KWENU! Our culture, our future

Who is the brain behind January 15?

Part 1

 

M. O. ENE

egbedaa@aol.com

 

Monday, January 15, 2007

 

PREAMBLE

Ochendo, a certain resident of a certain community, is tired of helping people who show no appreciation of his kind gestures, especially those who borrow without repaying, pledge without redeeming, and always take without ever giving. With a detached home on the outskirts of town, his house is a magnet for anyone seeking assistance: directions, a sip of water, a friendly chitchat, temporary storage, etc.

 

“Journey mercies,” Ochendo will shout out on seeing off the latest guest.

 

On this day, a man stumbles onto his doorway, drenched by the seasonal rain and drained of his energy. Once again, Ochendo opens the door to let in the latest caller. Then he notices that the young man has taken things on his earlier stops without returning them and offering neither explanations nor regrets. He looks closely again to make sure he is not mistaken. Sure it is. In fact, he has nicknamed him Oweluowelukwa, he who takes and takes again -- without pausing to give or allow others a fair shake in the share.

 

He has never turned away anyone, and he is not about to start, regardless of such unappreciative few as Oweluowelukwa. So Ochendo asks him pointedly and as softly as the inclement weather will allow: “When… whence did the rain start falling on you?”

 

The drenched dude thinks hard and long and says: “I cannot really recall.”

 

Ochendo looks him straight is in the eyes and says sternly, “Step back… step right back and keep stepping!” He retreats into the dry, warm house and bangs the door so strongly the hinges rattled. Then he mumbles loudly, “He who does not know when or where it starts raining on him will not know when or where it stops.

 

 

INTRODUCTION

On the 40th anniversary of January 15 coup d’état, a thought crossed my mind. Since then, I have discussed severally and lengthily with some officers of that era, including retired Colonel Patrick Anwunah, who recently penned his memoirs.[1] I have also discussed at length with people who were very personally close to such main actors as Nzeogwu and Onwuatuegwu and to such victims as Pam. I have also reread many accounts of the events leading to the date, and none has addressed my concern completely and satisfactorily. Or, maybe… just maybe, it is just a quixotic quest on my part, an exercise in academic angling. On this 41st anniversary of the coup that changed Nigeria, I dare to raise the issue again for four foremost reasons:

 

(a) We still feel the ripples of the ’66 quake;

(b) Something tells me it could happen again;

(c) Something I read recently reopened another door;

(d) I could not get it off my mind.

 

I doubt I am the first to ask the question: Who is THE BRAIN behind January 15? Others may have different reasons for trying to lay it on someone… anyone, including trying to rewrite history and blame a group for a national calamity foretold -- as if an entire ethnic group can gang up, sit down, plot, and execute a coup! My interest here is not to provoke a debate but, rather, to contribute to the body of probing bits and pieces that will eventually form the bedrock of history.

 

I base my inquiry on the theory that one person’s acute mind actually reflected on the thought of things falling apart, as was widely forecast in the 1960s, and took it a step further by formulating the need to do something specific about these things. The actual coup plotters or established executors did not just jump on an idea; someone at some point in the string of stories that led to the day, even without working out the kinks, must have come up with the concrete idea of taking over the pulleys of power from ‘these bloody civilians.’ The person does not have to be a military man; a man, almost definitely, but he did not have to be in uniforms.

 

THE MAN CALLED KADUNA

In a book review of The Dance of Death by Dubem Okafor, Olatubosun Ogunsanwo speculated, “Major Chukwuma K. Nzeogwu might have conceived the first Nigerian military coup of 15 January 1966 as ‘a pan-Nigerian, trans-ethnic project’….“ [2] Many renowned authors and credible witnesses have stated severally that Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu did not conceive the coup; in other words, it was not his idea. In a chronicle of 1966 coups, Max Siollun stated: “It was not until the coup plot reached its logistical stage that Nzeogwu was brought in to the conspiratorial group.” [3]:

 

It is hard to know exactly how, when, and why Nzeogwu got involved; this is why I find the offering of Henry Chukwuemeka Onyeama interesting:

 

…[N]o account, no matter how accurate, can totally decipher the workings of a man’s mind. Thus it is necessary to ask, why did Nzeogwu, who for all his radicalism, was widely acclaimed as an epitome of soldiering (this was an era when Nigerian army officers were trained in the best British military traditions at Sandhurst), spearhead a bloody coup? The political and military situation in Nigeria between 1960 and 1966 need not detain us here, but it was not Nzeogwu and company’s brief to set things right. But anyone who has read ‘Nzeogwu,’ the slim biography of the coup leader by his bosom friend and fellow soldier, Olusegun Obasanjo, and the story of his life as penned by Peter Nzeogwu, his younger brother, would agree that the coup leader saw himself as a Nigerian Kemal Attaturk. Sadly, revolutions, despite their initial diet of idealism, thrive on hardheaded pragmatism and an understanding of reality. Perhaps Nzeogwu did not know this. [4]

 

I agree with Siollun and others before him that Nzeogwu was more an engaged executor, a dedicated daredevil; he did not cook the “diet of idealism” -- someone else did. Many have fingered Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, probably because of his youthful antecedents to which General Philip Effiong alluded in his book.[5] In addition to known youthful restiveness, Ifeajuna had a regular university education; he was a star athlete; and he kept the company of known intellectuals.

 

THE BOOKISH SOLDIER

For varied reasons, the Nigerian intelligentsias have never given much credit to the intellect of Nigerian military men and women, even with such obvious stars as the Biafra leader, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, and the few early university graduates as Brigadier Victor Banjo and Major Ifeajuna, both executed in Biafra. It is, therefore, no wonder that many authors assign the brain behind the coups of January 15, 1966 to Ifeajuna -- one of the two university-educated members of the January 15 coup crew. Writing under “These bookish people” on Sunday, October 30, 2005, Max Siollun bought into this thinking:

 

The ideological circle of the January coup seems to have consisted primarily of officers who had embarked upon military careers after completing university degrees. The late former military governor of the Northern Region, Hassan Katsina, once commented on the presence of some “bookish people” who had joined the Army for rather different reasons from the normal military crowd. Katsina was probably referring to the graduates that had begun to join the Army. These graduates may have been exposed to the leftwing political doctrine which was sweeping across much of Africa, Asia, and South America at the time. In January 1966, the Nigerian Army had six graduates: Lt-Cols Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and Victor Banjo, and Majors Olufemi Olutoye, Adewale Ademoyega, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, and Oluwole Rotimi. Three or four of these graduates were involved conceptually or physically in the January coup. Of the direct participants, Ademoyega had a degree in History from the University of London, and Ifeajuna was a graduate of the University of Ibadan. [6]

 

Now, since Ifeajuna is the only outstanding ‘bookish person’ of January 15, he stood out as the leader, the brain on the block. Is this the truth? Siollun put it succinctly thus:

 

“The truth may be somewhat different. :::: The brain behind the coup was probably Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna; however, Ifeajuna was chased out of Nigeria’s then capital city of Lagos by Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi. Realising that Ironsi was rounding up those that took part in the coup, Ifeajuna fled to Ghana, leaving Nzeogwu to hold the fort. [7]

 

The use of “probably” lends credence to the thinking that Ifeajuna might not be exactly what he was cranked up to be. It is curious that Ifeajuna (a university graduate) never articulated in any known body of work that detailed the how and why of the coup. It is interesting that he never wrote nor said much about the plot, nothing worth revisiting. We cannot conveniently eliminate Nzeogwu because of his educational experience but, since he actually came in later in the plot, then he is definitely not the brain. In all probability, the rush to settle on Ifeajuna because of his athletic prowess (Commonwealth Gold Medalist, 1954) academic credentials, and youthful antecedents in high school (Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha) and university (Ibadan) has blinded writers and foreclosed further inquiry into other possible proponents. Of course, Ifeajuna could be the brain for all we know, but the matter cannot close before the investigation and elimination all other possible leads.

 

Questions: (1) Was Ifeajuna the brain behind the coup’s conception as well as the leader of its bloody southern flank? (2) If Ifeajuna was the visible brain, was there an invisible intelligence or brain behind the disingenuous design? (3) Did someone sow the seed of sedition in his brain, and he contracted his co-conspirators to execute the plot? (4) If Ifeajuna was not the brain behind the coup, will the REAL brain behind January 15 please stand?

 

Continued:::>

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