THE REMEMBRANCE DAY WE DO NOT REMEMBER
SAMSON O. AJIBADE
Criminologist I Security Researcher
samsonomotayoajibade@gmail.com
The Armed Forces Remembrance Day is celebrated on the 15th of January of every year. Prior to 1970, it was celebrated on the 11th of November to mark the end of the First World War. This is because the Armistice Treaty that brought an end to the First World War was signed on the 11th of November 1918. Upon the attainment of independence on the 1st of October 1960 Nigeria adopted the date (November 11).
The Common Wealth of Nations is a Confederation of the former territories of Britain.
Back to the Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
The No Victor, No Vanquished Declaration by General Yakubu Gowon when the Biafran side surrendered to the Nigerian Government on the 15th of January 1970 made the Nigerian Government change the Armed Forces Remembrance Day from the 11th of November (The Armistice Day) to the 15th of January.
Furthermore, the first military coup d’etat in Nigeria took place on the 15th of January, 1966. It was led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. The coup was a bloody one. Some of those who were killed during the then Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of the Western Region, Sir Samuel Ladoke Akintola, the Premier of the Northern Region and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir. Ahmadu Bello, the minister of finance, Okotie Eboh and a few others.
The coup was perceived to be an Igbo Coup because the main coup plotters and the politicians who survived it were Igbos.
The coup brought in General Aguiyi Ironsi as the first Military Head Of State.
However, his regime was short-lived by a counter coup on the 29th of July, 1966.
Aguiyi Ironsi and the Military Governor of the Western Region, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi were assassinated at the Government House in Ibadan.
The coup brought in General Yakubu Gowon as the second military Head of State between 1966 -1975. Though he was a Colonel when the coup was carried out, but upon the assumption of office, he became a General.
His regime saw Nigeria through the Nigerian civil war also called the Biafran War which took place between 1967-1970.
