Ben Ezechime, Enugu
General Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria’s former Military President, has put to rest the widely held view that the 1966 military coup was an Igbo coup as the leader of the insurrection was raised in Kaduna and spoke Hausa language fluently.
In his book, entitled “A Journey in Service,” which was released to the public on Thursday, the man, popularly known as “IBB” said that Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, understood and spoke Hausa language with fluency.
However, IBB said that Nzeogwu’s assassination of Sir Ahmadu Bello and his wife Hafsatu, was callous as the Saduana was highly respected and adored by many in the Northern region then.
He said: “For instance, the head of the plotters, Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, was only Igbo in name.
“Born and raised in Kaduna, his immigrant parents were from Okpanam in today’s Delta State, which, in 1966, was in the old mid-western region.
“Nzeogwu spoke fluent Hausa and was as ‘Hausa’ as any! He and his original team probably thought, even if naively, that they could turn things around for the better in the country.
“That said, it was heinously callous for Nzeogwu to have murdered Sir Ahmadu Bello and his wife, Hafsatu, because not only were they eminently adored by many but also because they were said not to have put up a fight.”
IBB said it was from that moment, that the putsch was infiltrated by ‘outsiders’ to its supposed original intention, adding that the situation took on an ethnic colouration.
He said this was compounded by the fact that there were no related coup activities in the Eastern region.
The former military president recalled that some senior officers of Igbo extraction were also victims of the January coup.
“For instance, my erstwhile Commander at the Reconnaissance Squadron in Kaduna, Lt-Col. Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe, was brutally gunned down by his own ‘brother,’ Major Chris Anuforo, in the presence of his pregnant wife, at his 7 Point Road residence in Apapa, for merely being a threat to the revolution.
“As a disciplined and strict officer who, as the Quartermaster-General of the Army, was also in charge of ammunition, weapons, equipment, vehicles, and other vital items for the Army, the coup plotters feared that he might not cooperate with them.
“It should also be remembered that some non-Igbo officers, like Major Adewale Ademoyega, Captain Ganiyu Adeleke, Lts Pola Oyewole and Olafimihan, took part in the failed coup. Another officer of Igbo extraction, Major John Obienu, crushed the coup,” IBB recounted.
He further said that those who argued that the original intention of the coup plotters was anything but ethnic refer to the fact that the initial purpose of the plotters was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison immediately after the coup and make him the executive provisional president of Nigeria.
“The fact that these Igbo officers would do this to a man not known to be a great ‘lover’ of the Igbos may have given the coup a different ethnic colouration.
“But, again, I may be wrong here since this view is speculative.
“I admit that my position here may be the naive insights of an unsuspecting young officer who viewed events from a distance,” Babangida said.
