50 years after: Here are 10 things to know about Nigeria’s bloodiest coup

Nigeria on July 29, 1966, experienced what is today referred to as one of the bloodiest military coup d’etat in Africa.

General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi

The first military coup which took place on January 15, 1966, took the lives of many northern leaders, It also generated controversies which many expected General Aguiyi Ironsi to address but he didn’t.

Ironsi instead promulgated Decree Number 34 of 1966, which abrogated the federal system of government and substituted a unitary system; he argued that the military could only govern in this way. Given the already charged atmosphere, this action reinforced northern fears. It was at the height of northern opposition to unitarism that the countercoup of July 1966 took place.

READ ALSO: The significance of the death of Adekunle Fajuyi

The 1966 Nigerian coup d’état began on January 15, 1966 when mutinous Nigerian soldiers led by Kaduna Nzeogwu assassinated 11 senior Nigerian politicians and two soldiers as well as kidnapping three others.

The coup plotters attacked the cities of Kaduna, Ibadan, and Lagos while also blockading the Niger and Benue River within a two-day span of time before the coup plotters were subdued.

A senior Army officer, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi then used the coup as a pretext to annex power, ending Nigeria’s nascent democracy.

Here are 10 things you should know about the coup:

1. The coup is a fall out of the January 1966 coup which was championed by Easterners and led to the death of many northern leaders.

2. The coup is widely called the 1966 counter coup or July Rematch.

3. It was masterminded by Lt Colonel Murtala Muhammed and many northern military officers.

Lt Col Hassan Katsina, Lt Col Adekunle Fajuyi, Major Gen Aguiyi Ironsi, Lt Col Odumegwu Ojukwu and Lt Col David Ejoor

4. 2nd Lieutenant Sani Abacha, Lieutenant Colonel Murtala Muhammed, Major Theophilus Danjuma, Lieutenant Buka Suka Dimka, Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida were part of the coup plotters.

5. President Muhammadu Buhari who was a Lieutenant at 2 Brigade Lagos was also named among the plotters.

6. 42 officers from Eastern Nigeria, more than a hundred non-commissioned officers and thousands of innocent civilians mostly of Eastern Nigeria origin lost their lives as a consequence of this coup.

7. Upon the termination of Ironsi’s government, Lt Colonel Yakubu Gowon was appointed Head of State by the July 1966 coup conspirators.

READ ALSO: 50 years after: This is what Buhari has been told to do for Major Gen Aguiyi Ironsi

8. It was one of the events that led to the Nigerian Civil War.

9. 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.

10. In the early hours on January 15, 1966 Nzeogwu decided to turn “Exercise Damisa” into a full blown military coup.

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