The first strike in Nigeria is nothing new to the Nigerian citizen. Planned by a group of army officers, it was a revolutionary coup carried out with the sole objective of curbing corruption in the country. The coup was originally planned by officials who were completely dissatisfied with government procedures. These army officers include; Kaduna Nzeogwu, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Adewale Ademoyega, Donatus Okafor and Major Anuforo. Unfortunately, the betrayal began at H-hour, and the revolutionary coup was hijacked by his high-ranking colleagues, causing the original coup to fail.
Social procedures during the first republic were nothing to write home about. The first republic was characterized by corruption, nepotism, tribalism, greed, etc. The atmosphere was quite chaotic. It was necessary to do something that defies all principles to prevent the implosion of the country. The country needed a serious cleanup. Therefore, at that point, a radical revolution seems the only plausible solution. It was for this reason that the first coup in Nigeria was staged on January 15, 1966.
Simultaneously, during the first republic, Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, and Adewale Ademoyega (who was a new recruit), met in the Queen’s Own Nigerian Regiment (QONR), as the Nigerian army was called in 1963. However, the Lieutenant Ifeajuna had entered the black book of Uche Chukwumerije (a new army recruit). They both met in their college days at the University. According to Uche, in their school days, Ifeajuna left his group at H-hour during a planned protest. Unfortunately, this very attitude of Ifeajuna will eventually become apparent, at a critical turning point in Nigerian history.
At this juncture, this article will attach the greatest importance to the presentation of the three main coup plotters. For starters, Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was a Sandhurst-trained military officer, who eventually became the first Nigerian to receive military intelligence training. Lieutenant Emmanuel Ifeajuna was a science graduate from the University of Ibadan (UI), and also a gold medal winner at the Commonwealth Games in Canada, 1954. On the other hand, Lieutenant Adewale Ademoyega was also a trained officer in Sandhurst, eventually enlisting in the Army in 1961.
Learning of each other’s existence, the trio gradually began planning a revolutionary coup that will purge Nigeria of all social ills. The trio decided to recruit other officers including; Donatus Okafor, Lieutenant Adekunle Fajuyi, Major Anuforo, Captain Olusegun Obasanjo, Christian Madiebo and a range of other officers. Nzeogwu and a few other officers were meant to take charge of the northern part of Nigeria. On the other hand, Ifeajuna, Ademoyega, Okafor and others, were destined to take the South. His goal in the coup was to arrest all political leaders, but if any resist arrest, he should be shot at will. Unfortunately, Obasanjo was not available for the coup due to a military course in India. To be slowed by this, he, Obasanjo, pledged his loyalty and support to the coup.
The trio had already planned to form a new government, if the coup was successful. They also planned to eradicate the Regional system, and divide the Country into fourteen States. In fact, they had already spoken to loyal officers who would become Military Governors. In addition, they had the plan to adopt a socialist form of government and collective ownership of goods and services. The education sector was not left out either. The trio voiced their grievances towards the education system in Nigeria. According to them, “the education system in Nigeria was a useless enterprise that turned everyone into consumers of foreign products and zombies of today’s technology.” It’s really quite embarrassing that a college professor of Mechanical Engineering can’t fix his own car. All this and more shaped the form of social procedures that the coup leaders had planned. Unfortunately, this plan did not see the light of day.
While Major Nzeogwu recorded great success in taking over the north due to proper preparation such as; “Damissa exercise”, there were still complications in the south. Major Donatus Okafor, who had the job of arresting Army General Officer Commanding (GOC), General JT Aguiyi Ironsi, had failed. General Ironsi had escaped him and he began to summon other troops to mount a defense. At this point, Majors Ifeajuna and Okafor fled, leaving only Majors Ademoyega and Anufolo in the South. It was at this point that Ifeajuna’s cowardly nature became apparent, hinted at by his schoolmate Uche Chukwumerije. Eventually both Ademoyega and Anuforo returned to Nzeogwu in the north, and the south fell fully under the control of General Ironsi. Here, the coup gradually began to fail.
The coup was still redeemable under Major Nzeogwu, who was already planning an attack on Ironsi in the south. In fact, he had even made a public broadcast to La Nación; “…Our enemies are the political speculators, the swindlers, the men of ups and downs who seek bribes and demand ten percent; those who seek to keep the Country permanently divided, so that they can remain in the position of ministers or personalities in at least…” But that plan was shattered when Christian Madiebo, a close friend of Nzeogwu, advised him to abandon the plan and surrendered to Ironsi in the South. He was unaware that his close friend, Madiebo, was merely the spokesman for General Ironsi and had been in secret contact with him. Finally, Nzeogwu bowed to the forces of treason and surrendered to Ironsi. Moments later, Nzeogwu was arrested, and it was at this point that the revolutionary coup, bent on revitalizing Nigerian society, drew its last breath.
On a final note, it is abundantly clear that while Nzeogwu stood up for the pride of the revolution to the end, the other coup planners cooled off at H-Hour of the coup. The other officers were simply cowards who did not foresee the need for a military revolution in a battered society. Like Dr. Fidel Castro’s revolution in Cuba, the trio’s revolutionary coup would have cleansed the country completely. But the forces of treason prevailed, causing the revolution to fail. Commander Nzeogwu was right when he said: “There were five of us and at the beginning we knew very well what we had to do…he (Ifeajuna) and the others, they let us down.” Thus, the revolutionary coup of January 15, 1966 failed for only one reason; treason.
