Nearly six decades after the 1966 coup that reshaped Nigeria’s political landscape, former military leader General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) has publicly absolved the Igbo ethnic group of any responsibility for the mutiny that toppled Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa’s civilian government.

The coupists did not stop at Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa; they also targeted and killed Northern Premier Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and Western Premier Chief Ladoke Akintola. Additionally, numerous senior military officers, particularly from the North, were executed in the violent uprising.

The fact that then-Head of State, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi, along with several high-ranking Igbo politicians and military officers, was spared fueled suspicions that the coup was an Igbo-driven plot. These suspicions were further reinforced by the fact that most of the coup’s masterminds were of Igbo origin. However, in his memoir A Journey in Service, former military leader Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) refuted this notion, emphasizing that the coup was not ethnically motivated.

In his account, Babangida pointed to Major John Obienu, an Igbo officer who helped put down the coup, while also noting that several high-ranking Igbo officers were among its casualties. His book further highlights the involvement of various ethnic groups, including Yoruba officers who played significant roles in the uprising.

Excerpts from the book, read: “It was a terrible time for the Nigerian military. As I have said elsewhere, as a young officer who saw all of this from a distance, probably, ethnic sentiments did not drive the original objective of the coup plotters.

“For instance, the head of the plotters, Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, was only ‘Igbo’ in name. Born and raised in Kaduna, his immigrant parents were from Okpanam in today’s Delta State, which, in 1966, was in the old mid-western region. Nzeogwu spoke fluent Hausa and was as ‘Hausa’ as any! He and his original team probably thought, even if naively, that they could turn things around for the better in the country.“

That said, it was heinously callous for Nzeogwu to have murdered Sir Ahmadu Bello and his wife, Hafsatu, because not only were they eminently adored by many but also because they were said not to have put up a fight. From that moment, the putsch was infiltrated by ‘outsiders’ to its supposed original intention, and it took on an unmistakably ethnic colouration, compounded by the fact that there were no related coup activities in the Eastern region.

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“It should, however, be borne in mind that some senior officers of Igbo extraction were also victims of the January coup. For instance, my erstwhile Commander at the Reconnaissance Squadron in Kaduna, Lt-Col. Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe, was brutally gunned down by his own ‘brother,’ Major Chris Anuforo, in the presence of his pregnant wife, at his 7 Point Road residence in Apapa, for merely being ‘a threat to the revolution’. As a disciplined and strict officer who, as the Quartermaster-General of the Army, was also in charge of ammunition, weapons, equipment, vehicles, and other vital items for the Army, the coup plotters feared that he might not cooperate with them.

“It should also be remembered that some non-Igbo officers, like Major Adewale Ademoyega, Captain Ganiyu Adeleke, Lts Fola Oyewole, and Olafimihan, took part in the failed coup. Another officer of Igbo extraction, Major John Obienu, crushed the coup.

“Those who argue that the original intention of the coup plotters was anything but ethnic refer to the fact that the initial purpose of the plotters was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo ‘from prison immediately after the coup and make him the executive provisional President of Nigeria.”

The Eastern Updates