NIGERIA MEMORIAL part 8*

NIGERIA MEMORIAL.........



==== THE PAUSE


so far so good:

The coup succeeded in Kaduna, the northern region capital, but failed in Lagos, the federal capital, and in Ibadan, the western regional capital, and barely took place in Benin the mid-western capital, and Enugu the eastern capital.


The majority of those murdered were northerners, accompanied by some westerners and a few Midwesterner.


Some BOOKS, TEACHINGS AND ARTICLES, will tell you that No easterner lost his or her life, during the failed coup, but that's not entirely true. Quartermaster-General of the Nigerian Army at Army Headquarters in Lagos,  Lt-Col Arthur Unegbe, was Shot and killed by the mutineers who were of the same ethnic origin as he. so arguably, that dismisses the case of a total igbo coup!


in totality, the coup failed! but that was not the end of it. what followed next is what some scholars will describe as a game of ethnic complicity and that singular mistake plunged Nigeria fully into a state of military mess and murder cum murder which evidently pushed Nigeria down the perilous parts of destruction that eventually led to a most bloody civil war that almost tore the country apart resulting in the ethnic and tribal division we Nigerians feel today..



On January 16, rather than approve the appointment of Zanna Bukar Dipcharima, a politician of northern origin, as acting Prime Minister, the acting President, Nwafor Orizu,  an easterner, handed over power to Major-General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, the GOC of the Nigerian Army, also of eastern origin.

Allegedly to enable Ironsi put down the revolt which, as of then, had already failed in southern Nigeria.


For years it had always been publicly assumed in the lay Press that the hand-over was voluntary although unconstitutional - since no such provision existed in the Nigerian constitution and to many it seemed normal Until it became apparent recently in separate testimony by Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Chief Richard Akinjide.


constitutionally, this move was wrong and sent bad vibrations to the northerners in the cabinet that truly the igbos had thought out a plan B to actually take power should the coup not be successful. because arguably, ironsi need not be the head of state to control the country's security issues as he himself as at the time, was General Officer Commanding, Nigeria Army, and the strongest most powerful man in the military and truly has control of THE LARGER FRACTION of the Army already so why hand him power he already has?!




....... in the next chapter i shall be giving you details  of what truly transpired between the military and the members of the Balewa' cabinet, which led to the military take over and how Nigeria fell fully into the hands of the military.... and from that moment on,    all hell was let loose!!!!!!


Stay tuned for more.... NIGERIA MEMORIAL..