PMB’s missed opportunity

The 50th anniversary of the assassination of General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi together with the military governor of the Western region, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi – as part of a revenge coup in which many other officers of Igbo extraction were killed – was marked last week. There were various activities to commemorate the milestone in the […]

The 50th anniversary of the assassination of General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi together with the military governor of the Western region, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi – as part of a revenge coup in which many other officers of Igbo extraction were killed – was marked last week. There were various activities to commemorate the milestone in the East and the West. Understandably the North was relatively quiet.
I thought it would have been a good occasion for President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation on the need for national cohesion, highlighting the heavy price we have had to pay over the years for the fragile nation we have today. He could have used the occasion, too, to empathise with all those who made and are still making great sacrifices to keep our country together – and reassure the cynical of his determination to ensure justice for all, going forward.
The events of July 29, 1966, were that significant. The coup of January that year had been perceived as an Igbo coup since most of its planners were Igbo and no politician of Igbo extraction was killed. The Premiers of the West and the North were killed. So was the Prime Minister of the nation and some of his cabinet colleagues. Senior military officers of northern and Western extractions were similarly executed but no Igbo was among the casualties – except for Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe, was reportedly shot by Anuforo because he was known to be close to Brig. Maimalari. It was only a matter of time for the centre to cave in.
General Ironsi had taken over government as the most senior military officer after Senate President Nwafor Orizu, in the absence of President Nnamdi Azikiwe (who had conveniently gone abroad on ‘medical treatment’) handed power to the military following Balewa’s death. A soldier’s soldier, Ironsi was a thoroughbred military man but wasn’t a politician. The final straw that broke the camel’s back came in the shape of the proposed Decree 34 which divided Nigeria into 35 provinces and made all civil servants part of a unified civil service.
That move unintentionally sent shivers through the northern civil service because that region was both educationally disadvantaged and paid the lowest wages in the federation, automatically relegating northerners to the bottom of any unified civil service. The North felt buffeted by ill-winds militarily, politically and in the bureaucratic sphere. Something was bound to give.
Following General Ironsi’s broadcast on Tuesday evening May 24, making Nigeria a Unitary State, initially peaceful demonstrations by civil servants and students began on Friday, May 27. On Saturday, May 28 copies of the June edition of Drum magazine arrived in the North, containing two provocative articles; “Why Nigeria Exploded” by Nelson Ottah (a foremost Igbo editor of Drum) which allegedly derided northern leaders, and “Sir Ahmadu rose in his shrouds and spoke from the dead” by Coz Idapo, which featured a photo montage in which the revered late Premier was asking for forgiveness from Idapo (I have since confirmed that Ottah was on leave at the time and the articles were ‘ghosted’ by Drum proprietor, Jim Bailey).
The cauldron blew over on July 29, 1966. Unfortunately, that ‘revenge’ coup was bloodier than the first. Since then we have continued to blunder from one faux pas to the other, scared to look at ourselves in the mirror. Five decades on, we are still a mere gathering of the tribes instead of a vibrant nation; and we appear daunted by the task of social engineering that has to be done to heal the country and weld it together.
Every nation on earth is work in progress. The 50th anniversary of the bloodiest coup in Nigeria would have been a good peg for President Buhari to hang his message of reconciliation and journey to a new beginning. Some of those who bore the brunt of the first and second coups in Nigeria have refused to come to terms with what happened. This occasion would have given the president an opportunity to touch their hearts and appeal also to the militants in the creeks that violence doesn’t beget endearing results.
Our nation is in dire need of healing. Occasions such as the 50th anniversary of that bloody chapter in our history should not have gone unmarked without orchestrating a conversation on the lessons we have learnt from the momentous events which, though happened five decades ago, have continued to dog our steps.
If we don’t learn from history and share what we have learnt with all and sundry, we are bound to repeat the same mistakes. Going forward, public relations planners in the presidency must tag landmarks like the July 29 anniversary and ensure that the president seizes the moment to rouse his fellow countrymen and women to bury bitter memories and join the train towards a new Nigeria.
DONATE SEIZED FOODS TO IDPs
“What is the sense in Nigerian Customs seizing edible items and destroying same when we have millions of hungry Nigerians in Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) camps in the Northeast?”, asked Ayo on one of the several social media fora I regularly visit. I have been wrestling with that issue myself for a while. Here we are, with millions of people starving all over the country – and we are setting seized food ablaze.
If the food is certified edible, why waste it. Wouldn’t it be doing more good in the stomachs of the underprivileged than as ashes in a Customs burning field? I don’t buy the argument of cynics who say that the items would be diverted if marked out for donation to IDPs. Are we saying that we lack the ability to police ourselves and carry out instructions? Or, is it the case that Customs officers will prefer to burn the items so that there would be no evidence of tampering? If 800 kg of frozen turkey is seized and 300 kg is burnt, how does anybody measure what ought to be vis-a-vis what is?