ola olabiy:

Are you trying to defend Ironsi?A man who was solely responsible for the marginalisation of the Igbos today. You had a unique opportunity in Nigeria before the coup. He blew it all and you lost your privileged position.
Sorry, man.

He was so silly.

cap28:

can you explain how Ironsi was solely responsible for the marginalisation of Igbos?

ola olabiy:

Was he not part of the coup? He headed the government of usurpers, innit?

And, there was a counter coup as a result of the usurpation, innit?

And the civil war.


And Igbos lost everything . . . . . this includes trust as sensitive positions have since eluded them.

His actions or inactions started it all.

afam4eva:

Why do people always make the mistake of thing that Aguiyi ironsi was part of the 66 coup. The coup was not carried out by him but he was called upon to take charge of the country.

Mobinga:

Ironsi wan't part of the coup.

afam4eva:

Why do people always make the mistake of thing that Aguiyi ironsi was part of the 66 coup. The coup was not carried out by him but he was called upon to take charge of the country.

@ Bolded, Yeah right!!! By whom? with fully armed rambo-looking soldiers in attendance!
Of course, he was begged to take charge

Claus:

Everyone should try to get their hands on the book "Why We Struck". It was written by Ademola Ademoyega. He was a Major, a friend to both Ifeajuna and Nzeogwu, and one of the key players in the Jan 1966 coup.

It should clear up a lot of the arguments that have been going on in this forum.

For example, it is clear from the book that Aguiyi Ironsi was not a part of their coup. In their coup, they planned to "neutralise" various policians and senior army officers. This was on the basis of them wanting to eliminate those military men that could be a threat to the coup. This is the first time I'm hearing about them trying to prevent messages from being delivered (of what use would a delivered message be once the coup had been carried out).

Ironsi himself was marked down for elimination, but Ifeajuna failed (some say deliberately) in this task. Other officers that claimed to have escaped the coup include David Ejoor and Yakubu Gowon. In fact Gowon himself later rallied some troops to help crush the coup. The tribal appearance of the coup was coincidental.

Other officers that were left alone, on the basis that the coup plotters did not feel that they would be a threat once the coup started gaining success include Victor Banjo and Adekunle Fajuyi.

One of the things about the events of those years is that it's quite difficult to get a good picture without reading many different sources. I have managed to read about 4 books on the coups and civil war, but still feel like there are so many bits missing.

I like these discussions though as it's always amazed me that a big piece of our history just goes undiscussed.

abubello:

Posers
1) who was the first coup plotter in Nigeria?
2) Who introduced Unitary system of govt to Nigeria?
3) Why Kill all prominment non igbo political and military officials and spare the igbos (orizu, okpara, osadebey, ironsi) was that a coincidence?

ola olabiy:

OK. Fine. But he was the main beneficiary. And, he was Igbo. And the plotters were Igbo too. 1+1=?

It was tribal, simple.

ola olabiy:

Are you trying to defend Ironsi?A man who was solely responsible for the marginalisation of the Igbos today. You had a unique opportunity in Nigeria before the coup. He blew it all and you lost your privileged position.
Sorry, man.

He was so silly.

moonraker:

I knw that this has nothing to do with the topic but can you

see the level of the english language used back in the day??

Now compare that and what you we have in our present society

Mehn, e don ter, Nigeria died a long time ago

Dede1:

I have not yet cultivated the culture of defending Aguiyi Ironsi in any way or form. Of course, Ironsi was silly in more ways than one but Unitary System of government
definitely not one of them. My attempt was to stand fact on its feet. People keep throwing the Unitary System phrase recklessly in their write-ups without drawing parallel understanding to other system of government.

Today’s Nigeria is Unitary System as it was since 1960. [/b]There has never been a true federalism in Nigeria where regions or even states have their police force, control of municipal airports and control of resources from the state or region. Some loonies have even ascribed that Ironsi killed true federalism in Nigeria. How can Ironsi kill what actually did not exist?

Unitary system is government where the central government is supreme and delegates certain powers to regional or state government.[b] In today’s Nigeria if any State Governor attempts to politically disagree with the President, the governor’s state with be slammed with state of emergency.

Again, some of the political national landmarks changed by the decree enacted by Ironsi includded the abolition  of Local Government Authority, which was a bastion of nepotism through the Emirs and unification of civil service code, the same code Nigeria uses today.  

~Bluetooth:

Was it also part of their plan to make Awolowo the president ? If yes,why did Aguiyi installed himself.if no,why did Aguiyi not prosecute the coup plotters if truly he wasn't aware or an accomplice to the coup ?

Claus:

I'm not sure Ademoyega mmentioned in his book that they wanted to install Awolowo (apologies, it's been a while since I read the book), but I remember reading it somewhere else. To my recollection, none of the coup plotters explicitly confirmed this.

Aguiyi Ironsi did not install himself per se. He was able to rally troops to crush the coup. Once the dust had settled, there was still a core number of politicians from the ruling party that could have formed a government. However, in a couple of books that I read about Col Victor Banjo, it seems he, along with some other senior officers were in favour of the military taking over. Naturally the leadership went to Ironsi as the most senior military officer at the time, and incidentally also the chief coup crusher.

It's quite baffling as to why Ironsi didn't swiftly prosecute and punish the coup plotters. Perhaps he too was aware of his illegal move (as I mentioned before, once the coup had been crushed, there was still a core number of politicians who could have legally taken over the reins of government). Therefore, what Ironsi and his senior military officers did by taking over could in itself be termed a coup. They may, however, have claimed that they did it for security reasons.

Officially, the Jan 16 coup plotters were in jail and awaiting trial for the entire duration of Ironsi's regime.

Dede1:

I have not yet cultivated the culture of defending Aguiyi Ironsi in any way or form. Of course, Ironsi was silly in more ways than one but Unitary System of government
definitely not one of them. My attempt was to stand fact on its feet. People keep throwing the Unitary System phrase recklessly in their write-ups without drawing parallel understanding to other system of government.

Today’s Nigeria is Unitary System as it was since 1960. There has never been a true federalism in Nigeria where regions or even states have their police force, control of municipal airports and control of resources from the state or region. Some loonies have even ascribed that Ironsi killed true federalism in Nigeria. How can Ironsi kill what actually did not exist?
Unitary system is government where the central government is supreme and delegates certain powers to regional or state government. In today’s Nigeria if any State Governor attempts to politically disagree with the President, the governor’s state with be slammed with state of emergency.

Again, some of the political national landmarks changed by the decree enacted by Ironsi includded the abolition of Local Government Authority, which was a bastion of nepotism through the Emirs and unification of civil service code, the same code Nigeria uses today.

Claus:


Officially, the Jan 16 coup plotters were in jail and awaiting trial for the entire duration of Ironsi's regime.

ola olabiy:

Imagine the bolded. For 7 months?
And Aguiyi was innocent?

Katsumoto:

It was a coup. The Ifeajuna coup was crushed and there were people who could have taken over but were prevented from doing so by Ironsi. It is not clear the role other officers played in this regard.

Katsumoto:

It was a coup. The Ifeajuna coup was crushed and there were people who could have taken over but were prevented from doing so by Ironsi. It is not clear the role other officers played in this regard.

EzeUche_:

That is not even that long. Yes, Aguiyi was innocent. People have told you time and time again. He had no knowledge of the plot. Just look at the man in the video and tell me you think he knew what was happening around him. The people who killed that innocent man should pay. MANY STILL LIVE AMONG US.

ola olabiy:

^^^Ok oo.
But did you see this :
?

afam4eva:

The one that was smoking a cigar, He just spoke his mind. He was actually in support of the coup.

Katsumoto:

No one is stating that Nigeria practiced complete federalism; what they are stating is that there was a federal structure which was abrogated by Decree 34, implemented by Ironsi. Plain and simple, there was no unitary system before Ironsi. Gowon implemented decree 8, which was rejected by Ojukwu. To check Ojukwu, Gowon created more states. State creation is not antithetic to federalism.


Also, the state governors who implemented Sharia and went against the constitution and president did not have state of emergency imposed on their states.