₦airaland Forum

Akin-Egba:
Wole Shadare  Or is it a case of politics where every state must have an airport, not based on commercial considerations but for the simple fact that we just need an airport?

Very soon, Oyo and Osun, Delta, Imo states will pressurise the government to upgrade the airports to international status just because they have a Minister of Aviation who is from that area.

Rubbish. This guy is a dunce. The commercial considerations were clearly stated by a minister of aviation from the southeast region in his very own article. If the shoe were on the other foot he wouldn't be spewing this nonsense. I doubt very much if Middlebelters or other minorities are up in arms for airports, as I certainly am not myself, and I don't see the point of every major city having an airport until Nigeria is actually developed or semi-developed and can handle the costs.

Further good news. Been following this guy's work and I'm glad to see the potential in it has been recognized.

@threadstarter, this was an incredibly silly thread title and it completely derailed the thread,

Ifygurl:
Stick to one account abeg.

Are you sure you even know naija people. Out of all the list of tribe you provided, Ibibio are the only ones with lightskin people. Though i like some ijaw people but lightskin, you dey crazy? And where is Fulani? Edo? hell i know you hate igbo people but abeg, stick to the truth.

I don't think Ijaws tend to be lightskinned, but if you don't know anything about other groups outside of those you've interacted with don't make stuff up. You don't seem to "know naija people" either because many Ishan are in fact light skinned. The poster never said "Edo," he/she said Esan, Etsako, and Owan, not Edo.

I am also Edo and I had a similar experience. But I was able, with some assistance from family and friends, to relearn my culture, which also made me more interested in affairs in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

Here are some links that should be of some assistance though;


http://www.edofolks.com/

http://www.edo-nation.net/

http://www.edoworld.net/


Hope you see this.

ezeagu:
https://www.jemolo.com/alta/imgni43.jpg

This is actually a Jebba bronze, from the Nupes. That fellow is a Nupe archer, not an Edo. It's pretty amazing, in my opinion. Nigeria has a pretty great artistic heritage all around.

komando7:
@ physics
You think some of us can't read through subterranian tribalistic messages. Think again bro. Your obssession with Igbo envy may have made it a subconcious part of your worldview, hence your last statement. The Gish award is good news. Chikena!

Don't be daft. I've seen enough of your back-and-forths on here with actual tribalists to know your mind doesn't go much further than this whole attack-and-defend mentality, but neither you nor anyone could point to any so-called "Igbo envy" in any post in this thread. My clear statement of the fact that the Gish award is benefiting more from having an icon like Achebe associated with the prize than he is benefiting by getting it must have gone over your head, or you don't even know the meaning of the word envy. I'm done. I wont even respond to you any further.

@ Andre Uweh, nobody thinks that he wants the Nobel prize as he has never said anything to that effect, rather it is the case that many people want him to win it, as he is widely considered the best African writer and one of greatest living writers of our time, just google "Achebe Nobel" and you'll see what I mean.

This is really a ridiculous comparison. You say they were fed, but prior to the British conquest and amalgamation were any of these "South-South" groups starving? Was the groundnut in the north and elsewhere allowing those who produced it to live at some higher level of development? Were these "South-South" people "dependent" on northern farmers prior to the creation of the Nigerian state? Is this claim of East and West being dependent on groundnut  and other Northern resource proceeds but the North not being dependent on proceeds from other parts of the country really to be believed in light of the crushing poverty widespread among much of the North? Was the palm oil trade that British traders were trying to control, and even crushed Benin to have unhindered access to, worth nothing?
I would very much like to see the specific figures and claims that have supposedly been compiled because what this man is saying sounds like fiction. As for the oil thing, your statement is not really correct,

https://mondediplo.com/IMG/arton2015.jpg


As you can see, not only is there much oil in Southern Nigeria (that only shows some of the stuff being explored, not all of the oil) on land, but the oil offshore could not possibly fall under any region but the region closest to it if that region were to secede. And there is probably oil all over Southern Nigeria on land, the stuff being exploited is just in one specific area though, so that area is for the time being the goose that lays the black gold.

komando7:
@ akin egba. This is good news. @ the other two envious tribalists: go hug transformers will you?

? Can you read, where did you see even one tribalistic comment in this thread? Or is that your instinctive reaction to every thread now? Stop obsessing over actual tribalistic threads and comments and you won't imagine tribalism everywhere.

ziddy:
Forget the gash prize or whatever. the west should give him the Nobel NOW that he's still alive and eligible.
The GASH gains a lot more from Achebe's pedigree than he gains from the prize, cash and all!

That's not likely to happen, really, if they meant to they would have already instead of many of the comparative lightweights they've been giving it to for a while now. Although in pure literary talent he is far more deserving than people like Elfriede Jelinek, Dario Fo, Naguib Mahfouz, Derek Walcott, and MANY of the Swedish winners, his habit of confronting the west doesn't endear him to a western based prize.

Take for example his criticism of Joseph Conrad's racism, or his statement when asked why he hasn't won it that "My position is that the Nobel Prize is important. But it is a European prize. It's not an African prize"


There is his implicit anti-Western stance:

Read the bolded

The complete review's Review (from http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/achebec/consca.htm):

      Conversations with Chinua Achebe collects, in chronological order, interviews with Chinua Achebe from nearly four decades. Editor Bernth Lindfors does an admirable job of avoiding too much overlap, and so the same questions are not found over and over and the collection does constantly offer new and different perspectives.
      The last interview (from 1995) actually is among the more useful, in providing some of Achebe's personal and family background in more detail than found elsewhere, but the sum of the interviews does offer a good, fairly rounded picture of Achebe as both man and writer.
      There are major omissions: only one interview really discusses the important magazine founded and headed by Achebe, Okike, for example. In addition, Achebe was editor of the ground-breaking Heinemann African Writers Series between 1962 and 1972 and there is almost no discussion of what his duties involved or to what extent he was able to shape that particular list -- something many readers likely would be very interested in.
      Jumping across the years, most of the major books are discussed in some depth in at least one interview -- though often (his children's books, his poetry, and especially his attempts at drama) too little is made of them and too little is said about them.
      There is some sense of Achebe's progression as a writer, and especially the difficulty he had in re-situating himself (especially as a fiction-writer) after the catastrophic Biafran war. He also emerges as the enthusiastic teacher he is, a true literary leader convinced of the significance of this art and trying to convince others of it.
      Throughout there are interesting insights and observations, from simple matters of craft to larger political issues.
      Some observations are not completely new or surprising, yet nevertheless carry additional weight coming from Achebe:

         This is why I do not paint white characters that are complete blackguards, because I don't think that is necessary for them to do the harm that they did. They were decent people with families, and that is the worst kind of danger: when it comes from a decent man. It does not really excite me that a monster causes trouble. When an ordinary man causes havoc, that is more ominous.

      The question of writing in English (or other colonial tongues) or native languages is broached several times. Of particular interest here is Achebe's recognition that writing for the stage requires "a different convention from the novel", and that part of its immediacy and its "direct, almost participatory form" requires that the characters speak in the language they would speak in real life (whereas in a novel "you accept the whole thing is make-believe" in a different way, filtering it already through the printed words on the page). Interestingly, Achebe mentions wanting to write a play (in Igbo) several times, but he apparently never did so (but unfortunately the reader is never told where or why he failed in this undertaking).
      As he writes in numerous of his essays (see, for example Morning Yet on Creation Day (and our review)), Achebe also recognizes the importance of the critic in maintaining a literary culture and fostering literary debate, and he often laments the lack of a widespread critical culture in Africa:

          I do think what you need is a fair number of indigenous critics who are on the ball because they see literature as a serious matter (our people do not take it seriously enough; I think we are too complacent). (, ) And yet there is not enough dedication and diligence among our own critics. I'm looking forward to a change in this for it is absolutely important. If literature is important, then criticism of literature is also important, and we should get more and more people who are ready to read the books.

      By 1987 he also laments about the general state of even just the possibility of literary appreciation in Nigeria:

   Students in Nigeria are having more and more trouble simply being literate, being able to read extensively. To many students, coming to the university, reading a novel is a huge chore. To plow through a novel is intimidating to many of them. (, ) So you have to coax them into literature.

      At least Achebe is a towering figure who can make literature appear approachable -- if anyone can coax, then surely it is him (though for a long time now he has been teaching in the US and not in Africa). It is sad that despite successful authors (and forceful figures) such as Achebe and despite a relatively rich recent literary tradition, literary culture has not been able to establish itself more firmly in Nigeria.
      Achebe does discuss a few other authors and influences, but the drawback of the interview-form is that it does not lend itself to more in-depth examination of many of these interesting questions. Still, Christopher Okigbo is a prominent presence, and there are some interesting comments about authors such as Ayi Kwei Armah and V.S.Naipaul -- such as:

   I do admire Mr. Naipaul, but I am rather sorry for him. He is too distant from a viable moral centre; he withholds his humanity; he seems to place himself under a self-denying ordinance, as it were, suppressing his genuine compassion for humanity. His style is all too perfect, steel-bright, metallic, and so forth.

      A few years later the judgement is more succinct: Naipaul's is "the case of a brilliant writer who sold himself to the West." Interestingly, Achebe presciently adds (this in 1985): "And one day he'll be 'rewarded' with maybe a Nobel Prize or something."

      In these Conversations with Chinua Achebe one wishes for more: more about his personal life, more about who and what he reads (and what he thinks about them), more about his creative turn after the Biafran war, -- and much more. Still, the conversations collected here do provide a good deal of information and some valuable new insight (especially into Achebe's novels). Given the absence of any true autobiography (or biography) this collection does help fill a void, and is surely of interest to those familiar with Achebe and his work. (Those who haven't read any of Achebe's fiction will find it of considerably less interest.)






His honesty might have done him in. But no real man would sacrifice their integrity and their honesty and straightforwardness in the hopes of winning some prize. Anyways, he's already immortal, so he doesn't need to worry about recognition.

Really though they should give it to him, whatever misgivings they might have about his supposed antagonism to the west. If Doris Lessing can win it for an overrated "classic" like The Golden Notebook, Achebe should win it for Things Fall Apart alone.


If Wole Soyinka can win it for The Man Died, Death and the King's Horseman, and some of his other plays, Achebe should certainly win it for the standouts in his collected opus.

Ileke-IdI:
That's not what he's saying.
He's telling America to not point fingers when their own status of corruption is rotten. It's just well hidden.

Huh? Did you read what I wrote? The first four words I wrote clearly allude to that. He is more or less ignoring the fact of Nigeria being the most corrupt country in the world (supposedly only number 3 or 4 today though) to condemn others' corruption. Anyways, there hasn't really been a point where Nigerian corruption could in any way, shape, or form, be compared to the degree of American corruption since the administration of Ulysses Grant, so his argument was still a diversion. He probably was expecting the kind of attack/confrontation the journalist gave him though and just dying for an opportunity to insult America, for obvious reasons.

Congratulations to Achebe. Very much deserved.


However I wonder if people know that awarding the prize to someone of Achebe's stature actually does more to increase the prestige of the prize than anything else, Granted, all of the previous winners are distinguished and accomplished and some, like Bob Dylan, Frank Gehry, Ingmar Bergmann, Arthur Miller, and Isabel Allende, are household names in some parts, but the truth is of all the previous winners only Bergmann and maybe to a lesser extent, Miller, Gehry and Allende, are people whose works might be studied a hundred years from now as Achebe's certainly will be.

Lol, a "national hero"? The flag is pretty simple and straightforward, some would say even little mundane (although I kind of like it), hardly evidence of heroism,

lol@ Beaf's propaganda,

Condemning other people's corruption doesn't change Nigeria's corruption, but the journalist deliberately provoked him with that question, knowing who he is and what his views are, possibly for better TV,

Bad idea, really. Pidgin is really only a practical language and is not capable of expressing the same range of sentiments as standard english, and is not able to express what it can artistically or beautifully. Also, it is very far from appropriate for many formal events (imagine doing wedding vows in pidgin or a pastor speaking pidgin at a funeral). So if it were made a language, it would be spoken even more than it already is, or even worse, taught, resulting in a lower quality of literature, and more simplistic phrasing, but worst of all, a weaker ability to manipulate and express oneself beautifully or creatively or intellectually in the standard language. Remember that most people think in their first language. If a child's first language is pidgin, how great of a writer, poet, orator (think of Obama, not dead Roman senators), etc. could he really be? In addition, many Nigerians that already make lots of simple grammatical mistakes would make even more.


Just my opinion.

I don't think Obasanjo planned anything.

Although Yar-Adua hadn't done anything as a governor except save a little money, he still was an educated man, with a respected and influential last name, and a clean corruption record. He was just a good Northern PDP establishment member choice.

People are giving him too much credit. Anyways, Obasanjo has been a Northern stooge since 1967 but his declaration of support for Jonathan is more in line with wanting to see the people he planted in the executive office succeed over people with no connections to him than some explicit pro-Southern agenda.

Idiagbon doesn't look Fulani, but he is from Illorin so he certainly could be. If he were Hausa-Fulani, maybe the Hausa in him predominates. I guess we'll never really know.

wales:
and my mind went back to when Muhammed Ali fought against the martial artist in New York, and the martial artist just kicked the back of his legs until it broke the tissues in his calves and he submitted.

lol, when was this?

Good move.

Very interesting pictures. How often will they hold events there? Also, the first link you posted is not working.

MR Money £:
[b]By Ochereomen Nnanna


If they succeed, their supporters in the South will be heartened and emboldened. But it is not an easy task.

What supporters?

Over the weekend, a group of Arewa youth coalitions met and issued a threat that they would assert their claim to the presidency “with the last drop of their blood”.

Nonsense. Who will they fight?

It is a pity, though, that the race for the next president of Nigeria is turning into this zero-sum game. Whoever wins the election has a lot of work to do in re-uniting the sectional and ethnic fissures that have developed.

The ethnic fissures have been there for a while now.

Good article though.

REALITY101:
Bro isn't that too far?

They've already gone this far. They did it almost as soon as he was elected. Using the bible for negative politics is the next logical step in the American right-wing playbook after accusing somebody of being a communist.

Actually, they've already gone much further. Read about the tea party protest signs. They had some signs comparing him to Hitler.

What is a "High" Chief? High Chief of what? He's just a regular everyday street corner/ market "chief," one of many that are in excess in Nigeria.

Strong poem.

lol, MKO Abiola was hideous and villainous looking, his face betrays his corruption, this guy wouldn't have changed anything, although he still should not have been treated like that,

They're "mixed" though. Not "pure" Yoruba. They have other genes and other influences. They're a different group.

shakara4u:
dont call JS TARKAR, ask any Benue(tiv) to tell you whats Party u atem tyo, ?

?

Katsumoto:
This is pure conjecture on your part; you were not in the minds of the plotters and attempting to rationalise their actions is simply ludicrous. I am dealing with the facts that are presented.
1. Igbo officers killed non-igbo military and political citizens
2. Zik was holidaying in the caribbean even though Nigeria was hosting the Commonwealth prime minister's conference for the first time
3. Ifeajuna and Okafor made their way to Enugu to see Okpara right after killing Balewa
4. Nwafor Orizu did not want to swear in Dipcharima after Dipcharima was selected by NPC members instead prefering to hand over to iRONSI
5. The coup was executed one year after the consitutional crisis of 1965 in which Zik was told the limitations of his power by the service chiefs
6. The NNDP/NPC coalition reduced Igbo representation in the civil service, ministerial appointments, etc

Please present facts and then build your argument on that rather than some fairy tale perspective in which you seem to justify the actions of the plotters for no reason. BTW Ifeajuna was the leader of that coup and Nzeogwu and Ademoyega were recruited just a couple of months before the execution.


I am still waiting for an answer to my question, 'why did Ifeajuna go and see Okpara after the coup failed'? Do not attempt to present conjecture without dealing with this fact.

1. They also killed Unegbe. And it would certainly have served Igbo purposes better to have Ademoyega or any other supposed "fall guy" kill some Igbo or non-Igbo military and political citizens if it were for their secret objective of Igbo supremacy, but they didn't even bother with this. They just chose those that they perceived as the best for the job, rather than a strategy that could have taken into account how their coup would be perceived if the Igbo targets failed to be eliminated, or which directed attention even a little bit away from the fact that Igbos were killing non-Igbos (like if they had assigned Ademoyega to kill someone). This shows they were straightforward and honest, even if they were brutal.
2. If Zik was tipped off about the coup, then Zik was tipped off. I won't even get into that because nobody really knows, but assuming he was tipped off, it doesn't matter because they never set out to kill him. Even that government investigation supports that that wasn't in their original plan. Anyways, the prime minister (Balewa) was warned about a possible coup (though with no specifics) beforehand but with little information to act on nothing was done (according to de St. Jorre's book), so why couldn't Zik have been similarly informed and made a smart choice? There's no conspiracy in choosing to possibly avoid chaos.
3. I don't see how they would have killed Okpara even though the most ruthless among them (Nzeogwu, for example) might have had no problem with just a clean slate and a complete wipe out of all first republic politicians. They might have said they were going to but only Nzeogwu might have killed him. Okpara's opposition to the census distortion and to the handling of the crisis in the western region would have put him ideologically on the coupists' side. Their possible reason for sparing him therefore was not ethnic, but political. I simply don't believe a former medical doctor (an educated man) would risk his successful governance of his region to go and get involved in a military conspiracy to murder his political adversaries that might not necessarily have been successful and would transfer power of governance away from him and to the military. Okpara simply had no motivation to conspire and nothing to gain from it.
4. I have never defended this and I actually thought it was rather dumb not to abandon protocol given the extraordinary circumstances and just let the NPC have whatever candidate they wanted as Prime minister. The obliviousness really does surprise me. This was just one of a series of massive blunders in things relating to Ironsi though.
5. I don't think Zik was the diabolical mastermind here, he just seems too refined to resort to a naive and violent pseudo intellectual like Nzeogwu as the arbiter of his fate and the decider of his future. I don't think it was his supporters either for the same reason. Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna, and the others were their own men with their own minds, not agents of Zik, and clearly with greater goals than the installation of him as prime minister. But this and the other points you make are not evidence of any kinds, they are less than conjecture- they are merely a strategic placement of insinuations than a logical demonstration proceeding from facts to necessary conclusions.
6. True, but once again the establishment of something like Igbo domination was not sustainable or tenable considering both the make up of the army command and the rank and file of the army itself and the population makeup of the country so how would imposition of a military led by Igbos achieve an increase in civil service, military appointments, etc. that could last for any meaningful amount of time? You're not employing any reasoning here, you're just stringing together insinuations. Actual objective reasoning would make this fact of a decrease in Igbo representation an irrelevance that could never have motivated or contributed to the motivation for an entire Igbo military takeover.  This and none of your other points amount to any kind of step in a proof of what you would like to insinuate. They are just statements.


I'm out for now. Be back tomorrow.

You're funny. But even Katsumoto knows there were good reasons for perceiving Aktintola and the Sardauna as evil and corrupt by progressives of that time. Of course Balewa, whatever his achievements previously, was seen as the Sardauna's errand boy and assisted in creating the crisis in the western region and supported the apparently distorted/fake census.

I should also point out that it's not my view that they deserved to die. In fact, if the reason they killed Balewa was over the arrest of Awolowo after the rigged elections, it should be noted that the Action Group was out to overthrow the government, so he was actually guilty of treason, although the treason was justified.

And calling Azikiwe "Balewa's Assistant" is just dishonest. The man had no power. He was a showpiece (by his own choice though, which was not smart).

Katsumoto:
LWKMD  
So even after reading a book, I am supposed to agree with the writer? I have read the books you mentioned. The purpose of reading a book is not to reach the same conclusion as the writer but to reach one's conclusions having analysed the facts for oneself. But of course, you are free to reach the same conclusions as the writer.
As far as I am concerned, that coup had two objectives; one was known to all plotters and was the basis for enlisting at least two individuals while there was a deeper objective unbeknowst to most. Even some of the plotters admited this much after the coup failed.

I never said one should not form one's own conclusions. What I said was:

"It's good to be able to form one's own opinions, but I really find it hard for anyone to read an informed account of what transpired by people who actually took the time to research it to tend towards your kinds of theories."

I originally found it hard to believe that you'd read anything but some articles really and I believed that your theories were ill-informed and that that was why you had constructed them.

But since you've read so many books on it but still believe there was some kind of "deeper objective," maybe you should prevent facts which support this rather than insinuation, suggestion, and conjecture. I hope you aren't really going to suggest that an extremely ethnically imbalanced coup could have somehow furthered Igbo interests in Nigeria, that defies logic and common sense. There was no reason for them to be wanting only Igbos to rule the entire country and no conceivable way that they could have sustained such a venture. The reality is that they wanted the military to take over. That those in the military that wanted this would be predominantly Igbos is no accident, as the books which you've already read made clear, but not for reasons of conspiracy. That certain members (Ifeajuna) might have given it an ethnic coloration that it was not intended to have probably underscores why the coup should never have happened in the first place in the way it did- passing judgment on these people through violent, barbaric methods was just a cold, inhuman way to go about it. As Nzeogwu put it there was "sentimentality" amongst some of the coupists and this "sentimentality" was probably the realization that they had no justification for killing Okpara and Dennis Osadebe. Obviously they were originally going to kill Okpara, except for the presence of the Greek Archbishop, but ultimately, they had no justification for it. For the others, they could simply rationalize the murders away based on actual corruption and connections to corrupt people but when it came to killing innocent people like Wachuckwu, "sentimentality," i.e. humanity, kicked in. Anyways, Okpara's implicit opposition to the Balewa government was more or less in line with the coupists' views so how could they justify killing him?

If the "deeper objective" was to clear out possible opposition to Eastern secession, or pave the grounds for Igbo secession it would have been an even worse choice of strategy. I don't even need to explain why.

Like I said, there is no consistent rationale or process of reasoning anyone can give for how the soldiers could have arrived at any sort of ethnically motivated "deeper objective" that would actually make the coup benefit the ethnicity it was supposedly meant to benefit, so I hope this "deeper objective" is not the same old "Igbo power grab" claim.

dayokanu:
Despite the fact that The major actors are mainly igbos, despite the fact that most of those killed were mainly non-Igbos.

What crime did Akintola, Balewa, Sardauna and okotie Eboh commit that Azikwe and Mbadiwe were innocent of.

How scheming for Igbo soldiers to go ahead and kill other tribal leaders and leave theirs alone.

That is the biggest miscalculation in history

This is inaccurate. Mbadiwe was supposed to die. Azikiwe would definitely never have been killed. I don't believe that for a minute.

The federal government itself reached the conclusion that some Igbos were supposed to be arrested. The only one they got was Unegbe though (don't believe the story that he was killed for failing to hand over the keys, John de St. Jorre dispelled that myth pretty clearly in his book).

From:

Leaked [Police] Special Branch Report:
"Military Rebellion of 15th January 1966"
Part I

By Nowamagbe Omoigui, MD, MPH, FACC


at

http://www.waado.org/nigerdelta/nigeria_facts/MilitaryRule/Omoigui/1966Coup-Part1.html




"DETAILS OF THE EVENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

13. In August 1965, three officers, Major Okafor, Major Ifeajuna and Captain Oji who were already dissatisfied with political developments in the Federation and the impact of these developments on the Army,  held series of discussions between them about the matter and set about the task of searching for other officers who held views similar to their own and who could, eventually, be trusted to join them in the enterprise of staging a military coup d'Etat.

14. In September 1965, Major I. H. Chukwuka of Nigerian Army Headquarters Lagos was persuaded to join the group of conspirators, followed in October 1965 by Major C. I. Anuforo, also of the Army headquarters. Major C. K. Nzeogwu was brought in around that time through the efforts of Major Anuforo, an old friend of both Majors Nzeogwu and Okafor.  Major Nzeogwu in turn secured the support for the plan of Major A. Ademoyega who had worked with him in the Nigerian Army Training College Kaduna.

15. By early November the recruiting activities of the group were completed and an inner circle of conspirators emerged, consisting of the following officers:

Major CK Nzeogwu

Major A. Ademoyega

Major EA Ifeajuna

Major CI Anuforo

Major IH Chukwuka

Major D. Okafor

Captain O. Oji

Planning for the execution of the plot started in earnest in early November 1965 at a meeting of the inner circle which took place in Major Ifeajuna's house in Lagos.

16. The plan which eventually emerged from their deliberations was broadly as follows:

a. The arrest of VIPs at Kaduna, Ibadan, Lagos, Enugu and Benin.  The plan stipulated wherever resistance to arrest was encountered, the individuals concerned were to be killed

b. The occupation of vulnerable points such as Radio and TV stations, telephone exchange, police signals installations, airfields and civilian administrative establishments, by carefully selected troops who were not, however, to be informed in advance of the purpose of their operations.

c. The movement of troops to Jebba and Makurdi to hold the Niger and Benue bridges against any movement of troops opposed to the plotters' aims, to and from the North.

d. The killing of all senior army officers who were in a position to foil successfully the conspirators efforts to topple the Governments of the Federation and who resided in the areas of operations.

e. The eventual take-over of the machinery of Government by the Army.

17. Amongst the civilian VIPs scheduled for arrest, the following have been named:

a. The Prime Minister of the Federation

b. The Federal Finance Minister

c. The Premiers of Northern, Western, Midwestern and Eastern Nigeria.

18. Additional personalities scheduled to be arrested in Lagos were the following:

a. K. O. Mbadiwe

b. Jaja Wachuku

c. Inua Wada

d. Shehu Shagari

e. T. O. Elias

f. Ayo Rosiji

g. M. A. Majekodunmi

h. Mathew Mbu

i. Richard Akinjide

j. Waziri Ibrahim

19. Other ranking politicians were to be placed in house arrest pending a decision as to their disposal and eventual fate.

20. Events have shown that other political figures including the Deputy Premier of Western Nigeria, the Finance Minister and the Governor of Northern Nigeria were scheduled to be arrested.

21. The conspirators further decided that the following senior army officers represented a threat to their plans and must be killed during the first hours of the rebellion:

Brigadier Z. Mai-Malari       - Lagos

Brigadier S. Ademulegun       - Kaduna

Colonel K. Mohammed - Lagos

Colonel R. A. Shodeinde - Kaduna

Lt. Col. A. Largema - Ibadan

Lt. Col. A. C. Unegbe - Lagos

Lt. Col.  J.T. Pam - Lagos

NOTE:  Lt. Col. Largema was the CO of  4th Battalion NA stationed at Ibadan.  On 15th January 66, however, this officer was on temporary duty at Lagos, staying at the Ikoyi Hotel

22. For the actual execution of the plan, three commanders were nominated, namely:

a. Northern Nigeria  Major C.K. Nzeogwu

b. Lagos Area   Major E. A. Ifeajuna

c. Western Nigeria   Captain E. N. Nwobosi

23. The latter officer was not a member of the inner circle and was not approached until either the 13th or 14th January 66. He was, however, well known to the conspirators who were certain that when the time came he could be relied on to cooperate.

24. The execution of the plan was to take place in three areas only, i.e. Kaduna, Ibadan and the Lagos area, although many of the participants believed the insurrection to be nation wide.  It is a matter of established fact that no violent action took place in either Benin City or Enugu.  It has been suggested that these areas were spared because the plotters found it impossible to recruit reliable co-conspirators in these regions.  None of the officers has indicated under interrogation that any efforts to recruit collaborators in either Benin or Enugu were made.  Indeed subsequent action of some of the leading officers indicated collaboration with the then Premier of Eastern region. "