A Nigerian former military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), has busted the age-long disinformation which labelled the January military coup as an “Igbo Coup”.
That characterization may have been used to justify the persecution, pogrom and later a civil war which primarily targeted the South Eastern people of Igbo ethnic group between 1966-1970.
But in his memoir “A Journey In Service”, an autobiography of the General, launched on Thursday, February 20, Babangida asserts that the so-called Igbo Coup was in fact crushed by an Igbo officer, Major John Obienu.
On page 39 of the book, Gen. Babangida – who many credit to having been involved in all coups in Nigeria’s history, said that the ethnic colouration given to the coup as Igbo was a result of the killing of the then northern premier, Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello and his wife, Hafsatu.
Babangida noted that Kaduna Nzeogwu, who led the coup was more Hausa as any other Hausa than he was an Igbo. He further stated several of the other coupists were not of Igbo origin.
Excerpts from the book reads,
“As a young officer who saw all of this from a distance, probably, ethnic sentiments did not drive the original objective of the coup plotters. 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. From that moment, the putsch was infiltrated by ‘outsiders’ to its supposed original intention, and it took on an unmistakably ethnic colouration, compounded by the fact that there were no related coup activities in the Eastern region.
“It should, however, be borne in mind 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 and other vital items of ammunition, weapons, equipment, vehicles, for the Army, the coup plotters feared that he might not cooperate with them.
“It should also be remembered that some like Major Adewale Ademoyega, Captain Ganiyu Adeleke, Lts. Fola Oyewole, and Olafimihan, took part in the failed coup: Another officer of Igbo extraction, Major John Obienu, crushed the coup.”
He further stressed that some believe that the original intention of the coup plotters was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison.
“Those who argue that the original intention of the coup was anything but ethnic refer to the fact that the initial purpose of the plotters was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison,” it added.
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