franchasng:
1[s]966 Coup by Maj. Nzeogwu – The Biggest Mistake of The Igbo Military Officers & Political Elites


Whenever I read a new book on the January 1966 bloody coup that ended Nigeria’s first indigenous government led by Tafawa Belewa and Nnamdi Azikiwe, tears roll down my eyes.

Igbos lost so much after that unfortunate coup of January 1966 and the counter coup + civil war that followed. Imagine no matter how much an Igbo man or woman had in Nigerian bank before the war, they were given just 20 pounds after the war to start life with; courtesy of Obafemi Awolowo’s 20 pounds policy after the war.

Personally on my family side, my father had close to a million pounds in his bank account before the war, though he managed to take some back to his hometown before the war broke out, but he lost over 500,000 pounds after the war.

On my maternal side, my mom’s elder brother was a head engineer at Enugu railway station, he died in the war as a volunteer special Biafra forces that went to recapture Ebonyi from Federal forces with no weapon, they were only trained to fight with their bare hands to capture weapons from federal forces.

Now enough of my family story.

Nzeogwu had no reason, I mean no reason at all to carry out the first coup of 1966, and if at all their action was to be justified, then the manner in which they carried out the coup – killing Northern political leaders and some Mid-West and Western Premier, while abandoning the Igbo political leaders was the greatest mistake of the Igbo race!

Aguiyi Ironsi who was supposed to correct this mistake when he took over power after the coup made the most stupid mistake of not heeding to Ojukwu’s advice of executing the coupists to pacify the already angered and boiling Northern Nigeria heavily cooking up revenge.

The mistakes of Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna, Anofuru, and co are the root cause of every predicament the great Igbo race are encountering in Nigeria today.

Igbos were completely in charge of Nigeria; from politics to leadership to military to trade, to business to almost every sector and were already the envy of other regions, so carrying out a coup was totally unnecessary when you were in charge, what else did you want

Before the coup and the civil war that followed, Igbos were the President (Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe), Igbos were the Senate President (Sen. Nwafor Orizu), the Chief of Army Staff (Maj, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi), Head of Nigerian Military Intelligence (Maj. Chukwuma Nzeogwu), richest person in Nigeria & Africa (Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu), first Vice Chancellor of Nigeria who headed University of Ibadan (Prof. Kenneth Dike), and so many other things.

I am writing this to awaken all Igbo sons and daughters home and abroad, we must resist every attempt to repeat the same mistake we made in the 1960s that pushed us out of national political relevance and others in Nigeria, which is one of the reasons Igbo region is struggling with infrastructural developments compared to other regions.[/s]

catoluy:


Umu Ekwensu

franchasng:
[s]Nwanne abum ezigbo nwafor, but we must tell ourselves the truth.


That coup of 1966 was a total mess.....Nzeogwu and his clueless crew messed up the Igbo race with that stupid coup. We were in charge, we didn't need to carry out any coup to save over ambitious Awolowo from his political mess who never cared about u[/s]s

kestolove95:
Igbos are never gr8tful, karma just dey start with dem

franchasng:
1966 Coup by Maj. Nzeogwu – The Biggest Mistake of The Igbo Military Officers & Political Elites


Whenever I read a new book on the January 1966 bloody coup that ended Nigeria’s first indigenous government led by Tafawa Belewa and Nnamdi Azikiwe, tears roll down my eyes.

Igbos lost so much after that unfortunate coup of January 1966 and the counter coup + civil war that followed. Imagine no matter how much an Igbo man or woman had in Nigerian bank before the war, they were given just 20 pounds after the war to start life with; courtesy of Obafemi Awolowo’s 20 pounds policy after the war.

Personally on my family side, my father had close to a million pounds in his bank account before the war, though he managed to take some back to his hometown before the war broke out, but he lost over 500,000 pounds after the war.

On my maternal side, my mom’s elder brother was a head engineer at Enugu railway station, he died in the war as a volunteer special Biafra forces that went to recapture Ebonyi from Federal forces with no weapon, they were only trained to fight with their bare hands to capture weapons from federal forces.

Now enough of my family story.

Nzeogwu had no reason, I mean no reason at all to carry out the first coup of 1966, and if at all their action was to be justified, then the manner in which they carried out the coup – killing Northern political leaders and some Mid-West and Western Premier, while abandoning the Igbo political leaders was the greatest mistake of the Igbo race!

Aguiyi Ironsi who was supposed to correct this mistake when he took over power after the coup made the most stupid mistake of not heeding to Ojukwu’s advice of executing the coupists to pacify the already angered and boiling Northern Nigeria heavily cooking up revenge.

The mistakes of Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna, Anofuru, and co are the root cause of every predicament the great Igbo race are encountering in Nigeria today.

Igbos were completely in charge of Nigeria; from politics to leadership to military to trade, to business to almost every sector and were already the envy of other regions, so carrying out a coup was totally unnecessary when you were in charge, what else did you want

Before the coup and the civil war that followed, Igbos were the President (Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe), Igbos were the Senate President (Sen. Nwafor Orizu), the Chief of Army Staff (Maj, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi), Head of Nigerian Military Intelligence (Maj. Chukwuma Nzeogwu), richest person in Nigeria & Africa (Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu), first Vice Chancellor of Nigeria who headed University of Ibadan (Prof. Kenneth Dike), and so many other things.

I am writing this to awaken all Igbo sons and daughters home and abroad, we must resist every attempt to repeat the same mistake we made in the 1960s that pushed us out of national political relevance and others in Nigeria, which is one of the reasons Igbo region is struggling with infrastructural developments compared to other regions.

franchasng:
1966 Coup by Maj. Nzeogwu – The Biggest Mistake of The Igbo Military Officers & Political Elites
.

Nzeogwu had no reason, I mean no reason at all to carry out the first coup of 1966, and if at all their action was to be justified, then the manner in which they carried out the coup – killing Northern political leaders and some Mid-West and Western Premier, while abandoning the Igbo political leaders was the greatest mistake of the Igbo race!

Aguiyi Ironsi who was supposed to correct this mistake when he took over power after the coup made the most stupid mistake of not heeding to Ojukwu’s advice of executing the coupists to pacify the already angered and boiling Northern Nigeria heavily cooking up revenge.

The mistakes of Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna, Anofuru, and co are the root cause of every predicament the great Igbo race are encountering in Nigeria today.

Igbos were completely in charge of Nigeria; from politics to leadership to military to trade, to business to almost every sector and were already the envy of other regions, so carrying out a coup was totally unnecessary when you were in charge, what else did you want

Before the coup and the civil war that followed, Igbos were the President (Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe), Igbos were the Senate President (Sen. Nwafor Orizu), the Chief of Army Staff (Maj, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi), Head of Nigerian Military Intelligence (Maj. Chukwuma Nzeogwu), richest person in Nigeria & Africa (Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu), first Vice Chancellor of Nigeria who headed University of Ibadan (Prof. Kenneth Dike), and so many other things.

Arda1000:
first off Igbo is not a tribe,and lastly Chikwuma Nzeogwu is a South South man.

kestolove95:
Igbos are never gr8tful, karma just dey start with dem

OJODEL10:
bro. in those days of you are not igbo you yoruba or hausa other region is not recon with even til now ok.̀

TheTourist:
AS AN IGBO TRIBE MEMBER I WILL HUMBLY OWN UP TO THIS BEING THE BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER MADE. IT KICKSTARTED A CHAIN REACTION OF EVENTS THAT EVENTUALLY CONSUMED US ALL.

seunmsg:
The OP is right. The January 15, 1966 coup didn’t just destroy what the Igbos had going for them, it laid the foundation for the destruction of Nigeria. It was one coup that should never have happened. The subsequent civil war cemented the destruction. We’ve never been a nation since then. Just a bunch of ethnic groups trying to outdo each other while neglecting actual nation building.

nku5:
[s][/s]

So much intellectually lazy nonsense online these days.

1. Igbos did not carry out any coup. Nigerian soldiers with a sizeable number of Igbos overthrew the corrupt, violent first republic to save Nigeria from imploding due to the crisis in the Western Region. The plotters were men like Nzeogwu, Ademoyega, Atom Kpera, Fola Oyewole, Ifeajuna etc. Igbo commanders like Ironsi and Ojukwu helped frustrate the coup.

2. Ironsi's Supreme Military Council appointed a special panel to investigate the coup from top to bottom. Gowon was the one in charge of reporting the progress to the council. M.D. Yusuf was in charge of the investigation. Gowon and co were planning their coup so they didn't bother investigating.

3. The only thing I agree with you on is that the Igbos were in charge of everything before the coup. Why would people with everything risk it all to take over what they already control See as you take dribble yourself

seunmsg:
The OP is right. The January 15, 1966 coup didn’t just destroy what the Igbos had going for them, it laid the foundation for the destruction of Nigeria. It was one coup that should never have happened. The subsequent civil war cemented the destruction. We’ve never been a nation since then. Just a bunch of ethnic groups trying to outdo each other while neglecting actual nation building.

ProWalker:


It was nothing but greed!!

They had more going for them in Nigeria than any other region, but the greed for total dominance of the country propelled them into that grave Jan 1966, barely 6 years into Nigeria independence thus derailing the whole plan of the whole country

They wanted to still have the little benefits of the other regions and add to all they had.

That greed is still much around in them till today

Odingo1:
Nzeogwu is from Niger Delta South South, not Igbo

TheTourist:
AS AN IGBO TRIBE MEMBER I WILL HUMBLY OWN UP TO THIS BEING THE BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER MADE. IT KICKSTARTED A CHAIN REACTION OF EVENTS THAT EVENTUALLY CONSUMED US ALL.

franchasng:
the Igbo officers messed up the coup by first, leaking the info to Nnamdi Azikiwe all thanks to Ifeajuna. If Zik was killed in that coup, North wouldn't have seen it as an Igbo coup.

Secondly, the Igbo soldiers that handled Enugu side of the coup refused to kill any Igbo leader like Michael Okpara, etc, that also raised dust of the coup being Igbo coup.


They ought to have sacrificed Azikiwe or another prominent Igbo politician to balance their action, so they messed up.

I agree with you that it was carried out by soldiers from several tribes, but the key actors and leader of the coup were Igbo soldiers.