11/08/2024
Chapter 11, THE STENCH of UNITY by Chike Nwaka (Continued)
THE JAN 15, 1966 COUP: WHO LED IT?
..The situation in the South, was indeed, a sharp contrast to what it was in the North...
Nzeogwu, was on top of the situation in the North, given his popularity and acceptability among the troops, his position and office in the NMTC, which was so structured that it had within itself all the support services necessary for such an operation. However, same could not be said of Ifeajuna who was the Brigade Major under Brigadier Maimalari. When Ifeajuna tried to organize a rehearsal exercise, he was reprimanded by Maimalari. The politically tensed atmosphere in the West and Lagos by extension, brought about the close monitoring of all activities, military and civil, in that Region and Lagos.
The revolutionary coup plotters, were very aware of the glaring handicaps they faced in the South-East, and South-West, yet they persisted. They were hell-bent on carrying out their plans on the 15th of January, 1966.
Why?
The answer is not far-fetched.
The 15th January, 1966 military coup actually took place when it did, so as to forestall the 'thorough pounding' of Western Region,
planned by the Feudal North, to take place on the 17th of January, 1966.
WHO ACTUALLY WAS THE COUP LEADER?
When a cursory glance is cast at the 15th January, 1966 Military coup, one gets the impression that it was Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu or Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna that led the coup. Although, the military officer who publicly announces the coup, is perceived as the leader, however, a thorough examination of the roles played by each of the three Majors that formed the nucleus of the revolution would reveal a contrary factual view.
It was neither Nzeogwu nor Ifeajuna that was the leader of that coup. The answer is clearly found in the book, ‘Why We Struck’, by Major Adewale Ademoyega.
The trio—the revolutionary troika, who formed the nucleus of the revolutionary group, had met in 1961. Let me refer us again to what Ademoyega wrote in his book, ‘Why We Struck:
“...these meetings were between Ifeajuna and me on the one hand, and between Nzeogwu and me on the other. This pattern remained almost the same throughout.”
While Nzeogwu and Ademoyega were making concerted efforts in Kaduna, Ifeajuna was making similar efforts in Lagos. And it was only in 1965 that the two efforts were brought together. When in Early September, 1965, Ademoyega’s branch of the NMTC was moving to Abeokuta, he left Nzeogwu with the understanding that their efforts would continue in the South just as it was going on in the North.
It was Major Ademoyega who stumbled on a lead to an impending action by Tafawa Balewa’s Federal Government, a dastardly program packaged for the West, when he had a brief chance interaction with a famous politician, Chief HO Davis, who had been in the nationalist struggle since 1941, and was a federal minister in Balewa’s government.
Equipped with this valuable lead, Ademoyega and Ifeajuna went to work. After a subtle, extensive probing at the Officers’ Mess, Apapa, they discovered that the Balewa government had indeed concluded such plans to use the Army, rejigged to suit their purpose, to eliminate the elites of the West, on the 17th of January, 1966.
Ademoyega also visited Nzeogwu several times in Kaduna. On the 10th of January, 1966. Together, both of them carried out surveillance patrols on and around the Government House, Kaduna, and, the Premier’s Lodge.
He, Major Ademoyega, also made contacts, and was informed that the Umra Hadj contingent led by Ahmadu Bello would return to Kaduna on the 13th of January1966.
Although they adduced many reasons ranging from corruption, nepotism, to abuse of office and flagrant excessive misuse of power, for their intervention, the most urgent one according to them, was the issue of the plan to eliminate Western Nigeria’s elites by the Balewa government, as unraveled by Ademoyega.
Major Adewale Ademoyega traversed the North and South, holding separate meetings with Nzeogwu in the North, and Ifeajuna in the South; coordinating their activities. Ademoyega was responsible for searching out ‘suitable’ officers for their ‘revolution’ in the South.
Nzeogwu never for once, visited the South for the purposes of their ‘revolution’. Ifeajuna never went to the North after he was transferred to the South.
Major ADEMOYEGA was THE FULCRUM—THE PIVOT on which the other two Majors, Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna, who made up the triune nucleus of the revolutionary troops, operated. He was the EPICENTRE—the very ‘HEART’ OF THE NUCLEUS. He was THE ONE LIAISON between the other two members of the troika. He was the COMMON FACTOR recurring in the coup planning equation. He was the Sole Coordinator of the coup. He was indeed the de facto leader of the coup—a venture which, if they had succeeded in, they would have installed Awolowo as the Head of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
ADEMOYEGA only ‘WISELY’ CHOSE TO LEAD FROM THE BACKGROUND!
END of CHAPTER 11.
END of Chapter 11.