RITUALS have a way of degrading and over shadowing the substance and raisin d’etre of almost every memorial. That much can be said for January 15 every year in Nigeria. That day was symbolically and whimsically chosen to mark the end of the fratricidal Nigeria – Biafra civil war, 1967- 1970. That bloody war, in which combatants especially on the federal side appeared to have paid scant regard to the internationally prescribed rules of engagement in such strife, cost between one million to three million lives, especially on the side of the self-determination protagonists. The body count and the labelling of the two sides would depend on whose account of the history of the war you are reading.
The Nigerian civil war did not just happen. There was a build up, and some of the seeds that culminated in the war were sown long before the country gained political independence on October 1,1960. The constitutional conferences that preceded the country’s independence were marked by toxic debates, disagreements that bordered on irreconcilable differences, and widespread suspicions amongst the leaders of the various regions – east, west, and north. It was so bad that the regional leaders could not find accommodation in determining when self government would start in the regions. That explains why self government commenced earlier in the east and the west, and much later and ostensibly reluctantly in the northern region.
The subsequent attainment of independence in 1960 did not stem the deep-seated, pervasive, and mortal mutual suspicions. At the root of the trust deficit were the differences in religion, the level of exposure to Western education, and the fear of domination of the north by the south, a part of the country that was perceived to be more educated and sophisticated. The south also dominated the public/civil service and the officer corps of the armed forces and other security agencies at the time. That was the reality. The fear of one another was manifest during the horse trading for political alliances in the aftermath of the pre-independence election which failed to hand any of the major political parties – National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon [NCNC], Northern People’s Congress [NPC], and the Action Group [AG] – a clear electoral majority and the mandate to govern.
The country’s politicians and rulers fumbled and wobbled into the general elections of 1964 which turned out to be violent and bloody especially in the defunct Western region. At that point it became clear to the discerning that the fledgeling and floundering Nigerian republic and its nascent democracy were heading for the rocks. That chapter was fast tracked to its inevitable end through widespread violence, manipulations, curious political trials, imprisonment, and perceived pervasive corruption in governments particularly at the federal level.
So in January 1966, the army struck and sacked the democratically elected civilian government headed by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who was the prime minister, and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was the president, head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. That bloody military coup which had Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu as its putative head stirred the hornets’ nest. When the coup was foiled by the then Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and a few other military officers, Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe [JTU] Aguiyi-Ironsi assumed the office of the head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces. The January 1966 coup which victims were perceived to be preponderantly from the north incubated a revenge coup of July 1966 which was yet another bloodbath this time of the eastern military and political leaders. Civilians of eastern extraction living in other parts of the country, particularly in the north were not spared. Some historians described what happened in July 1966 and thereafter as a pogrom and genocide on the Igbo.
But our major concern in this season of the ritual of this year’s Armed Forces Celebration and Remembrance Day [AFCRD] was about a particular sad and lingering event during the January 1966 coup. It was the gruesome murder of Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun and his wife, Latifat, who was eight months pregnant, in their Kaduna home. He was the commander of the 1st Brigade of the army and the third highest ranking officer of the Nigerian Armed Forces. When you sign up for the army, you sign either to live or to die. That should not be in contention. You enlist to defend the territorial integrity of your country and to lay down your life for that purpose should the need arise. It will also be your bounden duty to protect and preserve legally constituted governmental authorities. And that was what Brigadier Ademulegun was doing in the the early hours of January 15, 1966, when a coup plotter, Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu, led his team of mutineers into the bedroom of his commander to shoot him and his pregnant wife. The brigadier was said to have refused to surrender the keys to the armoury to the mutineers.
So, General Ademulegun [that’s what he should be in today’s nomenclature], an authentic Nigerian patriot, his doting wife who was reportedly shot and killed because she used her body and the baby in her womb in her attempt to shield her husband from harm, died in active service. In service to Nigeria. In the years since Gen. Ademulegun, his wife [a London – trained nurse], and her unborn baby were murdered and their children who witnessed the killing were traumatized, our country has had a national anthem which included this line: “…the labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain…” At a point in our country’s epochal and chequered journey that anthem was discarded for being too colonial. But the extant regime in a sleight of hand, and in connivance with a spineless national assembly restored the old anthem in the dead of the night, in a manner of speaking. That line in that anthem is a blatant lie as it pertains to Gen. Ademulegun and his grieving children who have been crying for 60 years, this year.
In the room or close by on that fateful day when the Ademulegun couple were killed were three of their six children – Solape, six years, Goke, four, and Kole, 13 in a nearby room. In spite of what happened to their father, Francis Bamidele Ademulegun still joined the military and became a Group Captain (red neck) in the Nigerian Air Force. He died without knowing where his father was interred. The same fate befell Adekunle and Bankole. But their siblings, Gbenga, Solape [now Ademulegun – Agbi], and Goke remain unrelenting in asking questions about what happened to the remains of their officer and gentleman father [N/3] and their Sisi Nurse mother? The Nigerian army owes them an answer. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu owes them an answer or an explanation. He is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Sixty years should be enough time to put a closure to this matter. A national monument in honour of the gallant officer and some kind of compensation for his survivors would not be out of place. The Nigerian Army can, and should treat the remains and memories of one of its pioneering officers better than what has happened in the last 60 years. It’s inconceivable that the Nigerian Army does not know the whereabouts of the remains of Gen. Ademulegun, his wife, and their unborn baby. If that were to be the case, then the Nigerian Army should be an institution of particular concern.
The Ademulegun children did not just wake up 60 years after to ask questions about what happened to their parents. They have been crying for 60 years. They have campaigned. They have written letters to relevant persons and institutions. They have lobbied. They have petitioned. They have begged. But they have met brick walls. On Thursday, January 15, the family again packaged an event in Lagos to celebrate and pay tribute to the memory of the Ondo state-born army general and his wife who hailed from Lagos. “For 60 years [and counting], we have sought answers to many questions from those in authority. The most saddening being the fact that we do not know where they, our parents, were buried”, Solape Ademulegun – Agbi lamented last week.
“The years have since gone by. We want to celebrate their gallant and heroic lives. Even when there is still no closure and our hearts still bleed everyday. But right now we believe that President Bola Tinubu can ease our pains. We are appealing to the president to direct the military authorities to show us from their records where exactly… our parents [were] buried. This will go a long way to help us to put this tortuous pain, tears, and grief behind us”. This plea should have been attended to yesterday. But if it is answered today, it could be said to be late but not too late for the grieving surviving children. May the grandchildren of Gen. Ademulegun and Sisi Nurse, authentic Nigerian patriots, not be saddled with searching for where their grandparents were interred. Amen.
AUTHOR: UGO ONUOHA
