#January 1966 coup

[michelleumunna]

Reading Major C.K. Nzeogwu: Fighting the Illusive Nigerian Enemy From Childhood to Death, written by his younger brother Okeleke Peter Nzeogwu. This excerpt..

Finally, on 15th January, 1966, without warning, Chukwuma, in collaboration with his military colleagues, "struck" Nigeria. In his radio broadcast on that day, four times he used the word "revolution" to describe their intentions and he also used words like "revolutionary council" and "revolutionary troops" to describe his associates. In the speech he said that the overriding aim of the "revolution" was,

...to establish a strong, united, and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife... so that our land, watered by the Niger and Benue, between the sandy wastes and the gulf of Guinea, washed in the south by the mighty Atlantic shall not, repeat not, detract from Nigeria from gaining sway in great aspects of international endeavour.

This mission of "establishing a prosperous nation and achieving solidarity" was dubbed the "One Nigeria" ideology and it had remained central to the political views of Chukwuma until his death.

[lboogie1906]

The Nigerian Civil War, known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, was a three-year bloody conflict with a death toll numbering more than one million people. The war began with the secession of the southeastern region of the nation on May 30, 1967, when it declared itself the independent Republic of Biafra.

Nigeria has often experienced an uncertain peace. Following decades of ethnic tension in colonial Nigeria, political instability reached a critical mass among independent Nigeria’s three dominant ethnic groups: the Hausa-Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the southwest, and Igbo in the southeast. On January 15, 1966, the Igbo launched a coup d’état under the command of Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi in an attempt to save the country from what Igbo leaders feared would be political disintegration.

Less than two months after Biafra declared its independence, diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis fell apart. On July 6, 1967, the federal government in Lagos launched a full-scale invasion into Biafra. The Nigerian army surrounded and buffeted Biafra with aerial and artillery bombardment that led to large-scale losses among Biafran civilians. The Nigerian Navy established a sea blockade that denied food, medical supplies, and weapons, again impacting Biafran soldiers and civilians alike.

Biafra stood firm refusing to surrender in the face of overwhelming Nigerian military superiority. The Nigerian Army continued to slowly take territory, and on January 15, 1970, Biafra surrendered when its military commander General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu fled to Cote d’Ivoire.

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people died daily in Biafra from starvation as a result of the naval blockade. The international reaction to the military conflict helped define how the world now views and responds to similar #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[justforbooks]

Ama Ata Aidoo, who has died aged 81, was one of Africa’s most influential writers. Her plays, short stories, novels and essays explored the experiences of women in contemporary Africa, both rural and urban – women who are remarkable for their spirit, humour and resilience.

Aidoo’s play The Dilemma of a Ghost, first staged in 1964 at the Ghana Drama Studio when she was 22, was issued by Longman in 1965, making her the first published female African dramatist. This play contrasts a young African- American wife’s idealised concept of “Mother Africa” with the reality of her Ghanaian husband’s African mother’s traditions and expectations, often conflicting with the values embraced by a younger western-educated generation.

Like her second play, Anowa (1969), The Dilemma of a Ghost draws on both African and western performance traditions. In these plays and many of her short stories, Aidoo created an Africanised form of English for her characters, drawing on her native Akan idioms and sentence structures.

While her first play examines cultural conflicts in contemporary Ghana, during the optimism created by Kwame Nkrumah’s success in achieving independence, Anowa, written after the 1966 military coup that deposed Nkrumah amid accusations of corruption, reflects on Ghanaian history and the complicity of African chiefs with slavery. In the face of political dereliction, the play calls for a shift away from materialism and self-interest.

However, it is Aidoo’s fiction that has reached a worldwide audience. Her first volume of short stories, No Sweetness Here, was published in 1971. Many of the stories were written to be read on radio, with listeners as well as readers in mind, combining traditional oral storytelling, and communal participation, with European reader-oriented narrative techniques. They also showed how western technology can be put to the service of African culture rather than replacing or subduing it.

The use of oral traditions also allowed Aidoo to give a voice to women, in a context where female writers have been marginalised, while the concentration on dialogue, rather than exterior description, places the emphasis on women’s subjectivities, emotions and thoughts, rather than their appearance.

The title of Aidoo’s first novel, Our Sister Killjoy: Or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint (1977), conveys the narrator’s wry self-deprecating humour, together with her awareness of differences in perception. Recounting the experience of a young Ghanaian woman who spends several months in Germany – “the heart of whiteness” – and with two male characters both called Adolf, the novel is in part a reversal of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Indeed there is a literal heart of darkness in the novel when a group of Africans debate the ethics of Christiaan Barnard’s transplant of the heart of an African man. Aidoo uses a variety of narrative techniques in the novel, contrasting “knowledge gained then” and “knowledge gained since”, interspersing prose with fragments of verse, while questioning the usefulness of the English language to express African experience:

A common heritage. A Dubious bargain that left us Plundered of Our gold Our tongue Our life – while our Dead fingers clutch English …

Together with Aidoo’s second novel, Changes: A Love Story, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ prize in 1992, Our Sister Killjoy appears frequently in university courses on postcolonial and women’s writing. Aidoo’s 1985 collection of poetry, Someone Talking to Sometime, was awarded the Nelson Mandela prize for poetry. A second volume of poetry, An Angry Letter in January, appeared in 1992. She also published two more volumes of short stories, The Girl Who Can and Other Stories (1997) and Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories (2012), as well as books for children.

Christine Ama Ata Aidoo was born, with a twin brother, Kwame Ata, at Abeadzi Kyiakor, near Saltpond in central Ghana (at that time known as the Gold Coast), the daughter of Maame Abasema and Nana Yaw Fama. Her father was chief of Abeadzi Kyiakor, and she belonged to Fante royalty. He founded the first school in Saltpond, and ensured that both his children received a good education there. Aidoo later spoke of the importance of the village storyteller, around whom the villagers would gather in the evenings.

From 1957, the year that Ghana became the first independent African nation, she attended Wesley girls’ senior high school in the city of Cape Coast. There she became aware of Ghana’s connection with the history of slave trading, embodied in the Cape Coast “castle” where captured slaves were held before being shipped to Europe and the Americas.

In 1961 she enrolled at the University of Ghana to study English, and also began writing seriously. The following year she was selected by a panel including Chinua Achebe, Langston Hughes, and Wole Soyinka to attend a writing workshop in Ibadan, Nigeria. She forced her way into the Nigerian Broadcasting office in order to meet Achebe, who was then head of external broadcasting, breathlessly announcing to him that she had “indeed arrived at the shrine”.

After graduation, Aidoo taught at universities in Africa and the US. She was appointed Ghanaian minister for education in 1982 after Jerry Rawlings gained power in a military coup, but in 1983 resigned and moved to Zimbabwe, where she worked for the Zimbabwe Ministry for Education. When she returned to Ghana in 1999, she and her daughter Kinna Likamanni established the Mbaasem Foundation, which sought “to support the development and sustainability of African women writers and their artistic output”.

Throughout her life, Aidoo saw her writing and other activities as part of her endeavour to help Africans recover from the consequences of colonialism.

In an interview in 1987 she declared: “I wish of course that Africa would be free and strong and organised and constructive, etc ... That is basic to my commitment as a writer … I keep seeing different dimensions of it, different interpretations coming through my writing.”

She is survived by her daughter.

🔔 Ama Ata Aidoo, writer and educator, born 23 March 1942; died 31 May 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[kemetic-dreams]

HISTORICAL IGBO TIMELINES:

STONE AGE -MIDDLE AGES.

This is the period dating 1.2million years to 3000BC , the era of homo-erectus found within the areas of ugwuele uturu following the discovery of Archeolean hand axes and stone tools in caves. Clay pots dating 3000BC were recovered at Afikpo and Opi iron slags .Details of this era is buried in archeology .

EARLY HISTORY:

8th-9 th AD : Kingdom of Nri begins with Eze Nri Ìfikuánim.

1434 AD: Portuguese explorers make contact with the Igbo.

1630 AD : The Aro-Ibibio Wars start.

1690AD: The Aro Confederacy is established

1745AD : Olaudah Equiano is born in Essaka, but later kidnapped and shipped to Barbados and sold as a slave in 1765.

1797AD : Olaudah Equiano dies in England as a freed slave.

1807 AD : The Slave Trade Act 1807 is passed (on 25 March) helping in stopping the transportation of enslaved Africans, including Igbo people, to the Americas. Atlantic slave trade exports an estimated total of 1.4 million Igbo people across the Middle Passage

1830 AD : European explorers explore the course of the Lower Niger and meet the Northern Igbo.

1835 AD: Africanus Horton is born to Igbo ex-slaves in Sierra Leone

1855 AD: William Balfour Baikie a Scottish naval physician, reaches Niger Igboland.

MODERN HISTORY:

1880–1905: Southern Nigeria is conquered by the British, including Igboland.

1885–1906: Christian missionary presence in Igboland.

1891: King Ja Ja of Opobo dies in exile, but his corpse is brought back to Nigeria for burial.

1896–1906: Around 6,000 Igbo children attend mission schools.

1901–1902: The Aro Confederacy declines after the Anglo-Aro war.

1902: The Aro-Ibibio Wars end.

1906: Igboland becomes part of Southern Nigeria (the beginning of our problem)

1914: Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria are amalgamated to form Nigeria. (escalation of our problem)

1929: Igbo Women's War (first Nigerian feminist movement) of 1929 in Aba.

1953: November Anti Igbo riots (killing over 50 Igbos in Kano) of 1953 in Kano

1960: October 1 Nigeria gains independence from Britain; Tafawa Balewa becomes Prime Minister, and Nnamdi Azikiwe becomes President.

1966: January 16 A coup by junior military officers takes over government and assassinated some country leaders. The Federal Military Government is formed, with General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi as the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Federal Republic.

1966: July 29 A counter-coup by military officers of northern extraction, deposes the Federal Military Government; General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi is assassinated along with Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of Western Region. General Yakubu Gowon becomes Head of State.

1967: Ethnoreligious violence between Igbo Christians, and Hausa/Fulani Muslims in Eastern and Northern Nigeria, triggers a migration of the Igbo back to the East.

1967: May 30 General Emeka Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, declares his province an independent republic called Biafra, and the Nigerian Civil War or Nigerian-Biafran War ensues.

1970: January 8 General Emeka Ojukwu flees into exile; His deputy Philip Effiong becomes acting President of Biafra.

1970: January 15 Acting President of Biafra Philip Effiong surrenders to Nigerian forces through future President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Biafra is reintegrated into Nigeria.

References:

Understanding 'Things Fall Apart' by Kalu Ogbaa

Wikipedia

Image Credit: Ukpuru, Pinterest

[thebugaftermayakovsky]

TIMELINE HELSINKI

1905 - first Russian revolution, Freud's theory of sexuality, Potemkin incident

1912 - Stanislawski's acting method is created.

1914- assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, beginning of World War I.

1915- Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

1916- Zurich, Cabaret Voltaire

1917 - Bolshevik Revolution

1918 - Assassination of the Tsar and the Romanov family

1922 - March on Rome and coming to power of Mussolini

1929 - Mayakovsky's bug. Prisypkin is frozen as a result of a fire during his wedding.

1930 - Mayakovsky's suicide.

1931- Second Spanish Republic

1932-33- Great famine in Ukraine, Holodomor (famine). Between 3 and 5 million people died.

1933- Hitler comes to power in Germany.

1936- Spanish Civil War. Murder of García Lorca.

1938 - Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). First awareness of climate change: Guy Callendar connected carbon dioxide increases in Earth's atmosphere to global warming.

1939 - Invasion of Poland and beginning of World War II.

1940 - Torutra and execution of Vsevolod Meyerhold.

1945 - The US drops two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

1947 - For the first time, insects are launched into space: In 1947, the United States sends fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) into space aboard a V2 rocket. They were the first animals in space and were part of a series of experiments to study the effects of cosmic rays on living organisms.

1947 - beginning of the Cold War (Mar 12, 1947 – Dec 25, 1991) tensions between United States and Soviet Union, that fed into the Vietnam War and the Korean War.

1948 - Nakba, and creation of the state of Israel.

1950 - Invention of Artificial Intelligence

1952 - 6 February, Queen Elizabeth is crowned, she will be queen until her death in 1922, being the longest reigning monarch ever.

1955 - First documenta in Kassel.

1955 - First Israeli raid on Gaza.

1959 - First color TV broadcast

1960 - The contraceptive pill for women is marketed. The Beatles forms as a band in Liverpool.

1961 - First man launched into space: Yuri Gagarin

1964 - US Congress passesThe Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

1966 - Earth is photographed from space

1968 - Tlatelolco Tragedy, May 68 in France. Murder of Martin Luther King

1969 - Riots at the Stone Wall, marking the beginning of gay rights struggle

1971 - Commercialization of the first Intel 4004 microchip. Abandonment of the gold standard by Richard Nixon.

1972 - Since 1972, no more humans have travelled beyond low Earth orbit, since the Apollo 17 lunar mission in December 1972.

1973 - Coup in Chile, death of Salvador Allende. Yom Kippur War - The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from 6 to 25 October 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.

1975 - Thrilla in Manilla, Muhammad Ali faces Joe Frazier.

1978 - The Russian-Afghan war begins. It will end in 1992.

1979 - Prisypkin wakes up. The Clockwise Experiment: This concept was first developed and tested in 1979 in Ellen Langer's "counterclockwise" study, which examined the psychological effects of turning back the clock on the physiological state of an older adult. The research question was, "If we set the mind back twenty years, will the body reflect this change?"

1980 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected president of Iceland becoming the first female president.

1981- AIDS crisis.

1983 - January first, Internet was invented

1989- Fall of the Berlin Wall. Tiananmen Square, protests and massacre. Francis Fukuyama publishes "The End of History". Creation of the World Wide Web.

1990 - Nelson Mandela is released from prison.

1991 - Invention of the world wide web (Tim Berners-Lee integrated hypertext software with the Internet)

1992 - Maastricht Treaty

1993 - April 30, The World Wide Web became available to the broader public

1996 - Death of Tupac Shakur

1997 - Death of Princess Diana of Wales. Launching of SixDegrees, considered the first social media. Asian Financial Crisis begins in Thailand and spreads quickly to the rest of East and Southeast Asia. The United Nations adopts the Kyoto protocol, and this is considered the climax of Green Capitalism or EcoCapitalism, an approach to managing the relationships between economic activities and the environment that presumes a large degree of compatibility between capitalism and current efforts to reduce human impacts on the non-human world. Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone is published.

1999 - Putin comes to power in Russia.

2000 - Y2K. Y2K was a computer glitch, or bug, that may have caused problems when dealing with dates after December 31, 1999.

2001 - 9/11, Terrorist attack, two planes crash against the Twin Towers in NY, which collapse. Beginning of the "US war on terror".

2003- Beyoncé releases "Dangerously in Love". Beyoncé is 21 and already dating Jay Z.

2007 - #metoo

2008 - War in Georgia. Bankrupcy of Lehman Brothers, climax of the subprime mortgage crisis

2009 - Ru Paul's drag race. Michael Jackson dies.

2011 - Arab Spring. Occupy movement. 11M. Beginning of the Civil Syrian War.

2014 - Russia invades Donbas and annexes Crimea. Beginning of the Russian-Ukranian War.

2016 - Murder of eco-activist Berta Cáceres.

2017 - Hollywood's #metoo

2018 - First Fridays for Climate Greta Thumberg strikes.

2020 - COVID. Murder of George Floyd. BREXIT, or withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

2021, January 6, United States Capitol attack

2022 - Rihanna's son is born. Russia invades Ukraine and war begins. Decriminalization of sex work in Belgium. The first person who does not die is born. Jan Fabre is found guilty of sexual harassment. Spanish government approves trans law recognizing free gender self-determination. Russia invades Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War. On 16 September 2022, murder of Mahsa Amini and beginning of the movement Woman, Life, Freedom. Woman, Life, Freedom, is a popular Kurdish slogan used in both the Kurdish independence and democratic confederalist movements. The slogan became a rallying cry during the protests which occurred in Iran as a response to the death of Mahsa Amini.

2023 - Following an incursion of Hamas into Israel, Israel launches Gaza Genocide and escalates ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

NOW

2030 - The increase in global temperature is irreversible.

2031 - Third Spanish Republic

2032 - There is one person alive left on facebook

2039- Crypto Crash

2050 - Ecological Collapse

Somewhere soon:

- rising inequality

- massive emigration - climate change reffugees

- war and violence

- decentralized government - municipalism

- radical different ways of living and being together

- forced changes in consuming habits

- life without work - automatisation buses will drive themselves and cars too and planes and robots will serve domestic robots and sexual work too

- UBI

- everyone will be an artist, finally

- new pandemics

- no more consumption of meat and fish

- population will move to rural eras

- rising digital inequality

Somewhere later:

- end of the nuclear family and instead, sex with friends

- end of heteronormativity

- porn is preferred to real intercourse

- no children and gradual extinction of mankind, finally - postchildren

3,050 - Days lengthen by 1/30th of a second

10,000 - Extinction of humanity. The water level rises by 5 m in relation to the present.

[moonwatchuniverse]

Remembering NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan 2017, January 16 US Navy Captain, Naval aviator, Omega ambassador, Officer & Gentleman Gene Cernan, who as the commander of the final Apollo  lunar landing mission in 1972 became known as the "last man on the  moon," passed away on Monday January 16, 2017. Aged 82, he flew three spaceflight missions and already on his first mission 1966 Gemini IX, conducted a spacewalk. The NASA-issued n° 28 Omega Speedmaster he wore on that mission became his lucky charm. During Apollo 10 and Apollo 17 Cernan wore it on his inner lefthand wrist underneath the spacesuit, as another NASA-issued n° 67 Omega Speedmaster 105.012-66 on a long black velcro was strapped over the left forearm of his Apollo 17 A7LB space suit. In 2019, in another marketing coup, Omega made a tomographic scan of the 321 movement of Cernan's NASA n° 28 Speedmaster in order to base their new "321" movement Speedmaster on that of the " Last Man on the Moon ". The NASA-issued Speedmaster n° 28 is currently on display in the Omega museum in Bienne - Switzerland. (Photos: NASA/US Navy/MoonwatchUniverse)

[asegbolu]

Military Rule in Nigeria: Major General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi (15 January - 25 July 1966) History Primary 6 First Term Lesson Notes Week 6

Lesson Plan: History Primary 6 First Term, Week 6 Subject: History Class: Primary 6 Term: First Term Week: 6 Age: 10-11 years Topic: Military Rule in Nigeria: Major General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi (15 January – 25 July 1966) Sub-topic: Understanding Military Rule and the January 1966 Coup Duration: 40 minutes Behavioral Objectives By the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to: Explain the…

[zeitjournal]

The Untold Story of Nigeria's First Coup: Finding Tafawa Balewa’s Corpse

The Discovery of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s Body: A Grim Chapter in Nigeria’s History In a 2010 interview, former Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ibrahim Babankowa detailed the harrowing discovery of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s body in the bush. This revelation sheds light on one of the darkest periods in Nigeria’s history, during the military coup of January 15, 1966, which resulted…

[reportafrique]

The Truth Behind the 1966 Coup: Reno Omokri Exposes Fake List of Perpetrators

Attempt to Distort History Uncovered on the 58th Anniversary of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Political commentator Reno Omokri has uncovered attempts to distort historical facts surrounding the January 15, 1966 coup in Nigeria. On the 58th anniversary, he exposed a circulating fake list that falsely combined the names of those involved in the January coup with those in the subsequent July 29, 1966 counter-coup, misleading many individuals, including Mike Ozekhome, SAN. The alleged perpetrators of the January 15, 1966 coup were listed as follows: Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna - Igbo from Eastern Region.Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu - Igbo from the Midwest Region.Major Chris Anuforo - Igbo from Eastern Region.Major Don Okafor - Igbo from Eastern Region.Major Adewale Ademoyega - Yoruba from Western Region. According to Omokri, only Major Adewale Ademoyega did not actively participate in the killings that followed the coup. He emphasized that the list aims to mislead, merging individuals from both coups as if they were part of a single event. The report continued to provide a list of those killed during the January 15 coup, along with their respective regions: Sir Ahmadu Bello - Fulani from Northern Region.Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa - Gere from Northern Region.Samuel Ladokun Akintola - Yoruba from the Western Region.Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh - Itsekiri from the Midwest Region.Hafsatu Bello (wife of Sir Ahmadu Bello) - Fulani from the Northern Region.Mrs. Latifat Ademulegun (Brigadier Ademulegun's wife) - Yoruba from the Western Region.Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun - Yoruba from the Western Region.Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari - Kanuri from Northern Region.Colonel Kur Mohammed-Kanuri from Northern Region.Colonel Ralph Shodeinde - Yoruba from the Western Region.Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema-Marghi from Northern Region.Lt. Colonel James Pam - Jo's native of the Northern Region.Lt. Colonel Arthur Unegbe - Igbo from Eastern Region (the only Igbo killed).Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke - Yoruba from the Western Region.15-21. Various police personnel from different regions. Omokri emphasized that out of the 21 people killed, only Lt. Colonel Arthur Unegbe was Igbo, and he was targeted due to his role as the QuarterMaster-General in charge of the armoury. The exposé also highlighted recent threats received by Omokri, including an email from Major Chris Anuforo's daughter and a direct threat during his jogging routine. Despite these threats, Omokri remains resolute in his commitment to exposing historical truths and preventing the distortion of facts, according to the statement. Read the full article

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.13 (after 1940)

1942 – Henry Ford patents a soybean car, which is 30% lighter than a regular car. 1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter. 1950 – British submarine HMS Truculent collides with an oil tanker in the Thames Estuary, killing 64 men. 1950 – Finland forms diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. 1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vĩnh Yên begins. 1953 – An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership. 1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera. 1963 – Coup d'état in Togo results in the assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio. 1964 – Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, in response to anti-Hindu riots in East Pakistan. About one hundred people are killed. 1964 – In Manchester, New Hampshire, fourteen-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment case Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971). 1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison. 1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. 1977 – Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1045, a Douglas DC-8 jet, crashes onto the runway during takeoff from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, killing five. 1978 – United States Food and Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors. 1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists. 1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa. 1986 – A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties. 1988 – Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China. 1990 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office as Governor of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. 1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding around 1,000 others. 1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center. 1993 – The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed. 1993 – Operation Southern Watch: U.S.A.F., U.S.N., R.A.F. and French Air Force jets attack AAA and SAM sites in Southern Iraq. 1998 – Alfredo Ormando sets himself on fire in St. Peter's Square, protesting against homophobia. 2000 – A Short 360 aircraft chartered by the Sirte Oil Company crashes off the coast of Brega, Libya, killing 21. 2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800. 2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain Francesco Schettino's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths. 2018 – A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii causes widespread panic in the state. 2020 – The Thai Ministry of Public Health confirms the first case of COVID-19 outside China. 2021 – Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is impeached for a second time on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the January 6 United States Capitol attack one week prior.

[newsnigeria]

Reno Omokri shakes the table and bursts a bubble again as he schools an Obidient on Nigerian history

Earlier today, a post was shared on Ooduarere where Reno Omkori replied to an Obedient on twitter/X. He has done it again. This time around he schooled an obedient that was trying to play the victim on Aburi Accord. The Twitter user by the ID @Benjami03827700 shared the screenshot below. See what he wrote below.

@renoomokri: Dear Obi, Thank you for your feedback. On Aburi, you may want to consider the following facts. When Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi abrogated regionalism and promulgated Decree Number 34 on May 24, 1966, which effectively ended regionalism, took control of all resources, including oil (all resources, including oil used to belong to the regions before Ironsi's decree), which had hitherto belonged to the regions, and domiciled them in his military government.  Other members of the Supreme Military Council alleged that Ironsi did not consult them before promulgating the decree. It is not known if their allegation is true. However, Ironsi's Attorney General, Chief Gabriel Chike Michael Onyiuke, later said Ironsi did not need to consult them. Also, perhaps naively, ALL of Ironsi's advisers were Igbo, like him.  They included Chief Francis Nwokedi, Dr. Pius Okigbo, and Colonel Patrick Anwunah. Calls for him to appoint at least one token non-Igbo fell on deaf ears. That decree ignited the counter-coup of July 29, 1966, in which Ironsi was killed and replaced with Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon, who did not participate in the coup but was a compromise candidate since he was a Northerner, to appease the North and a Christian, to placate the South. All Military Governors accepted him except Ojukwu.  Eventually, the then Ghanaian military leader, General Ankrah, invited Gowon and Ojukwu for a peace meeting in Aburi, Ghana, between January 4-5, 1967. Agreements were reached, including that Gowon would broadcast first, AFTER CONSULTATIONS, followed by Ojukwu. However, upon return, Ojukwu made his broadcast first, which shocked other regions and jeopardised Gowon, who was almost removed by those who made him Head of State.  Please note that Gowon had no control of the troops. He was, at that time, just a titular Head of State. The real power was domiciled with Colonel Murtala Muhammed until Murtala was militarily humiliated by the Biafrans at Abagana on March 31, 1968, after which Gowon relieved him of his command, and Colonel Obasanjo later became the darling of Gowon due to his military effectiveness against Biafra.  You must understand that at that time, Ojukwu had full dictatorial powers in Biafra, but Gowon was hanging on a rope in Lagos. As a result of Ojukwu's broadcast, Gowon issued Decree Number 8, and later, on May 27, 1967, broke Nigeria into 12 states. That decree would NEVER have been passed were it not for Ojukwu's broadcast. Ojukwu rejected both actions and declared the Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967, which ignited a police action by Gowon's government on July 6, 1967.  Things degenerated into war, which did not end until Biafra's defeat on January 15, 1970, after Ojukwu fled on January 11, 1970. The war may have been prevented if Ojukwu broke away with only the East Central state, which was homogeneously Igbo. However, he insisted on the whole of Eastern Nigeria, which included non-Igbos in Calabar and Rivers, whose leaders, like Isaac Boro and Ken Asari-Wiwa, rejected Biafra. Even within Biafra, prominent Igbos, like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, did not support Ojukwu's actions.  They felt that a diplomatic solution could be reached. But after Colonel Ojukwu began executing his friends, like Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Colonel Victor Banjo, Philip Alale, and Sam Agbam, amongst others, for treason, they all kept quiet and began plotting to escape Biafra.  This is why Nnamdi Azikiwe escaped from Biafra and turned up in Lagos in 1969, sitting beside General Gowon, declaring support for the Federal Military Government and condemning Colonel Ojukwu, whom he blamed for the deaths of millions of Biafrans. If Colonel Ojukwu had only waited for Gowon to broadcast after Aburi, there would likely have been no war. Thanks again, and may God bless you.  #TableShaker

Read the full article

[nzeikayblog]

Rivers State Crisis - Lesson from History by Osita Chidoka

On 20 May 1962, sixty-eight members of the Western Regional Assembly signed a No Confidence resolution on Chief SL Akintola as the Premier of the Western Region. They forwarded the resolution to the Governor of Western Region, Sir Adesoji Aderemi.

On 22 May 1962, the Governor, Sir Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife, wrote to Chief SL Akintola and informed him of his removal from office as Premier of the Western Region. Chief Akintola called a press conference and announced his rejection of the removal. He also filed an action in court for injunction against his removal. The Action Group, in the exercise of their right as the majority party, elected Alhaji DS Adegbenro as the new Premier of the Western Region. He was sworn in and duly recognized by the Governor.

23 May 1962, Chief SL Akintola broke into the Premier's office, which was locked, and insisted he was still the Premier. The High Court at Ibadan heard Chief Akintola's case and adjourned to 5 June 1962. The injunction was not granted.

By 24 May 1962, in a rare act of interference and for different reasons, the Premiers of the Eastern and Northern Regions took public sides against Alhaji Adegbenro, thereby supporting Chief Akintola.

25 May 1962, the Western Regional House convened for a confidence motion on Alhaji Adegbenro. A member of the Parliament stood up shouting there "is fire on the mountain" while another member took the mace and broke it. Pandemonium ensued. The House reconvened later in the day, and for some inexplicable reason, police fired teargas into the room and caused commotion. Prime Minister made a broadcast and announced a meeting of the Federal House on 29 May 1962.

29 May 1962, the Federal House met, and the Prime Minister moved a motion to declare a State of Emergency in the Western Region, citing the absence of a duly constituted government as the reason. The Minister of Finance seconded. Chief Awolowo sought an amendment to the motion opposing the state of emergency. He was defeated. The Prime Minister's motion passed with 209 in support and 36 against. The federal government declared a State of Emergency in the Western Region. Dr MA Majekodunmi was appointed Administrator of the region.

The 29 May 1962 incident indeed marked the beginning of the end of the First Republic. Due to a lack of attention and record keeping, we made 29 May Democracy Day without considering that day's event in 1962. That event gathered speed that led to the coup of January 1966, the counter-coup of July 1966, and the civil war. The Federal interference in the Western Regional House of Assembly crisis was needless, politically motivated, and unnecessary. Subsequent court judgment by the Privy Council in Adengbero and Akintola found that the Governor of Western Region's removal of Chief Akintola was constitutional. Some patience and regard for due process would have allowed the issue to be resolved legally. That would have deepened our democracy and avoided the ugly consequences that followed.

Federal interference in the Rivers state "crisis," in my opinion, is needless, unnecessary, and can cause grave harm to constitutional government. There is a need for all to act with restraint and follow the due process of the law. Abridging the law is a recipe for more crisis. History is available to help us avert needless crises.

The sequence of events account was drawn from two opposing sources, one by Chief Awolowo in his book The Travails of Democracy and the other from Ayo Rosiji Man with Vision by Nina Mba. #highlight @Everyone.

#NigeriaDeservesBetter #AfricaDeservesBetter

[lboogie1906]

Chief Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh (July 18, 1912 - January 16, 1966) one of the Founding Fathers of the Republic of Nigeria, was born in Warri to Itsekiri Prince, Okotie Eboh of Jakpa. His mother, Ekayoda Ojegba was from another ethnic group, Urhobo in Okpe Land in Delta State.

He received his early education at the Sapele Baptist School. After teaching at his Alma Mater, he entered the Sapele Township Civil Service. He became one of the most successful Africans in business entrepreneurship; a transformative leader in Nigerian politics; an educator; philanthropist; the first African chiropodist; and was regarded as one of the most flamboyant politicians of his era in Africa. He was known for showcasing Itsekiri traditional attire in a colorful flowing robe with a train several yards long carried by an aide.

He married Victoria (1942). He started in business as an employee of the Bata Shoe Company. He quickly advanced to Chief Clerk and Accountant, and First African Deputy Manager in West Africa. He left the Company to further his education in Prague, Czechoslovakia where he received a Diploma in Business Administration and Chiropody.

He embarked on several profitable entrepreneurial ventures: the Afro Nigerian Export and Import Company; Omimi Rubber and Canvas Shoe Factory; and the Mid-West Cement Company. He established three educational institutions: Sapele Boy’s Academy, Sapele Academy Secondary School, and Zik College of Commerce.

He entered Nigerian politics as a member of the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon Party. He was elected to the Western Region House of Assembly as well as Treasurer of the NCNC. He served as Federal Minister of Labor and Social Welfare and First Nigerian Minister of Finance.

On January 15, during the 1966 Nigerian coup d’etat, he along with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, and other prominent leaders were assassinated.

He left a financial empire and was responsible for the establishment of the Nigerian Central Bank and the country’s first national currency. A national colloquium was organized in the capital city of Abuja to immortalize him. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

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