Memoriam to General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi.

General Johnson Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, born on March 3, 1920 would have been 90 years old this year. As the first military head of State of Nigeria his vision was of a truly united Nigeria where freedom, liberty, honest and selfless leadership, respect of individual rights and liberties, and social and economic justice would reign. For daring to enunciate and pursue these noble ideals, reactionary elements from Northern and Western Nigeria murdered him. General Ironsi’s gruesome murder and the massacre of 50,000 of his fellow Igbo people and other Eastern Nigerians by primarily Northern Nigerians were major factors that lead to the Nigeria – Biafra war. That Northern army officers, including officers promoted to sensitive positions by General Ironsi himself, and Northern feudal aristocrats conspired and executed a most horrible genocide against the Igbo and other people of Eastern Region are undeniable facts of Nigeria’s bloody history.

We note that several Nigerian Igbophobes and ethnic jingoists have engaged in the most shameless revision of this chapter of Nigeria’s sordid history. For example, Alhaji Liman Chiroma while delivering a paper at the Nigerian War College in 2002 accused the murdered General Ironsi of “causing the Nigerian civil war.” The world has nothing but scorn for scoundrels who engage in such absurd and ludicrous revisionism. On August 2, 1986, twenty years after General Ironsi’s murder, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, first Head of State of Biafra, delivered a most worthy tribute to the fallen general. General Ojukwu stated that: “General Ironsi had a military career that was studded with firsts – first Captain, first Major in the Nigerian army, first ADC to the Governor General of Nigeria, first Nigerian equerry to the Queen of England, first Lt. Colonel, first Battalion Commander, first Brigadier in the Nigerian army, first psc, first Military Attaché to a Nigerian Diplomatic Mission, first Nigerian Commander of a UN battalion, first Major General, commanded the United Nations Force in the Congo, appointed the first Nigerian General Officer commanding the Nigerian Army in 1965..” General Ironsi was a member of the Order of the British Empire, and a member of the Victorian Order, an honor bestowed on him by the government of Austria for his valor in rescuing Austrian nationals during the Congo crisis. General J.T.U Aguiyi Ironsi’s name has been written in the book of gold. May his soul rest in peace!

For the benefit of any Igbo or other Easterner professing love for One Nigeria we warn that the road to loving and serving Nigeria is paved with the skull and bones of eminent Igbo sons and daughters, unappreciated, unsung and un-mourned by decrepit Nigeria. Man, know thyself.