Gowon says Northern officials suspected Ojukwu of complicity in…

Former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon said northern military officers believed Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was complicit in the January 1966 coup and wanted to take action against him.

Gowon disclosed this in his memoir _My Life of Duty and Allegiance_ which was launched to the public in Abuja on Tuesday.

The January 1966 coup, led mainly by officers of Igbo origin, led to the killing of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Northern Region Premier Ahmadu Bello, Western Region Premier Ladoke Akintola, Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh and several Northern military officers including Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari.

The coup failed and General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi became head of state. A counter-coup in July 1966 killed Ironsi and brought Gowon, then a lieutenant colonel and army chief, to power.

Ojukwu, then governor of the eastern region, rejected Gowon’s leadership. He argued that Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, the most senior officer, should succeed Ironsi.

Gowon wrote that Ogundipe “could no longer function effectively in the command and control structure” after the coup. With the consent of the British government, Ogundipe was appointed as Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

“Ojukwu rejected my offer of friendship,” Gowon wrote. “He believed that ‘normal’ seniority protocol should be respected in choosing General Ironsi’s successor under the new administration, regardless of the circumstances under which I assumed power.”

Gowon said he did not believe Ojukwu’s position was based on defending the army hierarchy.

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“Ojukwu’s strong opinion that I was junior to him in the hierarchy was not said at the time. He did not realize that he was being seriously threatened because the young Northern officers believed he was complicit in the January 15, 1966 coup,” he wrote.

Gowon said he anticipated any attempt to take action against Ojukwu “in part, because of my respect for all regional governors and, more importantly, because I saw him primarily as a colleague and an officer with whom I thought I had worked to restore normalcy.”

He added that he believed they could “rebuild the army and allow the country to continue its course in history.”

[Report culled from TheCable]

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