logica:
Just to be clear; Awolowo betrayed NOBODY. Awolowo was preparing to have a meeting with Ojukwu to find a solution without violence when he found out Ojukwu had launched at attack on Benin and heading for Lagos. Who in his right senses will form an alliance with such an impulsive soldier? So no, if anybody was betrayed, it was Awolowo.

logicab:
Aha. Someone willing to learn.

You see, during the good old days of the regions (Western, Northern, Eastern, Mid-Western), each of the regions were semi-autonomous. And they paid taxes to the center which was quite weak. The leader of each region was a strong man. The center was weak. It worked well, until some adventurers thought it was best to annex the center and make it VERY strong using a decree called Decree 34. The idea of a strong center had earlier been mooted by a certain Nnamdi Azikiwe (who happens to be a cousin to the leader of the "failed" coup - a man called Ifeajuna). They always wanted such a strong center because they did not like the idea of being stuck in their regional civil service. They wanted to be able to go to other regions and work in that region's civil service.

Unfortunately, they gave the Northerners an idea of how to hold on to power; so here we are today.

kingzizzy:


There is no tribe in Nigeria called Anioma. Nzeogwu was 100% an Igbo man from Okpanam in present day Delta state although he was born grew up in Kaduna and could speak Hausa and Igbo fluently. It is unfortunate that the first coup was not bloodless but that is the nature of the game sometimes.

AnonyNymous:

Dude I'm not Ibo, I just read that in Chinua Achebe's book. So chill.

omooba969:


And the powerful center known as unitary system of government was first formed by an Igbo man, Aguiyi-Ironsi.

It was a recipe for disaster born out of greed & quest for power & control. It is clear that isn't working for our dear Nigeria hence our predicament.

Hmmmmm...this people sef!

MayorofLagos:
That morning, The New Nigerian newspaper wrote an unprecedentedly scathing editorial laying the blame for the region’s financial woes and lack of development on Sardauna inefficiencies and ineptitude and asked him to “put his house in order.” When Nzeogwu read the editorial, he went straight to the paper’s newsroom and demanded to see the writer. He was in his uniform and his eyes were red. No one knew him nor had seen his face before. The staff did not know what to make of his demand. The expatriate managing editor Charles Sharp then stepped forward. Nzeogwu shook his hands and said the content and tone of the editorial reflected their thinking in the army and they had resolved to put that house in order. The newsroom did not understand what he meant until the morning of the January 15. The paper was the first to publish for the world the picture of Sardauna’s house still smouldering in the flames of Nzeogwu.

Meanwhile, the premier of the Western Region, Samuel Ladoke Akintola received a tip from his NNDP ministers in the federal cabinet that after the Commonwealth special meeting, the Prime Minister planned to impose a state of emergency on the Western Region, drop him as an ally and appoint a federal caretaker just as he did in 1962. Market women staging protests against skyrocketing costs of foodstuffs, burnout cars, shot and charred corpses, politicians and civil servants’ houses set on fire, intellectuals’ houses emptied onto the street were weekly occurrences in the West. Ever since the rift between Awolowo the Action Group leader and Akintola his deputy, the Western Region that was an Africans-can-do-it model of governance and jaw-dropping development was turned into a landscape of sorrow, blood and tears. With fund from the public treasury and under the command of Fani-Kayode the deputy premier, Akintola’s well-armed hooligans held the upper hand while AG’s bully-boys sponsored by Dr Michael Okpara and the NCNC leadership were on the defensive. After the elections of 11 October 1965, Akintola used the state broadcasting services to announce false counts while the Okpara-sent Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Service team secretly camped in Awolowo’s house declared the correct results ward by ward. On the night of 15th October, when Akintola was to announce himself the winner, Wole Soyinka, with a generous assistance from his pistol, forced the Western Broadcasting Service to air his own subservice tape asking Akintola to resign and go. Akintola and his supporters went berserk. The police declared Soyinka wanted and he fled to Okpara in the East for temporary refuge until his arrest on 27th October 1965.

ouigy99:
blah blah

sunnyeinstein:


Oh pls! Chinua Achebe's book on the war is filled with distortions and ibo sentiments. Achebe is a sensationalist

seunmsg:
https://www.nairaland.com/3177965/mythbuster-version-coup-jan-15th

AnonyNymous, go through the above link and read about the role of Ifeajuna in the failed coup of January 15, 1966.

Okafor like other officers joined the Revolution because he wanted to free Nigeria from the corruption and indiscipline of politicians. But four weeks earlier, the Army Legal Officer, Chief Arthur Worrey found Okafor guilty of stealing his subordinates’ funds. The Federal Guards held a monthly raffle draw and social nights (Wassa). The proceeds from ticket sales and lucky dips were recorded in Army Book 64 and saved in the PRI (President of Regimental Institute) account. For months, false figures were recorded as Okafor was stealing this money and giving a fraction as hush money to the treasurer Corporal Magaji Birnin Kebbi, a NCO in his fifties. Unknown to Okafor, Magaji was recording actual figures in his private file. Later Magaji interceded on behalf of a friend and colleague Private Mamman Sokoto at the Motor Transport Section of the Federal Guards who had been overlooked for promotion for four years. Okafor did not honour his pledge to promote the man when the list of the promoted was published. When Magaji went back to Okafor in his office in November 1965, Okafor ordered him to be locked up as he a Major and the OC of the elite Federal Guards did not feel he was answerable to a mere corporal in matters of promotion. Magaji then spilled the secrets. Eventually Okafor was found guilty of stealing his soldiers’ funds. Lieutenant Tarfa who was one of Okafor’s junior officers at the Federal Guards served as Magaji’s interpreter before the panel of inquiry. For Magaji was an old illiterate soldier. Tarfa later wrote in his account that, Okafor was afraid of being severely punished that he appealed to Brigadier Maimalari to help. But then they never knew then that the main reason he was scared of punishment was that he would have been suspended and relieved of his command of the Federal Guards. That would have deprived him of both participating and making the resources of the Federal Guards available to their Revolution.

Maimalari, a Northerner intervened and cut tapes that let Okafor, an Easterner, off the hook. But Okafor had lost the total respect of most soldiers in the barracks for his action towards the elderly illiterate Northern corporal and for stealing their money. Had Maimalari allowed army procedures to properly take its due course, had he not allowed “kindness” to get in the way, that night of nights, he would not had been in a position where he had to be scaling his own high fence, hiding in shrubs, fleeing from the man whom he thought he had saved from punishment.

AnonyNymous:

I'm not in support of Biafra but it was this same misunderstanding that was among the reasons that led to the Nigerian civil war. Nzeogwu was an IBO by name only, he was born, and grew up in the North, Kaduna to be specific. He lived among northerners and was basically one of them.

logicab:
Aha. Someone willing to learn.

You see, during the good old days of the regions (Western, Northern, Eastern, Mid-Western), each of the regions were semi-autonomous. And they paid taxes to the center which was quite weak. The leader of each region was a strong man. The center was weak. It worked well, until some adventurers thought it was best to annex the center and make it VERY strong using a decree called Decree 34. The idea of a strong center had earlier been mooted by a certain Nnamdi Azikiwe (who happens to be a cousin to the leader of the "failed" coup - a man called Ifeajuna). They always wanted such a strong center because they did not like the idea of being stuck in their regional civil service. They wanted to be able to go to other regions and work in that region's civil service.

Unfortunately, they gave the Northerners an idea of how to hold on to power; so here we are today.

Oksman:

So whats the motive? it's has been like that in the military, they kill themselves during coup plot,
danjuma-ironsi, ifaeajuna-maimalari
murtala-bisala, babangida-vatsa, diya-abacha, col.ajayi-bamayi, a man who is desperate for power can do anything my friend, this is why the history of this country should be taught at school and not in NL to whip up sentiment.

Rednaxelot:

---

The same person that dinned and winned with the family during the day, went at night to kill the pillars of the family.

Little wonder he was killed and maimed after death.

What else can be a better definition of a traitor than Nzeogwu. Yet, his kinsmen will come here to call Yoruba people Traitors.

ofwest47:
Zik was said to have been aware of the coup so reason for his Caribbean cruise the one sided coup staged by the ( I Before Orders) which saw the brutal killings of Balewa the Prime minister, Sir Ahamadu Bello, Chief S L Akintola , Chief Okotieboh, General Ademulegun and many other Hausa and Yoruba big wigs without any IBO political bigwig being a victim of the one sided IBO staged coup and this is where we now find our selves today.

rosebowl01:


...but he knew the road to Enugu immediately the coup failed. These people can twist anything to favor them. It doesn't matter what's right or wrong.

SEYILIGHT:


I see, thanks.



I have another question sir, the position of Governor general, why was it ceremonial then?


Can you briefly tell me the roles of governor general in any government.

I'm very sorry for disturbing you with my questions sir.


May God bless you.

logica:
Yes, it's a military thing. But military people I'm familiar with are way too honorable to kill a pregnant woman. That's the difference. That should tell you the nature of these coup plotters; they were definitely not heroes nor patriots.

rosebowl01:


...but he knew the road to Enugu immediately the coup failed. These people can twist anything to favor them. It doesn't matter what's right or wrong.

logicab:
I really don't know. But I did a Google search and found this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_governors_and_governors-general_of_Nigeria

So it appears that role was abolished when Nigeria gained independence in 1960. Apparently the Governor General was the British representative heading the colonial protectorate. Since Zik was the last, that role must have become ceremonial and later referred to as "President" as opposed to "Prime Minister".

ofwest47:
Zik was said to have been aware of the coup so reason for his Caribbean cruise the one sided coup staged by the ( I Before Orders) which saw the brutal killings of Balewa the Prime minister, Sir Ahamadu Bello, Chief S L Akintola , Chief Okotieboh, General Ademulegun and many other Hausa and Yoruba big wigs without any IBO political bigwig being a victim of the one sided IBO staged coup and this is where we now find our selves today.

giles14:
rules of engagement my. p.rik,d killing of innocent women and children in iraq,afganstan,yemen,parkistan.etc is wot.

abeg make we hear word .
d coup plotters were wrong to have killed a pregnant woman.

but trying to praise the ever right Americans or the west is uncalled for.

mrkayusfit:
Omo ale ree oo

logicab:


Of course you would justify your senseless position but it means very little. This was the FIRST coup in Nigeria. So I don't understand the blah-blah you put up there to "explain" it. None of these soldiers had experienced coup before, or war. You may continue with believing what you will though; I know my history well enough.

Izy41:
Hmmm outcome of betrayal-difficulty in making friends,u turn workaholic,u spend time with kids,aggression grows,u turn taciturn & 2make it worse peeps cal u kid

ouigy99:


Please, if you have the time, watch this


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRuSS0iiFyo