₦airaland Forum

Super1Star:
The Igbos of the new era should also inculcate respect for others and decorum in their new curriculum. Of lessons of life learnt by them.

Respect is reciprocal.

Equalizer:
What happened in 1966 coup was nothing short of revenge cos Gowon, Murtala, Danjuma and other senior officers felt betrayed by the eastern and western region cos the origin plan was for all the Democratic leaders to be wiped out but Azikiwe,Awololo and that mid western man survived the attack and only the north recorded heavy casualties.. Am sure till date, the north are yet to forgive the Igbos for what Kaduna chukwuma Nzengwo did to their great men..

on point

Super1Star:
Pazienza, we have all been around NL for long and we have dwelt on every single events concerning the bitter experience and the not too glorious actions of our all our founding fathers, we cannot keep arguing back and forth on a yearly basis on.them.

Have learnt a lot from all the political discuss on NL. Some really made me to read in-depth about Nigeria. The contributions of Deridegull now Dede1, katsumoto etc have been eye opening. In all our ethnic jingoism and jibes, we have all.learnt a lot. I now understand the culture and mentality of a typical Igboman, which is totally not.in tandem.with a yorubaman and hausa/fulani.

This generation and the coming ones have a choice of either learning from the mistakes of the past and avoid repeating them OR keep dwelling on them till eternity comes.

All sides made fundamental mistakes and there was a high level of immaturity in most of their actions. None of them was a saint.

Do not bring the achievements issue here. Even your Chinua Achebe alluded to.it that the Yorubas were ahead of everybody. That is a story for another day,all the same.

One thing I will jot stand on NL, is some younger generations spewing rubbish about the events of 1966 based on false heroics and tales by moonlight stories of their fathers and uncles.

Keep your advice to yourself.
It is everybody except you that makes mistakes.

pazienza:
You felt Igbo military men killed your leaders,fair enough, you went on to get your revenge by killing Ironsi, many other Igbo military officers and Igbo civilians in the North.

That's revenge, an eye for eye, so why then were you invading Biafra? A continuation of the revenge or simply aggression?

Killing other regional leaders and sparing yours led to everything, the July coup, and also the Biafra war.

If you attack me first you cant tell me how to respond. I respond whichever way I want

fr3do:
Respect is reciprocal.

It has always been accorded you but what have we been.hearing ---

They are lazy and we are hardworking, as if they are feeding anybody.

They are dirty and we are clean, as if Aba and Onitsha are in SW or SS or North.

They are poor and we are rich, as if we do not have access to forbes list of Africans and we know the people selling gala on the highways and fake goods in 2by2inches shops.

They are dullards and we are brilliant, as if we do not know where the top public and private ranking schools in this country are located.

SopranoCoder:
Why is there so much hate on here?

The alleged "Igbo" coup of 1966 is always wrongly perceived. There were Yoruba generals among the plotters and Major Nzeogwu couldn't even speak Igbo having lived in Kaduna all his life. I researched and found out that the reason Southern leaders escaped was that the people meant to execute the coup in the south did not do their part. Only Nzeogwu did his part, and that was to handle the Northern leaders.

Mind you, at this point Nigeria was a cesspit of corruption. But still, that doesn't justify a coup.

After Ironsi was was overthrown 50,000 ethnic Igbos were killed in the Northern regions. Just absorb that number: 50,000. No formal investigation was carried out, and all he countries leaders turned a blind eye. Also, the majority of qualified workforce in Nigeria was Igbo, and so the Igbos were in large numbers in the civil service, academia, etc. All of them fled their posts and returned to the East.

Ojukwu then met with Gowon to discuss the mass killings of Igbo guys. The result of their meeting was the Aburi Accord. However, 5 months after their meeting Gowon was yet to implement the resolutions. So the East got restless and put pressure on Gowon to declare Biafra and seced, and he did it.

Mind you, this secession came about because the Igbos were backed into a wall. What can you do when the country you fought hard to get independence turns its back on you and rejects you?

The ensuing Civil war that followed led to the death of 3 million Igbos. let that number sink in: 3 million.
Now the Biafran army was not up to 300,000 soldiers, but there were 3 million casualties, which means that most of the casualties were civilians.

After the war, the Igbos were very impoverished and low on morale.

In 1970 the Finance minister froze all Igbo-held bank accounts and took all the cash they held, an obvious act of ethnic hate. A flat sum of 20 pounds was given to every Igbo person with an account, regardless of the amount the bank account previously held.

In 1972, the Indigenization decree was promulgated. This opened up large amounts of foreing businesses for Nigerian investors.
Guess whcih group of people couldnt participate in this investment because all they had was 20 pounds? Oh yeah, Igbos.

I've been researching these issues and there are so many things i'd like to point out, but not enough time.

please note data to your smartphone. Please post more.

pazienza:
You are silly. Aba is not the capital of Abia state. Umuahia is. Name the town in your state that is not the state capital, that is as developed and advanced as Aba!

Ignorant person. You have no brother and sisters in Igboland, I believe you know where your brothers and sisters are.

With this mindset of yours I can see why some of my brothers and sisters that are well placed will continue to invest in other people's territory.

fr3do:
Keep your advice to yourself.
It is everybody except you that makes mistakes.

Who bloody cares about you?

Get off my mention, deluded bunch of people.

momentum85:
I must say that Aguiyi Ironsi caused his death, he trusted d northerners so much and they betrayed him just as GEJ did and he was disappointed. Nigeria is yet to be one.

Just as Sardauna trusted Nzeogwu, who later slaughter him in cold blood abi?

So u didn't see d role played by Sani Bello in d whole saga?

LoveDecay:
do you have the one where sarduana of sokoto was mudered in cold blood by a cold hearted betrayer.

May God ellevate you for this sensible comment.

Truthpallbearer:
"As an Igbo man, I have nothing in common with a Yoruba or Hausa man." What about the colour of your blood and the air we breathe in? Your type is one of the reasons Aba is like a refuse dump. Think of something better instead of ethnic/religious bigotry. God bless my brothers and sisters in Religion and Humanity. #SayNoToTribalism

This has got nothing to do with tribalism. This is all about the right to exit or stay in the 'partnership' called Nigeria.

babajero:
It was his foolishness that killed him, Ojukwu warned him about his closeness with the hausas and yorubas and told him not to go for that meeting but he ignored him, and is the same problem with president Jonathan today he brought hausas too close, forgetting they are just vagabonds.

Have you forgotten it was the igbos that started the war

Equalizer:
Senator Andrew Nwankwo from the Izzi clan in
Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, was a captain in the Nigeria
Air Force before the January 1966 coup that made way
for Major General J. T. U Aguiyi Ironsi to emerge as
Head of State.
He became Ironsi’s Aide-De-Camp through the
recommendation of Brigadier George Krubo who was
then in-charge of the Air Force and subsequently
supervised the late Head of State’s security.
Capt. Andrew Nwankwo (rtd) said he was to die with
his boss, but for fate. He was present when both Ironsi
and Fajuyi were shot dead.
Tracking the 61-year-old former ADC down in his one
story building residence in Abakaliki was not as
difficult as getting him to recall the events that led to
the death of his master 38 years ago.
He would start by taking you down memory lane when
he served as a courier to late Emperor Haile Selassie of
Ethiopia, "I was manning the octopus-a helicopter that
carries 105 artillery gun and six other machine guns.
"So when Ethiopia was at war with Somalia in 1964/65
we formed the defence group of the emperor, we also
formed an attack force. When the emperor is going to
the frontline to see what is happening, we ring him
round to clear the way for him".
It was part of these that Ironsi saw and handed over
his security to the young captain. "It was cool working
with Ironsi, he understood everything about what I
should do because he had commanded the UN forces
in Congo, and that exposed him to the type of people
he needed".
The coup
Recalling the events of that night, July 29, 1966,
Nwankwo noted that they were in Ibadan, "we had a
small detachment of 106 Artillery, Commanded by one
Walbe from Plateau"
The Head of State had the previous day hosted
traditional rulers from all parts of the country in the
Ibadan Government House. "He wasn’t feeling quite
well, he had a knee problem and had to go to bed
early.
"Lieutenant Sanni Bello was the army ADC, and we
were very close. So, we left that night to go and look
out and came back late. Lt. Adamu who was the ADC
to Fajuyi, Sanni Bello, Walbe and myself, we all slept
together in one room that night".
"At about 4a.m the telephone rang, I picked it up and
that was Adeola, the then commissioner of police,
Ibadan he said he wanted to speak with Ironsi, I said I
was the ADC, he said he wanted to speak with him
because there was a coup and he gave me some
names Orok and two others that had been killed in
Abeokuta.
"Immediately, I made a mental picture of it, and I knew
that it was the northerners that were responsible. So, I
handed the phone to Ironsi and they talked. I then
alerted Adamu and Sanni Bello and said look, there is
a coup and the trend is this way.
"Bello assured me that if it is his own people he will
protect me, because, there was tension in the land
such that we knew a coup was imminent. So, we
agreed to protect each other depending on where it will
be coming from. I later discovered that Walbe who was
sleeping with us was part of the coup; he later became
ADC to Gowon.
"Around 5:30 we heard gunfire, then Ironsi had called
Col. Njoku to tell him about the coup. As Njoku was
going out, he was short at, but he escaped with bullet
wounds. It was Njoku, who was the commander of
Lagos Garrison that alerted others outside the
Government House, Ibadan.
"Fajuyi later sent me outside the government House to
find out what was happening. I met Danjuma, who
was then a major and he was my friend. He pretended
he didn’t know what was happening, he was asking
me, and I said I didn’t know. While I was trying to go
back, one sergeant from Benue almost shot me, but
Danjuma stopped him and spoke to him in Hausa.
Danjuma later told me that he would like to see Ironsi,
so that he could tell them what to do.
"It was then that Fajuyi came out to find out what was
holding me, and there inside the Government House
Danjuma ordered for his arrest and mine too. That was
when I saw Walbe. Then Fajuyi asked me to take him
to Ironsi so that they will obey him, that there should
be only one person in charge. So, I took them to Ironsi,
and major Newman, immediately he saw Ironsi, he
seized his crocodile swagger stick, and then they
started asking him about the January coup, he said he
didn’t know about it that he only agreed to be Head of
State so that he can restore confidence and normalcy.
It was immediately they arrested Ironsi that they turned
violent".
The road to the valley of death
They marched us down, Ironsi and myself, to where
Fajuyi was. They used telephone cable to tie my hands
behind and my legs, with a little space to walk. Same
they did to Ironsi, but they removed his shirt, he wore
only trousers, they also tied Fajuyi. Ironsi was in a
Land Rover, Fajuyi in a mini bus and myself in another
bus. They drove us towards Iwo Road, 10 km from
Ibadan, there was a small forest were they stopped,
marched us to the right hand side of the bush, Fajuyi
was leading and as he tried to cross a small stream, he
fell down, the soldiers were unruly, it appeared some of
them had for the first time taken Indian hemp, so when
he fell down some of them started beating him.
My escape
As Fajuyi fell down and they were beating him, Sanni
Bello came to me and tapped me and said, we could
do something now. It was providence, may be I was
not destined to die. I took a few steps from them and
jumped into a nearby ditch, all in a split of a second,
Bello came and stood by the ditch and was shouting
that I had escaped pointing at another direction. So
the soldiers ran around that direction shooting into the
bush, and when they felt they must have killed me,
they shot Fajuyi and then Ironsi there, by the side of
the stream. So Bello made sure that he was the last to
leave the place.
The ADC, who was later elected senator in 1983 stated
that the former Head of State could have escaped if
not that he wanted to make sure that there was no
bloodshed. He said if he sacrificed his life and
prevented bloodshed in Nigeria, it’s better for him.
Even his chaplain urged him to escape but he said No.
Also many of his officers who were contacted instead
of taking action ran away.
The ADC denied the prevailing story that Ironsi was
tied to a Land Rover and dragged along the road. He
maintained that he saw Ironsi and Fajuyi shot dead.
"They shot him on the chest and it was a burst, so he
would have died after the first shot".
The crocodile staff
It was a swagger stick, which he made after his name
Aguiyi (crocodile). It was in the Congo, when he was
commanding the United Nations Forces, the Indian
troops were to land at the Lumumbashi Airport but the
Cameroon gendarmes went and blocked the place with
trucks, so that the Indian soldiers will not land, so, he
used a Land Rover and with the stagger stick waved
as they were shouting, he was eventually able to
convince them to remove the trucks. Many attributed
that feat to extraordinary powers in his swagger stick.
But there was nothing in it, it was just a stick. Ironsi
was not fetish; he was a devoted Catholic and
attended mass every morning, even the day he was killed.

I don't believe 90% of what I just read.

SopranoCoder:
Why is there so much hate on here?

The alleged "Igbo" coup of 1966 is always wrongly perceived. There were Yoruba generals among the plotters and Major Nzeogwu couldn't even speak Igbo having lived in Kaduna all his life. I researched and found out that the reason Southern leaders escaped was that the people meant to execute the coup in the south did not do their part. Only Nzeogwu did his part, and that was to handle the Northern leaders.

Mind you, at this point Nigeria was a cesspit of corruption. But still, that doesn't justify a coup.

After Ironsi was was overthrown 50,000 ethnic Igbos were killed in the Northern regions. Just absorb that number: 50,000. No formal investigation was carried out, and all he countries leaders turned a blind eye. Also, the majority of qualified workforce in Nigeria was Igbo, and so the Igbos were in large numbers in the civil service, academia, etc. All of them fled their posts and returned to the East.

Ojukwu then met with Gowon to discuss the mass killings of Igbo guys. The result of their meeting was the Aburi Accord. However, 5 months after their meeting Gowon was yet to implement the resolutions. So the East got restless and put pressure on Gowon to declare Biafra and seced, and he did it.

Mind you, this secession came about because the Igbos were backed into a wall. What can you do when the country you fought hard to get independence turns its back on you and rejects you?

The ensuing Civil war that followed led to the death of 3 million Igbos. let that number sink in: 3 million.
Now the Biafran army was not up to 300,000 soldiers, but there were 3 million casualties, which means that most of the casualties were civilians.

After the war, the Igbos were very impoverished and low on morale.

In 1970 the Finance minister froze all Igbo-held bank accounts and took all the cash they held, an obvious act of ethnic hate. A flat sum of 20 pounds was given to every Igbo person with an account, regardless of the amount the bank account previously held.

In 1972, the Indigenization decree was promulgated. This opened up large amounts of foreing businesses for Nigerian investors.
Guess whcih group of people couldnt participate in this investment because all they had was 20 pounds? Oh yeah, Igbos.

I've been researching these issues and there are so many things i'd like to point out, but not enough time.

Wonder where u getting this ur sh*t story 4rm. U just try to cover up 4 chukwuma nziogwu who started d war on northerners....ojukwu had international support ...

tucky200:
Have you forgotten it was the igbos that started the war

yeah! The Igbo's were the ones that planned & executed the first coup! They killed several Nigerian founding fathers & left out their own! They killed Sarduna of sokoto & Amadu bello who are Northerners, Akintola a Yoruba man & Okotiebo ( I hope his name is spelt correctly) an Edo man while no Igbo was killed as they have informed Zik & other Igbo's to flee! These death's lead to a counter coup & it lead to the 1967 civil war. Igbo's truncated Nigeria first democracy.

Super1Star:
Who bloody cares about you?

Get off my mention, deluded bunch of people.

Wretched black hearted urchin, you are pathetically tribalistic, who is you people?

Thissonofman:
on point

Akintola was a Yoruba man & he was killed while Awolowo was in Enugu prison when the coup was going on, that's why he was not killed.

pazienza:
So we are to believe the Yoruba controlled media concocted falsehood of Jesus Fajuiyi so willing to lay down his life for a condemned Ironsi over the story of a man that was present on the scene? Haha! How quaint.

I watched a video of it, Fajuyi lay down his life! Your brother who said what was posted poured out lies! I don't know what he wants to gain as in the video I watched Ironsi was stripped to his under pant & shot on a bush path.

fr3do:
Wretched black hearted urchin, you are pathetically tribalistic, who is you people?

See this miserable soul, descendant of wandering Cain suffering from mouth diarrhoea and cerebral palsy.

Demented and tormented fellow, your tribal bigotry will kill you. Copy that.

babajero:
hahaha ok o didnt know you were among the. coup.

Lol.... Bleep u mehn... lmao

Rotimi47:
I watched a video of it, Fajuyi lay down his life! Your brother who said what was posted poured out lies! I don't know what he wants to gain as in the video I watched Ironsi was stripped to his under pant & shot on a bush path.

Really? *grins* Fajuiyi was pleading to be killed together with Ironsi in the video you watched? Haha!

humour me, post the link to the video here.

handsometokunbo:
Boko haram has killed more Muslims than Christians in Borno and Nigeria at large.

Boko haram has killed more Hausas/Fulanis than Igbos or Yorubas

Well said.

That guy can lie! How will Fajuyi who came out into the hands of coup plotters, tell someone to go & call Irons I yo come & talk to them? He also said ironsi would have escaped if he wanted to; abeg where to! How can he escape from a place that is completely surrounded by heavily armed men! He said Ironsi croc stick was for swag & its that same stick he waved when their was issues between the Indians & the Cameroonians. Is the stick a reflector that they can see it afar? Their is more to this post then he wants us to know.

superstar1:


See this miserable soul, descendant of wandering Cain suffering from mouth diarrhoea and cerebral palsy.

Demented and tormented fellow, your tribal bigotry will kill you. Copy that.

You're deluded and probably have a history of madness in your family.
You're as unintelligent as you're tribalistic.

That guy even lied that Fajuyi sent to go & check; if Fajuyi not in his house with his own ADC?

Rotimi47:
That guy can lie! How will Fajuyi who came out into the hands of coup plotters, tell someone to go & call Irons I yo come & talk to them? He also said ironsi would have escaped if he wanted to; abeg where to! How can he escape from a place that is completely surrounded by heavily armed men! He said Ironsi croc stick was for swag & its that same stick he waved when their was issues between the Indians & the Cameroonians. Is the stick a reflector that they can see it afar? Their is more to this post then he wants us to know.

I get it, you would rather hold unto the Jesus Fajuiyi story! All hail the Yoruba Jesus Fajuiyi, who so much loved Ironsi that he decided to die with Ironsi, even when it was obvious that with or without his life sacrifice, Ironsi was already a dead man! *grins*

This is what happens when a lie is repeated for so long, especially a favourable lie, it starts taking the form of truth in the minds of the irrational and tribal beings!

where the pishures nau? viewers discretion kor

Equalizer:
Was it only Azikiwe that escaped the coup? didn't you hear that Awolowo and other top yuroba leaders escaped too.. In Nigeria, when one makes sentence without including the Igbos in it, the sentence seems not to be correct..

You don't really have an accurate knowledge of the history you are commenting on. Awolowo was in prison for treason during the coup.

eagleeye2:
I believe Nzeogwu would have told his story had he been alive.
And I can't see where in my post that portrays the victim mentality you talking a about. Is it wrong to hear different accounts of what happened in the past and helped shaped our history

Every Nigerian with half brain and sense of history knows that ironsi wouldn't have been murdered or igbos killed in the north if Kaduna nzeogwu and ironsi had not plotted and executed the January 1966 coup. To show how very funny ironsi and nzeogwu were, they killed northern officers and men and only spared their fellow IBO officers and men. Ojukwu kept quiet all through these atrocities perpetrated by nzeogwu and ironsi because the former were IBO's. But the moment the tide turned against ironsi and igbos, ojukwu started talking and making threat. Like I commented earlier, you igbos love to play the victims. You would be the ones to originate problems; but when the problems you caused turned against you, you would start shouting blue murder. Igbos playing the victim since 1966.

Ehen if i hear am

wadetaw202:
Every Nigerian with half brain and sense of history knows that ironsi wouldn't have been murdered or igbos killed in the north if Kaduna nzeogwu and ironsi had not plotted and executed the January 1966 coup. To show how very funny ironsi and nzeogwu were, they killed northern officers and men and only spared their fellow IBO officers and men. Ojukwu kept quiet all through these atrocities perpetrated by nzeogwu and ironsi because the former were IBO's. But the moment the tide turned against ironsi and igbos, ojukwu started talking and making threat. Like I commented earlier, you igbos love to play the victims. You would be the ones to originate problems; but when the problems you caused turned against you, you would start shouting blue murder. Igbos playing the victim since 1966.

So, Ironsi was among the coup plotters? Haha!

They say there are no Igbos in the SS, Igbos are attaching by force to groups in the SS. When you remind them that Nzeogwu the so called originator of the Igbo coup was actually from SS, So going by their logic of no Igbos in SS, Nzeogwu wasn't Igbo, he was a Niger deltan( Midwestern),'the coup couldn't have been an Igbo coup.
*grins*

Then they shift the goal post, Nzeogwu loses all evil part of him, the moment he stops being seen as an Igbo and Easterner! "Nzeogwu had good intentions, his good intentions were actually hijacked by Ifeajuna an Igbo from Onitsha" they say, they even made Ifeajuna Zik's cousin by fire by force to sell their story of the "Igbo coup". So in an instant, Nzeogwu turns from a wicked Igbo coup plotter to a man with good intentions that was led astray by Ifeajuna, the wicked Igboman from Onitsha. *grins* It starts becoming obvious that some people are hell bent on making a villain of Ndigbo, head or tail.

Then we ask them, how can the coup be Igbo, when a Yoruba man ademoyega was involved in the coup. They tell you that Ademoyega was a child with no brains who got hoodwinked into the coup by Ndiigbo, and that even at that that there are more Igbos involved in the coup, so much that the presence of one Yoruba man cannot stop the coup from being an Igbo coup. They suddenly forget that the majority of the people involved in the coup that they count as Ndiigbo, were actually non Igbos, ie SS, going by their "no Igbo in SS " mantra! Remind them of this, and they suddenly shift the goal post, " Ifeajuna is an Igbo man, he is the main man in the coup, he used strong juju to hypnotize the rest of the coup plotters", they say, the ethnicity of the rest of the coup plotters doesn't matter, what matters was that an Igbo man Ifeajuna was the coup plotter, another Igbo man Zik escaped death, another Igbo man Ironsi became the beneficiary of the coup, Viola! Nothing else matters! It must be an Igbo coup by fire and by force! *grins*

From the looks of it, you find out that we have a case where people had already reached a conclusion of an "Igbo coup", and then make up evidence and twist facts along the way, to support their already pre determined conclusion. This isn't a case of using observations and evidence to reach a conclusion.

pazienza:
So, Ironsi was among the coup plotters? Haha!

They say there are no Igbos in the SS, Igbos are attaching by force to groups in the SS. When you remind them that Nzeogwu the so called originator of the Igbo coup was actually from SS, So going by their logic of no Igbos in SS, Nzeogwu wasn't Igbo, he was a Niger deltan( Midwestern), so the coup couldn't have been an Igbo coup.
*grins*

Then they shift the goal post! "Nzeogwu had good intentions, his good intentions was actually hijacked by Ifeajuna an Igbo from Onitsha" they say, they even made Ifeajuna Zik's cousin by fire by force to sell their story of the "Igbo coup". So in an instance, Nzeogwu turns from a wicked Igbo coup plotter to a man with good intentions that was led astray by Ifeajuna, the wicked Igboman from Onitsha. *grins*

Then we ask them, how can the coup be Igbo, when a Yoruba man ademoyega was involved in the coup. They tell you that Ademoyega was a child with no brains who got hoodwinked into the coup by Ndiigbo, and that even at that that there more Igbos involved in the coup that the presence of one Yoruba man cannot stop the coup from being an Igbo coup.*grins*

From the looks of it, you find out that we have a case where people had already reached a conclusion of an "Igbo coup", and then make up evidence and twist facts along the way, to support their already pre determined conclusion. This isn't a case of using observations and evidence to reach a conclusion.

The coup was not plotted by Igbo according to you, but an igboman, ironsi, was the beneficiary; except if ironsi too was not an igboman. Ironsi became the grand commander but refused to punish all the coup plotters and you expect the angry party to be looking on like lucozade?