Why the Yoruba should not dislike the Igbo

By Ikeazor Akaraiwe[1]

1. Introduction

In 1966, two events took place within 7 months which showed and continues to show the mind of the Igbo towards the Yoruba.

• The January 15, 1966 Military Coup

Five military officers (four Igbo and one Yoruba) overthrew the democratic order and ushered in a long night of military rule in Nigeria which lasted nearly 30 years. The sole Yoruba in the five-man leadership was not of the top two leaders of the putsch. The set objective of those military officers was to spring Chief Obafemi Awolowo from jail and make him President. Chief Awolowo was Yoruba.[2] (Sources: Gen. Olufemi Olutoye in Punch Newspapers of 31^st July 2016; Governor Ezeife in Daily Post of October 7, 2016; Awolowo and the forgotten documents of the civil war by Odia Ofeimun (2) in Vanguard Newspapers of November 3, 2012).

The President who had just been overthrown was Igbo, same ethnicity as majority of the coup plotters. Similarly, the Senate President and Chief of Army were Igbo. The idealistic young officers overthrew them in order to replace them with a government run by a Yoruba. They were not thinking tribe. They were thinking Nigeria. And if they had animus against the Yoruba would probably never have considered Chief Awolowo.

• The July 29, 1966 Military Coup

Fast forward seven months later to the countercoup of July 29, 1966, wherein Aguiyi-Ironsi, the Igbo General who (together with Col. Ojukwu, another Igbo) put down the Majors’ coup referred to above was overthrown by a coterie of northern soldiers seeking revenge for the January 15, 1966 coup and Ironsi’s failure to timeously try the coupists. After Ironsi was overthrown, Col. Ojukwu objected to the appointment of Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon as military Head of State, insisting rather on the most senior surviving military officer, Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe who happened to be Yoruba.[3] (Source: Pg. 106 Olusegun Obasanjo in the Eyes of Time – A biography of the African Statesman by Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo).

Col. Adekunle Fajuyi

Of course, the story about how Military Governor Fajuyi, a Yoruba, refused to allow the counter-coupists take away his guest Head of State Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo is one of the most heroic stories of selflessness and altruism in Nigeria thus far.

• How could the Igbo be alleged to want to take over Nigeria through a military coup led by Igbo persons, which military coup was stopped by two Igbo officers?

The above are two scenarios in which Igbo persons in crucial positions thought that the just thing in those peculiar circumstances was for the leadership of Nigeria to go to Yoruba persons. This mindset is a peculiarly Igbo mindset, which has never changed through succeeding generations. It is this mindset that propelled the Igbo to elect Mallam Umaru Altine, a Fulani from today’s Yobe State Mayor of Enugu in the Igbo heartland from 1952 to 1958. 

It is often alleged that the Military coup of January 15, 1966, was part of an Igbo strategic plan to take over control of Nigeria. But the scenarios outlined above show that this is not true. Even though 4 out of the 5 commanding officers were Igbo (due obviously to the demographic advantage of the Igbo in the officer corps of the military at the time), it is noteworthy that the coup was also put down by two Igbo officers, General Aguiyi-Ironsi and Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu. So, how could the Igbo be alleged to want to take over Nigeria through a military coup led by Igbo persons, which military coup was squelched by two Igbo officers?

This is the major argument against ‘ethnicising’ that military coup.

• Conclusion – Tragedy of Errors

Suffice to say that:

• The military coup of January 15, 1966 was an error.
• The decision of Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (born of a Sierra Leonean father and an Igbo mother[4] (Source: The Inside Story of Nigeria’s 1^st Military Coup by Max Siollun, [email protected]) to institute a military government instead of handing over to the most senior civilian minister, the Prime Minister having been killed was another mistake.
• The decision also of Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi to promulgate the Unification Decree which replaced Nigeria’s federal structure with a unitary structure was an error, which still militates against the progress of Nigeria.
• The countercoup of July 29, 1966, and the anti-Igbo genocidal pogroms which followed was a gross mistake. Two wrongs do not make right.

Nigeria needs statesmen and women to navigate her out of the historical morass which has institutionalised her as a house divided against itself.   

[1] Ikeazor Akaraiwe is a lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a public commentator.

[2] Punch Newspapers of 31^st July 2016 – attributed to Gen. Olufemi Olutoye; Daily Post of October 7, 2016 – attributed to Governor Ezeife / Vanguard Newspapers of November 3, 2012 – article titled Awolowo and the forgotten documents of the civil war by Odia Ofeimun (2))

[3] Pg. 106 Olusegun Obasanjo in the Eyes of Time – A biography of the African Statesman by Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo

[4] The Inside Story of Nigeria’s 1^st Military Coup by Max Siollun, [email protected]