Nigeria’s first Two –Star General. First African to command United Nations forces. First compatriot to command the Army. First Private to rise to the rank of General in the Nigeria Army. First of our country men to serve as Equerry to Queen Elizabeth of England. First Military ruler of our country.
Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi. OFR, MVO, MBE, PSC, IDC. Ironsi emerged as Head of State in 1966 without taking part in the coup that toppled the Azikiwe/ Balewa Government. He was penciled down for execution but ended up hunting the hunters. At the end, the politicians voluntarily handed over power to him.
In a broadcast at 11.50 p.m. on January 16, 1966, Acting President, Dr. Akweke Abyssinia Nwafor Orizu said :” I have been advised by the Council of Ministers that they had come to the unanimous decision voluntarily to hand over administration of the country to the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic with immediate effect”.
The General ended his acceptance speech thus:” The invitation has been accepted and I, GENERAL JOHNSON THOMAS UMUNNAKWE AGUIYI-IRONSI, the General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army, have been formally invested with authority as Head of the Federal Military Government and Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces.”
That was the day this man’s problems began. The North accused him of not killing all those that overthrew the previous government.
They said his Unification decree favoured the Igbo. But his Supreme Military Council [SMC] of nine officers had only two Igbo, himself and Lt.Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
The others were Brigadier Babafemi Olatunde Ogundipe,Lt.Col. Yakubu Chinwa ‘Jack’ Gowon, Commodore Joseph Edet Akinwale Wey, Lt.Col.George Tamunoiyowunam Kurubo, Lt.Col. Hassan Usman Katsina, Lt. Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi and Lt.Col David Akpode Ejoor.
The 12-member Executive Council comprised the nine SMC members and Major Mobolaji Olufunso Johnson, Mr. Luis Orok Edet and Alhaji Kam Selem. Out of his 23 Permanent Secretaries, eight were from the North, Mid-West had seven, Westerners were five and only three came from the Eastern Region. Ironsi appointments were skewed towards the North.
In the Army, he promoted Katsina from Major to Lt.Col. The quartet of Murtala Rufai Mohammed, Mohammed Shuwa, Iliya Bisalla and Ibrahim Bata Malgwi Haruna who were temporary Majors became substantive Lt. Cols. Police Chief Edet gave way to Selem. Gowon was Army boss, over and above Col. Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, Lt.Cols Wellington Umoh Bassey, Hilary Mbilitem Njoku, Conrad Nwawo and Philip Effiong.
Ironsi’s Private Secretary was Hamzat Ahmadu, Commander of his Personal escorts was William Godang Walbe and one of his ADCs was Mohammed Sani Bello. Inspite of these appointments, soldiers from the North plotted and killed him in a most uncivilized manner. They were advised against doing it up North and grabbed him in the Western Region, with no respect to his host,Fajuyi. Among those who went for Ironsi were Captain Yakubu Theophilus Danjuma, Lts. Garba Dada Paiko, Walbe, Abdullahi Shelleng, Nuhu Nathan, Titus Numan and Pam Mwadkon.
The leaders were Murtala and Capt. Martin Adamu. Capt. Adul Wya, Lts. Bukar Suka Dimka and Ibrahim Bako also played active roles. Danjuma and Adamu were pioneer Cadets of the Nigeria Military Training College.
They entered in March 1960 as members of Course One. Among their mates were Ben Gbulie, Alani Akinrinade, Godwin Alabi-Isama, Ayo Ariyo, David Lasisi Bamigboye, Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, Simeon Uwakwe, Pius Eromobor, Emmanuel Abisoye, Ignatius Obeya, Chiabi, JOC ihedigbo and Sule Apollo. Ironsi and Fajuyi were the very best in terms of courage.
Ironsi as a Lt.Col and Commander of the Nigerian Battalion in Congo in 1960, flew on a light plane to Katanga and all alone secured the release of captured Austrian medical workers and some soldiers.
This earned him the Ritter Kruez [First Class] Medal courtesy of the Austrian Chancellor. Fajuyi was decorated with the Military Cross during the same crisis, the first Nigerian to be so honoured.
These two brave men were led like common criminals and killed in Olodo on the Ibadan Iwo –Road by Non Commissioned Officers who had no respect for even the officers that led them to the Government House, Ibadan. Among the assassins were Ibrahim Rabo, Clement Dabang, Useni Fagge and Tijanni Maiduguri.
The British recognized Ironsi as a man of courage. He trained at Camberley Staff College and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in 1949. Ironsi was Military Adviser to the Nigerian High Commission in London between 1961 and 1962.
The officer was also at the Imperial Defence College. The Brits found a name for him. Johnnie Ironside. This name was derived from Baron William Edmund Ironside [1881-1959], British Field Marshal who fought the Boer War and also took active part in the Two World Wars.
He was a Scot, born in Ironside, Aberdeenshire. What an irony that some of those who plotted Ironsi’s down fall or took part in his execution also died as a result of subsequent plots.
Dimka, Rabo, Dabang, Sabo Kwale, MacDonald Gotipb, and Wya were executed following the assassination of Murtala Mohammed. Musa Bitiyong was shot in 1986 for plotting against General Ibrahim Babangida. Bako died during the December 1983 coup. Dabang was picked from the hospital bed and tied to the stakes, Rabo of NDA Course Three was begging for the rope around his neck to be slackened as he was “ being choked before the time”.
Ironsi’s son became Defence Minister of Nigeria, shortly after Danjuma vacated the position, thanks to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo whose junior, Murtala was promoted to Lt.Col. by the same Ironsi while he [OBJ] remained a Major. Ironsi was married to Victoria before he was toppled for Gowon to reign.
Gowon was a bachelor. But he found a wife named Victoria. Aguiyi means crocodile. Ironsi got a carving from the Congo, a crocodile and used it as swagger stick. Those who murdered him also feared the non living croc.
By Emeka Obasi – New Telegraph
