.On the night of
January 15th 1966 a coupd’etat took
place in Nigeria which resultedin the
murder of a number of leadingpolitical
figures and senior army officers.This
was the first coup in the history of
ourcountry and 98 per cent of the
officersthat planned and led it were
Igbo. Fromthe political class those that
were killedincluded the following: Sir
AbubakarTafawa Balewa, the Prime
Minister, whowas abducted from his
home and whosebody was dumped
somewhere along theLagos-Abeokuta
road.Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of
the oldNorthern Region, who was killed
in the sanctityof his own home together
with his wife, hisdriver and his security
assistant. Chief S.L.Akintola, the
Premier of the old Western Region,who
was gunned down in the presence of
hisfamily and Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh,
theMinister of Finance, who was
brutalized,abducted from his home and
whose body waslater dumped in a
bush.From the ranks of the military
those that weremurdered included
Brigadier Zakari Maimalari,who had
held a cocktail party in his home a
fewhours earlier that evening which
was attendedby most of the young
officers that participatedin the coup.
Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun whowas
shot to death in his matrimonial bed
alongwith his eight-month pregnant
wife. Othersincluded Col. Ralph
Shodeinde, Col. KurMuhammed, Lt. Col.
James Pam, PC YohannaGarkawa, PC
Haga Lai, Lance Corporal MusaNimzo,
Sgt. Daramola Oyegoke, PC
AkpanAnduka and Ahmed Ben
Musa.Sadly the mutineers came to our
home thatnight as well and they
brutalized and abductedmy father,
Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode,
theDeputy Premier of the old Western
Region.What I witnessed that night was
traumatic anddevastating for me and
my family and, ofcourse, what the
nation witnessed that nightwas horrific.
It was a night of carnage, barbarityand
terror. The events of that night set
inmotion a series of events which
changed ourhistory. The consequences
of the events of thatnight are still with
us till this day. It was a sadand terrible
night: one of blood and slaughter.What
I witnessed was as follows. In the
middleof the night, my mother came
into the roomwhich I shared with my
older brother, Rotimiand my younger
sister Toyin. I was six years oldat the
time. The lights had been cut so we
werein darkness and all we could see
were lightsfrom three large vehicles.
The official residencehad a very long
drive so it took the vehicles awhile to
reach us.We saw three sets of
headlights and heard theengines of
three lorries drive up the drive-way.The
occupants of the lorries, who
wereuniformed men and who carried
torches,positioned themselves and
prepared to stormour home whilst
calling my fathers name andordering
him to come out. My father went out
tomeet them after he had called us,
prayed for usand explained to us that
since it was him theywanted he must go
out there. He explained thathe would
rather go out to meet them than
letthem come into the house to shoot
or harm us.The minute he stepped out,
they brutalised him.I witnessed this.
They tied him up and threwhim into
one of the the lorry. Interestingly,
thefirst thing they said to him was
“where are yourthugs now?” My father’s
response was “I don’thave thugs, only
gentlemen.” I think this madethem
brutalise him even more. They tied
himup, threw him in the back of the
lorry and thenstormed the house.When
they got into the house, they
ransackedevery nook and cranny,
shooting into the ceilingand wardrobes.
They were very brutal andfrightful and
we were terrified. My mother,Chief
Mrs. Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode,
wasscreaming and crying from the
balcony becauseall she could do was
focus on her husband, whowas
downstairs.“Don’t kill him, don’t kill
him!!” she keptscreaming at them. I can
still visualise this andhear her voice
pleading, screaming and crying. Ididn’t
know where my brother or sister was
atthis point because the house was in
total chaos.I was just six years old and I
was standing therein the middle of the
house, surrounded byuniformed men
who were ransacking the wholeplace
and terrorising my family.Then out of
the blue something
extraordinaryhappened. All of a sudden
one of the soldierscame up to me, put
his hand on my head andsaid: “don’t
worry, we won’t kill your father,
stopcrying.” He said this thrice. After he
said it thethird time I looked in his eyes
and I stoppedcrying. This was because
he gave me hope andhe spoke with
compassion. With new-
foundconfidence I went rushing to my
mother whowas still screaming on the
balcony and told herto stop crying
because the soldier had promisedthat
they would not kill my father and
thateverything would be okay.I held on
to the words of that soldier and
thatnight, despite all that was going on
around me, Inever cried again. They
took my father awayand as the lorry
drove off my mother kept onwailing
and crying and so was everyone else
inthe house except for me.From there
they went to the home of Chief
S.L.Akintola, the Premier of the Western
Region, agreat statesman and
nationalist and a very dearuncle of
mine. My mother had phoned
Akintolato inform him of what had
happened in ourhome. She was
sceaming down the phoneasking where
her husband had been taken andby this
time she was quite hysterical.
ChiefAkintola tried to calm her down
assuring herthat all would be
well.When they got to Akintola’s house
he alreadyknew that they were coming
and he wasprepared for them. Instead
of coming out tomeet them, he had
stationed some of hispolicemen and
they started shooting. A gunbattle
ensued and consequently the
mutineerswere delayed by at least one
hour. According tothe Special Branch
reports and the officialstatements of
the mutineers that survived thatnight
and that were involved in the
operationtheir plan had been to pick up
my father andChief Akintola from their
homes, take them toLagos, gather them
together with the otherpolitical leaders
that had been abducted andthen
execute them all together.The difficulty
they had was that Akintolaresisted them
and he and his policemen endedup
wounding two of the soldiers that came
tohis home. One of the soldiers, whose
name wasapparently James, had his
fingers blown off andthe other had his
ear blown off. After some timeChief
Akintola's ammunition ran out and
theshooting stopped. His policemen
stood downand they surrendered. He
came out waving awhite handkerchief
and the minute he steppedout they just
slaughtered him.My father witnessed
Akintola's cold-bloodedmurder in utter
shock and horror because hewas tied
up in the back of the lorry from
wherehe could see everything that
transpired. Thesoldiers were
apparently enraged by the factthat two
of their men had been wounded
andthat Akintola resisted and delayed
them. Afterthey killed him, they moved
on to Lagos withmy father. When they
got there, they went tothe Officer’s
Mess at Dodan Barracks.When they
took my dad away everyone in
ourhome thought he had been killed.
The nextmorning a handful of
policemen came and tookus to the
house of my mother’s first
cousin,Justice Atanda Fatai Williams,
who was a judgeof the Western Region
at the time. He laterbecame the Chief
Justice of Nigeria. From therewe were
taken to the home of Justice
AdenekanAdemola, another High Court
judge at the time,who was a very close
friend of my father andwho later
became a Judge of the Court
ofAppeal.At this point the whole
country had been throwninto confusion
and no one knew what was goingon. We
heard lots of stories and did not
knowwhat to make of what anymore.
There waschaos and confusion and the
entire nation wasgripped by fear.Two
days later my father finally called us on
thetelephone and he told us that he was
okay.When we heard his voice, I kept
telling mymother “I told you, I told you.”
Justice Ademolaand his dear wife,
Auntie Frances, wereweeping, my
mother was weeping, my brotherand
sister were weeping and I was just
rejoicingbecause I knew that he would
not be killed andI had told them all.I
never got to know who that soldier was
(thatpromised me that my father would
not bekilled), but I believe that God
spoke through himthat night. I also
believe that he may well havebeen an
officer because he spoke
withconfidence and authority.These
individuals who carried out this
coupwere not alone: they got some
backing fromelements in the political
class who identifiedwith them. Some
have said that it was an Igbocoup whilst
others have said that it was anUPGA
(referring to the political
alliancebetween the Action Group and
the NCNC) coupbut that is a story for
another day.Whatever anyone calls it or
believes two thingsare clear: the
consequences of the action thatthose
young officers took that night were far-
reaching and the way and manner in
which theykilled their victims was
deplorable and barbaric.Such savagery
had never been witnessed in
ourshores. There has never been
another night likethat and the results of
that night have beendevastating and
profound.In my view not enough
Nigerians appreciatethis fact. Some in
our country cannot forgivethose who
participated in the mutiny and,though I
do not share that sentiment
ordisposition, this is understandable.
Othersbelieve that those young men
(they were all intheir 20's) did the right
thing and they say thatthose killings
were necessary and heroic. This isa
sentiment which I not only despise but
which Ialso find unacceptable and
appalling. There isnothing heroic about
rebellion and the murderand carnage
of innocent and defenseless menand
women. .The coup affected the country
in an equallyprofound manner because
the events of thatnight led to a counter-
coup six months later. Itwas a
devastating and
disproportionateresponse. Sadly after
that came the horrendouspogroms and
slaughter of the Igbo in the Northwhich
eventually led to the civil war in
whichmillions of people died, including
innocentchildren. This was also
horrendous anddeplorable.Yet the
bitter truth is that if the new Head
ofState, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi,
had donethe right thing and actually
prosecuted theringleaders of the coup,
who were MajorKaduna Nzeogwu,
Major Anufuro, MajorAdemoyega,
Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu,Captain
Emmanuel Nwobosi, Captain Okaforand
all the other young officers that
plannedand executed the coup of
January 15th after itwas crushed, there
would have been nonorthern revenge
coup six months later.I have not added
Major Emmanuel Ifejuana(who was
actually the leader of the coup) to
thelist because he could not have been
locked upor prosecuted by General
Aguiy-Ironsi simplybecause he ran
away to Ghana immediatelyafter the
mutiny in Lagos failed and after heand
his co-mutineers were routed by Lt.
Col.Jack (Yakubu) Gowon.For some
curious reason after the coup
wassuccessfully crushed, General
Aguiyi-Ironsi justlocked these young
mutineers up and herefused to
prosecute them. This bred
suspicionfrom the ranks of the
northern officers given thefact that
Aguiyi-Ironsi himself was an Igbo.
Thesuspicion was that he had some
level ofsympathy for the mutineers and
the fact thatthey did not execute him or
any other Igboofficer on the night of
January 15th during thecourse of the
mutiny only fueled that suspicion.The
northern officers also felt deeply
aggrievedabout the wholesale slaughter
of their keypolitical figures that night. In
my view that,together with Aguiyi-
Ironsi’s insistence onpromulgating the
Unification Decree whichabolished the
federal system of governmentand
sought to turn Nigeria into a unitary
state,made the revenge coup of July
29th 1966inevitable.The revenge coup
was planned and led byMajor Murtala
Mohammed (as he then was)and it was
supported and executed by otheryoung
northern officers like Major T.Y.
Danjuma(as he then was), Major
Martins Adamu andmany others. This is
the coup that was to put Lt.Col. Jack
Gowon (as he then was) in power
andwhen they struck it was a very
bloody andbrutal affair.The response of
the northern officers to themutiny and
terrible killings that took place onthe
night of January 15th 1966 and to
GeneralAguiyi-Ironsi’s apparent
procrastination andreluctance to
ensure that justice was served tothe
mutineers was not only devastating but
alsofrightful. Hundreds of army officers
of mainlyIgbo extraction who were
perceived to besympathetic to the
January 15th mutineerswere killed that
night including the Head ofState
General Aguiyi-Ironsi and the
MilitaryGovernor of the old Western
Region who washosting him, the
courageous Colonel AdekunleFajuyi.
This was very sad and
unfortunate.What happened on the
night of January15th 1966 was
unacceptable and uncalled for.
Icompletely disagree with those who
think thatthere was anything good
about that coup, thecoup of July 29th
1966 or indeed any othercoup which
took place in the history of Nigeria.This
is because blood calls for blood: when
youshed blood, other people want to
shed yourblood, as well. The minute
that the shedding ofblood in the quest
to get power becomes thenorm we are
all diminished and dehumanised:and
this applies to both the perpetrators
andthe victims.The January 15th coup
set off a cycle of eventswhich had
cataclysmic consequences for
ourcountry and which we are still
feeling today.Coups may have
happened in other countries inAfrica,
but it did not mean that it had to
happenhere. In any case, the amount of
blood that wasshed that night, the
number of innocent peoplethat were
killed was unacceptable. It arrestedour
development as a people and our
politicalevolution as a country. Had it
not happened ourhistory would have
been very different. May wenever see
such a thing again.Yet regardless of the
pain of the past I believethat we should
do all we can to put thesematters
behind us. We must not allow
ourselvesto become prisoners of
history. Rather thanbeing propelled by
pain and bitterness andbecoming
victims of history, we must learn fromit,
be guided by it and move on. We must
learnto forgive, even if we do not forget
and, equallyimportantly, we must first
establish the truthabout those ugly
events and understand whatactually
transpired.What happened that night
traumatized thenation. None of us has
been the same since. Iidentify with that,
because I was a part of it, Iwitnessed it
and i was a victim of it. Yet by
God’sgrace and divine providence, my
father's lifewas spared: not because he
was special butsimply by the grace of
God. Every day I thinkabout those that
were killed that night and Iremember
their families. We share a
commonbond and we are all partakers
of an ugly andfrightful history. I tell
myself: “were it not fordivine
providence, my father would have
alsodied and I would not have been
what I amtoday, because he was the
one who educatedme and did
everything for me.” If nothing else
Iknow there was a purpose for that.We
must resolve among ourselves that
neveragain will people be attacked in
their homes,dragged out, abducted and
shot like dogs in themiddle of the night.
Never again will women,wives and
children be slaughtered in this
way.Never again shall we witness such
barbarityand wickedness in our quest
for power. Neveragain must any
Nigerian suffer such brutalityand
callousness. May the souls of all those
thatwere murdered on January 16th
1966 continueto rest in peace.
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