the mighty Nigerian army in1967 demanding cessation of hostility against Biafrans. In order to subdue the unsung heroes from Ijebu Ode, Gowon had to unleash the combined efforts of war-tested members of 8th Battalion and their veteran commander Major Ochefu on the farmers.

@Dede1, there you go again. Does anyone read a common factor of being an unsung Yoruba hero or is it just me?

nues aweso:

@Dede1, there you go again. Does anyone read a common factor of being an unsung Yoruba hero or is it just me?

The point I read from Dede1 is that while Fajuyi remains a hero, there are also indeed other Yoruba heros, who simply did the right thing at great expense to their own safety.

nues aweso:

@Dede1, there you go again. Does anyone read a common factor of being an unsung Yoruba hero or is it just me?

I never strolled to this forum to create unfounded heroes or to deconstruct fanfare heroes erected by lip-servicing peacocks. I have no issues with the personality of Lt. Col. Francis Fajuyi whom I adjudged as a progressive soldier.

However, I would not waste a second’s moment to refute any conjectural falsehood such as the one concocted to manufacture a hero where one never existed. I repeat there was no time under the sun that Lt. Col. F. Fajuyi expressed the need to die with Ironsi by altering the words accredited to him

Again I am compelled to say that if Fajuyi had lived after the July 29, 1966 coup, the civil war would have been averted and cesspit called Nigeria would have divided too.

naijaking1:

The point I read from Dede1 is that while Fajuyi remains a hero, there are also indeed other Yoruba heros, who simply did the right thing at great expense to their own safety.

It could not have been expressed better than you did.

I probably mis-read you, thanks for clarification.

Whatever the case is, one cannot deny the loyalty, friendship and bond that existed between Fajuyi and Ironsi, which trancends tribalism and ethnocentrism that we witness these days, which was my point. How do we go back to those days?

Laudate, yes o, I don enter NL too! Anyway, the killers of Ironsi and Fajuyi are well known. Some of them are still alive and witnesses to the crime are alive too. Ironsi and Fajuyi were murdered by two northern lieutenants and NCOs. Since I don't want to give my book away for free on NL, you can read more about Ironsi and Fajuyi's last moments (including their killers) in my book.

laudate:

Max Siollun, you don waka comot from Nigeria village square come enter here??

Anyway, na small question I wan ask you - did William Walbe kill Fajuyi & Ironsi?

Abacha was most certainly not "a contemporary of both Ironsi and Fajuyi". Ironsi first enlisted in the army as a private in 1942, and was commissioned as an officer in 1949. To put things into perspective, Abacha was still a baby when Ironsi joined the army. He was less than one year old when Ironsi enlisted! Fajuyi first enlisted as an NCO in 1943 and was commissioned in 1954.

Abacha was not commissioned until 1963 by which time Ironsi was already a Brigadier and Fajuyi a Lt-Col.

gReenmAn:

@ nues aweso

You seem to forget we still have some of these " first generation Nigerian soldiers who were trained in the UK" among us.
I never heard OBJ, Babangida, TY Danjuma et al speak such flowery english.
Certainly not Abacha who was also a contemporary of both Ironsi and Fajuyi.

No doubt, such Shakespearean dialogue was concocted by trained professionals.

By the way I see no need for the attempt at re writing this part of history, because the majority of
right thinking and progressive Nigerians laready regard Fajuyi and Ironsi as heroes.

lets keep our forums far from brainless and clueless pple whos only stock-in-trade is to call pple names and insult others.threads and forums is for pple who knows something to educate others with.it is painful that there are names that i see only when the issues has to do with tribes,bt when foreigners are insulting us nigerias on our own NL,u never can see such names there cos they have nothing to pirate and contribute.when ur brain runs at 0kilometres,it is awfully difficult to contribute anything positive,and even the negatives have to be written for u by some1 or u steal other pples works and contributions.

"Sounds like these propagandists have been reading too much William Shakespeare. Or when did Nigerian soldiers start speaking that manner of English? After pepersoup in the Officers mess?"

YES THESE FIRST GENERATION ARMY OFFICERS WERE WELL EDUCATED AND MOST HAD TO STUDY ABROAD.  MY FATHER WAS ONE OF THEM.  THE MAN SPOKE QUEEN'S ENGLISH AND WENT ON TO BECOME A MILITARY LAWYER.

Check out www. ("na" "NAIJA".

Greed,quest for material acquisition and holding on to power even when the chips are down are some of the likely reason we may not find such men today in our midst,

Sir, Gone, i must submit that your courage is worth emulating!

This can't be right!
From what one can find on this subject, both Ironsi and Fajuyi were passively involved in the January '66 coup, heck Zik invited the army a couple of years prior after refusing for a while to swear in Balewa due to the vote rigging that NPC was alleged to have carried out. Didn't Fajuyi organize and instruct the "training" class from where the coup details were ironed out? I have a copy of Adenkunle's book, lots of confusion among even the participants or those who ought to know it seems. God help us all.

Major Ademoyega states in his book Why We Struck at page 51 that the Majors not only informed Fajuyi of the Jan 1966 coup but that Fajuyi actually gave them operational ideas on how to execute the coup. Ademoyega was one of the "5 Majors" who planned the Jan 1966 coup.

There is a myth that Fajuyi organised an all arms battle group course as a rehearsal of the coup. This is not true. True, Fajuyi was in charge of the course but (a) the course was organised by Army HQ, and (b) only 2 or 3 of the dozens of soldiers on that course took part in the Jan 1966 coup (Gbulie included).

Ironsi had nothing to do with the Jan 1966 coup. He was actually the person who quashed it.

During the 1964 election crisis, a dispute arose between Balewa and Zik. Zik called in the military and police chiefs to remind them of their oath of loyalty to him as president.

ogajim:

This can't be right!
From what one can find on this subject, both Ironsi and Fajuyi were passively involved in the January '66 coup, heck Zik invited the army a couple of years prior after refusing for a while to swear in Balewa due to the vote rigging that NPC was alleged to have carried out. Didn't Fajuyi organize and instruct the "training" class from where the coup details were ironed out? I have a copy of Adenkunle's book, lots of confusion among even the participants or those who ought to know it seems. God help us all.

And if you believe that then you can believe anything.

Ironsi to me was nothing bt a terrorist who masterminded d killings of all northern leaders then,if it was not by tribal means,why was it dat people from south east were not killed,dats why our couregeous Danjuma,murtala,gowan husseini retaliete in counter coup to kill those fools.

Fajuyi was a good man. He was actually a rare breed!