KWENU! Our culture, our future

Who is the brain behind January 15?

Part 4 M. O. ENE

Monday, January 15, 2007

ENTER NKEM NWANKWO

I stumbled onto another reading that sent inquisitive cells ringing bells so loudly I could not ignore them. Permit me to tell you how I cam about the book. I had ordered two copies of Ironside by Vanguard’s Chuks Iloegbunam, later Chief of Staff to Anambra Governor Peter Obi, just to settle an argument with a friend that General J. T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi was not a Saro (of Sierra Leonean decent), rather that an aunt married to an expatriate Saro, took him to Kano, and the rest is history.

While at it, I also ordered two copies of Sowaribi Tolofari’s “Exploitation and Instability in Nigeria: The Orkar Coup in Perspective,” also published by Press Alliance Network in 2004. Following a mailing misunderstand that was quickly resolved because money was not the issue here, the books came with another volume. At first, I thought it was an extra copy of Tolofari’s book to compensate me, but it turned out to be an autobiography titled “The Shadows of the Masquerade” by Nkem Nwankwo, whose masterpiece Danda I had read and enjoyed. I wondered why the mix-up in covers but, as avid readers know, you never judge a book by its cover. I did not. I read the book, and I did not regret it.

Now late Dr. Nwankwo had a lot to say in the book, so much that when I saw Obiageli lbrahimat Okigbo, Chris Okigbo’s daughter, during Professors Chinua Achebe and Uche Okeke dialogue^[15]. in Newark, NJ last year, I wondered aloud whether she had spoken with Nwankwo about her dad before he passed. She tried. It was too late. The book is indeed a repository of tidbits about those heady 60s. Alas, this is not about the book, I will leave that for another day or to the inimitable book review maestro himself, Oseloka Obaze; this is about the real and or remote brain behind January 15.

Nwankwo, a core member of the “Biafra ministry of propaganda,” was “one of the last two, or maybe three, people to have seen Christopher Okigbo alive.” He is not particularly a great fan of Okigbo, even though they spent long memorable moments on both sides of the sea-bound River Niger, mostly in Enugu and Ibadan. He did not spare Okigbo a bit; in fact, he was very unforgiving. This is unsurprising coming from a man who tagged his Igbo people “suckers for intellectual quackery” for allowing “Mr. Azikiwe … false claims of intellectual superior learning to political success,” which, in his estimation, allowed many successful “imitators.”^[16].

With Okigbo, Nwankwo had some personal problems to pick, but that is beside the point; the point here is that Nwankwo would have exposed Okigbo’s involvement without mincing words if he had known that Okigbo was an active participant in the making of January 15, especially since he had read the manuscript of Ifeajuna’s incomplete monograph. Unfortunately, Okigbo kept him in the dark about his serious affairs. However, Nwankwo suggested that “Chris (Okigbo) was with him (Ifeajuna) then and must have whooped it up with Emma [Ifeajuna] in public and plotted in secret.” Clearly, as one of Ifeajuna’s “close confidante,” Okigbo knew about the coup before it happened -- just as almost everyone who was supposed not to know: Prime Minister Balewa, General Aguiyi-Ironsi, Northern Premier Bello, Western Premier Akintola, Brigadier Ademulegun, etc. The question to address is, how much did Okigbo know and what roles, if any, did he play?

Beyond the unknowns and conjectures of pre-January 15, Nwankwo also revealed that Aguiyi-Ironsi dispatched Okigbo “as an envoy to bring Emma (Ifeajuna) back” from Ghana -- to whence he had fled “camouflaged, we are told as a handsome belle.”^[17]. [Reminds you of a certain ex-Governor Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha who fled London similarly!] In case you are wondering how Aguiyi-Ironsi made the connection, Nwankwo noted that Okigbo’s senior brother, the legendary Dr. Pius Okigbo (of Okigbo Panel) was “[o]ne of Ironsi’s foremost advisers.” Note also that Aguiyi-Ironsi recalled Colonel Nwawo from London and dispatched him to deliver Nzeogwu from Kaduna.

Reading Nwakwo’s exposé confirms that indeed Okigbo “was a poet,” but he had a congenital penchant for plot making. Although Okigbo never let him into “state secret,” Nwankwo noted that Okigbo had “a keen eye and ear for anything that sounded like plotting.” On the social side, “We -- the two of us -- were artists -- men of leisure setting out for a debauch” ^[18](“sex binges, fornication as a fix, as a sign of ego-deficiency, as a refuge from the stark reality of one’s aloneness in a loveless life without even the consolation of religion.” As for poetry, Okigbo “used me as a sounding board, bringing all his completed poems first to me. All he wanted was cheers.” ^[19]

We can interpret Nwankwo’s revelations any which way we want; they don’t matter any more. Both men lived their times and moved on to the great beyond. The interesting connection with the issue at stake is that Soyinka recalled in The Man Died: “Christopher (Okigbo) sitting hours across the table from me while I awaited trail in a police cell in November 65, discussing poetry….” ^[20] This does not sound like the same Okigbo that Nwankwo described in those turbulent times of 1965-67. Therefore, if Okigbo had the presence of mind to discuss poetry with Soyinka, two months to the January 15 coup, it probably means any of the following four:

(a) Okigbo had no clue that another coup was in the making and he was uninterested in Soyinka’s failed coup for which he was awaiting trial.

(b) Okigbo knew about the coup and would not bother Soyinka (an accused of similar seditious act), with the insider story of a coup that would free him.

(c) Okigbo was just killing time discussing his latest poems with a fellow poet.

(d) Okigbo and Soyinka talked a whole lot more than poetry; some of the ‘sitting hours” must have zeroed in on what to add to the already brewing plot.

If (d) holds, then this was probably how the brain behind January 15 injected into the plot the choice of Awolowo as the “Executive Provisional President of Nigeria.” The fact w as confirmed by Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna,^[21] and in books by Ademoyega and Ben Gbulie. Soyinka was very sympathetic to Awolowo as a person (the late sage’s son was a good friend of Soyinka) and he was so devoted to Awolowo's party, the Action Group, that he took up arms to correct its electoral misfortunes in 1965 by staging a coup.

CONCLUSION

Nothing in this discourse throws up any particular person as THE BRAIN. Conspiracy theorists could point at anyone with prior knowledge of what Ifeajuna was cooking. Without firm facts, this is empty evidence. For example, even if the plot to release jailed Awolowo from Calabar prison and ask him to form a government had Soyinka’s signature, does it mean that Soyinka actual dreamt up the coup? He could have; he had the experience, but did he cook this up and sold it to the military via Ifeajuna? Is it possible that the brain could have allegedly alerted President Nnamdi (Zik) Azikwe to leave the scene long before selling the idea to Ifeajuna and on to Nzeogwu knowing? If true, who told Zik? Who leaked the plot to Western Premier Samuel Ladoke Akintola, the Aare Ona Kakanfo XIII of Yorubaland, who in turn warned Northern Premier Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto ? Was it the brain? Surely and from credible reports, many non-military persons living in and around the University of Ibadan knew that some military men were plotting to wreck havoc on the land. Could it just be that Ifeajuna sought out military colleagues who had one axe or another to grind with the top military hierarchy and threw in Nzeogwu, who is well-known for his strong feelings about the political goings-on?

Soyinka and even Achebe can still eliminate some leads and help us to narrow down the search. However, it will not surprise anyone if we never pinpoint THE brain, even after all the principal actors have passed to meet again on the other realm. It will not surprise because many remains are interred with acts and thoughts unrevealed. The event of January 15, 1966 is 41 years old, but the changes it brought to many lives are unforgettable. It is good to know how water got into the pipe of pumpkin-leaf, not just because Ochendo and Oweluowelukwa are going to be wiser, but because it will leave one less puzzle in life’s many mysteries. If nothing else, it will vindicate the just. Time is a great healer; it is already doing that: The Soyinka-alleged Third Force-coup turncoat is Nigeria's current President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, son of General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, is the current Minister of Defense. Interestingly, President Obasanjo described Aguiyi-Ironsi, the general, as a good man, “not the kind of person to plan a conspiracy.” In essences beside the convincing comments in Ironside, we know that General Aguiyi-Ironsi had no hand in the plot; in other words, he is NOT the brain. One down, many more left to go.

The search must continue. French poet Paul Valery said, “A poem is never finished, only abandoned." Since this piece is also about poems and poets, it then must remain unfinished. It is likely that Okigbo, as Freud posited, was simply a "[master] of us ordinary men … because [he drank] at streams which we have not yet made accessible to science.” Maybe he “[uttered] great and wise things which [he did not himself] understand.” It is also likely that Okigbo, “a reincarnation of my maternal grandfather” received revelations from Idoto, the river goddess that his maternal grandfather had pacified at Ajani shrine. Maybe, just maybe, Okigbo’s symphony is yet to play; as he himself wrote:

When you have finished

And done up my stitches

Wake me up near the altar

And this poem will be finished

And you were wondering why the pen is mightier than the pistol! There you have it; let the search continue.

©MOE, 2007

Back to Part 1

NOTES

1. Patrick Anwunah (2006) The Nigeria-Biafran War--My Memoirs, Spectrum Books

2. Olatubosun Ogunsanwo (?) The Dance of Death: Nigerian History and Christopher Okigbo's Poetry Book Review of The Dance of Death: Nigerian History and Christopher Okigbo's Poetry, by Dubem Okafor. Trenton: Africa World P, 1998. xv + 297 pp. ISBN 0-86543-555-3. muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v032/32.4ogunsanwo.html –

1966_coup1.htm]

4. Henry Chukwuemeka Onyeama:(November 16, 2005): “Chukwuma Nzeogwu: The Saint or Devil of January 15, 1966?’ [http://magazine.biafranigeriaworld.com/henry_onyeama/ 2005/11/16/chukwuma_nzeogwu_the_saint_or_devil_of_january_15_1966.php]

5. Philip Efiong (2005) Nigeria and Biafra: My Story, Sungai, Princeton

6. Max Siollun: “The inside story of Nigeria's first military coup (1)” [http://www.kwenu.com/publications/siollun/1966_coup1.htm]

7. Ibid.

8. Wole Soyinka (2006) You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir, Random House, New York, NY

9. Wole Soyinka (1972) The Man Died: The Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka, The Noonday Press, NY, 1988

10. Nigeria’s Literature Since Independence Daily Independent [Author unlisted] www.independentngonline.com/pdf.php?a=17987

It would be recalled that Soyinka was tried for allegedly holding up a radio station at gunpoint during the 1965 Western Nigeria election riots, and today he has the reputation as the only Nigerian to have been twice charged with treason. The first military coup in Nigeria was reportedly plotted in 1966 at the University of Ibadan campus with an alleged writer-alumni cast of Obumselu as coup-speech writer, Okigbo as active participant and Achebe as possible collaborator

11. Ken Goodwin (1982) Understanding African Poetry: A Study of Ten Poets,” p.44 Heinemann,

12. Ibid

13. Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu (1966) Part of broadcast of January 15, 1966, coup

14. Ken Goodwin (1982) Understanding African Poetry: A Study of Ten Poets,”p.45 Heinemann,

15. M. O. Ene (2006): “Two eagles on iroko (2)” http://www.kwenu.com/moe/2006/two_eagles2.htm].

16. Nkem Nwankwo (2004) The Shadows of the Masquerade: A memoir, p. 102 Press Alliance, London.

17. Ibid, Page 83.

18. Ibid, Page 58

19. Ibid, Page 60

20. Wole Soyinka (1972) The Man Died: The Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka, The Noonday Press, NY, 1988

21. Chuks Iloegbunam (1999) Ironside: The Biography of General Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s First Military Head of State, Press Alliance Network, Limited, London.