KilluminatiX87:

Tell us why Ahmadu Bello was killed.

he died because he was spearheading bloodshed, pogroms, disunity and destroying the unity of Nigeria. . now its unfortunate he met his death in such circumstances but I don't think he's worthy to ever be included in our heroes past. He brought more destruction 5o the union as well as he was a partisan politician and protected his people's interest( northern) definitely not nigerian's ..

kingzizzy:


Because Maimalari was more qualified. Maimalari was amongst the first Nigerians to attend Sandhurst military Academy and became a full fledged combatant Army officer. But people like Shodeinde and Bassey were just recruits were given short officers training and commissioned into the Army. As can be seen in this picture, Maimalari is the same rank as David Ejoor but it was Maimalari who interviewed Ejoor when Ejoor was about to enter the Army. Sometimes, promotion in the Army is about how qualified you are not when you joined. If you don't do the necessary courses, others can leapfrog over you and become your senior. In terms of seniority, it was even Major Bassey who was the most senior being the first commissioned Nigerian officer with the Army number (N1).

Major Wellington Bassey (N1)
Major Aguiyi Ironsi (N2)
Major Ademulegun (N3)
Captain Nwawo (N10)
Captain David Ejoor(N17)

Interesting!

I quite understand the logic of uneven progress of former peers in an organization based on their respective performance.
So Ademulegun was commissioned before even Ogundipe who was his senior behind Ironsi?

Whatever happened to Bassey as he was nowhere in the army hierarchy during the period of the 1966 mutinies?

StOla:


Interesting!

I quite understand the logic of uneven progress of former peers in an organization based on their respective performance.
So Ademulegun was commissioned before even Ogundipe who was his senior behind Ironsi?

Whatever happened to Bassey as he was nowhere in the army hierarchy during the period of the 1966 mutinies?

Yeah Ademulegun was the third person to be commissioned after Bassey and Ironsi and he holds the Army number (N3) for this. I think that Ogundipe was (N4) while Shodeinde was (N5). All of them were commissioned in the 1940's while others like Maimalari, Adebayor and Effiong were commssioed in the early 50's. However, Ogundipe left the Army to go and do other things but was recalled after indepedence due to acute shortage of officers after the British left.

Unfortunately for Bassey, despite being the first Nigerian to be commissioned as an officer, he never moved above the rank of a colonel. There was this talk that he was a coward who didn't like military confrontation. So while the likes of Ironsi were going to the Congo to fight, he shied away. When the Nzeogwu coup took place, Bassey dressed up as Fulani herdsman and escaped Lagos until the dust settled. He was then appointed commanding officer Kaduna military cantonment. When Bassey got wind of the second counter coup, he hurriedly took his statutory leave, handed over to Effiong, jumped into his car and sped off to his hometown of Calabar. Within a few days of Gowon taking over, he retired both Ogundipe and Bassey.

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