{"id":7418,"date":"2013-07-31T06:39:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T06:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/nigeria-47-years-after-1966-coups\/"},"modified":"2013-07-31T06:39:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T06:39:53","slug":"nigeria-47-years-after-1966-coups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-47-years-after-1966-coups\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: 47 years after 1966 coups"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On July 29th 1966, a group of junior army officers stormed the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan with a murderous mission to execute their Commander-in- Chief, the late Major General Johnson Umunnakwe Aguiyi Ironsi. Gaining entry into the mansion, they went on rampage and assaulting everyone in sight. Not even the region\u2019s governor and Ironsi\u2019s host, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi was spared the mindless bloodletting that eventually followed. Before then, on January 15th, 1966, five army majors led by Kaduna Chukwuma Nzeogwu had staged a military coup that sacked the government of the late Prime Abubakar Tafawa Balewa with its bloody consequences.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the later putsch was seen in some quarters as ethnically motivated with the intention of imposing a regional hegemony over the country. As a result of the emotions and propaganda that followed in those dark days, proponents and opponents of both incidents drew a line in the sand. The ensuing riots and mob action of those desiring to re-impose the status quo posed mortal threats to lives and properties, especially of persons from the old Eastern Nigeria, thereby leading to their exodus from the northern parts of the country. The unabated mayhems led to a welter of events that was to put the country\u2019s very existence on the line. Then out of the blues, came the intervention of then Ghana\u2019s strongman, Lt. General Joseph Ankrah, who not only invited both Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon and Lt. Colonel Odimegwu Ojukwu, the main antagonists to his country, but also chaired a reconciliation meeting in far away Aburi.<\/p>\n

The aim of the meeting was to find an amicable solution to the festering crisis and way out of the impending storm. It was the inability to implement agreements reached at that Aburi Conference that led to a horrendous war of epic proportions, which lasted for 30 months and consumed more than a million lives. The resultant effect is that, 47 years after, the relationship between the country\u2019s ethnic nationalities has continued to be defined by that war. Sadly, there is nothing to indicate that we have learnt any lessons or even accepted to live together as one people with a common destiny. Looking back now, one can safely hazard that the deaths of Tafawa Balewa and Aguiyi Ironsi were an exercise in futility, because those who profitted from the misadventures have not in any way demonstrated any sense of altruism in their actions. Rather, over the years, we have been treated to commentaries and fictions in all manner of media of how they performed mythical feats on the battle fields and even single handedly brought the civil war to an end.<\/p>\n

Even though the country survived an inglorious disintegration, it is still early in the day to claim that the litany of woes confronting it has ended. At the end of the civil war in 1970, the government of Yakubu Gowon declared a policy of \u201cno victor, no vanquished\u201d, probably with an abiding intention to put the massive agonies behind and build a new and committed amity among those who found themselves at the opposing ends. But it is doubtful whether the reconciliation was carried out with the utmost of good intentions or as a ploy to buy goodwill and consolidate authoritarian power. Records show that the undercurrents and ill will that preceded that civil war and were kept at bay in order to fight a common cause resurfaced at the end of hostilities, as once comrades-in -arms turned overnight enemies. The number of coups and counter coups among military factions became a subject of legends.<\/p>\n

At a time, it became very easy for Nigerians to openly predicate the timing of a coup and it came to pass. We are yet to come out of such predicaments, given that the rivalry amongst them at the time not only poisoned the nation\u2019s political space, it has left those now carrying the can little room for manouvre. It is doubtful whether the country is ready to put the lingering antagonisms brought about by events of 1966 behind it. The present political altercations are traceable to them. How? Because every action of those days was not with the intention of righting any wrongs done to anyone or groups, but to consolidate regional hegemony to the detriment of other contending parties.<\/p>\n

From the creation of the present number of states to exercise of leadership, one vaunting aim stood out: the concentrating of power in the hands of a few elite by designing a political architecture that permanently favours a section of the polity. The effect is that the country\u2019s politics is permanently in ferment with those having a historical sense of entitlements feeling angry and desolate anytime they are out of the nation\u2019s power loop. The inability of the country to face up to the challenges of leadership cannot be divorced from the stultifying stupor in which successive leaderships have plunged it.<\/p>\n

Definitely, Nigeria\u2019s redemption will remain a farfetched dream until the citizens confer to determine the type of country and politics they want. The present reality has not served our collective purpose neither has it helped to build the country of our dream, 47 years after military Turks upstaged the applecart in search of ephemeral glory. In their quiet moments, those of them still around would now be wondering whether all their shenanigans were worth the blood and sweat.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: National Mirror Newspaper<\/p>\n

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