Theophilus Danjuma recently made the news in a Guardian newspapers interview with his desperate efforts to deny his role in the ultimate destruction of Nigeria. From a tiny minority Junkun tribe in Northern Nigeria, he was among those that killed his commander in chief, General Aguiyi Ironsi, an innocent and naïve man whose regime with the benefit of hindsight remains the most ethnically balanced in Nigeria’s history, and who was genuinely seeking a solution to the political quagmire at the time. Danjuma was also part of the premeditated conspiracy that unleashed a bloody pogrom on innocent civilians in Northern Nigeria that is now classified as the first African Genocide. A lucky man to be walking free after the uncountable atrocities and war crimes he committed, the most recent of which was his joint decision with Olusegun Obasanjo to commit acts of genocide in Odi and Zaki-biam when he was the minister of defence.

The relative ease with which he and Obasanjo took the decision to send troops to massacre whole communities in Odi and Zaki-Biam confirms the extent of his depravity and lust for blood. If he could commit such unconscionable atrocities in peace time, the imagination will run wild to contemplate how many such atrocities such a depraved blood lusting sadist must have committed during the Nigeria-Biafra ethnic war. His recent interview confirms his fraudulent nature and the extent of his sadism almost 40 years since the end of the genocidal conflict.

To think that such a man whose opportunism plunged Nigeria into bloody conflict for a so called “united Nigeria” in which he and his gang never believed in, and still do not believe in, still harbours such malice and bitterness to the extent of insulting the memory of the dead is quite revealing. It gives an insight into the mindset that has held Nigeria down. Danjuma claims his counter coup was to revenge a so called Igbo coup, if that was the true purpose, why did he and his ignoble gang organise a premeditated pogrom that killed over 30,000 innocent civilians? How does the killing of ordinary innocent civilians in a genocidal scale fit into the description of a coup? Where on earth has the massacre of thousands of ordinary civilians been part of a coup?

Danjuma and his gang have also famously claimed that General Aguiyi Ironsi introduced a unitary decree, and refused to try the Jan 1965 coup plotters. Like everything Nigerian lies, stereotypes and hypocrisy have been the norm employed by an opportunist gang in their bid to cleanse the guilt and ease the burden of the tragedy they wrought on a promising nation. But can Nigerians be fooled any longer by the rapacious group that destroyed the nation? The decision to try the coup plotters rested on the then Supreme military council, and Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi’s Supreme military council was dominated by non-Igbos. Lt Col. Ojukwu who was the then governor of the Eastern region, with the exception of Gen. Ironsi, was the only Igbo member of the SMC. How then does the delay in trying the coup plotters by a military council dominated by non-Igbos translate into an Igbo affair or conspiracy not to try the coup plotters?

On the other hand, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi’s regime lasted only six months which by any standard is definitely not enough to judge the true intentions of the regime in regards to the trial of the coup plotters and general policy, especially given how inexperienced and naïve the team was being the first military regime. Yar' Adua has presently spent almost a year with no visible policy thrust. The supreme military council also took the decision based on the heightening crisis and fractious ethnic cleavages at that time to introduce a unitary decree in their patriotic bid to hold the country together. The unitary decree though, was more in name than in substance as the regions remained intact and largely autonomous. But the liars and opportunists have spent a generation spewing the propaganda that the decision was an Igbo conspiracy. How does such a collective decision by the SMC translate to an Igbo conspiracy?

The lies and opportunism of Danjuma’s gang becomes ever so evident when we recall that his so called counter coup christened “Araba” was originally intended as a secession of the North from Nigeria, but when they became convinced otherwise by the British desirous of controlling the resources in the East through their Northern surrogates, the erstwhile secessionist coupists made a volte-face to begin an opportunistic mantra of a “one Nigeria” they never believed in, thereby unleashing an ethnic war that cost millions of lives on a false premise. Since then Danjuma and his cohorts have served their British masters well by keeping the natural resources flowing while at the same time strangulating the nation.

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Truth as the saying goes is constant, thus contrary to the endless efforts by Danjuma and his ilk to demonise General Aguiyi Ironsi, the verdict of history has exposed the lie and proven General Aguiyi Ironsi to have been a patriotic but naïve commander in chief. Had he not been naïve, he would have wielded the big stick by surrounding himself with Eastern officers and taken stern security measures that would have made the counter coup impossible to succeed. The fact that he surrounded himself with Northern officers and took no security measures even when he had foreknowledge of an impending coup proves beyond all reasonable doubt the extent of his naivety.

The myths of the many lies Nigerians have been sold have of course continued to unravel. It is ironic that the North which premised its action partly on the unitary decree purportedly introduced by the Gen. Ironsi “Igbo conspiracy” are now the sole defenders of the prevailing unitary system with a very strong centre. It is indeed even doubly ironic that the North which accused the Igbo of domination, even though it was then through merit, has ended up showing Nigerians the true meaning of domination by monumental Northern domination or the “born to rule” syndrome. With the exception of Obasanjo, virtually all Nigerian rulers have been Northerners in a diverse nation with various ethnic groups.

The greater paradox of course is that Danjuma and his opportunist fake “one Nigeria ” gang while pretending to love Nigeria, have single-handedly destroyed the nation through crass misrule and mindless looting. It is no accident that all the military generals who have ruled, robbed and wrecked Nigeria are the same military generals of Danjuma’s ilk who pretended to have fought for a united Nigeria. It is now obvious that they fought for their individual selfish interests and not for Nigeria, which as has been repeatedly proven, they never believed in .

The shameful paradox of a failed Nation in the midst of plenty,  is the single enduring legacy of deceitful, and opportunistic corrupt billionaire generals like Danjuma, who together with his gang of lying opportunists gorged themselves full at the expense of a nation now laid prostrate. Nigerians now know better than to be fooled again by characters like Danjuma who became generals through political patronage, yet has the audacity to insult purely professional Generals who earned their rank on merit during the British era. Between Danjuma and Gen. Ironsi, Nigerians should now know who was the true patriot and who is the villain. As he nears his grave, Danjuma should thank his stars that he still walks free. He should seek forgiveness with Nigerians and his God for the innocent blood on his hands and the destruction he and his gang brought upon an unsuspecting nation.

Comrade Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Email:lawrencenwobu@yahoo.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 Theophilus Danjuma recently made the news in a Guardian newspapers interview with his de...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 22.09.2008 07:12