15, 1966
My Cousin Ifeajuna
January 15, 1966.
Gbenoba Street,
Agbor, Midwest Region, Nigeria
Dad came home (from his job as a nurse at Central Hospital, Agbor) and informed us that some young army officers have overthrown the elected government. Their leader was Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, whom my mother referred to as her "handsome brother Emmanuel," even though he was merely her distant cousin.
Cousin Emmanuel killed the Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa while Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu killed the powerful and reverved Premier of Northern Nigeria Ahmadu Bello.
A few days later, their boss Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi took over in a counter-coup. According to popular legend, Aguiyi-Ironsi possessed supernatural powers. Some believed that his walking stick is a magical charm that he used to redirect bullets during when he was commander of the United Nation's peace-keeping forces in the Congo crisis. My childhood friend explained that Ironsi did not take cover in the Congo crisis. In the heat of battle, Ironsi stood tall and courageously using his magical walking stick to redirect bullets aimed at him.
A few days later, I enrolled in St. Georges' Grammar School, Obinomba.
July 29, 1966
Military ruler Aguiyi-Ironsi killed in a coup d'etat led by officers from northern Nigeria. Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon becomes new ruler.
September 22-23, 1967:
Looking for scape-goats to blame for the loss of Midwest Brigadier Victor Banjo, Lt. Col. Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Major Sam Agbamuche (Agbam) and Major Phillip Alale were tried in a kongaroo-styled court and found guilty of "treason" for deserting Benin City. While Ojukwu executed his officers for deserting the Midwest capital (Benin City), he deserted the Biafran capital (Enugu) when Nigerian soldiers attacked it on October 2, 1967.
Onitsha indigenes, including my family, were labelled as "ndi sabo" (saboteurs) and ostracized by the Igbo community. At Nnobi, a group of kids were in hot pursuit of me when someone in a crowd identified as an "Onitsha kid."
September 25, 1967:
Brigadier Victor Banjo, Lt. Col. Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Major Sam Agbamuche (Agbam) and Major Phillip Alale were executed by firing squad under the pretext of sabotage by prematuring withdrawing from the Midwest. The truth is that the lightly-armed and hurriedly-trained 7,000 Biafran troops could not hold the 40,000 square miles it captured from the superior firepower of the Nigerian army.
October 4, 1967:
Lt. Col. T.Y. Danjuma captures Enugu
Remembering “Emma Vancouver"
By Sports Biz
Thursday, November 25, 2004
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/sports/sp125112004.html
I remember Emmanuel Ifeajuna’s historic performance at Vancouver. At the crest of the normal limit of his prowess, he brought his intelligence to bear on the heat of tense competitive environment. He had never scaled over the height of six-foot-eight before then. He resorted to jumping with one shoe removed, and his one-shoe flight over that height marked a revolutionary approach to the high jump event, of even greater character than the Fosbury “Flop” because it was a spontaneous device. He had never performed in front of such a large crowd, in such strange surrounding, or on an occasion of such magnitude. In the eye of the storm, he exploded into stardom and spread “N-I-G-E-R-I-A” across the international firmament of world sports. “Emma Vancouver”, as they fondly called him at home, has made history. What the National sports Award Committee should do is proclaim the recognition of his feat among our other memorials of sports. More later.
Emma deserves the merit award
Thursday, December 11, 2003
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/sports/sp311122003.html
I met Ifeajuna only a few times. I felt he was inclined to be stand-offish but had the grace to conceal his arrogance in a sheath of charming shyness. I might have been wrong. However, he was usually surrounded by a cluster of admirers in those days especially after Vancouver, and he would have been more than human not to be softened by their wet flattery to some extent. All the same, it was the charm that came through, most of the time, and he had loads of that. He must have also been a man of iron resolve to get involved in the shattering incidents that have now outlived him, that same iron resolve that must have given him the wings to soar over the roof of the Commonwealth at Vancouver, clad howeit in only one shoe. I was not exactly a fan, but I admired his resourcefulness. He brought glory to this country and was at one time the toast of his day. It is time he was reinstated into his rightful place among the sports immortals of this country. I have been saying this same thing for some two decades. For this cause, I resigned as th pioneering chairman of the Award Committee. For the same reason, only the intervention of one of Nigeria’s most highly respected citizens made me receive the award the following year. Today, I wish I didn’t. For as long as such a flagrant injustice continues to be done, for so long will the award be devoid of its wholesomeness.But this type of behaviour that lowers the prestige of our country is only possible because most of us seem to care only about issues of personal gain, with little thought of matters of a general loss. We ought to be able to feel for one another as a people who share the same ideals, not just the profitable deals. It is time to speak out from all over the land and determine this pimple on the face of our sports profile. Write to me on this column. Tell the powers-that-be your mind, for you are the power-that-made them, or they would not be. Even if journalists can now be arrested out of hand once again, this time they have to be arraigned, praise be to the Almighty. The question is simple: SHOULD EMMANUEL IFEAJUNA STILL BE KEPT OUT OF THE SPORTS MERIT AWARD LIST? Speak now, or plead as guilty as those who cannot understand that even a nation can reap benefits from the blessings of forgiveness.
Posted by emeagwali at 15, 1966 03:29