Remembering Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu: Fifty-six Years On -By Henry Chukwuemeka Onyema

My only other Nigerian civil war era military hero, apart from General Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Colonel Joe ‘Hannibal’ Achuzie, Major Shuwa, and within strong limitations, Colonel Benjamin Adekunle, is Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu.

He was killed on July 29 1967 (some sources report July 26 1967) along the Obolo-Afor road, Nsukka, by the federal forces of Nigeria in an ambush. Officially, he was not attached to a Biafran unit; indeed, Ojukwu initially suspended him from military duties after releasing him from detention in Eastern Nigeria following the January 1966 coup. Nzeogwu and his co-plotters were transferred to various jails from Lagos after General Aguiyi-Ironsi quashed their plot and locked them up.

Ojukwu had good reason to keep Nzeogwu away from Biafran rifles. The Major from Okpanam in present day Delta state, who was Nigeria’s first military intelligence officer, subdued all of Northern Nigeria during the coup except Kano, mainly because Ojukwu, as commander of the Fifth Battalion, stoutly opposed the coup and allied with Ironsi. More than once Nzeogwu nearly unleashed bullets on Ojukwu but was restrained by the crafty Major Alexander Madiebo. But the tide changed following the July 29 1966 coup; slaughter of Eastern Nigerians in most parts of the country; failure of the Aburi talks; and declaration of Biafra.

Nzeogwu did not help matters by speaking out against secession in his famous ‘interview’ with Dennis Ejindu, published in the magazine ‘Africa and the World.’  But with the outbreak of the war and Biafra’s reversals in the Northern sector, Nzeogwu, a radical, courageous and somewhat reckless soldier, went into action with his personal band of guerrillas. According to Major Adewale Ademoyega, Nzeogwu’s co-plotter and author of ‘Why We Struck,’ just before the war, Colonel Victor Banjo and Nzeogwu offered Ojukwu far reaching strategies to take the war to Nigeria, even offering to  stretch the lines to the River Benue. Ojukwu refused. Maybe because he was ill-equipped to fight; maybe because he was uncomfortable with the people making the offer.

In spite of this, Nzeogwu, now a Biafran army Colonel (some sources say he was a Brigadier), dominated the Nsukka theatre of operations, favouring hit-and-run, commando operations instead of conventional war, because Biafra was in no shape for head-on confrontation with its superior adversary. There are accounts that despite Ojukwu’s reservations, the Biafran leader saw that Brigadier Hilary Njoku, the Biafran army commander, was making a dog’s breakfast of the war. Nigeria was virtually routing Biafra from the North. Njoku was given a mandate: change the tide or lose your command. One of the operations planned to achieve this was the controversial Mid-Western invasion. Nzeogwu was slotted to lead it, being a Mid-Westerner, but he died before assuming command.

So why did Nzeogwu fight on the Biafran side instead of Nigeria where he still had a strong following, despite the January 1966 coup?

First, Northern officers and politicians hurting from Nzeogwu’s killing of Premier Ahmadu Bello of the Northern Region would not stand for having him in the army. In their eyes, all Nzeogwu was good enough for was facing a firing-squad.

Second, the Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, would never free him from jail or agree to reabsorb him in the army, even though he personally liked Nzeogwu.

Third, Nzeogwu was critical of the Nigerian government’s policies and actions right from the days of Ironsi. He was unhappy over the massive slaughter of Eastern Nigerians, but perhaps he failed to realize that if not for the January coup, the madness might not have occurred. He stood against Northern hegemony.

Nzeogwu was persuaded by civilians who appreciated his capabilities and charisma to join the Biafran war effort. Ojukwu did not stand in his way.  His younger half brother, Thomas Bigga, born to Ojukwu’s mother and a European after the former divorced Sir Louis, Ojukwu’s father, was a member of Nzeogwu’s guerrilla force. He was killed with Nzeogwu in the ambush. Was Nzeogwu’s death a relief to Ojukwu?

For me, Nzeogwu’s patriotic instincts, military capabilities, sheer charisma at such a young age (he was 30 when he died), fearlessness and personal lifestyle are what gives him the hue of heroism. Till date I have not read of any woman coming out to say that Nzeogwu fathered her child out of wedlock or that they had an affair. That means his well-known abstinence from womanizing, a staple diet of the military, was real. He was no homosexual, either. He made homosexuality a capital crime in his coup speech. Not that he disliked women; he was just too busy with his pan-Nigerian, pan-African dreams to think of marriage, though he was the first son of his parents. He fell in love as a military student during a course in India with the daughter of the commandant of his College. But he did not follow it up. In ‘Bitter-Sweet: My Life With General Olusegun Obasanjo,’ Oluremi Obasanjo’s biography about her life with General Olusegun Obasanjo, Nzeogwu’s colleague and close friend, the general’s ex-wife paints the picture of Nzeogwu as a kind gentleman who gave her a shoulder to cry on when the general unleashed marital thunder and lightning on her.

Contrary to general belief, Nzeogwu was not the leader of the January coup, though he was deeply involved in its planning. That dubious honour goes to Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna who gave the go-ahead orders for the H-hour in the early hours of 15 January, thus unleashing ‘Operation New Wash.’ (Ifeajuna’s code-name for the coup). On getting the go-ahead, Nzeogwu who commanded operations in Northern Nigeria, let the leopard leap. (His code-name for the coup in the North was ‘Damisa,’ Hausa word for leopard). If he had total command of the coup, Nzeogwu would have ended the myth that it was an Igbo affair by wasting Igbo politicians and officers like General Ironsi. That was the kind of man he was: e no send your tribe, even if you be him brother.

But the fact remains that fifty-six years since his death, Nzeogwu’s legacy still remains unresolved. I wish the January 15 1966 coup never took place. I also wish our current generation of politicians learn from the mistakes of their predecessors that compelled young army officers to take up arms against the government.

Sleep on, Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu.

Henry Chukwuemeka Onyema is a Lagos-based author and historian. Email; henrykd2009@yahoo.com