Cheta Nwanze - A History Lesson - Nigeria's First Coup

Cheta Nwanze: A history lesson - Nigeria's first coup |
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Posted in wpzoom Opinion on March 10, 2014 8:39 pm / 0 Comments

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by Cheta Nwanze
To understand first, the coup of January 15, 1966, we must not take it in isolation, something that a lot of
people tend to do. We must first understand the world around the coup, Nigeria around the coup, and
learn the important fact that idealism is bad
Because of the extremely sensitive nature of what we are discussing, todays talk will have to be in three stages
Stage 1
Intro: Here, I will explain my reasons for doing this, and give some opinion, but not much.
We will not be discussing a blow-by-blow account of the civil war, that will be in future. Today, we will be
talking of the causes of war.
Not a few people believe that we should forget about the events in Nigerian history, of 1966-70. They think it
will open up old wounds. I think that these old wounds were never closed in the first place.
Be that as it may, healing old wounds is the preserve of the individual. The state, has no business doing such a
thing. The reason, in my view, that the state must not partake in such foolishness is simple: forgetting means that
it will happen again if conditions exist.
Happening again, is something that in todays Nigeria, we can ill afford, as the consequences will be nothing
short of devastating.
Again, another reason we MUST examine our past is found in the words of Confucius Study the past if you
would define the future.
To understand first, the coup of January 15, 1966, we must not take it in isolation, something that a lot of people
tend to do. We must first understand the world around the coup, Nigeria around the coup, and learn the
important fact that idealism is bad
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Most of my knowledge about Nigeria of those days comes from the following books, which I recommend you
find and read: My Command; Nzeogwu both by Olu Obasanjo; Nigerias Revolution and the Biafran War
Alex Madiebo; Why We Struck Ade Ademoyega; Nigerias Five Majors Ben Gbulie; Biafra Story Fred
Forsyth; Civil War in Nigeria Audrey Chapman. I also listened to a lot of family folklore, and have read a lot of
the excellent research by Nowa Omoigui
Stage 2
This timeline of the build up to war will deal strictly with indisputable historical fact, no opinions will shared, just
fact.
The roots of the first coup were laid 52 years earlier when JD Lugard brought together disparate groups for
economic reasons.
Like many other countries, in Nigeria, the Europeans did not give a toss about the ethnic or religious differences
of the people. Unlike most other places which had one dominant group, Ghana for example has Ashanti, Nigeria
had three dominant groups in one super country.
As at amalgamation, the Fulani and their Hausa vassals were 65% of the North, Igbo was 70% of the East,
Yoruba, 75% of the West. Complicating things, was the British approach to administering these different regions.
The norths centuries old system was left largely untouched. In the West, the British ruled more directly, because
while the Western peoples had monarchs, they were less subservient than in the north. However, in the East, the
Brits had to disrupt the entire village system and create warrant chiefs. But, demographic and geographical
factors meant that most Easterners moved out of their region, more than any other. Also, the Hausa-Fulani were
largely Muslim, the Igbos (when the Brits arrived) were largely animists, the Yoruba were mixed. These
differences, were enhanced by the British in their very successful colonial tactic of divide-and-rule. Christian
missionaries were in many cases forbidden from proselytising Northerners by the colonial administration, while
in the East and West, proselytising was in full swing, and many Igbos and Yorubas dumped their old religions to
become Christian. As a result, cultural change which normally follows religious change was a lot slower in the
North than in either East or West.
Added to this was that the North, till this day has a larger population than both East and West combined.
So as at the time independence came by in 1960, there were certain imbalances already deeply rooted in the
system. First, the North, by virtue of its population, had a larger share of parliament, NPC had 134 of 312 seats.
Also in 1960, the NCNC (representing the East), had 89 seats, while the AG (West) had 73 seats. The NPC
needed a parliamentary majority, so formed a coalition with the NCNC, leaving the AG in opposition.
At independence, it was expected that Ahmadu Bello, the NPCs leader, would become the new Prime Minister.
However, Bello chose to remain in the North as Premier,and instead, sent his boy, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
to become PM. Essentially, the North was in-charge of the country, but had a lower Western literacy-rate
*Note that I used Western-literacy, because the North till this day has a very high literacy rate in Arabic script,
but thats not the language of science, the language of science and business, and hence, academia, and literacy
is English. Western-literacy rate circa 1960 in the North was 2%, in the South it was 24%, and this was a major
imbalance. Most of the 2% in the North were not Northerners, they were Easterners, a veritable source for
resentment. The implication of this was that a lot of the highly paid jobs in the North, civil service, medical, legal
and technical, went to Igbo people.
Again, in the run in to independence, the East and the West led the way, but the North preferred a continuation
of British rule for the reason given previously. When Anthony Enahoro moved for independence in 1953, it was
opposed by Ahmadu Bello, because one of the things that the Enahoro group proposed, was breaking the regions
up into smaller, more manageable states. Eventually, a compromise was reached and both East and West agreed
to leave the regions be, and postpone the proposed independence date.
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So, we were in 1960, and the dominance of Parliament by the NPC/NCNC coalition, now we will move to the
West
In 1962, the AG broke into two factions, one under Awolowo, and the other under Ladoke Akintola, the premier
of the West. Akintola believed that the Yoruba were losing their pre-eminent position in business to the Igbo
because of the NPC/NCNC coalition. He (Akintola) reached out to Balewa, and sought to have the AG join the
coalition. However, Awolowo did not agree with Akintolas moves, and tried to replace him as Premier of the
West.
When the Western Parliament met to approve the replacement, Akintola supporters in parliament started a fight
in which the mace was used as a weapon. Following that, it became impossible to reconvene the Western
Parliament, especially since the mace had by this time disappeared.
As a result of the rioting, Balewa declared martial law in the West, had Awo arrested and charged with treason,
and Akintola reappointed as Premier.
By the end of 1963, the country had become a republic, the AG had been manoeuvred out of control in the
West, and Akintolas faction had become the NNDP.
By 1965, Awolowo had been sentenced to prison for treason, and the elections of 1965 realligned the country,
produciong a new alliance, NPC and NNDP. With this, the NCNC had no choice but to align with what remained
of Awos AG.
During the elections of 64/65, there was widespread violence, rigging and rioting, particularly in the West where
people refused to accept NNDP victories.
In all of this political confusion, the army was used to police the populace, and for the first time in Nigerian
history, came in contact constantly with the people. The effect of this was that the frustrations of the people
were felt by soldiers, and same soldiers became increasingly disillusioned with the government.
Starting in 1963, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, an Igbo officer had begun plotting to overthrow the government with
Donatus Okafor, another Igbo officer. By 1965, they had brought in several other officers into their plot, most
significantly, intelligence officer, Chukwuma Nzeogwu, also Igbo.
Just a quick aside about Nzeogwu, he had been born in Kaduna, spoke better Hausa than Igbo, and considered
himself a northerner.
Being an excellent strategist, Nzeogwu took over the planning, and organised the exercise, Operation Damisa, to
replace the corrupt government with Awolowo. The plan, quoting Ben Gbulie, was meant to achieve the
following objectives:
-Chukwuma Nzeogwu, in Kaduna, to arrest (and kill if there was resistance), Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of the
North.
-Tim Onwutuegwu, in Lagos, to capture and kill three top military officers Gen Aguiyi-Ironsi, Brig Sam
Ademulegun and Brig Zakariya Maimalari.
-Emmanuel Ifeajuna, in Lagos, to arrest (and kill of there was resistance), the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa.
-Emmanuel Nwobosi, was sent to Ibadan, his objective, to arrest (and kill of there was resistance), Ladoke
Akintola.
-Adewale Ademoyega, was in Lagos, his objective was to arrest (and kill of there was resistance), the powerful
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finance minister, Festus Okotie-Eboh.

-John Obienu, a Major, also an Igbo officer, was detailed to go to Enugu and arrest or kill the Eastern Premier,
Michael Opara. Unknown to his co-conspirators, he was having second thoughts.
-Ben Gbulie was in Kaduna, he was detailed to arrest Hassan Katsina, cut off communications and go to Kano to
arrest Emeka Ojukwu.
-Another Igbo soldier, Udeaja, was meant to head to Calabar, and spring Awolowo from jail to head the new
government.
The following people were killed during the coup: Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Ladoke Akintola, Festus
Okotie-Eboh, Sam Ademulegun, Zakariya Maimalari, Kur Mohammed, Ralph Shodeinde, Abogo Largema,
James Pam and Arthur Unegbe.
The plotters failed to arrest or kill, Michael Opara, Dennis Osadebe, Aguiyi-Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon, Hassan
Katsina, Conrad Nwawo, Emeka Ojukwu.
Because of the coup, the government collapsed, and the head of parliament, Nwafor Orizu, handed power over
to Aguiyi-Ironsi, the head of the army. Ironsi quickly had the majority of the mutineers arrested, but failed to
prosecute them.
He also inflamed tensions, by declaring Nigeria a unitary state, essentially doing one of the things that Ahmadu
Bello kicked against in 1953. As soon as Ironsi established Decree 34, rioting broke out in the North, and this
almost directly led to the counter coup of July 1966.
The subsequent massacre of Igbo people in the North, prompted hundreds of thousands of them to return to the
south-east. The rest, as the cliche goes, is history. As I promised earlier, I wont bore you with a blow by blow
account of the war, yet!
Stage 3
My views and possible recommendations. Although not much, it will be a bit opinionated, so you can kill me if
you want
So, what have we learned? First, our country was not constructed for altruistic reasons. It was constructed to fill
the British Crowns economic needs.
This experience is not unique to Nigeria, or Africa. The Europeans did it across Africa, Asia and the Americas.
However, countries that they settled en masse got a better deal. Hence Hong Kong, South Africa are better than
India and Nigeria.
The most similar case to Nigeria is India, where at Independence, there wasnt a dominant group. Both countries
were set up to fail. However, in India, the shit hit the fan the day after independence, they went to war, and
emerged as India, Pakistan and eventually, Bangladesh.
In Nigeria, we waited six years before melting down, and well, the TWO sides which wanted to secede did not.
One lost, one was told to stay. Biafra lost the war, Northern Nigeria, which wanted to secede during the
counter-coup, was convinced to stay by the British High Commissioner, David Hunt.
In my own not-so-humble opinion, I think that the window of opportunity to break Nigeria has passed, and
passed for good.
This means that we are left with a broken nation, and this is no time to blame the Brits for our problems.
Nominally, theyve been gone for over fifty years!
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So, how do we fix the myriad issues that Nigeria has, most of which are structural?
It all starts by being honest with each other. Mistakes have been made and to move forward, we must understand
them. We must also identify the grave danger we currently face: Nigeria is undergoing a repeat of 1962-1965.
We can only pray that no soldier is thinking of a coup. Fact, is that in Nigeria today, IT CANNOT BE WELL
EXECUTED. We can only hope that this will not happen, but the signs are all there, shifting alliances, rigged
elections, violence, politicians who play zero-sum games, this is some really scary sh_t.
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of
Y!/YNaija
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Tags: 1966, Cheta Nwanze, Coup, first, history, january 15, lesson, Military, north, opinion, south, ynaija
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Cheta Nwanze - A History Lesson - Nigeria's First Coup

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Posted in wpzoom Opinion on March 10, 2014 8:39 pm / 0 Comments