the Biafra Story (1969) by Frederick Forsyth Read Free Book Online Page A

movement was in fact a popular revolt by the masses.' A month earlier the Nigeria correspondent for the Economist of London had visited Sokoto, the city in the far north of Nigeria from which Sir Ahmadu Bello had taken his title and reported: 'Sokoto was the spoilt darling of the Sardauna of Sokoto's regime, yet even here his passing was accepted quietly. If there are any misgivings about what has happened, the death of the Sardauna has left nobody to express them.'t It was later to prove a rather too sanguine view.
    General Ironsi was an honest man and he tried to run an honest regime. Although an Ibo himself, he bent over backwards to show no favouritism towards his own people or his region of birth, and sometimes went far enough to excite criticisms from his own fellow-Easterners. Among his first acts was to appoint Military Governors to all four regions; for the North Lieutenant-Colonel (ex-Major) Hassan Katsina, who had actually been appointed to that post by the now imprisoned Nzeogwu; for the West Lieutenant-Colonel Fajuyi, formerly of Enugu garrison; for the Midwest Lieutenant-Colonel (exMajor) Ejoor, also of the Enugu garrison; and for the East Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, former commander of the Fifth Battalion at Kano, a convinced Federalist who had played no part in the January coup other than to join with local Hausa authorities in Kano in keeping that city peaceful and loyal to constituted authority.
    Ironsi's advent to power also put an end to the warring in the Western Region, the violence in Tiv-land, and the insurrection of Isaac Boro in the Niger Delta. The latter was put in prisoA. All parties seemed to have enough confidence in the General to give his regime a try.
    Despite his honesty, General Ironsi was not a politician; fie was totally devoid of cunning and showed little aptitude for the intricacies of diplomacy necessary inside a highly complex society. He was also on occasion ill-advised, a common fate of military men in government. Nevertheless he did nothing to merit what happened to him.
    In the South he ordered the detention of former politicians who might be likely to cause unrest and foment trouble. But the Northern politicians were permitted their liberty, and within a short time they were making use of it. Ironsi formed a Supreme Military Council and a Federal Executive Council to help him govern. In view of later suggestions that his regime was pro-Eastern, the composition of these bodies is interesting. Apart from himself there was in the nine-man Supreme Military Council one other Ibo, Colonel Ojukwu who had an ex officio membership as one of the four Regional Military Governors, and one non-Ibo Easterner, LieutenantColonel Kurubo, the head of the Air Force and a Rivers man. The Executive Council comprised the Military Council and six others, of which only two were from the East, the AttorneyGeneral, Mr. Onyiuke, an Ibo, and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Edet, an Efik. Both had held th6ir respective offices before the January coup. When naming permanent secretaries in the Federal Public Service (the permanent secretaryships are powerful posts) Ironsi distributed the twenty-three jobs thus: Northerners, eight; Midwesterners, seven; 'Westerners, five; Easterners, three.
    The political appointees in public corporations- were swept away and Tribunals of Inquiry were set up to examine the activities of the dismissed men while in office. The first three Tribunals - examining the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, and the Lagos City Council - were headed respectively by a Westerner, a Northerner and an Englishman. Later the twenty-five General Managers, Chairmen and Secretaries of the Federal Corporations were appointed thus: Westerners, twelve; Northerners, six; Easterners, three; Midwesterners, one; Foreigners, three.
    General Ironsi made several other appointments which give a clue to his attitude towards the concept of One Nigeria.