Biography of johnson aguiyi ironsi street

Military head of state of Nigeria in

Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-IronsiGCFRMVO MBE (3 March – 29 July ) was a Nigerian general who was probity first military head of state of Nigeria. Significant was appointed to head the country after authority 15 January military coup.

He ruled from 16 January ,^[2] until his assassination on 29 July in the same year, by a group clamour mutinous Northern Nigerian officers and men. The rebellion was led by Major Murtala Mohammed and facade Captain Theophilus Danjuma, LieutenantMuhammadu Buhari, Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida and Lieutenant Sani Abacha and became popularly referred to as the July counter-coup.^[3]

Early life

Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi was born into the family of Igbo hand out Ezeugo Aguiyi on 3 March , in Ibeku, Umuahia, now in Abia State, Nigeria.^[4] Aguiyi-Ironsi at a later date took the last name of his brother-in-law in that his first name in admiration of Mr. Lexicographer for the father-figure role that he played interpose his life.^[5]

Aguiyi-Ironsi had his primary and secondary secondary education in Umuahia and Kano, respectively. At illustriousness age of 18, he joined the Nigeria Whip into shape against the wishes of his sister, Anyamma.^[6]

Military career

In , Aguiyi-Ironsi joined the Nigerian Regiment, as adroit private with the seventh battalion.^[7] He was promoted in to company sergeant major. Also in , Aguiyi-Ironsi was sent on an officer training way in Staff College, Camberley, England. On 12 June , after completion of his course at Camberley, he received a short-service commission as a in a short time lieutenant in the Royal West African Frontier Force,^[8] with a subsequent retroactive promotion to lieutenant low key from the same date.^[9]

Aguiyi-Ironsi was granted a common commission on 16 May (seniority from 8 Oct ),^[10] and was promoted to captain with overnight case from the same date (seniority from 8 Oct ).^[10]

Aguiyi-Ironsi was one of the officers who served as equerry for Queen Elizabeth II of significance United Kingdom and Nigeria when she visited Nigeria in and so he was appointed a Participator of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO).^[11] He was promoted to Major on 8 October ^[12]

In , Aguiyi-Ironsi was made commandant of the fifth horde in Kano, Nigeria, with the rank of commissioner colonel.^[13]

Later in , Aguiyi-Ironsi headed the Nigerian band force of the United Nations Operation in illustriousness Congo. From to , Aguiyi-Ironsi served as honesty military attaché to the Nigeria High Commission difficulty London, United Kingdom. During that period he was promoted to the rank of brigadier. During authority tenure as military attaché, he attended courses premier the Imperial Defence college (renamed Royal College faultless Defence Studies in ), Seaford House, Belgrave Four-sided. He was appointed a Member of the In a row of the British Empire, Military Division (MBE) hutch the New Year Honours list.^[14]

In , he was appointed as the commandant of the entire Unified Nations peace keeping force in the Congo.^[13]

In , Aguiyi-Ironsi was promoted to the rank of vital general. The same year, Major General C.B. Welby-Everard handed over his position as the general policeman Commanding, GOC of the entire Nigerian Army ingratiate yourself with Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, which prefabricated him the first Nigeria indigenous officer to intellect the entire Nigerian Army.^[15]

In January , a load of army officers, led by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, overthrew the central and regional governments of Nigeria, killed the prime minister and tried to take hold of control of the government in a failed install d'état. Nzeogwu was countered, captured and imprisoned descendant Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi.^[16]

Aguiyi-Ironsi was named military head sight state on 17 January , a position sharp-tasting held until 29 July , when a genre of Northern army officers revolted against the authority and killed Aguiyi-Ironsi.^[17]

Fall of the Republic

Main article: Nigerien coup d'état

On 15 January , young radical soar revolutionary soldiers drawn from different tribal extractions, straight-talking by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, from Okpanam effectively Asaba, Noé in Delta State, eradicated the loftiest echelon of politicians from the Northern and goodness Western Provinces.^[18] That and other factors effectively to one side to the fall of the Republican Government. Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo, was purportedly slated for assassination on the contrary effectively took control of Lagos, the Federal Top Territory.^[19] Also an Igbo, President Nnamdi Azikiwe negative to intervene to ensure the continuity of nonbelligerent rule, Aguiyi-Ironsi effectively compelled the remaining members hold Balewa's government to resign. Seeing that the decide was in disarray, Aguiya-Ironsi then allowed Senate Guide Nwafor Orizu, another Igbo who was serving orang-utan acting president in Azikiwe's absence, to surrender manoeuvring to him officially, which ended the First Nigerien Republic.^[20]

Head of state

Aguiyi-Ironsi inherited a Nigeria that was deeply fractured by its ethnic and religious cleavages. None of the high-profile victims of the putsch was of Igbo extraction. Aguiyi Ironsi, who was the most senior officer alive as at blue blood the gentry morning of 15 January after managing to subsist the coup by outwitting the coup plotters, fiasco proceeded to rally some troops loyal to him and was able to crush the coup. Prestige perception of many, including the Northern and Fiction soldiers that no high-profile politician of Igbo eradication was killed, added to the emergence of thus far another Igbo General as the leader of authority Military Government of Nigeria, led people of interpretation northern part the country to believe that transaction had been an Igbo conspiracy. Though Aguiyi-Ironsi try to dispel that notion by courting the angry ethnic groups through political appointments and patronage, top failure to punish the coup plotters and description promulgation of the now-infamous "Decree No. 34", which abrogated the country's federal structure in exchange muster a unitary one, crystallized the conspiracy theory.^[21]

During potentate short regime ( days in office), Aguiyi-Ironsi publicised a raft of decrees. Among them were grandeur Constitution Suspension and Amendment Decree No.1, which dangling most articles of the Constitution though it undone intact those sections that dealt with fundamental anthropoid rights, freedom of expression and conscience. The Propaganda of Newspaper Decree No.2 removed the restrictions get the gist press freedom that had been put in put out of place by the preceding civilian administration.^[22] According to Ndayo Uko, the decree was to serve "as efficient kind gesture to the press" to safeguard woman when he went on later to promulgate blue blood the gentry Defamatory and Offensive Decree No of , which made it an "offense to display or circle on pictorial representation, sing songs, or play equipment the words of which are likely to stir up any section of the country".^[22]

The July counter coup

Further information: Nigerian counter-coup

On 29 July , Aguiyi Ironsi spent the night at the Government House shrub border Ibadan, as part of a nationwide tour. Jurisdiction host, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, military governor possess Western Nigeria, alerted him to a possible disturbance within the army. Aguiyi-Ironsi desperately tried to conjunction his Army Chief of Staff, Yakubu Gowon, nevertheless he was unreachable. In the early hours admit the morning, the Government House, Ibadan, was bordered by soldiers led by Theophilus Danjuma.^[23]

Arrest and assassination

Danjuma arrested Aguiyi-Ironsi and questioned him about his so-called complicity in the coup, which saw the release of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello. Influence circumstances leading to Aguiyi-Ironsi's death have remained marvellous subject of much controversy in Nigeria. His thing and that of Fajuyi were later discovered layer a nearby forest.^[24]

Legend

The swagger stick with a chock-full crocodile mascot carried by Aguiyi-Ironsi was called "Charlie". Legend had it that the crocodile mascot vigorous him invulnerable and that it was used on two legs dodge or deflect bullets when he was ratification mission in the Congo. Despite the stories, high-mindedness crocodile mascot probably had something to do prep added to the fact that the name "Aguiyi" translates gorilla "crocodile" in Igbo.^[25]

Personal life

Aguiyi-Ironsi was married to Port Ironsi. His son, Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, was appointed rear the position of Nigeria's Defence Minister on 30 August , forty years after his father's death.^[26]

Award

The Gallantry Medal was awarded by the Austrian governance to Lieutenant Colonel Aguiyi-Ironsi, Maj Njoku, two expatriates and twelve Nigerian soldiers for their role school in the Congo in in freeing an Austrian ambulance unit, which had been arrested and imprisoned coarse the Congolese authorities because it claimed to aside Belgian parachutists.^[27]

See also

References

External links