For those of you who called and sent mails etc. urging me to join in the fray that was the storm on the 29th of July, I respond by asking you to Surulere… to hold on…for according to Zik nwa mgbada na awuji ukwu ma egwu jene ejene….the dancer is breaking his legs when the music is only about to start!! January 15th revolution according to nearly all the surface historians of that period logically produced the revanchist bloodbath of the 29th July of that ugly year.
In a matter of some few more weeks everything you would want to know about this often blurry and merciless uprising leading to the wipe of many fine officer corps from some definite part of this country would be out. That is the back breaking work of over 25 years. Meanwhile we are disturbed by the truculent pronouncements of Jerry boy….Useni who by 1966 was scrounge driver who drove in the soldiers into the Western Government House on that fateful night. That killer squad later tie up their Supreme Commander and the courageous Francis Fajuyi to the army landrover tyres dragging them on concrete pathways to their gory deaths. If Francis Fajuyi was not was not condemned why the torture before death? Why was condemned and wanted dead as much as his guest? Was he actually part of the revolutionary leftist group of the Nigerian army of the that period? His sister Mrs. Ajayi was very convincing in her revealing Interview with the Punch. Mrs. Ajayi disclosed that the Military Governor had warned her other elder sister not to ‘soil his name’ in registering a company and actually asking the late Governor to help her with Government contracts!
Above all what was the core motive that drove the January 15 Revolution? To release Awo from prison and offer him the Prime Minister of in place of Alhaji A. Balewa who was a strict conservationist. Was Awo inspite of the failure of the Revolutionaries not going to be released on that fateful July 29th!The letter signed by the Supreme Commander was on his table ready to go to Ojukwu in Enugu! Who was ever trenchant on this issue and who opposed the trial of Nzeogwu and his boys?
Finally, all these incomplete chroniclers in their biases refuse deliberately jump to the fable that some Igbo killed the leadership of the North and since then the Northern rage has refused any consolation. When will they read the Nobel laurete The Man Died. He wrote all about it. There was going to be a merciless coup, January 17th 1966 just like the one we saw on July 29th the same ugly year. Apart from saving the Wetie West, the Tivs from extinction, preserving their revolutionary badge, and releasing Awo and making him the Prime Minister, the boys needed to act fast to prempt the murderous other flank who showed their deadly teeth six months later. Who were those officers? Major Nzeogwu knew all of them for he was the officer that established the Intelligence Unit of the Nigerian Army! He was not afraid of any trials and before he was moved from Lagos Prisons he demanded for a trial but a public trial!
Colonel Adekunle Francis Fajuyi was courage and an epidemy of the finest soldier. General Danjuma , General Gowon , Brigadier Robert Adeyinka Adebayo are all alive. We are all waiting for them to say exactly what happened on the fateful 29th night of July 29th of 1966. Otherwise, the great Governor’s correct chapter in the military history of Nigeria will remain like distorted and many threads deliberately torn into pieces to confuse and deceive the lazy and the uninitiated.
As has been my experience, this piece is surely going to put me on the spot. I have not released my latest findings especially our dip into the latest papers from the newly declassified United States briefs on Nigerian military during the civil war.
‘’Major Francis Fajuyi, opened a new page in the military history of our army….By his gallantry and leadership, he became the first officer of the Royal Nigerian Army to be honored with the highest British medal of Courage -the Victory Cross’’ – The Royal Nigerian Army Magazine Vol. 11, May , 1962.
‘’There have been many serious lies that have been told by our leaders…….
It is the general belief among Nigerians that Fajuyi offered to die with his guest Ironsi…. that is why I often say we are living in error. As an eyewitness, I say it is not true. In the first place, Fajuyi had no choice as the coup makers had deliberately scheduled the main operation for his Government House. In fact, the first indication of blood shed we had was when Danjuma walked up to Fajuyi and tore his epaulet. Having trained at JSSC, I knew that tearing an officer’s epaulet meant he is to be killed.’’ – Olabode Wey, former Head of Service and Secretary to the Federal Military Government.
Foreign escapades for the Nigerian military has been generally exulting. Nigeria’s military intervention in foiling the first and last attempted coup in Tanzania and its determined confrontation of the Charles Taylor’s siege of democracy in Liberia and Sierre Leone were critical to the restoration of disciplined and accountable governments in those states. As a visiting conflict scholar, it was a marvel to accost the majestic presence of the Nigerian Contingent in Angola under General Chris Garba.
All the same, it was in 1960 that the Nigerian military attained the watershed. For the first time ever, the United Nations handed over its contingent command in the Congo to a Nigerian, Brigadier J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi. He was the first Black Commander assigned to such a high brass command of recognition and universal responsibility.
And recently Lieutenant General Obiakor became the first ever Black supremo commander of United nations command to attain the top rank as the commander of the UN peace contingent.
While Ironsi seized the headlines, there were two officers, whose outstanding heroism and leatherneck command in the Congo, earned them the respect of their colleagues and brought fear to the enemy. Indeed, while an infamous Niger Delta officer was charged for diamond piracy and consequently Court Marshaled, those two Nigerian officers earned the the British highest honor for outstanding courage, the Military Medal…MC.
Professor Bolaji Akiyemi was very open. He would be grateful if anybody would add another brave awardee to the record set by Col. Fajuyi. We said it during the burial of the late Commander of the dreaded Biafran 11th Division. Colonel Dibia, Conrad Nwawo with the Late Fajuyi were the only two Nigerian Officers ever to earn the British Military Cross.
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