{"id":2667,"date":"2013-04-25T06:42:16","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T06:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/nigeria-from-1966-1970-the-american-files-are-not-from-heaven-part-iii\/"},"modified":"2013-04-25T06:42:16","modified_gmt":"2013-04-25T06:42:16","slug":"nigeria-from-1966-1970-the-american-files-are-not-from-heaven-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-from-1966-1970-the-american-files-are-not-from-heaven-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria From 1966-1970: The American Files Are Not From Heaven (Part III)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Henry Chukwuemeka Onyeka<\/em><\/p>\n

Awoyokun should have done more research before concluding that the coup was an Igbo affair. Northern officers and men were involved, especially at the execution stage. Max Silloun, the military historian, mentions them in his landmark online article \u2018The inside story of Nigeria\u2019s first military coup Parts 1 and 2.\u2019 It can be accessed from most search engines. Prominent among these Northern officers was the then Lieutenant John Atom Kpera who later became the Benue State governor in the Babangida regime. Kpera participated in the coup under Captain Ben Gbulie, Nzeogwu\u2019s right hand-man in Kaduna. (See Ben Gbulie: \u2018Nigeria\u2019s Five Majors.\u2019).<\/p>\n

In an interview with Nzeogwu by the Kaduna-based \u2018New Nigerian\u2019 newspaper, 18th January 1966, he described the detachment he used to overrun Premier Ahmadu Bello\u2019s compound as a \u2018truly Nigerian gathering.\u2019\u00a0 He said that the northern soldiers with him \u2018had the chance to drop out. More than that, they had bullets. They had been issued with bullets but I was unarmed. If they disagreed they could have shot me\u2026most of the other ranks were Northerners but they followed.\u2019 (See Silloun\u2019s article).<\/p>\n

Although Ademoyega was the most prominent Yoruba participant in the coup, there were other Yoruba officers who were involved at the dangerous execution stage of the coup. One of them is Second Lieutenant Olafimihan, an officer serving under Madiebo in Kaduna. He was sent by the plotters to gauge his commander\u2019s loyalty. (See Madiebo pp.17-18). Another is Lieutenant (some books refer to him as a Captain) Fola Oyewole. He, like Ademoyega, went on to fight for Biafra and wrote a book on his coup and wartime experiences. The book\u2019s title is \u2018Reluctant Rebel.\u2019\u00a0 There is also Captain Ganiyu Adeleke who became an instructor in the Biafran Infantry School. For confirmation, see the list of coup plotters detained by Ironsi\u2019s regime in Ademoyega pp.106-108, and this quote from Nowa Omoigui\u2019s online account: Mid-Western Invasion of 1967: \u201cCaptain Ganiyu Adeleke, who had taken part in both the January 15 coup and the Mid-Western invasion before becoming an instructor in the Biafran School of Infantry was released at a later date after his co-plotters had been freed.\u201d\u00a0 Omoigui\u2019s work is significant because, though he exhibits a high level of professionalism in his research, he has no sympathy for the January 15 coup. If his facts corroborate Ademoyega\u2019s they are worthy of attention.<\/p>\n

To my surprise Awoyokun sought to consign the Awolowo connection to January 15 to the dung heap. Even the poet and polemicist, Odia Ofeimun, did not sit history on its head in spite of his trenchant criticism of Achebe\u2019s \u2018There was a Country\u2019 (see \u2018The News\u2019 magazine, 12 November, 2012, pp.14-27). Awoyokun should download \u2018The Forgotten Documents of the Nigerian Civil War\u2019 which is freely available on the internet.<\/p>\n

Ofeimun wrote and published it. It will provide fresh insights on the Awolowo link. Nobody is saying that Awolowo was involved in the putsch. But the plotters saw in him a man who they thought would guide Nigeria aright and so they wanted him to be in charge, with or without his consent! Awoyokun\u2019s claim that \u201cin reality there was no army unit heading to Calabar to spring Awolowo from jail\u201d in contrast to Ifeajuna\u2019s revelation to Action Group\u2019s chieftain, S.G. Ikoku, that they wanted to free Awolowo and make him Prime Minister is inaccurate. Pages 68-69 of Ademoyega\u2019s book counter this inaccuracy:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was one arrangement that had been left till the date (of the coup) was fixed. It was the arrangement for the release of political prisoners, particularly Chief Awolowo. Now that our own date had been tentatively fixed for mid-January, it became necessary to gear up that arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the first week in January, Major Anuforo and I, arranged to meet Captain Udeaja, a young engineering graduate from the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, UK\u2026.Having briefed Udeaja generally and got his consent, we gave him his task. He was to fly a special plane provided for the purpose to Calabar on the morning of the D-day, to effect the release of Chief Awolowo and bring him to Lagos on the plane. We had already arranged for a plane of the Nigerian Air Force to be made available for that morning. This was done through Major Nzegwu (not Nzeogwu) of the Air Force. The Captain was to be assisted by a young officer on the D-day.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the lightning counter-coup measures by Ironsi that put the January 15 plotters on the defensive, this plan could no longer be carried out.<\/p>\n

I have gone to this extent to let all those who wish to justify the near-extermination of their fellow human beings because of what a group of who Ofeimun aptly described as \u201chotheaded Nigerians who believe their country needed to be better run\u201d did know that history is like pregnancy which cannot be covered. Thank God the facts came from a Yoruba. God knows why He allowed Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna to go first and spared Ademoyega long enough to write his book.<\/p>\n

\u2022 To be continued.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022Onyema is the author of \u2018Nigeria from 1966-1970: The American Files Are Not From Heaven,\u2019 a polemical response to the American files on the Nigerian Conflict.\u00a0Email:henrykd2009@yahoo.com<\/em><\/p>\n

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