₦airaland Forum

jagbajantus:
THE TRUTH IS THE TRUTH
It is always refreshing to hear the truth about the war and the coup from people who were not only close to the truth but those who had actually lived the truth! Phillip Effiong was in my book, a true soldier and a brave man. He stood their to complete the surrender and officially end the war while other people took flight and ran away. He was also a very quiet and humble man. He did not show off or make a lot of noise unlike some others, even years after the war had ended, he remained relatively quiet. Effiong was a true hero.

Ironsi trusted the wrong people and listened to the wrong people and that was what cost him his life. Adekunle Fajuyi was also a brave man and a true soldier. He chose to follow Ironsi (who was his guest and visitor to wherever his captors took him) instead of just staying back under house arrest in the Governor's House in Ibadan. And he (Fajuyi) paid for it with his dear life when Danjuma and his fellow coup plotters (Northern and Middle Belt officers) summarily executed both of them on the outskirts of a dirt road in Ibadan.

Gen. Effiong’s life is significant for a number of reasons, which include but are not limited to:

1). his wise and masterful handling of Biafra’s surrender.

2). his efforts in ensuring the return of Ojukwu from exile.

3). his efforts at securing the rights and privileges of former members of the Nigerian army of eastern origin.

4). his efforts to preserve the facts of the civil war from intentional and dubious adulteration and revisionism.

5). the hostile and unfriendly attitude of Nigeria’s federal government towards him, including denial of his military entitlements.

6). his determination and conviction that his civil war role was for the good of the country and therefore refusal to be intimidated by the subsequent post-war federal governments.
his post-war relationship with the Igbo
https://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2004/jan/161.html

Guestlander:
Exactly, but what about the other coups that followed? Were they Hausa/Fulani coups?

Guestlander:
Ifeajuna was not planning to install Awolowo. I read somewhere he had some kind of relationship with Azikiwe and that he probably alerted Azikiwe to the plans. This is why Azikiwe was conveniently away for medical reasons when the coup happened.
It was indeed an Igbo coup.
The only thing I don't understand is why Ironsi did not ensure the deputy prime minister was sworn in since the coup failed. He quickly took over and started making blunders after blunders.

Dedetwo:
I guess somebody as goofy as squirrel, after reading the above crap, will say that he/she read from somewhere that Ifeajuna had some kind of relationship with Azikiwe.

kettykin:
Ifeajuna and Banjo were even assumed to have plotted a coup against Ojukwu. I am talking about innocent civilians, who were targeted and accused of being sympathetic to the federal troops. They were killed. My father’s younger brother, Etim, who fought for Biafra and rose to the rank of Sergeant, was almost killed. When Ikot Ekpene fell to the federal troops, they were trekking to Umuahia, along the way, a vigilante group stopped them. When Igbo was spoken to them, my father’s younger brother was not able to speak Igbo and they almost killed him. They were just fortunate enough to convince the vigilante members that he was my father’s younger brother. Some would argue that enough was not done in Biafra to consolidate the unity between the Igbo and non-Igbo. The person that suggested the name, Biafra, Chief Opigo was not an Igbo man but Ogoja. My father said he insisted that if the problem was not handled, it would be among the forces that would work against Biafra. Maybe Biafra would have fallen, but that also contributed to the loss of the war. However, I still want people to look at the leader of Biafra from a different angle and not to condemn him. Would it be safe to say that what made your father’s escape from Kaduna and your family’s refuge at the home of the father of Col Trimnell’s wife was the absence of mistrust among Nigerians at the time? I agree absolutely because many of the people, who helped my father at the time were not easterners. When he was hiding in Lagos also, a lot of people who helped him were Yoruba. The mistrust was not there but we have increasingly established boundaries among ourselves and it is causing problems. However, we managed to escape and ended up at Ikot Ekpene, which is my parents’ adopted home. Our real home is Ibiono. From there, we went to Enugu. I was there when the war started and when Enugu was shelled. The January 1966 coup is widely belived to have been conceived by Major Ifeajuna and led by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu. There were other majors like Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Chris Anuforo, Don Okafor, Humphrey Chukwuka, and Adewale Ademoyega. Some roles were played by some rustics like non-commissioned officers. Does the ethnic composition of the leading actors not justify the labeling of the coup as an Igbo coup? I am not a fan of Nzeogwu, I am not a fan of Ifeajuna, and I am not a fan of Ademoyega, who were the three principal actors in the January 1966 coup. We talk of others like Nwobosi, and Onwuatuegwu. There are many others that people don’t talk about including Atom Kpera, who later became the military governor of Benue and Anambra states. There were also other non-commissioned officers, who people don’t talk about. The coup can’t be called an Igbo coup because most of the principle players were Igbo-speakers. There is no doubt about that and I am not exonerating them. Therefore, to hold the entire Igbo ethnic nationality responsible for the coup is wrong. We have to look at the real reasons Igbo were slaughtered in the second coup. It is not because of the first coup or the Decree 34 ,Unitarisation Decree, because a lot of people involved in the slaughter of the easterners didn’t even know the tenets of Decree 34 at the time. If that was the case, why did they kill for what they didn’t understand? When people lie about reasons for an atrocity like that, it only creates problems because people become angry and indignant. Even people, who were not born at the time, are going to learn about what happened to their communities, families, businesses and homes and there are going to be reactions. That is why it is important to tell the truth. Some of my greatest heroes are not from my tribe. One of the things the Igbo people have done is that they have excelled tremendously in business and other areas. Before independence, they had excelled in education, sports, military and other sectors of the Nigerian society, They played leading roles everywhere even in the north where they were in the majority of the non-indigenes and were very aggressive commercially before independence. Unfortunately, independence brought rivalry and people became territorial. It was a situation that made the Igbo become very powerful and visible but it created problem because indepence had created new boundaries and rivalries. The prominence of the Igbo became a threat and there was a question of what to do with them. If people are marked for attack or elimination flimsy reasons are always given. Long before the coup, then Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, who was very powerful spiritually and politically, in an interview, talked about the Igbo in the north. He complained that the Igbo always wanted to be the head and take charge. If he had said the Igbo in the north were committing crimes, I would have agreed with him but he was saying good things about the Igbo, which to him were reasons they were threats to them in the north. That made me realise that even before the pogroms of 1966, there were already plans to attack the Igbo. The first coup and Decree 34 presented themselves as opportunities to attack the Igbo.

Do you mean the Nzeogwu coup and the Decree 34 , Unitarisation Decree, were not the reasons they struck on July 29, 1966

The reasons were that the Igbo were considered as economic and political threats. But the decree and first coup were used as reasons. That was just an excuse and not a justifiable reason. The decree gave many powers to the centre. Has it changed?

This question is germane to your concerns about the profiling of the coup as an Igbo coup. In your conversations with your dad, who was the Director of Ordinance when Nzeogwu carried out Operation Damisa , did he ever mention names of non-Igbo, who were involved in the coup whose names were never made public

I know I have a list of those involved which is a product of research. The point is that there was a more diverse group of people, but the non-Igbo have been isolated and the focus has been on the Igbo. We should remember that Nzeogwu is from Okpanam—a town close to Asaba. We need to identify the fact that he was of Igbo background, but there were people I met from Igbo-speaking area of Delta who said they are not Igbo. Let us assume that everybody that participated in the coup were Igbo, it is still not enough to call it an Igbo coup. There have been coups in this country that have been affiliated to certain groups but no coup was ever profiled as northern or Hausa coup. There was never an Igbo coup and I hope there would never be. Saying that it is an Igbo coup implies that the Igbo came together, planned and executed the coup. For instance, the fact that Major Ademoyega was involved does not mean that Yoruba people planned the coup. He operated as an individual not as a representative of the Yoruba people. It is obvious that war times are not interesting times. Was that the case for your family which was the number two family in Biafra after Ojukwu’s family? There were privileges but we have to look at them within the context of Biafra. When planes came to bomb Biafra, they didn’t look for privileged people to bomb. Everybody was a target. At some point, we were homeless. When Umuahia fell, we were destitutes and were taken in by my father’s first ADC’s family. The father of the ADC kept us in his house. My father’s ADC, Hillary Iroegbulam was a young man then. He is still in New York. We stayed in his father’s house until Owerri was recaptured and we went to Owerri. There was Ojukwu Bunker in Umuahia, which was said to have been the place Ojukwu stayed when Umuahia fell. Why didn’t your family take refuge there? That is what people say but if there was a bunker, I never saw it and we didn’t have one. Maybe there was but when Umuahia fell, regardless of the bunker, Ojukwu had to leave Umuahia. There may truth in some but it is important to verify before believing. For instance, some said he left Biafra with his Mercedes-Benz. The truth is that we left Biafra on cargo planes. Which of the tiny cargo planes would have contained the Mercedes Benz?

There was Ojukwu Bunker in Umuahia, which was said to have been the place Ojukwu stayed when Umuahia fell. Why didn’t your family take refuge there



When you people were boarding the “last flight in Biafra” at Uli Airstrip, did you leave with Ojukwu[b] [/b]
Towards the end of the war it was clear that Biafra was losing. This talk about Ojukwu leaving Biafra for peace deals was not the case. I am not here to insult anybody but to say the truth. Biafra had engaged in a few peace talks. That was the first time he was going for the purported peace talks with his entire family, including his mother. Everybody that was remotely connected to Ojukwu was flown out of Biafra. When it was clear that he was leaving, he told my father. At the time and my mother was pregnant with my younger sister, Philipa. My father told him that if that if he was leaving for him , my father, to stay back, he must take his wife ,my mother, and her children, which included my older brother, Charles, my younger brother, Francis, I and my cousin, who was staying with us. Prior to this time, some countries were taking Biafrans out as refugees. About a year earlier, my oldest brother and my older sisters were taken out. My siblings were taken to Ireland but I was in Biafra until the last minute with my older brother Charles.

So what was the picture of the last flight from Biafra
The flight took place before my father announced the surrender of the Biafran forces which ended the 30-month civil war. I remember what happened vividly because it was not planned for us to leave. My had gone to Ojukwu in Nnewi to make the request for us leave with them. Other people said my father threatened Ojukwu that he must include us among those leaving Biafra with him. The wife of a military officer, who was a colleague of my father, told me that my father had the conversation with his riffle drawn. The woman is old now and lives in Maryland but that was not true. Before our departure, we were in Owerri which had been recaptured by Biafrans and the recapture was a major victory for Biafra. There was a night my father was away and there were explosions. It was common to hear the gunshot sounds but the sounds of the explosion were so loud that we had to leave. My mother had a driver, Goddy. It was a special arrangement because the car belonged to Goddy. We left with the car but we didn’t have a destination. The car was very slow and eventually stopped. We stood at the roadside and saw a convoy of four vehicles coming. We knew it was someone of importance because convoys were used by Ojukwu, my father and Madiebo. We waved and the convoy stopped. My dad emerged from one of the cars. He took us to a place we slept that night before leaving for Nnewi the next day. Nnewi was one of the few places that were never captured by the Nigerian troops.

Was it a stroke of luck that Nnewi was never attacked

Biafran forces really protected the town because it was a target of the federal troops. Biafran soldiers deserved credit for protecting Nnewi. They also protected the Uli Airstrip. Sometimes when the Airstrip was bombed, Biafran engineers fixed it within three days. Those people deserved credit for their ingenuity. The next day we left for Nnewi. At a point we were driving behind a lorry that was carrying bags of rice. Some of the bags were leaking and were streaking on the roads. People were packing them into their containers. It was a sad sight and showed how people starved in Biafra because I never starved in Biafra. When my mother, older brother, my younger brother, I and my cousin arrived at Ojukwu’s personal house in Nnewi, I was shocked. They took us into the house and I saw children playing with toys that I had never seen since the war started. I am talking of cars and aeroplanes running with batteries. They gave me Bournvita that I had never drank since the war started and I drank it and felt as if I was in heaven. My brother and I were not comfortable there and they took us outside where we sat. At that point, they were making plans for us to leave with Ojukwu’s family. In that house all Ojukwu’s relatives were there, meaning that they had assembled. The plan was to evacuate them. It was at that point that my father made the request. We were there and his official car drove in at some point. It was so strange that he came and left without speaking to us. Apparently that was when they concluded the negotiations of our exit inside Ojukwu’s house. We didn’t know what was happening. In the night, they put us in a car and took us somewhere. As we were driving, we got to a place where some people with torch-light asked us to turn off our light. The place turned out to be the Airstrip. I saw cargo planes with two propellers with no seats inside. There was a ladder leaning on the aeroplane and people were climbing. I can recall Ojukwu’s mother who was an elderly woman, having problems while climbing the ladder. After struggling, she entered the plane, and they invited us to climb the ladder. We didn’t have any property with us. We flew the same plane with Ojukwu’s mother. We left two days before Ojukwu. We landed at Sao Tome. From there, people started going to different places, because there was really no plan.

You said your plane landed at Sao Tome but Ojukwu departed Biafra for Ivory Coast, How come

We joined Ojukwu later in Ivory Coast but we first stayed in Sao Tome, after which we left for France and Portugal because there were no plans. These countries were sympathetic to Biafra. I had a Biafran passport but didn’t know what we were travelling with. We ended up in Bourke, Ivory Coast where his family was staying. Ojukwu was staying in Yamoussoukro where Felix Houphouët-Boigny hailed from. We visited him once but his family stayed in Bourke with us. We used to go to school in a refugee camp. I am grateful to Ivory Coast because if not for what it did, those children taken from Biafra would have died of Kwashiokor. Some of the children were able to trace their families while others didn’t return and integrated into the country. That is why I believe that there are descendants of Biafra in Ivory Coast. We stayed there until the war ended. Based on the instructions my mother gave my brother and I, we flew to Ireland where we stayed.

As of late 1968 and 1969, it was obvious that Biafra was losing the war. Now, in your conversations with your dad, did he ever say that the war was fought with the conviction that the war would end in favour of Biafra

When Biafra started, it didn’t have resources in terms of trained soldiers and weapons of war. That was always source of concern but as a Biafran, my father and other Biafrans felt it was a just cause and they felt they had the right to defend themselves. Along the way, a number of them believed there would be some international interventions. I am not going to say that there wasn’t any belief because people thought they would be able to defend themselves. A number of people also didn’t imagine that Gowon would use maximum force against Biafrans. At the initial stage people volunteered to join the army but as at 1968, people were conscripted into the army. That showed that the morale was dropping.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/08/biafra-and-echoes-of-1966-ironsi-exposed-my-dad-to-coup-plotters-son-of-ojukwus-deputy/

Iamgrey5:
You are right about that

It is mostly a clash amongst the elites.

Corrosiveman:
Up till today it's still called an Igbo Coup
Though all tribes participated in it
The only mistake made was that
The Coup failed in the Eastern Region.

But Coming to think of it The main reason
For the Coup can still be seen today.

If Gowon Accepted Aburi Accord there
Would have been peace.
But he and his cohorts refused due to Oil
Was found in the Eastern region

And that's why the North
Won't Accept Restructuring

haslaw:
January 1966 coup was 100% an Igbo coup.

1. Major Nzougbu was a man with an Igbo background who identified as Igbo. No only that, he believed and followed the Igbo agenda.

2. The coup succeeded in the south east as the plan of the coup plotters was not to kill Igbo leaders but to kill the leaders of Yorubas and the Hausas which they did.

3. Major Ademoyega was a Yoruba man who betrayed his own tribe. This is sometimes found when a family member goes to bring armed robbers to rob his own family. If such were to happen, the Police will still arest all of them as robbers

haslaw:
January 1966 coup was 100% an Igbo coup.

1. Major Nzougbu was a man with an Igbo background who identified as Igbo. No only that, he believed and followed the Igbo agenda.

2. The coup succeeded in the south east as the plan of the coup plotters was not to kill Igbo leaders but to kill the leaders of Yorubas and the Hausas which they did.

3. Major Ademoyega was a Yoruba man who betrayed his own tribe. This is sometimes found when a family member goes to bring armed robbers to rob his own family. If such were to happen, the Police will still arest all of them as robbers

franchasng:
Wow!


And the truth shall continue to prevail

God bless you Philip Effiong II

The only reason they always hate Igbos wherever they are is not because Igbos killed them or stole their properties, no, it is always because Igbos put in their best in whatever they do and succeed faster than others, making them develop unnecessary hatred for Igbos for being successful, nothing else oh.

The truth can never be hidden forever, thank you Philip Effiong II for revealing this long hidden truth why they hate Igbos till today

I used to think that it was only Azikiwe that knew about the coup, but the truth is, all the ruling politicians knew about the coup but refused to act.

Akintola Williams the Western Premier got information about the coup from Zik and Akintola told Sir Ahmadu Bello, but Bello waved it aside, saying nothing will happen.

Azikiwe warned Akintola again and then took a medical leave with his Yoruba doctor. Then Akintola angrily went to Kaduna to warn Ahmadu Bello the Northern Premier, but Ahmadu Bello again refused to listen, so Akintola went and bought a rifle to arm himself at his Ibadan official residence.

When the coupist arrived Akintola's official residence, they didn't plan to kill him instantly, they came to arrest him, but as soon as Akintola sighted them, he rushed and grabbed his rifle and started shooting at them and injured some of the coupist, which made them kill him during exchange of fire, though he was on their list of those to be killed.

Also, the coupist didn't plan to kill Tafawa Belewa the Prime Minister, but when they heard the coup has foiled, they killed all the politicians they took on house arrest, including Belewa.

The people they had their names for killing were:

1.) Ahmadu Bello because he was a tribal bigot like Buhari of today

2.) Akintola Williams for his alignment with Bello and his political tuzzle with Awolowo (the coupist loved Awolowo who was serving a jail term for treason at Enugu Prison)

3.) Azikiwe for his love for Northern Nigeria against the south but he used his wisdom and ran away in disguise of going for medical trip.

4.) Aguiyi Ironsi was also on their list of those to be killed

One Yoruba Major that got killed with his wife was killed because he tried to pull out his rifle from his drawer, and they shot him.

gidgiddy:
If we use this criteria, then it means that:

Murtala Mohammeds coup was a Hausa coup

Dimkas Coup was a middle belt coup

Buharis coup was a Fulani coup

Babangidas coup was a Gwari coup

Abachas coup was a Kanuri coup

T9ksy:
it's your prerogative to employ whatever criteria you like to label all the various coups in the country but as far as the 1st military coup in Nigerian is the topic of discourse then -it was a flippin' Igbo coup aimed at securing power at the Center.

It was a successful coup as an Igbo man later came up to hijack power from the remnants of the defunct Balewa & Bello group at gunpoint.

franchasng:
You seem to have comprehension issue, I will reply you.

Ojukwu did left Biafra when it became obvious Biafra wasn't going to win the war with the heavy air raids from British piloted air bombers, so top military advisers to Ojukwu advised him to leave in order for his vice to surrender Biafra to save Biafran children from further starvation. And nobody has ever said Ojukwu did not flee, my uncle was Ojukwu's close ally and adviser then.

Even France King Henry flee from France and went to UK when German soldiers invaded France and was about taking over France.

Queen Elizabeth of England also flee from London when Germany raided London and razed London to ashes in 1946 world war II.

British Prime Minister Chamberlain also flee from London.

Russian Stalin also flee from Moscow to another city when German Nazi invaded Russia.

Italian Muslini flee from Rome when Allied forces was about taken over Italy towards end of world ear II.

Almighty Hitler had to disguise and flee from Berlin when Allied forces invaded Germany and he saw that Germany was about to lose the war in 1949.

Only fools fight to die on the battlefield, wise people fight to live for another day. So Ojukwu did normal thing every head of state of nation at war does when the war intensifies.

Didn't you hear that Gowon had already packed his loads and was about relocating Nigerian government to Kaduna when Biafran soldiers approached Sagamu

And Yorubas didn't shelter Ojukwu at any time because Ojukwu was a Governor at Eastern Nigeria in Enugu. It was Philip Effiong's family that got sheltered by their Yoruba family friends and colleagues when Philip Effiong was fighting for his way back from Kaduna to Eastern Nigeria, so try and read properly next time.

And did you expect the family of a former regional governor cum head of state of Biafra to be starving when Ojukwu's father was the richest man in Africa before the war broke out

Ojukwu's father founded Nigerian Stock Exchange through one man, I have forgotten the mans name.

So they were like Dangote family of today.

gidgiddy:
The problem is that this first coup is tye only one people like to talk about, ut is the only coup some people give ethnic tag. Why is that?

Yet this Nigeria, a country that loves to reward coup plotters.

Murtala Mohammed was an accomplished coup plotter, he has Airports, Highways and seminars named after him. He was even put on the 20 Naira note

The immediate past President, Buhari, participated in several coups and even led the coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Shagari, yet he was elected President twice

Obasanjo seized power after Dimkas coup, he too was later elected twice as President. Was Dimkas coup then a Yoruba coup?

So it is funny that the same Nigeria that is honouring past coup plotters is still today calling out the first coup and giving it ethnic name

T9ksy:
una neva Jam! Write as many epistle as you can but nothing will take away the fact that the first coup in the history of Nigeria was planned and executed by igbos.

If you like, tag Dimka's coup a yoruba coup because Obasanjo became HOS, afterwards but no one with a modicum of grey matters and cognisant of Nigeria's polical history, will listen to you.

The 1st successful coup in Nigeria was carried out by igbos - an undisputable FACT.

gidgiddy:
And so.....

Dimkas coup resulted in a Obasanjo becoming military head of state, it was a Yoruba coup

How dense can you be? How can you termed Dimka's coup as a yoruba coup?for starters, how many yorubas were involved in the planning and execution of the coup? Compare with Jan 15th coup, where igbos were 80% (Conservative estimate ) coupists'list, one igbo victim and another Igbo man ostensibly "foiled the coup" and subsequently, took over power.

Secondly, the coup failed : Gowon was his ( Dimkas) choice to replace Murtala, with, and not Obasanj.

Thirdly, Obasanjo was a figurehead in that regime, yar adua was the "real power behind the throne." hence the reason why yar adua was given double promotions , in order to be Obasanjo's deputy.



Murtalas coup was a Hausa coup
That was a "palace" coup. Murtala is new in coup plotting in Nigeria.

Buhari's coup was a Fulani coup
Another palace coup.


Since you Nigerians honoured these coup plotters by naming Airports and landmarks after them, putting them on the Naira note and electing them President....


May be its time to honour the so called 'Igbo coup plotters' with the same courtesy. It is time to put them on the Naira, elect them as Presidents and name important national monuments after them

You know who should be directing
your asinine request, to? Fulani hegemony. Ask them to honour Nzeogwu for murdering their (fulanis) spiritual & political leader with such impunity. The true owners of Nigeria will never trust an Igbo man to be President of this amalgam after the "smartness" you exhibited in that dark period of the nation

What is good for the goose is also good for the gander