Ojiofor:
January 15 1966 coup was the worst thing to happen to ndi Igbo and Nigeria in general.They set Nigeria towards the path of darkness and bloodshed.

gidgiddy:
There is hardly any country in Africa that did not have military coup in the 60's or 70's. In West Africa, every country went through military coup with the exception of Cameroon

Ghana had multiple coups, some of them bloody. But Ghana and most countries have moved from coups and it is now part of their history

What I find really funny is that despite Nigeria having gone through 7 different coups, it is only the first one that some mischief makers like to talk about.

The first coup is the only coup that has been given ethnic colouration. Nobody calls Murtala Mohammed's could a Hausa coup, nobody calls Buhari's coup a Fulani coup, nobody calls Babangida's coup a Gwari coup. Only the first coup was given an ethnic tag because Igbo officers were heavily involved

The first coup is a good indicator of why Nigeria should not be together. 55 years after that coup, people are still talking about it like it happened yesterday. Even those who went on to conduct multiple coups and killed far more people in the process, are still lamenting about that coup

DMerciful:
Nigeria was already drifting. If there was no mistrust hitherto, such a coup shouldn't change the trajectory of a country that was united before. Coup was common across African nations in those days.

Nigeria is like the tower of Babel, can never work!

aribisala0:
Not just the coup but the deceitful way that Aguiyi Ironsi managed the aftermath by failing to try his murderous brethren
And the triumphal behaviour of many Eboes mocking Nigerians with songs and cartoons

DMerciful:
Aguiyi Ironsi spent just 6 months. How come Gowon couldn't manage the country afterwards?

The West was too blind to see the game plan of the North using Igbo hate by the West as catalyst. Before 1966, the North with one region has 25% stake while the South with 3 regions had 75% stake.

Gowon created 12 states from the 4 regions with 6 states in the North and 6 states in the South thereby reducing the stake of the south to 50% and increasing that of the North to 50%. The West cheered on insofar the Igbos are being dealt with, they're fine.

Today the North has 19 states while the South has 17 states meaning the South that had 75% stake before the coup ended up the minority
stakeholder. Yet the West cheered on insofar the Igbos are marginalized, they're fine.

But the chicken will soon come home to roost!

DMerciful:
Aguiyi Ironsi spent just 6 months. How come Gowon couldn't manage the country afterwards?

The West was too blind to see the game plan of the North using Igbo hate by the West as catalyst. Before 1966, the North with one region has 25% stake while the South with 3 regions had 75% stake.

Gowon created 12 states from the 4 regions with 6 states in the North and 6 states in the South thereby reducing the stake of the south to 50% and increasing that of the North to 50%. The West cheered on insofar the Igbos are being dealt with, they're fine.

Today the North has 19 states while the South has 17 states meaning the South that had 75% stake before the coup ended up the minority
stakeholder. Yet the West cheered on insofar the Igbos are marginalized, they're fine.

But the chicken will soon come home to roost!

aribisala0:
Your analysis is wrong

The North did not have 25% stake. What do you mean by that?

How many legislators were there in Parliament in 1960?
How many were from the North?

Ojiofor:


Nigeria was drifting to where exactly?
Did the military intervention made the situation better or worse?That is the question.Nigeria would have done far better without that stupid coup.

Echile:
Chief Mbazulike Amechi, popularly known as ‘The boy is good’ was a first republic parliamentarian and first post Independence Minister of Aviation. He was a strong member of the defunct Zikist Movement and since the first bloody military coup on January 1966, which sacked the politicians, Amechi has been living in his community, Ukpor in Nnewi South local government area. He spoke on his experience:


ON the coup: On January 15, 1966, themy struck and turned the weapons which we issued to them to defend the country, on the government and the leaders that issued the weapons to them. In the process, they killed the Prime minister of the country; they killed the premier of the West; they killed the premier of the North. They were about to kill the premier of the East but what saved Dr Michael Okpara was that Archbishop Macarious, the president of Cyprus, was his guest that night and probably they wouldn’t want war between Cyprus and Nigeria.

On the other hand they could not kill Chief Dennis Osadebey because there was no Army in Benin at the time of the coup and so Osadebey managed to escape. They also killed Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Federal Minister of Finance. They also killed some members of their own group. For example, Brigadier Maimalari was innocently killed. My close friend, Colonel Arthur Unegbe was also killed. He was in charge of the Armoury and because he was reluctant to release the Armoury to them, they shot and killed him in his house. Since then, Nigeria has never been the same and Nigeria has never attained anything near the dreams of the founding fathers and nationalists and fought for independence of the nation.

Many people had the impression that the coup was tribal in nature in view of the way casualties were recorded.

I don’t know about that but I have told you the reason why Okpara could not be killed. I was going home myself. The first time the military entered the Midwest, I met them at Abudu because my wife had a baby at Charles Borromeo Hospital at Onitsha and that day they were to be discharged from hospital. So after the parliamentary session on 14th January, 1966, I drove from Lagos through Benin. I slept in Benin so that I could get to Onitsha in good time to be able to pick my wife and the baby. They were moving to Benin from Enugu or so. By then I didn’t know that something happened in the night because it was already morning. My car was carrying the NCNC and the Nigeria flag and at Abudu, one Army jeep swerved off the road and ran into our lane. My driver swerved into the field and the jeep came into the field also. An Army captain came out of the jeep and ordered his driver to move on.

I didn’t know a coup had taken place. I just took it that the soldiers could be drunk and could do anything. It was only when I got to Onitsha that my mother in-law told me that the Army had taken over government and killed the prime minister and others. She said the radio had been announcing it and that was how I knew that there was a coup. There and then, I told my driver to remove the flags on the car.

By then, the coup plotters had announced that Dr Nwafor Orizu, the acting president had been removed because the president, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, was abroad on medical trip. They said they were handing over the government to General Aguiyi Ironsi and were expecting a broadcast. So I rang my confidential secretary, one Mrs. Marinho to go to my house in Ikoyi to ask one Joe Obi to pack all my things, separating government property from my own and put my things in a lorry and send home. That was how I ended my ministerial appointment. By the third day of the coup, everything I had was at home here and I said thank God.

Well, the Army took over and they continued to blunder. They continued to do what they were trained to do; that is to destroy; to kill and to loot. Then the quarrel between two Lieutenant Colonels – Ojukwu and Yakubu Gowon – eventually led the country to a civil war. Ojukwu said he was senior to Gowon and that Gowon cannot be the head of state when he (Ojukwu) was a governor.

Killing of Igbo soldiers

Gowon said if you want to be head of state, come to Lagos so that soldiers could take order from you. The argument continued until it led to the killing of Igbos in the north and killing of Igbo soldiers all over the country, with one of them buried alive in Ibadan. The young man had insisted on not doing what they wanted and they threatened to kill him. He said he was prepared to die; after all it was only one bullet that could kill him. So they told him they were not going to waste a bullet on him and buried him alive after forcing him to dig his grave. He was a major in the Army. A lot of atrocities were committed then.

What do you think could be the reason for the coup?

I wouldn’t say I knew the intention of the boys who took over government because Ademulegun and other Yoruba officers never admitted that it was an Igbo coup. It only happened that there were more Igbo officers involved in the coup because there were so many Igbo officers in the army at that time.

DMerciful:
If not that coup, there would be another, it's inevitable. We are not meant to be one, we hate each other.

There has been killings of Easterners living in the North in the 40s and 50s. I wonder why our founding fathers thought it wise to look over our hatred and distrust for each other to forge a single country when we could have gotten 3 countries at independence

ViperAda:
What do you expect from an ibo man, same ol same deflection.
7 ibo majors were the architects of the coup , Ademoyega was deceived to tag along, he had no role or command of any subordinates.

-Viper

DMerciful:
If not that coup, there would be another, it's inevitable. We are not meant to be one, we hate each other.

There has been killings of Easterners living in the North in the 40s and 50s. I wonder why our founding fathers thought it wise to look over our hatred and distrust for each other to forge a single country when we could have gotten 3 countries at independence

T9ksy:



Your founding fathers were so fixated on the prospect of dominating the potential country that will ensue hence they were willing to sacrifice a few of their kith and kins for a greater majority.

Ojiofor:


So what did the coup achieved?
Why are you trying to justify a failed careless and reckless adventure of some young naive and irresponsible soldiers who went on killing spree that led to subsequent counter coups and civil war that handed Nigeria over to corrupt ill educated Northern soldiers?You are talking as if Nigeria was a creation of native people of geographical space called Nigeria.Nigeria was created by Britain for their own interest and the so called regions was also created by them.

aribisala0:
Your analysis is wrong

The North did not have 25% stake. What do you mean by that?

How many legislators were there in Parliament in 1960?
How many were from the North?

DMerciful:
If they were voting or taking any decision by region, North had only one region while South had three so South had the upper hand.
North through her military leaders moved the power from South to North while the Yorubas cheered on insofar Igbos were being dealt with, they were fine

aribisala0:
The North have only succeeded in doing what everyone believes the Eboes were trying to do in 1966

DMerciful:
If they were voting or taking any decision by region, North had only one region while South had three so South had the upper hand.
North through her military leaders moved the power from South to North while the Yorubas cheered on insofar Igbos were being dealt with, they were fine

DMerciful:
Like I said insofar Yorubas feel Igbos are being dealt with, they're fine even if the North buries the country!

aribisala0:

You are excellent at projection your foibles on to other people
https://www.nairaland.com/745731/yoruba-marginalization-elders-met-jonathan
Have a revision of this.


Whenever things favor you it is merit when it is others it is nepotism

You generally never see good in other folk and are seen as toxic

DMerciful:
Like I said insofar Yorubas feel Igbos are being dealt with, they're fine even if the North buries the country!

Igbos dominated Nigeria in the 50s and 60s because they're the most hardworking. This is why today, inspite of coming out of a civil war they lost, they're doing better economically than the other tribes.

Same way heat hardens the egg and softens the potato, Igbos are made of intrinsic survival instincts.

Nnamdi Kanu is hated for talking about Biafra restoration and you wonder why the people who hates the Igbos hate to see them go.

Imagine Nigeria fought Biafrans for 3yrs to ensure they remain in Nigeria only to start hating and marginalizing them

aribisala0:



I forgive you because you are young and ignorant
The 1953 census resulted in the following seat allocation
North 174
East 73
West 65
At the National Assembly
There was no such forum for "voting or taking decision by region". That is just your imagination.
The Parliament was supreme
Let me educate you a bit about the parliamentary system
Every person contested election in his or her constituency ad was elected as a legislator. This included Zik Awolowo Balewa Bello who were all leaders of their parties They ALL WON LOCAL elections wherever they came from and it was an indirect system of governance( just like delegates at political party primaries)
They won election individually where they came from not nationally
After elections in the parliamentary system the government is formed by the party with overall majority. If no party has majority two or more can do a deal to form the government.

Bello had 148
Zik had 89
Awo had 79
Zik and Awo could have formed the government if they could do a deal. They could not and Zik went with Bello. They formed the government and Bello sent his protege , Balewa to Lagos to head the government but Bello had control over the party and chose to stay in Kaduna as Regional Premier not wanting to go to Lagos.
It was an INDIRECT SYSTEM OF GOVERMENT.

Most if not all Minsters were first elected as members of the Parliament as was the Prime Minster

Those numbers above for Zik were not all from the East . His party NCNC was very strong in what is now the Plateau Area and Northern Cameroon which was allowed to secede. Whilst some southern minorities went with NPC in the federal parliament

So your assumptions about how decisions were made is wrong also the history is wrong
Zik took a strategic decision to align with the North rather than the West .Accept responsibility and concede that right to others
# Shortly afterwards Awolowo was thrown in jail. Put yourself in the shoes of the West from that history. Why should we trust you or want to have anything to do with you in politics?

DMerciful:
You and I know that the GEJ govt tried to make Mulikat speaker but Tinubu ACN voted against her to have propaganda to use against GEJ that Yorubas were not represented in his govt.
These are facts!

aribisala0:
Yes
Mulikat

But that was not the point

Your claim about Yorubas being cool with Ibo marginalization .That is the point

I am sure you can recall all what your brothers had to say and likely contributed with your various monikers that is the point

That you go aroun accusing people of what you are most guilty of

Mulikat

aribisala0:


Just imagine the kind of things a presumably sensible person would say?

"Ibos are the most hardworking"

You always project the emotional intelligence of an 8 year old >

You are totally oblivious to the consequences of that kind of speech and how that is at the core of your difficulty wherever you are

Most hardworking indeed

When you talk like that there will be consequences that s common sense which is uncommon among you

DMerciful:
Awolowo being thrown in jail was instigated by Akintola and a possible treason he allegedly committed.

So why do you think the North has 19 states today and South 17? Is the 19 states beneficial to the North politically or not?

DMerciful:
It is what it is.

It's understandable if you don't like Igbos because they say it as it is but truth is always bitter.

If Nigeria should to go merit base and scrap quota system, Igbos would dominate all sectors of the economy!

aribisala0:
Change of subject
at independence your ancestors agreed to an arrangement where the North had 174 to 138 seats at the federal Parliament.
Which is a higher ratio than 19/17


however the north were able to do this 19/17 because they dominated the military

So ultimately they have achieved through the military what we believe Eboes were trying to achieve through that first coup

aribisala0:
You are free to say what you like and people are free to react how they like

Stop whining like bitches about like hate and all that crap.

Nigeria is a tough neighbourhood so spare us the whining.
You are the smartest and most hardworking being dominated by lazy dumbos is that not funny

DMerciful:
That first coup was like 56yrs ago and we still talk about it like there hasn't been other coup in Nigeria.

My question to you is why are you mad when Igbos say they want out of Nigeria? You don't like them, they don't like you so there should be mutual willingness to separate

DMerciful:
The North are not dominating and they know it. Dominating is not about few people in power while the majority are in poverty and living under extreme insecurity