There is this perception that the military did not do anything to protect its officers and that General Ironsi allegedly knew about the coup and did nothing? Did you in any way meet with any of the dramatis personae to explain to you why they acted the way they did?




As a child, I bottled up everything that happened. It was from my mum that I would have asked but it was too painful for her to say anything. Since my mother wouldn't talk about it, I couldn't ask questions. That was the first person. I just respected that I bottled it up. But there was one encounter she told me. There was a time Ironsi was on tour and he came to Jos and sent for my mother. That was the first encounter she had with him after the coup. My mother asked him some questions, especially about the phone call. In fact, she accused Ironsi of knowing about the coup. Unfortunately, he could not defend himself. All he did was to give my mother a wrapper his wife asked that he give to her. My mother looked at him in the face and said, 'Tell your wife, the rains that had beaten me will someday beat her also, take her cloth back to her.' Few months later, Ironsi was killed in a counter-coup. Years after, we have learnt to forgive but the gap in the whole story, which we still need answers to, is where he was buried. There are people who are still alive and who were in the Army then and who have not come out to say something.



source:http://odili.net/news/source/2016/jan/17/803.html

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