₦airaland Forum

His foolishness caused his people a lot & will continue to cause them from all indication.

jasonguru:
If the coup was successful, maybe Nigeria would be better by now

coup was a success. they achieved their main aim. why it didn't stand was because there wer junior officers and most of their victims wer northerners.

win2kwire:
He was working against the Igbos by helping start the civil war, a shame that Gowon did not use the opportunity to wipe them from Nigeria - today they have destroyed the reputation of Nigeria globally!

useless man, you go quick die, idiot

jasonguru:
If the coup was successful, maybe Nigeria would be better by now

The coup was not successful due to tribalism and attempt to dominate Nigerians by certain region. Now the table has turned they can only dominate in Biafra never in Nigeria. We were living in peace even though they were challenges until these coup plotters came and upset the structure of Nigeria. No wonder karma is paying back.

oilPUSSY:
Throw Bomb in Eastern Nigerian today, you haven't touched half population of Igbos.
Meanwhile, we know people that have dragged the reputation of Nigeria to mud, they know themselves as well.

Meanwhile, If 3 yr war could not stop Biafran agitation, nothing on earth can stop it again.
You go cry tire

No need to throw bomb, IGBOs are being wiped out not only by Nigerians but by many countries around the world for drug dealing and other crimes. Indonesia alone has killed over 2000, China kills and steals their organs, Asia, middle East, even African countries like South Africa.
Yes we all know the tribe responsible for Nigeria's reputation globally - Get rich or die trying (and destroy other Nigerians in the process).
IGBOs have never been successful in any agitation because they are cowards...from Ojukwu to Kanu to others cowardice will end it for you.
Slowly Nigerians understand what IGBOs are doing to the reputation of the country and they are starting to act so na you go cry tire...

AWOLOWO10:
useless man, you go quick die, idiot

You and your entire family go quick die before me, APE!

The 5 Majors and Why we struck!!! 2 books every Nigerian must have...

My Hero�

Well I love Kaduna Nzeogwu. History has been so unkind to him, but I strongly believe he acted in the best interest of Nigeria. They were core nationalists. It is mist unfortunate their actions led to the Civil war. But what drove their actions were nationalist ideas, and wanting to stop the rot then, but subsequent killings were only driven by ethnicity and tribalism. Killing ironsi and every other eastern officer from high to low rank had no moral justification.. what more, slaughter of Igbo civilians. Nigeria needs genuine reconciliation, we may never become that nation we should be.

This puff-piece in praise of Nzeogwu completely ignores the fact that he and his co-conspirators were the ones to institute the culture of coup-plotting in Nigerian politics, thereby short-cutting the course of the country's political development.

As bad as Tafawa Balewa's government was, what Nzeogwu inadvertently introduced in his "revolutionary" zeal was even worse: not just the bloody counter-coup that followed thereafter, or the 3-year civil war which followed on its heels, but also the nearly 3 succeeding decades of extremely corrupt and utterly incompetent military regimes which were only briefly interrupted by 4 years of extremely corrupt and utterly incompetent civilian rule under Shehu Shagari. Seeing as the military regimes proved no better than the civilians they displaced, what did Nigeria gain from being ruled by men in khaki?

It may be that Nzeogwu's coup "saved" the abstract geographical expression that Nigeria was and remains, but I think it's worth asking whether this failed contraption of a "nation" was really worth "saving" through such extreme means, especially considering how the very same questions of Nigeria's legitimacy as a unified state continue to be in the air today. The only things really holding "Nigeria" together continue to be military force along with the desire shared by all elites to participate in the plundering of oil rents. Nzeogwu's coup solved nothing while introducing new problems which continue to fester, and I see absolutely nothing to celebrate in what he did.

I wonder why some people keep saying that Nzeogwus coup caused the civil war? That's like saying that the wright brothers are responsible for airplane crashes for inventing the airplane.

The civil war started 18 months after Nzeogwus coup so that was not the cause. Personally, I condemn coup plotting, particularly the one against a democratically elected government and Nzeogwus coup should be condemned

But this false narrative that Nzeogwus coup was responsible for everything wrong with Nigeria today must be debunked. Every country in West Africa, with the exception of Cameroon, went through a coup in the 60's and 70's.

Ghana went through coups, but they did not fight and the Regional structure did not change. Ghana is today the success story of West Africa

The reason the civil war was fought was because Igbos refused to willingly sumbit to Northern domination like all other regions did

babadee1:
What about all the latter coups that were successful? It is foolish to think that the military can ever bring good governance. It is not their place.

And am sure the likes of you voted OBJ and PMB and perhaps still vote PMB. What were they?

How do you celebrate people like this? Let's make movies about these great personalities so that new generations can learn from their success stories; convictions, sacrifices, characters, courage and other progressive characteristics that define great leaders.

May the bastard rot in hell; he led the destruction of our nascent democracy and we are all paying for it today.

VBCampaign:
Remembering Kaduna Nzeogwu

By: Deji Yesufu

January 15th is Nigerian Armed Forces Remembrance Day. It is also the day Major Chukwuma “Kaduna” Nzeogwu and his colleagues in the military carried out the first coup in Nigeria. Fifty three years ago, about the time of my writing this essay, the revolution had been completed. Notable politicians, particularly those of northern extraction, had been killed. It was not a particularly joyous moment for the mutinous soldiers because except for Kaduna town, where the revolutionaries had taken out the most influential politician in Nigeria, the Sarduana of Sokoto – Sir Ahmadu Bello, the revolution had failed in other parts of the country. Nzeogwu had been cut with a dagger by one of the guards of the Sardauna and was being attended to by a Physician. In a few moment, he would be live on radio to announce the success of his putsch in Northern Nigeria. Here is an excerpt from my book Victor Banjo on Kaduna Nzeogwu:

“Ckukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was a Sandhurst-trained military officer. He was brilliant. He was the first Nigerian officer to be trained in intelligence. Nzeogwu was a son of a civil servant; he was born in Kaduna town and was nick named “Kaduna” because of his fluency in the Hausa language and his understanding of the culture. Nzeogwu joined the army simply for revolution. He was not sure he would survive it and so he never got married, for fear of leaving behind a widow and fatherless children. Those who knew him said he maintained a high standard of morality and was not one of those officers given to drinking or womanizing. He was a devout Catholic. Nzeogwu never hid his revolutionary ideas. He shared them openly, although only a few people knew how exactly he sought to carry them out...”

By 1963 Kaduna had met Adewale Ademoyega and Ifeanyi Ifeajuna, and the trio began the planning the coup in earnest. While the coup was successful in Kaduna, it failed in Lagos because the mutinous soldiers could not arrest Aguiyi Ironsi, the most senior military officer at the time. The coup was about to kick-start in East before the mutinous soldiers there were rounded up by soldiers loyal to Ironsi.

One might want to ask: is it worth remembering Kaduna Nzeogwu, considering that this man’s actions plunged the country into political instability and finally into a civil war? I think he is worth remembering because history has not been kind to his name. At the time when the coup occurred, many people praised the efforts of the revolutionaries; including people in the international community. A few months after the revolution had occurred, Nzeogwu’s senior in the army, Victor Banjo, who himself had been falsely implicated in the coup, said this about the coup: “These men ... were the ones who gave this country a new lease of life, and their actions were acclaimed by the people of this country and by the world...” He made this statement some six months after the coup, to show that it was not just mere euphoria that usually follows the take over of governments in Nigeria. Until the counter-coup of June 29, 1966, the Nzeogwu coup was regarded as popular and it was the reason the government of that time could not execute the mutinous soldiers.

Only recently did I learn that the great Tai Solarin named the road that led to his Mayflower Schools in Ogun State “Kaduna Nzeogwu Road”. I understand that before the coup, Nzeogwu was a frequent caller at Mr. Solarin’s home. He would usually go and listen to the sage talk about humanities and how to make Nigeria better. Most people who worked with Nzeogwu had a high regard for him. No less a person than former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote a voluminous book on him titled “Nzeogwu”.

Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emeka Ojukwu were not friends at the period of the coup. The coup had failed to go beyond Kaduna town because Ojukwu, who was the military garrison officer in Kano, refused to cooperate with Kaduna – an officer he considered junior to him in the army. Ojukwu would later go to Lagos and join forces with Ironsi. So in March 6th, 1967, when Ojukwu released all the mutinous soldiers under his region, the East, he did not release Nzeogwu. But students of the University of Nsukka carried out demonstrations and roused public sympathy on Nzeogwu’s behalf. Nzeogwu was subsequently released but Ojukwu did not entrust any command under him when Biafra went to war with Nigeria.

The civil war broke out in earnest in the first week of June 1967. The first theatre of war was the northern region of Biafra – around Nsukka. The Nigerian troops had come in through Makurdi and were met with stiff opposition by the Biafran soldiers. Unfortunately in less than a month of fighting, many of the able men in the Biafran army had been killed. Kaduna Nzeogwu died at war around this time.

The period between 1960 and 1966 was a very tumultuous time in Nigerian history. The British had given the reign of power to the Northern part of Nigeria – a section of the country that was least advanced intellectually. And with the parliamentary system of government, which required that the Prime Minister come to the house of assembly to defend his actions and policies periodically, the Obafemi Awolowo led opposition in the House continually floored the Prime Minister and his party in debates. A Nigerian press that was equally dominated by people from Western Nigeria also brought a lot of embarrassment to the Balewa government.

To save its face, the Balewa government had to carry out a lot of high handed actions. The height of which was imposing treasonable charges on Awolowo and jailing him and a few of his supporters. The Western Region, Awolowo’s stronghold, was plunged in chaos. Out of that chaos came the January 15th, 1966 coup.

With a benefit of hindsight, perhaps unbridled courage was the ruin of Nzeogwu and his fellow revolutionaries. But he cannot be blamed for corruption, selfishness and nepotism, which happened to be the bane of the politicians of those days and today too. Chukwuma “Kaduna” Nzeogwu sought to leave a better Nigeria for all of us. His method was certainly not the right one and clearly must be denounced. He however remains a national hero for many till this day.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the book Victor Banjo. All quotation in this write-up were taken from the book. Yesufu can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1957249031017964&id=1505609702848568

The day I saw him in a video on YouTube explaining how they carried out the coup, I knew immediately that he was a man who knew exactly what he was doing and how he wants to achieve it.

omohayek:
This puff-piece in praise of Nzeogwu completely ignores the fact that he and his co-conspirators were the ones to institute the culture of coup-plotting in Nigerian politics, thereby short-cutting the course of the country's political development.

As bad as Tafawa Balewa's government was, what Nzeogwu inadvertently introduced in his "revolutionary" zeal was even worse: not just the bloody counter-coup that followed thereafter, or the 3-year civil war which followed on its heels, but also the nearly 3 succeeding decades of extremely corrupt and utterly incompetent military regimes which were only briefly interrupted by 4 years of extremely corrupt and utterly incompetent civilian rule under Shehu Shagari. Seeing as the military regimes proved no better than the civilians they displaced, what did Nigeria gain from being ruled by men in khaki?

It may be that Nzeogwu's coup "saved" the abstract geographical expression that Nigeria was and remains, but I think it's worth asking whether this failed contraption of a "nation" was really worth "saving" through such extreme means, especially considering how the very same questions of Nigeria's legitimacy as a unified state continue to be in the air today. The only things really holding "Nigeria" together continue to be military force along with the desire shared by all elites to participate in the plundering of oil rents. Nzeogwu's coup solved nothing while introducing new problems which continue to fester, and I see absolutely nothing to celebrate in what he did.

You are one example of a failure at history!

babadee1:
What about all the latter coups that were successful? It is foolish to think that the military can ever bring good governance. It is not their place.

it was jerry rawlings that made Ghana as good as it is today

He was not a hero but a murderer.




May his soul rot in hell!!!

Naajjii:
The coup was not successful due to tribalism and attempt to dominate Nigerians by certain region. Now the table has turned they can only dominate in Biafra never in Nigeria. We were living in peace even though they were challenges until these coup plotters came and upset the structure of Nigeria. No wonder karma is paying back.

You and who were living in what peace?
The 1957 riots?open igbophobia from the north and west?
Open corruption and the "wild wild west" riots in the west?
Hope u know that the coup was widely applauded even in the north
It was when the dust settled and they saw that no prominent easterner died(col unegbe was the quartermaster general of the army but was killed to stop him alerting maimalari)
Stop twisting facts

gidgiddy:
I wonder why some people keep saying that Nzeogwus coup caused the civil war? That's like saying that the wright brothers are responsible for airplane crashes for inventing the airplane.

The civil war started 18 months after Nzeogwus coup so that was not the cause. Personally, I condemn coup plotting, particularly the one against a democratically elected government and Nzeogwus coup should be condemned

But this false narrative that Nzeogwus coup was responsible for everything wrong with Nigeria today must be debunked. Every country in West Africa, with the exception of Cameroon, went through a coup in the 60's and 70's.

Ghana went through coups, but they did not fight and the Regional structure did not change. Ghana is today the success story of West Africa

The reason the civil war was fought was because Igbos refused to willingly sumbit to Northern domination like all other regions did

Your Mumu don do

Elliot2:
You are one example of a failure at history!

Wow, what a compelling argument. Maybe you should learn what "argumentum ad hominem" means before making your next comment.

jasonguru:
it was jerry rawlings that made Ghana as good as it is today

Nonsense. When Jerry Rawlings left power 18 years ago Ghana was nothing to write home about. In fact, he turned out to be more corrupt than any of the politicians he had executed. The people of Ghana worked very hard to make sure their democracy worked for them. That is why their country has been improving. Nigerians are still waiting for somebody else to do something about our problems.

win2kwire:
No need to throw bomb, IGBOs are being wiped out not only by Nigerians but by many countries around the world for drug dealing and other crimes. Indonesia alone has killed over 2000, China kills and steals their organs, Asia, middle East, even African countries like South Africa.
Yes we all know the tribe responsible for Nigeria's reputation globally - Get rich or die trying (and destroy other Nigerians in the process).
IGBOs have never been successful in any agitation because they are cowards...from Ojukwu to Kanu to others cowardice will end it for you.
Slowly Nigerians understand what IGBOs are doing to the reputation of the country and they are starting to act so na you go cry tire...

Stop typing trash. Our population still stand gidigbam come rain come shine (Second largest group in Nigeria, go and confirm it) So where did you get your ewedu statistics from?.. The same way you guys have been lying for ages that you are second largest ethnic group until it was debunked.

No ethnic group will touch you guys, we will leave you to mine yourselves into extinction. If you guys continue what you are known for, by next 20-25 yrs, you will be dragging 3rd biggest ethic group with Ijaws and Edos (Which is inevitable)
Igbos your nightmare will keep rulling you in your land. Starting from state house to reps and the rest. There is nothing you can do about it. You can only hit the streets like these clowns I posted their pictures below. Then after, you crawl back to your hole.

Even your brothers are not only abandoning their culture , they 're also embracing Igbo names just to be relevant.

Clowns.

Keep mining,..... Miners. The latest one now is shiit mining. Una go mine tire.

gidgiddy:
I wonder why some people keep saying that Nzeogwus coup caused the civil war? That's like saying that the wright brothers are responsible for airplane crashes for inventing the airplane.

The civil war started 18 months after Nzeogwus coup so that was not the cause. Personally, I condemn coup plotting, particularly the one against a democratically elected government and Nzeogwus coup should be condemned

But this false narrative that Nzeogwus coup was responsible for everything wrong with Nigeria today must be debunked. Every country in West Africa, with the exception of Cameroon, went through a coup in the 60's and 70's.

Ghana went through coups, but they did not fight and the Regional structure did not change. Ghana is today the success story of West Africa

The reason the civil war was fought was because Igbos refused to willingly sumbit to Northern domination like all other regions did

It wasn't a "false narrative." Yes, "Nzeogwu's coup" set us on the path of war...selective killings in the coup and Ironsi's conduct thereinafter led to the counter-coup and Igbo killings in the North which precipitated the civil war! Where then is the false narrative?

Is Kaduna really his middle name?

babadee1:
The man who destroyed the future of Nigeria.

No No he didn't destroy the future of Nigeria ..he and his henchmen jerked the nation from its political slumber and naivete.they also offered Nigerians their chance in history to choose by themselves,for themselves and without any pressure from an imperialist power,the type of constitution by which they would live and be governed.Nzeogwu was given"a hero's burial with full military honours"Gowon also paid a tribute to him saying"he was gallant soldier,with principles."many other Nigerians paid tribute to his memory and everybody believed he died a Nigerian,through fighting on biafra side.ofcourse,the federal authority knew that it was they who had confined him inside Biafra,total against his will.If the Gowon Government had released Nzeogwu and his henchmen they would have returned to the place of their choice in Nigeria.Not one of them would have involved in biafra

VBCampaign:
Remembering Kaduna Nzeogwu

By: Deji Yesufu

January 15th is Nigerian Armed Forces Remembrance Day. It is also the day Major Chukwuma “Kaduna” Nzeogwu and his colleagues in the military carried out the first coup in Nigeria. Fifty three years ago, about the time of my writing this essay, the revolution had been completed. Notable politicians, particularly those of northern extraction, had been killed. It was not a particularly joyous moment for the mutinous soldiers because except for Kaduna town, where the revolutionaries had taken out the most influential politician in Nigeria, the Sarduana of Sokoto – Sir Ahmadu Bello, the revolution had failed in other parts of the country. Nzeogwu had been cut with a dagger by one of the guards of the Sardauna and was being attended to by a Physician. In a few moment, he would be live on radio to announce the success of his putsch in Northern Nigeria. Here is an excerpt from my book Victor Banjo on Kaduna Nzeogwu:

“Ckukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was a Sandhurst-trained military officer. He was brilliant. He was the first Nigerian officer to be trained in intelligence. Nzeogwu was a son of a civil servant; he was born in Kaduna town and was nick named “Kaduna” because of his fluency in the Hausa language and his understanding of the culture. Nzeogwu joined the army simply for revolution. He was not sure he would survive it and so he never got married, for fear of leaving behind a widow and fatherless children. Those who knew him said he maintained a high standard of morality and was not one of those officers given to drinking or womanizing. He was a devout Catholic. Nzeogwu never hid his revolutionary ideas. He shared them openly, although only a few people knew how exactly he sought to carry them out...”

By 1963 Kaduna had met Adewale Ademoyega and Ifeanyi Ifeajuna, and the trio began the planning the coup in earnest. While the coup was successful in Kaduna, it failed in Lagos because the mutinous soldiers could not arrest Aguiyi Ironsi, the most senior military officer at the time. The coup was about to kick-start in East before the mutinous soldiers there were rounded up by soldiers loyal to Ironsi.

One might want to ask: is it worth remembering Kaduna Nzeogwu, considering that this man’s actions plunged the country into political instability and finally into a civil war? I think he is worth remembering because history has not been kind to his name. At the time when the coup occurred, many people praised the efforts of the revolutionaries; including people in the international community. A few months after the revolution had occurred, Nzeogwu’s senior in the army, Victor Banjo, who himself had been falsely implicated in the coup, said this about the coup: “These men ... were the ones who gave this country a new lease of life, and their actions were acclaimed by the people of this country and by the world...” He made this statement some six months after the coup, to show that it was not just mere euphoria that usually follows the take over of governments in Nigeria. Until the counter-coup of June 29, 1966, the Nzeogwu coup was regarded as popular and it was the reason the government of that time could not execute the mutinous soldiers.

Only recently did I learn that the great Tai Solarin named the road that led to his Mayflower Schools in Ogun State “Kaduna Nzeogwu Road”. I understand that before the coup, Nzeogwu was a frequent caller at Mr. Solarin’s home. He would usually go and listen to the sage talk about humanities and how to make Nigeria better. Most people who worked with Nzeogwu had a high regard for him. No less a person than former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote a voluminous book on him titled “Nzeogwu”.

Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emeka Ojukwu were not friends at the period of the coup. The coup had failed to go beyond Kaduna town because Ojukwu, who was the military garrison officer in Kano, refused to cooperate with Kaduna – an officer he considered junior to him in the army. Ojukwu would later go to Lagos and join forces with Ironsi. So in March 6th, 1967, when Ojukwu released all the mutinous soldiers under his region, the East, he did not release Nzeogwu. But students of the University of Nsukka carried out demonstrations and roused public sympathy on Nzeogwu’s behalf. Nzeogwu was subsequently released but Ojukwu did not entrust any command under him when Biafra went to war with Nigeria.

The civil war broke out in earnest in the first week of June 1967. The first theatre of war was the northern region of Biafra – around Nsukka. The Nigerian troops had come in through Makurdi and were met with stiff opposition by the Biafran soldiers. Unfortunately in less than a month of fighting, many of the able men in the Biafran army had been killed. Kaduna Nzeogwu died at war around this time.

The period between 1960 and 1966 was a very tumultuous time in Nigerian history. The British had given the reign of power to the Northern part of Nigeria – a section of the country that was least advanced intellectually. And with the parliamentary system of government, which required that the Prime Minister come to the house of assembly to defend his actions and policies periodically, the Obafemi Awolowo led opposition in the House continually floored the Prime Minister and his party in debates. A Nigerian press that was equally dominated by people from Western Nigeria also brought a lot of embarrassment to the Balewa government.

To save its face, the Balewa government had to carry out a lot of high handed actions. The height of which was imposing treasonable charges on Awolowo and jailing him and a few of his supporters. The Western Region, Awolowo’s stronghold, was plunged in chaos. Out of that chaos came the January 15th, 1966 coup.

With a benefit of hindsight, perhaps unbridled courage was the ruin of Nzeogwu and his fellow revolutionaries. But he cannot be blamed for corruption, selfishness and nepotism, which happened to be the bane of the politicians of those days and today too. Chukwuma “Kaduna” Nzeogwu sought to leave a better Nigeria for all of us. His method was certainly not the right one and clearly must be denounced. He however remains a national hero for many till this day.

Deji Yesufu is the author of the book Victor Banjo. All quotation in this write-up were taken from the book. Yesufu can be reached on newdejix@gmail.com

Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1957249031017964&id=1505609702848568

Could this be the reason or one of the reasons they made it a bit difficult for the igbos to get into the military? According to them,northerners and south westerners are more in the military. Well,I'm only assuming.

Rockyrascal:
Is Kaduna really his middle name?

More like a nickname..he was born and bred in Kaduna town

Patrioticman007:
These animals called Igbo destroyed the very foundation of Nigeria by killing the very unity of Northern Nigeria. In the name of revolution, how I wish they will kill their own leaders right now to balance the equation.

You can start by killing your entire family members, and then harvesting their skulls in the yoruba fashion...that way you can balance the inherent stupidity that makes you reason like an animal.

Volksfuhrer:
It wasn't a "false narrative." Yes, "Nzeogwu's coup" set us on the path of war...selective killings in the coup and Ironsi's conduct thereinafter led to the counter-coup and Igbo killings in the North which precipitated the civil war! Where then is the false narrative?

Not true. As I said before, every country in West Africa went through a coup in the 60's, but the did not fight wars over it. Why was that of Nigeria different?

Even if we say that Nzeogwus coup was selective in who it targeted, Nzeogwu and his fellow coup plotters were already in jail. Those who conducted the counter-coup did far worse than whatever they blamed Ironsi or Nzeogwu for doing or not doing.

But when it comes to the civil war, it was not Nzeogwus coup or the killing in the North that caused the war.

What caused the war was Gowons inability to implement the Aburi agreement he signed in Ghana with Ojukwu


If me and you sign and agreement not to fight each other, as long as certain conditions are kept, if you go and break those conditions and we fight, who started it?