Orji Kalu: 1966 coup was not an Igbo Coup, Babangida’s account incomplete

• He argued that the Igbo had been unfairly blamed for the coup, despite Nzeogwu not even speaking the Igbo language.
• Kalu insisted that several senior military officers were aware of the coup before it happened.

The Senator representing Abia North senatorial district, Orji Uzor Kalu, has shared a fresh perspective on the 1966 coup led by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, often labelled an Igbo coup.

Kalu was still responding to the book, ‘Journey in Service,’ authored by former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, which was officially unveiled in Abuja.

In the publication, the ex-military ruler made certain disclosures that have sparked widespread discussions and differing opinions among citizens across Nigeria.

One significant highlight of the book is Babangida’s assertion that the coup orchestrated by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu was not entirely an Igbo-led coup, as widely assumed.

During an interview on Channels Television on Monday, Kalu stated that Babangida’s book failed to include several crucial details regarding the events of that period.

Among the omitted details, he claimed, was that former Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo, had been involved in the coup that took place.

”When I said the stories are not complete, I wanted President Babangida to write more. It’s not that Babangida just wants to tell a story. There’s more to the story,” Orji Kalu, a former Governor of Abia State said.

“There are officers who told Babangida ‘no, you cannot hand over to this man…’.

“Nigerians are not fair to Babangida. He came out to say what no one had ever said. We’ve expected people to say for example what he said about the Igbos. That the military coup was not Igbo coup.

“And people had held the Igbo on ground for this particular incident which they never committed. Major Kaduna Nzeogwu never spoke Igbo although he is from Igbo land, he was born and brought up in Kaduna.

“And he was just a forthright officer who wanted a new Nigeria with other people. Let me be honest with you, President Obasanjo was part of the coup but he exonerated himself as normal.

“If you ask people, most of those top military officers knew about the coup, he [Obasanjo] came from India…how would he have not known about the coup and he came back to Nigeria from his school.

“So, many of them knew about the coup. But it was when a few officers refused to do what they were supposed to do that it became a problem.

“Few officers didn’t do what they were supposed to do. If they had gone ahead to execute the coup in Eastern Nigeria, there would have no problem,” he said.