On the night time of July 29, 1966, Nigeria skilled one of the most principal violent and defining moments in its submit-independence historic past, the July counter-coup. This military revolt, moreover called the “July Rematch,” used to be an rapid response to the January 15 coup earlier that identical year, and it radically reshaped Nigeria’s political landscape, plunging the nation additional into ethnic divisions and in the rupture paving the come for civil war.
The Backdrop: January 1966 Coup
The January 15, 1966 coup used to be Nigeria’s first military coup, led primarily by Igbo officers at the side of Most important Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. It resulted in the assassination of key northern political and military figures, at the side of Top Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Northern Location Premier Ahmadu Bello. Despite the truth that the coup used to be claimed to be aimed at rooting out corruption, it used to be widely considered, particularly in the North, as ethnically biased, sparking deep resentment.
Within the aftermath, Most important Abnormal Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo officer, turn out to be Head of Mutter. He tried to unify the nation underneath a unitary machine of executive however failed to heal the ethnic wounds led to by the coup.
The July 29 Counter-Coup
Lawful six months later, on July 29, 1966, northern officers, at the side of then-Lieutenant Colonel Murtala Mohammed and Most important Theophilus Danjuma, launched a counter-coup. The goal used to be to avenge the killings of January and restore Northern dominance. The counter-coup used to be a long way bloodier, main to the assassination of Abnormal Aguiyi-Ironsi and Lt. Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the military governor of the Western Location who chose to die with him.
The killings were brutal and indiscriminate, with tons of of Igbo soldiers slaughtered in the barracks and on the streets. Estimates counsel that over 300 Igbo military personnel were killed for the length of the operation.
Yakubu Gowon Emerges
Within the wake of the chaos, Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon used to be installed because the fresh Head of Mutter. Despite the truth that a Northerner, Gowon used to be perceived as extra realistic and acceptable to somewhat just a few factions in the military. His leadership marked the foundation of the consolidation of Northern military energy.
The Aftermath and Civil War
The July counter-coup deepened Nigeria’s ethnic fault lines. Pogroms against Igbos in the North intensified, forcing tens of thousands to hover to the Eastern Location. Tensions escalated to the point that, by 1967, the Eastern Location, underneath Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, declared independence because the Republic of Biafra, triggering the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970).
Legacy of the Coup
The July 1966 counter-coup left scars that Nigeria peaceable struggles with on the present time. It entrenched the military in politics, sowed the seeds for the civil war, and institutionalised ethnic distrust in nationwide governance. It moreover marked the foundation of repeated cycles of military intervention in Nigerian politics that would closing for a protracted time.
