Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi 1924 – 1966
Early Life
Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi was born on the 3rd of March 1924, in Ibeku, Umuahia (present-day Abia State) in Eastern Nigeria. At the age of eight, he went to live with his older sister, who was married to Theophilius Johnson.
Aguiyi-Ironsi subsequently took the last name of his brother-in-law as his first name, in admiration of Mr. Johnson for the father-figure role he played in his life.
Aguiyi-Ironsi had his primary and secondary school education in Umuahia and Kano, respectively. In 1942 at the age of 18, he joined the Nigeria Regiment against the wishes of his sister.
Military career
He was promoted in 1946 to company sergeant major and in the same year was sent on an officer training course in Staff College, Camberley, England. After completion of his course in 1949, he received a short-service commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal West African Frontier Force, with a subsequent retroactive promotion to lieutenant.
Aguiyi-Ironsi was granted a regular commission, and was promoted to captain. He was one of the officers who served as equerry for Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Nigeria, at the time she visited Nigeria in 1956, for which he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO). He was promoted to major on 8 October 1958.
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In 1960, Ironsi became the commandant of the fifth battalion in Kano. He was also elevated to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, later that year; he headed the Nigerian contingent force of the United Nations Operation in the Congo.
From 1961-1962 – Aguiyi-Ironsi served as the military attache to the Nigerian High Commission in London, England and during this period he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier.
He also attended courses at the Imperial Defence College (renamed Royal College of Defence Studies), Belgrave Square. Ironsi was also awarded an honorary title of Member of the Order of the British Empire’, Military Division (MBE) in the 1962 New Year Honours List.
In 1964, Ironsi was appointed as the commandant of the entire United Nations peacekeeping force in the Congo.
Image: Nairaland Forum
He was promoted to the rank of major general on the following year and also became the first Nigerian indigenous officer to head the entire Nigerian Army when Major General C.B. Welby-Everard handed over his position as the General Officer Commanding.
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Coup of January 1966
In January 1966, a group of army officers overthrew the central and regional governments of Nigeria, killed the prime minister, and tried to take control of the government in a failed coup d’état led by Kaduna Nzeogwu.
Nzeogwu was then captured and also imprisoned by Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. Ironsi seized power in the ensuing chaos, and became Nigeria’s first military head of state on 17 January 1966.
Counter coup of July 1966
Most People from Northern Nigeria believed that the 1966 coup was an Igbo conspiracy. The belief was reinforced by the fact that the main beneficiaries of the coup were Igbos, and because none of the high-profile victims of the coup were Igbos.
Even though Aguiyi-Ironsi (himself Igbo) tried to dispel this notion by courting the aggrieved ethnic groups through political appointments, his failure to punish the coup plotters and the promulgation of a raft of decrees raised proverbial eyebrows.
On a national tour in July 1966, Ironsi visited Lt Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi in Ibadan. Fajuyi was the Military Governor of the Western Region, and following several meetings the night before. Both were assassinated on the outskirts of Ibadan on 29th of July, 1966.
The popularly called July Counter Coup was led by a group of Northern soldiers who revolted against his government. They were led by Captain Theophilus Danjuma, Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida and Major Murtala Muhammed.
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