THE JANUARY 15, 1966 COUP: A NEEDLESS MILITARY INTERFERENCE. By Zik Gbemre
"The military coup of January 15, 1966 was as needless as it was unnecessary." Gbemre.
"The excuse given for the incursion was that the Igbo young military officers were uncomfortable with some corrupt practices they noticed among the politicians at the time; but they ended up being worse than the so-called politicians they vilified and wasted."
"Nigeria, after sixty-one years, has not been able to reproduce leaders of such ideological depth and conviction, discipline, patriotism, integrity and high commitment to nation advancement as the likes of Sir Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Adegoke Adelabu, Ladoke Akintola, Festus Okotie-Eboh etc. whom the overzealous young khaki boys silenced forever with their guns."
"The military turned out to be more corrupt than those they replaced; and proved to be ill-prepared and ill-equipped for leadership. They had no defined ideology, no direction and no leadership experience. They sowed the seeds of the culture of poor leadership that has continued till date."
I was greatly moved with passion and admiration when I saw a recent post online of a picture of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, then Prime Minister of Nigeria, simply seated on the floor mat with his children and eating sugarcane. And I could not help but wonder why can’t we have such leaders today in Nigeria, whose life exudes a man on a mission to serve the people and nothing else.
In fact, the said picture, and the life and times of Tafawa Belewa - is indeed laden with life lessons that all our current crop of Nigerian politicians will do well to emulate. For a man of his status then and Prime Minister - making humility, modesty, and simplicity the epicenter of his personality was a phenomenon that nearly transcends logic; and it is by that very fact that he remains more endearing, but most sacrosanct for all and sundry, more exemplary.
The write-up attached to the said picture also noted this fact. As it reads: “It was in the year 1963 and Nigeria's first and only Prime Minister (PM), Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa took his annual leave and was off to his village to spend it. Then a British photojournalist came along but they told him the that the prime minister (PM) had gone on vacation. The photojournalist then asked to which country? But he was shocked when they told him the Prime Minister went to spend the vacation in his own village. To satisfy his curiosity, he decided to travel to the village. But on getting to the village, there was no sign that a big man was in town. Everyone went on their normal business and the village was peacefully quiet. Then he met a farmer along the way with his donkey carrying bales of sugarcane, and he asked from the farmer the house of the prime minister. The photo journalist was again left speechless when the farmer told him that he had just left the Prime Minister and that if he gets to the Prime Minister's house, which he described, he would meet him sitting on the bare floor mat with his kids enjoying the sugarcane that he gave to them. The British photo journalist was dazed when he reached the prime minister's home. This is the picture that he took. May the labours of our heroes past never be in vain.
“Today, we have vagabonds and thieves in power. Those who disturb an entire city with sirens and their empty noises of vanity. Those who loot the treasury of an entire state and nation and still abuse our common intelligence with their embarrassing incompetence. Nigeria has all it takes to become the greatest nation on earth. All we need are visionary, dedicated and inspiring leaders and not the shameless rogues and incorrigible kleptomaniac bandits who lie, rob, cheat, rig and kill their way to power. When it is time to vote, remember your unborn children and use your head.”
Strong words you would agree, but that is the bitter truth of the Nigerian situation of today.
The truth is, there was no need for a coup in 15th January 1966 because the country as at then, was in the right hands, and on the right path of holistic growth that would have been for the benefit of all and sundry. But the then power-tasty military khaki boys who had other agendas up their sleeves, brazenly killed the then Nigerian leaders like Ahmadu Bello, Ladoke Akintola, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Adegoke Adelabu, Festus Okotie-Eboh, and some top military officers from the South-West and the North. Sadly, since then, Nigeria has known no peace, as other coups and counter coups, and even a civil war. But even with the military out of the picture, Nigeria has not been able to recover from that blow, especially since 1999 till date. While some might argue that the military came with the good intentions of correcting some wrongs in the polity then, but they ended up creating more unrepairable damage, hardships and sufferings for the common man, which have lingered till now.
I believe that, if the Nigerian leaders then, who were simple and ruled better then, were allowed to continue on the path they had established, I don’t think the Nigerian situation would be worse as it is today. I also recall the July 1961 U.S. first official visit of Nigeria’s First Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who was invited back then by John F. Kennedy and one could not help but notice how NIGERIANS WERE WELL RESPECTED and received then. Nigeria was well respected by the International Community back then. Back then, the enormous hopes invested in Nigeria by the world caused it to be deeply respected everywhere. Looking back, we would see what was in the minds and characters of some of our immediate post-Independence leaders, and the lofty dreams and aspirations they had for Nigeria.
Between July 25 and July 28, 1961, the late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and his modest entourage of about 10 key Government Officials (in contrast to the unwieldy heard of indolent hangers-on that accompany Nigerian Presidents on foreign visits these days) visited the United States at the invitation of the late President John F. Kennedy (as a Special Guest in Washington DC), during which Tafawa Balewa visited major historical landmarks in representative parts of the United States and “addressed a special Joint Session of the United States Congress” that was convened in his honor.
Only a select few are accorded the honor of addressing a Joint Session of the United States Congress. Certainly, no Nigerian Head of State has been accorded this honor since Tafawa Balewa, as far as we are aware. According to the website of the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, since 1874 when the King of Hawaii first addressed a Joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, there have been only 112 such privileges granted to foreign leaders and dignitaries. Tafawa Balewa’s powerfully delivered speech to the Joint Session was punctuated many times by loud, sustained standing ovations. That is not a regular occurrence, either. And in all the cities he and his entourage visited, which included New York, exultant crowds of Americans came out to wave at them hospitably, and U.S. Government Officials bowed reverently when they shook hands with the then Prime Minister. SUCH WAS THE DEPTH OF RESPECT NIGERIA INSPIRED IN THE 60S IN AMERICA. Back then, neighboring countries like Ghana and its citizens were trooping to Nigeria for ‘greener pastures’. But today, young Nigerians are the ones trooping out in droves to Ghana, South-Africa, Libya, Botswana, Kenya, Angola, etc. Indeed, our post-Independence generation, the military era and the now civilian generation have ruined the entire country.
Looking at the Nigeria of today, the Dreams of our Nigerian Founding Fathers have all been crushed. What happened to us? The close to two decades of Military dictatorship, plus the advent of Civilian administration since 1999, have left a Nigerian populace that is more disappointed with its political leaders than before. Nigeria is 61 currently, but all we see around us as Nigerians, is the rising hunger, hardship and poverty, high-profile corruption at all levels with reckless abandon and impunity; increasing insecurity flamed by our political leaders and threatening the unity of the nation; every sector replete with dysfunctional attributes that make them serve only the interest of the political class to the detriment of the common man, and the list is endless.
Sadly, with everything that is currently happening in the country, which have been shaking and threatening its unity, it is even more worrisome to note that our political leaders at all levels are going about their often ‘self-centered-driven agendas’ – like people who have not learnt, and are not willing to learn from the mistakes of the past, which have brought us to where we are today. Even with the glaring reality that, for some couple of years now, it is becoming more evident that the “majority of Nigerians no longer believe in the structural arrangement of the country and the way things were going”, the custodians of our collective wealth and resources are trotting about as if ‘all is well’, when in fact it is not.
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