1966 Nigerian Coup D'état

The coup plotters attacked the cities of Kaduna, Ibadan, and Lagos while also blockading the Niger and Benue River within a two-day timespan before being subdued. The General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, was falsely accused of having been compelled to take control of the government of a country in upheaval, inadvertently putting Nigeria's nascent democracy on hold which was a false alarm. His ascendancy to power was deemed a conspiracy by the coup plotters, who were partly Igbo and Majors from Yoruba and Hausa sub regions, to pave the way for General Aguiyi-Ironsi to be head of state of Nigeria. Consequently, the retaliatory events by Northern members of the Nigerian Army that led to deaths of many innocent Igbo soldiers and civilians caused the Nigerian Civil War.^{[citation needed]}

1966 Nigerian coup d'etat
Date 15–16 January 1966 Location Nigeria Result Coup failed End of the First Nigerian Republic Assassination of 11 senior politicians Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi seizes power Coup conspirators arrested Beginning of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria (1966–1979) Beginning of the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom 1966 Nigerian counter-coup six months later
Belligerents
Government of Nigeria	Rebel Army Officers
Commanders and leaders
Nnamdi Azikiwe Nwafor Orizu Abubakar Balewa † Ahmadu Bello † Samuel Akintola † Festus Okotie-Eboh † Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi	Kaduna Nzeogwu Adewale Ademoyega Emmanuel Ifeajuna
Strength
unknown	unknown
Casualties and losses
22 dead	0

In August 1965, a group of Army majors (Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Chris Anuforo, Don Okafor, Humphrey Chukwuka, and Adewale Ademoyega) began plotting a coup d'état against incumbent Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa. The coup was planned because according to the majors, the men at the helm of affairs were running Nigeria aground with their corrupt ways. Ministers under them were living flamboyant lifestyles and looting public funds at the expense of ordinary citizens.^{[citation needed]}

Furthermore, Captain Ben Gbulie (Writer of Nigeria's Five Major) and Colonel Emmanuel Nwobosi who partook in the coup, later revealed that another reason for the Jan 15 coup was to counter a "Jihad" that was planned to happen by Jan 17.

The president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe left the country in late 1965, first for Europe, then on a cruise to the Caribbean. Under the law, the Senate president, Nwafor Orizu, became acting president during his absence and assumed all the powers of the office.

 

In the morning of 15 January 1966, at a meeting with some local journalists in Kaduna seeking to find out what was going on, it was brought to Major Nzeogwu's attention that the only information about the events then was what was being broadcast by the BBC. Nzeogwu was surprised because he had expected a radio broadcast of the rebels from Lagos. He is said to have "gone wild" when he learnt that Emmanuel Ifeajuna in Lagos had not made any plans whatsoever to neutralize Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi who was the Commander of the Army. Therefore, Nzeogwu hurriedly drafted a speech which was broadcast on Radio Kaduna sometime around 12 a.m. and in which he declared martial law over the Northern Provinces of Nigeria.

Acting President Nwafor Orizu made a nationwide broadcast, after he had briefed President Nnamdi Azikiwe on the phone about the decision of the cabinet, announcing the cabinet's "voluntary" decision to transfer power to the armed forces.^{[citation needed]} Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi then made his own broadcast, accepting the "invitation". On 17 January, Major General Ironsi established the Supreme Military Council in Lagos and effectively suspended the constitution.

This unfortunate event was later tagged an "igbo coup" by other ethnic groups in the country based on some chains of coincidences fuelling the misinterpretation:

i. The Killing patterns - only one of the 22 casualties is of Igbo origin, while notable Igbo politicians like the Premier of Eastern region and military personnel like Ironsi were unharmed.

ii. The handing over of the government to Ironsi by Orizu (the acting president and the senate president who could have called for the formation of another civilian government) made it look like it was planned out all along.

iii. The unification decree of May 1966 promulgated by Ironsi, leading to the abolition of regional system of government - Historically speaking, the West and North have always believed in the regional system of government as the best form of government for a multiethnic like Nigeria, however this was taken away by Ironsi, leading to a massive outrage and pogrom in the North.

iv. The coup plotters, though kept in jail but were not sentenced.

However, some other participants of the coup like Captain Ben Gbulie, Colonel Nwobosi and others later came out decades after to refute the idea that it was an "Igbo agenda"

Regarding the casualties, the coup conspirators claimed their purge post-coup targeted members or supporters of the anterior regime and had been targeted for purely political reasons instead of being a racial purge focused on certain ethnic groups or clans; furthermore, they also claimed the list of people targeted was small and composed of only 8 people, half of them foreigners who were to be arrested not killed, and that the casualties had occurred as collateral damage of the coup. These claims were clarified by a member of the trio that formed the coup, Adewale Ademoyega, who published them in Nigeria in 1981 in a book titled Why We Struck outlining their reasons and motivations in which he mentioned:

There was no decision at our meeting to single out any ethnic group for elimination. Our intentions were honourable, our views were national and our goals were idealistic. Even those earmarked for arrest, four were northerners, two were Westerners and two were Easterners.

Below is a comprehensive list of casualties from the coup.

Civilians

• Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
• Premier Ahmadu Bello
• Premier Samuel Ladoke Akintola
• Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh
• Ahmed Ben Musa (Bello's Senior Assistant Secretary for Security)
• Hafsatu Bello
• Mrs Latifat Ademulegun
• Zarumi Sardauna
• Ahmed Pategi (Bello's driver)

Military and police

• Brig. Samuel Ademulegun
• Brig. Zakariya Maimalari
• Col. Ralph Shodeinde
• Col. Kur Mohammed
• Lt. Col. Abogo Largema
• Lt. Col. James Pam
• Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe
• Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke (Refused Nzeogwu’s order in the attack on the Sardauna's lodge and according to the police report was murdered by Nzeogwu)
• PC Yohana Garkawa
• Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo
• PC Akpan Anduka
• PC Hagai Lai
• Philip Lewande