What do you know about July 29 in Nigeria Politics?

July 29 is the 210th day of the year (211th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 155 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday. Also in the history of Nigeria politics, today is a reputable day as we bring to remembrance the biography and assassination of two notable and gallant Nigerian Army Commanding Officers , Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (fromer Head of State) and his Military Governor (Western Nigeria), Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi.

Major Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi

Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (3 March 1924 – 29 July 1966) was a senior Nigerian military officer and second Nigerian Head of State. He seized power in the ensuing crisis after the  military coup on 15 January, 1966, serving as the Nigerian Head of State from 16 January 1966 until his assassination on 29 July 1966 by a group of mutinous Northern army soldiers who revolted against his government in what was popularly called the July Counter Coup.

Aguiyi-Ironsi enlisted in the Nigerian Army on 2 February 1942 and was admitted to and excelled in military training at Eaton Hall, England. He also attended Royal Army Ordnance Corps before he was later commissioned as an infantry officer  with the rank of Lieutenant on 12 June 1949. He soon returned to Nigeria to serve as the aide-de-camp to John Macpherson, Governor General of Nigeria, and he was assigned as equerry to Queen Elizabeth II  during her visit to Nigeria in 1956, for which assignment he was sent to Buckingham Palace to train.  During the Congo Crisis of the 1960s, the United Nations Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, appealed to the Nigerian government to send troops to Congo. Lieutenant Colonel Ironsi led the 5th battalion to the Kivu and Leopoldville provinces of Congo. His unit proved integral to the peacekeeping effort, and he was soon appointed the Force Commander of the United Nations Operation in the Congo.

On 29 July 1966, Ironsi spent the night at the Government House, Ibadan, as part of a nationwide tour. His host, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of Western Nigeria, alerted him to a possible mutiny within the army. Ironsi desperately tried to contact his Army Chief of Staff, Yakubu Gowon, but he was unreachable. In the early hours of the morning, the Government House, Ibadan, was surrounded by soldiers led by Theophilus Danjuma. Danjuma arrested Ironsi and questioned him about his alleged complicity in the coup, which saw the demise of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello. The circumstances leading to Ironsi's death still remain a subject of much controversy in Nigeria.

Major Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi with his Alligator scepter

Forty years after his father's death, Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi's son, was appointed to the position of Nigeria's Defence Minister on 30 August 2006 by former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi

Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, BEM (26 June 1926 – 29 July 1966) was a Nigerian soldier of Yoruba origin and the first military governor of the former Western Region, Nigeria.

Originally a clerk, Fajuyi of Ado Ekiti joined the Army in 1943 and as a Sergeant in the Nigeria Signal Squadron, Royal West African Frontier Force, was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1951 for helping to contain a mutiny in his unit over food rations. He was trained at the Eaton Hall Officer Candidate School in the United Kingdom from July 1954 until November 1954 when he was short-service commissioned. In 1961, as the ‘C’ Company Commander with the 4 battalion, Queen's Own Nigeria Regiment under Lt. Col. Price, Major Fajuyi was awarded the Military Cross for actions in North Katanga and extricating his unit from an ambush. On completion of Congo operations Fajuyi became the first indigenous commander of the 1st battalion in Enugu, a position he held until just before the first coup of January 1966 when he was posted to Abeokuta as Garrison Commander. When Major General Ironsi emerged as the new Commander-in-Chief on 17 January 1966, he appointed Fajuyi as the first military governor of the Western Region.

He was assassinated alongside General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Source Credit: Wikipedia