By admin
Ladies and gentlemen, i am very excited to introduce the next book about the Nigeria-Biafra civil war to you, and it is titled ‘A Tragedy Without Heroes’, and its author is no other person than Brig Hilary Njoku, he unbeknown to most people was the first GOC of the Biafran army, until he was removed by Ojukwu and replaced by Gen Madiebo early in the war due to personality and ideological clashes with the Biafran Head of state, he was also implicated, although falsely in the Col Banjo and Maj Ifeajuna attempted coup against Ojukwu ?
This book took me ages to obtain, in fact i looked for it everywhere for years and even found a copy online going at an astronomical amount of money, but i finally got my copy and have since read it numerous times.
Brig Njoku focuses mainly on the Jan 15 1966 and July 29 1966 coups and gives a detailed insight into both as a high ranking officer and main player in both, in the first coup, he played a major role in crushing it thereby putting to bed the Igbo coup notion that has persisted till date in Nigeria, he also answered a lot of questions that non-Igbo ask about certain things that happened just before the coup that made them suspect an Igbo grand plan like – Why didn’t Njoku hand over the 2nd Battalion Ikeja to Lt Col Gowon on the 14th of Jan as planned ? – Njoku says it was his Commander Brig Maimalari that told him to wait with the handover till further notice, unfortunately, Brig Maimalari lost his life brutally hours later to his Brigade Major Ifeajuna. Most Nigerians seem to think that Igbo officers deliberately occupied strategic post to initiate the coup, but the accounts of this very honest officer i find very convincing and plausible.
He was also with Gen Aguiyi Ironsi on his ill-fated final trip to Ibandan on July 28 1966 and narrowly escaped being killed when he tried to leave the Government house very early in the morning of the 29th to return to Lagos to rally loyal troops, he was machine gunned and was seriously wounded but managed to run away, he was the most senior officer of Igbo origin to last see Ironsi alive and his account of those final hours are quite very heart rending and very touching to read, my favorite line from this action packed monster of a book is where he described how Gen Ironsi went to bed for the final time and i quote ” Dead on 12 mid-night the Supreme Commander rose and said goodnight. Francis and I responded”, because few hours later all hell broke loose as the counter coup that swept Ironsi from power and killed many officers of Eastern region and the ensuing ethnic cleansing pogroms commenced and culminated in a most devastating civil war.
I beg everyone to go and buy this book, I’ve purposefully held back in this write up and I’m trying not to give away too much about this book to encourage everyone to go and get their own copies. unlike myself, who suffered for years before obtaining my copy, it seems this great book is back online at Amazon.
