Word: coups
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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With a barrage of decrees, Major General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi's regime last week began clearing away the rubble of black Africa's bloodiest military coup. "Firm, honest and disciplined leadership" was what he promised a nationwide radio audience. More important, if less certain, was his pledge that "the federal military government will preserve Nigeria as one strong nation...
...bloodiest military coup any black African nation has yet suffered. At least 40 civilians and 24 army officers were killed, and throughout the week bullet-stitched bodies kept turning up in such unlikely places as the 13th tee of a Lagos golf course. It was all the more shocking because Nigeria in its five years of independence has been held up as a showcase of stable African democracy. Unfortunately, the showcase was badly cracked long before the coup that shattered...
Fortnight ago, Akintola and the Sardauna of Sokoto met secretly in Ibadan, decided to call in the army to crush the growing rebellion. As far as the junior officers were concerned, that was the last straw. They launched their long-planned coup. "Our enemies," said Nzeogwu, "are the political profiteers, the men that seek bribes, those that seek to keep the country divided permanently so they can remain in office as Ministers, tribalists and nepotists, those that have corrupted our society and put the political calendar back...
Coffin & Banner. It is probable that the conspirators, who believe with Nzeogwu that "only in the army do you get true Nigerianism," intended to follow the coup with a Nasser-style revolution based on a permanent military regime. But they quickly lost their control of the army to the remaining senior officers under Army Commander Aguiyi Ironsi. A tough and respected soldier who served as commander of the United Nations forces in the Congo, "Johnny Ironsides," as Ironsi is known, had other ideas. He recalled Nzeogwu from the north, replaced him with a moderate northern officer, appointed other moderates...
...Nigerian Government, like the New York City Council, must contain a balance of ethnic elements to guard against the charge of domination by a single clique. And as the coup has demonstrated, any tribe with a large representation in the army itself (or in the Federal police force) must not be allowed to think that it has been encircled or unscrupulously outmaneuvered. As for the minor tribes, one may expect some of them to rebel occasionally and to be pacified, as under the British, by a combination of administrative reform and armed force...