By admin
Good evening dear readers of Biafran-war-reports, sorry for the brief hiatus from bringing you your beloved Biafran war history and archives, well we’re back and hopefully we can carry on from where we left off.
I bring you another great work; a historical masterpiece; with regards to the events of 1966, because the events in this book; brief as they are in relation to our theme, do pack a punch, because they are first-hand stories and also reveal a very huge secret about what happened, that Nigerians still argue about till this day and are still split on.
Memoir Of Mixed Blessings is another great piece of literary artwork by the author, a highly intelligent communications expert, who through his work and position became very close to the top Nigerian hierachy, both civilian and military during the 60s and 70s. But i’ll ignore various parts of this wonderful book and just stick to the most important bits and let the reader go once again and buy this book online on Amazon.
The first bit I reveal, is the fact that the Jan 15 1966 coup by the 5 army majors, was an anticipated coup, known by the top government officials, including the Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa etc, but what they did with the information was another thing. A lot of warnings were recieved and passed on, but nothing was done.
According to Chief Akindele in chapter 6 of his brilliant book, suddenly in November 1965, the Commander of 4th Brigade Kaduna, Brig Sam Ademulegun, visited them in Lagos (they were from the same village) and said he was on an unusual visit, which when he returned, he looked downcast and sullen and refused to eat, but later on revealed to his kinsman that the Premier of the North, Sarduana of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello had sent him with a warning to the Prime Minister Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, and that the Prime Minister had dismissed the message as rumours and, told him to return to his work.
The above paragragh is quite important to Nigerian history, in that, this is one of the first instance where someone confirms first-hand that the military and goverment, elite were aware of the impending coup and did nothing. Most other accounts about the fore-warnings are usually from second-hand or third-hand sources, who obviously are all correct. But I must point out that the Brigadier never revealed the message to Chief akindele, it is only with hindsight later on in 1966, after the coup had occurred, that chief Akindele put it all together, that some officers were planning to topple the government.
Fast-forward to Ironsi’s last week, Chief Akindele it must be said was very close to the Ironsi’s and were even neighbours at one time, so in his last week alive, he’d asked the chief to help him bring Col Robert Adebayo back from London for a meeting which never happened, because he died in Ibadan a days later in the July 29 Northern counter coup.
I am deliberately giving out the main spoilers in the very important book. Chief akindele and Col Adebayo without Brig Ogundipe, went for an important meeting at the residence of the Chief Justice of Nigeria; Justice Adetokumbo Ademola, as the confusion of July 29 -31st was going on and Nigeria had no Head of State for 3 days. During the tense meeting the Chief Justice decided to put a call to the former Governor of the North Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim for any information, when he got through, he suggested to the former governor, that the next in-line to Gen Ironsi, Brig Ogundipe, should be appointed in an acting role, to which the Sir Kashim said, ‘ If he (Ogundipe) had the nerves of a soldier, he should have asserted his authority and taken over’, to which Sir Ademola replied in the affirmative, but suggested that the situation could still be remedied.
Sir Kashim bluntly told a shocked and shaken sir Ademola, that it was too late for that, and in his words, he said ‘ Our man is in Ikeja and will speak to the nation soon’. Well as we all know, Lt Col Yakubu Gowon spoke to the nation on the 1st of August and subsequently became the ruler of Nigeria. this narration here puts to bed the lie, that Gen Gowon had no hand in the ouster and death of Gen Ironsi, as widely believed and written in Nigerian media and books and also querries the notion that Brig Babafemi Ogundipe couldn’t have taken over because of various reasons.
Remember that the coup that toppled Gen Ironsi was meticulously planned by the following: 1. Northern army officers, 2. Northern Civil servants, 3. Northern Politicians, 4. Northern Emirs, 5. Northern Academia, 6. British Intelligence and Expartriate community in the North – see my writings on Major Boyle a British agent in Gen Madiebo’s book and Rear Admiral Maduke’s book, in our book section. Reading from the above list, when then a high ranking northern man like Sir Kashim says that Gowon was their man, it means he was picked way before the actual coup, despite his denials.
I left 2 spoilers out deliberately, please let us know in our comment section, after you’ve read the book.
Please go and buy this book on Amazon online at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Memoir-Blessings-Theophilus-Oluwole-Akindele/dp/9783817353
or read this link:https://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2022/07/31/flashback-ironsis-56th-memorial-my-role-in-ogundipes-escape-akindele/
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