Thread by @beegeaglesblog

@se_fola Well, Bassey took the honourable path and actually retired as a Lt Colonel at the end of 1966 but somehow returned to the NA. He finally retired from his diplomatic posting as a brigadier after the 1975 coup

@se_fola Ojukwu had an idealistic view of 29 July. It stemmed from Ironsi's suppression of 15 January. The latter was first blood & quelled by a united & still-naive army. The former was about revenge & redressing the setbacks suffered by the North

@se_fola From concept to delivery, nobody other than am officer of northern extraction could have reaped the rewards of 29 July. Reason why even an officer from the similarly-bruised West could have possibly replaced Ironsi

@se_fola So goading Ogundipe into taking charge was neither here nor there. Take over with which troops? All the units in Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan had been seized by a mix of mutinous northern troops & coup makers.

@se_fola IF that were possible, they would have handed over to Colonel Adebayo or any of Lt Cols Bassey, Banjo, Imo or Nwawo. Shorn of wild extrapolation, power was simply handed over to Gowon simply because he was the most senior northerner

@se_fola As of Jan 1966, Gowon was the fifth most senior northerner in the NA behind Brig MaImalari, Colonel Kur Mohd, Lt Col Largema & Lt Col Pam in that order. Their killings paved the way for Gowon to stand in pole position

@se_fola At the meeting which took place at Ikeja Cantonment with federal permsecs such as Ejueyitchie, Damcida, Gobir, Ayida et al, Murtala, the coup leader effectively handed over to Gowon thus: "you are the senior, go ahead"

@se_fola Knowing that there were officers senior to Gowon such as Ogundipe, Adebayo, Bassey, Ejoor et al, I am sure a balanced assessor can tell that Murtala meant "the seniormost northerner" and not the "semiormost Nigerian"

@se_fola Only mischief makers who are intent on ethnic baiting would seriously advance the silly idea that Ogundipe chickened out. Even Ironsi's "own" Federal Guards had been seized by mutinous northern troops

@se_fola Did the top commanders in Lagos on the day such as Imo and Njoku have control of their units? No. Was Lt Col Akahan at Ibadan likely to cooperate?No. Lt Col Ogunewe had his hands full at Enugu while Lt Col Okoro was eliminated at Kaduna

@se_fola So where, far or near, were coup busters supposed to emerge from? Cameroon or Niger? Oh, I forgot..the Garrison Commander at Abeokuta, Lt Col Gabriel Okonweze had also been eliminated alongside Major Obienu, the Reece Squadron commander under him

@se_fola Mind you, the only garrisons in NGR on the day were Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Kaduna (all seized by coupists+mutineers) and Kano+Enugu. In Kano, Lt Col Shuwa had his hands full trying to protect Igbos, even as mutinous troops managed to kill some at the airport

@se_fola At Enugu, Lt Col Ogunewe had a stellar outing by managing to broker a truce, having pacified + successfully stood down northern officers there such as GS Jalo, Shehu Yar'Adua, Mohd Jega, YY Kure et al

@se_fola That was the picture nationwide on the day. So how was Ogundipe supposed to counteract five of the six garrisons. The officers and men at only one which did not mutiny - Enugu - were engaged in checking themselves. How do I mean?

@se_fola At Enugu, everyone was disarmed and the armoury manned by a mix of northern and southern troops. Troop from either side were then mustered at the same point where they could keep tabs om each other while officers sat facing each other at the Mess

@se_fola All of those were confidence-building measures were put in place just so that they could account for everyone's movement. Yet, that tense standoff was at Enugu, the only unit which was quiet on the day

@se_fola Assuming that Enugu garrison alone could take on the rest garrisons nationwide(a pipe dream), was that where Ogundipe was supposed to rally troops from to play coup buster, given the tension at Enugu itself?

@se_fola In that same Enugu where he was holed up and regardless of the superb leadership of the garrison by Ogunewe, Ojukwu only felt safe being under MOPOL guard. Yet here we are talking about Ogundipe in anarchical Lagos?

@se_fola Nigerian history will never amount to much until we are able to rise above the primitive impulse which drives many of us into seeking to wield history like a weapon in furtherance of ethnic vendetta