24 | May | 2014 | Adejokeiyabadan's Blog

ON THE 24 MAY 1966, IN SPITE OF THE UNANIMOUS DECISIONS OF THE OF THE FOUR MILITARY GOVERNORS AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A UNITARY FORM OF GOVERNMENT, MAJOR GEN. AGUYI IRONSI TOOK A CONTRARY POSITION. HE ABOLISHED THE REGIONS. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A UNITARY GOVERNMENT WAS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.
FOR AS FAR BACK AS 1943 DR NNMADI AZIKWE SAW THE DANGER IN SUCH A FORM OF GOVERNMENT FOR NIGERIA AND OPTED FOR A FEDERATION. CHIEF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO REALISING THE PECULIARITIES OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, ALSO STRONGLY REJECTED THE IDEAS OF A UNITARY GOVERNMENT AS FAR BACK AS 1947. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCES OF THE LATE 1940S AND 1950S WHICH REGIONALIZED THE COUNTRY ALSO HAD TO DO WITH THE FEAR OF CONSEQUENCES OF A UNITARY FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA.
THE TIMING OF THE DECISION WAS A BAD ONE. JUST BEFORE GEN. AGUYI IRONSI ANNOUNCED THE ESTABLISHMENT OF UNITARY GOVERNMENT. COL. ODUMEGWU OJUKWU PROMOTED SOME CIVIL SERVANTS TO PERMANENT SECRETARY GRADE AND TOLD THEM TO GET READY TO SERVE ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY. THE PROMOTION IN ARMY ALSO FAVORED MAINLY THE IGBO OFFICERS. ADDED TO THESE WAS THE HIGHLY PROVOCATIVE ATTITUDE OF THE IGBO LIVING IN THE NORTH. THEY WERE REPORTED TO HAVE GIVEN THE IMPRESSION THAT THEY WERE NOW IN CONTROL. THE NORTHERNER EXPRESSED THEIR RESPONSE IN SERIOUS RIOTING IN MANY PARTS OF THE NORTH IN MAY 1966. THE IGBO WERE THE TARGET OF THE TARGET OF THE RIOTERS. MANY IGBO LOST THEIR LIVES. THE UNEASY SITUATION WHICH PREVAILED AFTER THE RIOTS GENERATED LOTS OF RUMORS ABOUT PLANNED COUPS IN MAY AND JUNE 1966, BY DIFFERENT FACTIONS IN THE ARMY. THE RUMORS INTENSIFIED IN JULY. ON 29 JULY 1966, A SECOND COUP TOOK PLACE. IT WAS CLEARLY A COUP BY NORTHERN OFFICERS AND IT WAS DIRECTED TOWARDS THE IGBO MILITARY OFFICERS AND MEN IN THE ARMY. MANY OF THEM WERE KILLED.

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This Day in History 24/05

MAY 24TH

1621 – The Protestant Union is formally dissolved.

1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day.

1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference.

1915 – Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations

1954 – IBM announces vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour

1956 – Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha’s Parinibbāna.

1959 – Empire Day renamed Commonwealth Day in Great Britain

1986 – Margaret Thatcher becomes 1st British PM to visit Israel

1993 – Eritrea achieved independence from Ethiopia after 30-year civil war

1999 – Venezuela enters the Antarctic Treaty System.

2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

2001 – Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

2001 – The Democrats gain control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1994 when Senator James Jeffords of Vermont abandons the Republican Party and declares himself an independent.

2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.

2004 – North Korea bans mobile phone

2013 – Rafael Correa is sworn into a third term as President of Ecuador

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS

1753 – Oliver Cromwell, Burlington NJ, decorated black soldier who served with Washington in US War of Independence

1879 – H. B. Reese, American inventor of Reese’s and founder (d. 1956

1941 – Bob Dylan, [Robert Zimmerman], Duluth Minn, singer/songwriter (Blowin’ in Wind)